A frightening thing happened Monday night at Queen Mary, University of London. The school’s Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society planned an event which would have both religious and non-religious students discussing whether Sharia Law was damaging to human rights. As quickly as the event began, though, it had to come to an end: ‘Five minutes before the talk was due to start a man burst into the room holding a camera phone and for some seconds stood filming the faces… Read more
It’s appalling that Rhode Island’s politicians feel the need to insult Jessica Ahlquist, when she’s the one defending the Constitution. You would think that’s the job of the politicians. State Senator Beth Moura tweeted this earlier: The ACLU’s sweetheart?! How condescending can you get? And against a 16-year-old girl? Pathetic. She also asked why Ahlquist was against the banner when she uses money with “In God We Trust” printed on it. *Sigh* Amazing that she doesn’t know why that phrase… Read more
This billboard went up — and then came quickly down — in South Africa, because an atheist complained it was too offensive and an advertising watchdog group agreed: The billboard featured an image of a man holding his hands against his temples, and the following quote from English poet Francis Thompson appeared underneath: “An atheist is a man who believes himself to be an accident.” The consumer submitted that the billboard offended him as an atheist as he did not… Read more
Pepperdine University is a private school in Malibu, California that has an affiliation with the Churches of Christ. Despite the Christian influence, there are a lot of gay students who go there and some of them are trying to start a student group. Surprise, surprise, the school has denied a recent proposal for such a group. In fact, it’s the fourth time the school has “denied or discouraged” a gay-straight alliance group from forming. Now, there’s a petition to overturn… Read more
Earlier last week, the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASHS) at University College London became involved in a fight over censorship for including a picture from the webcomic, “Jesus and Mo” on their Facebook page for an event. It was an event for their weekly drinks social. For those of you who have never read Jesus and Mo, it’s a webcomic that deals with religious satire where the title characters engage in theological and philosophical discussion, usually in a bar…. Read more
If only every question had that obvious of an answer… Pastor Mark Driscoll, who just wrote a how-not-to book about marriage in which he admits he wouldn’t have married his wife had he known she “sinned” just after high school, just outed himself as even more of a douchebag. During a radio interview with British radio host Justin Brierley, Driscoll got into an argument over whose church was better — the one Driscoll runs or the one run by Brierley’s… Read more
Sam Harris’ next eBook — Free Will — is now available for preorder (in paperback and Kindle editions)! In it, he argues that free will doesn’t exist. The book will be released on March 6th. Some more information on it can be found here. Read more
The band Words Such As Burn recently put out a new album and they’re donating all the proceeds from sales to the Secular Student Alliance! Lead singer Bruce Harris describes the humanist message in Flow, saying: Flow is about what religion costs us, believers and unbelievers alike, in terms of lost love and wasted friendships. Most atheists I know have experienced the familiar story; Maybe a friend or relative who learns about our lack of faith, who then begins to… Read more
Ashley Pryce has started a blog to help destigmatize mental heath issues for people specifically in the non-religious community. A couple of stories are already up there and he’s inviting contributions from others: I’m looking for anything, not just articles but poems, stories, pictures, lyrics, videos. Anything to act as a resource, an archive of how people in skepticism and atheism deal with mental health issues… There is still such a stigma associated with mental health that for me the… Read more
