It’s happened in Madison, Wisconsin; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Columbus, Ohio. Now, the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Out of the Closet” billboard campaign is heading to Tucson and Phoenix. The following eleven billboards will be up in Arizona for the next month — nine in Phoenix and two in Tucson: This is a great billboard campaign and it keeps getting better. What do you think of the new ads? Read more
After Republican state senators in Michigan changed an anti-bullying law to allow bullying if it was due to a “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction,” there was an uproar from state Democrats, GLBT students and allies, atheists, progressives, anyone with a heart… basically, everyone except those Republican state senators. It appears to be making a difference as the bill moves to the House: Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, is working on a compromise this week that will… Read more
Conservative Christians promote a lot of awful values, but spanking has to be somewhere near the top of the list. It’s not just the few notable examples of parents who beat their children to the point of death — but parents who spank their kids at all. It makes no sense to think that you could actually “fix behavior” through violence. Lately, Michael Pearl and Debi Pearl’s book To Train Up A Child is getting a lot of press because… Read more
Last week, the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo ran with this cover: That’s “guest editor” Muhammad saying “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing!” For that, Hebdo’s offices were firebombed, their website was hacked (with messages like “No God but Allah”), and protests erupted across Europe. Very likely the courtesy of extremist representatives from the “religion of peace.” A week has gone by and the newspaper is now operating out of another office. They haven’t lost their edge, though. First,… Read more
Read this cartoon (click to enlarge) based off of an old experiment with monkeys and then ask yourself what the parallels are with religion: David Stockin summarizes it well and asks the obvious questions: The group knowledge, or paradigm, that climbing the ladder to reach the banana would result in group punishment, stayed with the population even though none of the monkeys had ever experienced the punishment. It has been shown that the monkey’s belief that the group will be… Read more
In case you missed it on Friday, Michael Shermer had an op-ed piece in the LA Times, arguing against “In God We Trust” as our national motto: It’s time to drop the God talk and face reality with a steely-eyed visage of the modern understanding of the origin of freedom on which the United States was founded and continues to be secured. God has nothing to do with it. If you want freedom and security, you need the following: The… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. My fourteen-year-old son admitted he is going through his existential crisis (my words, not his). What is an effective way to guide and support him through this time in his life while enabling him to find his own meaning? David Dear David, First, with a tone of caring curiosity, ask him to clarify to you as best he can what he is going through. Your term “existential crisis” is vague… Read more
Capt. Ryan Jean isn’t trying to become a Humanist “chaplain” in the Army. He’s trying to become a “humanist lay leader — on a par with the lay Christians, Jews and Muslims who help military chaplains minister to the troops.” It almost seems like a stepping stone to the chaplaincy, a title would would carry more weight, come with a salary, and allow him to take on more responsibilities. What spurred him to pursue this position? Capt. Ryan Jean wanted… Read more
The Illini Secular Student Alliance have started a trend. When fire-and-brimstone preacher Brother Jed visited Indiana on Friday, the Secular Alliance of Indiana University was ready for him with posters of their own. I’d say they effectively countered his message 🙂 Derek Miller at ISSA explains the significance of this response: This is a wake-up call to Brother Jed and bigots like him that the list of places they are welcome is shrinking fast. Groups like SAIU all over the… Read more
There are few people who can explain philosophy and atheism better than QualiaSoup. This time, he responds to Christian apologist William Lane Craig’s oft-used argument that God must exist because objective morality exists (in other words, we know what’s right and wrong… and we know that because God must exist to deem it so). Read more
