Usually, when a campus atheist group wants to hold a debate that’ll bring in a huge audience, it’ll revolve around the question, “Does God Exist?” That’s a time-tested topic about which everyone has an opinion and, if you’re going to go through all the work of setting up a big debate, you might as well do it on a topic you know is going to work. It’s a testament to how much broader our movement that the Illini Secular Student… Read more
Apparently, it’s Pornography Awareness Week. (As if there are people out there who are unaware of it…?) The week was actually thought up by Religious Right groups, including Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Morality in Media (MiM) — they want to convince you that all pornography is wrong and harmful. But Dr. Marty Klein has a different idea in mind: I support increasing everyone’s awareness of pornography use in this country: how many people watch it, who these people… Read more
by Jesse Galef – I know, I know, the Ten Commandments aren’t a good moral code. We reject the very notion of following rules passed down from an authority figure. But what if we didn’t take them as absolute rules? What if they were decent, secular guidelines? And what if the authority figure *cough* was Penn Jillette? It’s a fun idea. Apparently, Glenn Beck challenged Penn to come up with the atheist’s version of the 10 Commandments and Penn did… Read more
On Monday, the House voted 396 – 9 in favor of “Reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’ as the official motto of the United States.” (Two Reps, Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Melvin Watt (D-NC), voted “Present.”) Who were those 9 No votes? Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Gary Ackerman (D-NY) Judy Chu (D-CA) Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) Mike Honda (D-CA) Hank Johnson (D-GA) Bobby Scott (D-VA) Pete Stark (D-CA). And…. Justin Amash (R-MI). Not a typo. That’s really an “R” by his name. Why… Read more
Greta Christina has a follow-up to her article about the American Cancer Society. If you recall, they refused to recognize an atheist National Team even though it could have raised upwards of $500,000 courtesy of Foundation Beyond Belief and philanthropist Todd Stiefel. I know some of you are tired of hearing about the story, but there’s a reason we’re still talking about it. There is mounting evidence that the ACS not only rejected the atheist team — but they lied… Read more
I don’t do yoga, but it seems like a fine way to clear your mind, stretch your muscles, and relax your body. What do you even think about when you hear the word “yoga”? Something like this? Seems pretty peaceful. But when Pastor Mark Driscoll thinks about yoga, he sees something very different: On his website, he argues that because yoga is so intertwined with Hinduism, you can’t practice yoga without making the Baby Jesus cry. He made similar comments… Read more
Borrowing a page from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Crispian Jago explains the Jesus Fish: (via Science, Reason and Critical Thinking) Read more
Chris Stedman is working with the Harvard Interfaith Collaborative on an interfaith service event this Thanksgiving — the plan is to package 20,000 meals for people in Massachusetts who need them. It costs $0.25/meal which means they need to raise $5,000 to make this happen. Following the enormous success of this year’s 9/11 interfaith community service project, organized by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard where more than 9,110 nutritious meals were packaged for food-insecure children, we hope to double that… Read more
If you entered a sporting event at North Vermillion Junior/Senior High School in Cayuga, Indiana anytime in the past 43 years, you would’ve seen this sign as you walked into Gibson Field: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules This is the will of God……….. That sign went up in 1968 and no one complained about it… until this year. When they heard about the sign,… Read more
To the 150+ people who have emailed me in the past couple days about contributing to the site, thank you! I’m swamped with work this week and haven’t been able to read your emails yet (much less get back to you), but I hope to read over all of them over the next week or so. Sorry for the inevitable delay! If you’re still interested, feel free to let me know. Read more
