We know people don’t like atheists. Researchers at the University of Minnesota told us in 2006 (PDF) that “atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups.” But why is that the case? University of British Columbia psychologist Will Gervais along with his colleague Ara Norenzayan and Azim F. Shariff (U of Oregon) think they have the answer: “anti-atheist prejudice is particularly motivated by distrust.”… Read more
Charles P. Pierce’s Grantland piece on the Penn State Child Raping Scandal may be the most powerful article yet about the crimes that took place — and why prayer, moments of silence, and playing football are the wrong solutions: It no longer matters if there continues to be a football program at Penn State. It no longer even matters if there continues to be a university there at all. All of these considerations are trivial by comparison to what went… Read more
Atheist signs and billboards get vandalized for all sorts of reasons — like when the culprits see the message as “too aggressive,” even when it’s something as innocuous as “Are you good without God? Millions are.” But this is a new one: Someone has ruined the Western North Carolina Atheists’ “Adopt-a-Street” signs: Why target those signs? Who knows… maybe they hate atheists. Maybe they love litter. Maybe they think atheists will disappear if you smudge the A-word off of signs?… Read more
by Jesse Galef – “How Should Rationalists Approach Death?” That’s the title of the panel I’m moderating this weekend at Skepticon, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s a big topic – we won’t figure it all out in an hour, but I know we’ll get people to think. Do common beliefs about death make sense? How can we find comfort about our mortality? Should we try to find comfort about death? What should society be doing about death? I… Read more
This may be my favorite billboard campaign yet. Back in August, the McElroy Road Church of Christ put up this billboard in Ohio: Wha…? Sure, we all know what they’re trying to say, but at first glance, it looks like they paid money to spread an atheistic message. In fact, the Mid Ohio Atheists started getting credit for putting it up! Hilarity ensued all around. Well, now the Mid Ohio Atheists are putting up their own billboard… and they decided… Read more
Baylor University is one of the religiously-affiliated schools that has recently denied atheists from forming an officially-recognized group. When you read Rob Bradfield’s article in The Baylor Lariat, it’s not hard to understand why such a group is necessary on campus and how hard the atheists who go there have it: Only 43 out of 14,900 students identified themselves as atheists, according to a fall 2010 report prepared by the Office of Institutional Research and Testing. A further 371 students… Read more
Private Transportation Corporation, a hasidic-owned company that operates a public bus line between two Yiddish communities, has special instructions for its female riders: Go sit in the back of the bus because the front is reserved for men. You probably wouldn’t know this, either, because the English portion of their brochure says that “When boarding a crowded bus with standing room only, women should be allowed to board first.” Ok, fine… but then you look at the Yiddish part of… Read more
Ever since Illinois legalized civil unions, state-funded Catholic Charities have had to face the prospect of allowing partners in a civil union to adopt kids. In the past, they restricted adoptions to straight married couples and single parents. When the civil unions bill passed, they had a decision to make: comply with the law or shut down. Most of them chose to shut down. (In one case, a secular organization stepped in to help the children abandoned by the Catholic… Read more
Capt. Ryan Jean is the atheist who’s trying to become a “Humanist lay leader” in the Army. It’s not quite the role an official Chaplain would have — he wouldn’t even get paid — but it’d give him the opportunity to facilitate discussions about religion with Foxhole Atheists who aren’t being serviced by religious chaplains. Father Jonathan Morris knows nothing about that distinction. Hell, he doesn’t even know what this story is about. He keeps complaining about how atheists want… Read more
Love this image 🙂 The caption: When a theist starts a debate with an atheist… (via Reddit) Read more
