Sara Couvillon, a sophomore at Hoover High School in Alabama, wore a shirt earlier this month that said, “gay? fine by me.” School officials told her to change out of “concern for her safety”… despite the fact that no one had made any threats. This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center sent the school a letter (PDF) letting them know this case would not be taken lightly: Evidently, officials at your school told Sara that she could not wear the… Read more
Wait, another Christian leader of a fringe “church” in Florida did something that’s getting national attention? Something in that water… You’ve already heard this by now, but “Pastor Mike” Stahl posted on his now-privatized blog — a year ago — that all atheists ought to be placed on a registry to make it easier for Christians to both proselytize to them and stay the hell away from them and their businesses. (Which sounds like a contradiction, but who are we… Read more
Most pastors who want to con you just say Jesus spoke to them. Pentecostal televangelist Juanita Bynum II is taking the crazy a step further… she’s apparently “typing in tongues” now: The Christian Post thinks this is newsworthy for some reason but they offer a bit more elaboration. Bynum’s people aren’t responding to queries about what happened in the wall posts. It could be alcohol. Or maybe she fell asleep in short spurts. Or perhaps a cat ran across the… Read more
My former soul-owner Jim Henderson is developing a reality TV show called “Save Me!” It’s kind of like The Real World except all the people living in the house have different religious beliefs that they’re all very passionate about — and their goal is to convince everyone they’re right. We want true believers who will go to any length to spread their message, whether that’s saving people from hell, warning people about the end of the world or simply “saving”… Read more
Here’s a new song by atheist rapper Tombstone Da Deadman (some NSFW lyrics). Tombstone previous sang “Beyond Reason.” My favorite lines: Labeled an atheist but I don’t need a lexicon To find a word that signifies I don’t believe in leprechauns. I also like the Sam Harris interlude — If only they could get him to rap, he’d be like a white version of Lil Jon. I guess we’ll just have to settle for the autotuned versions of him for… Read more
Sean Faircloth, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, has a book coming out in early 2012! It’s called Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All — and What We Can Do About It. I’ve only seen the cover but I’m already excited — sorry for the blurry image but it’s the best one I could find: The foreword is written by Richard Dawkins and a preview of the content can be found at Pitchstone… Read more
Last month, I did an interview with Jamila Bey for The Voice of Russia radio in which we talked about how to get math students to think more critically and creatively in American public schools. (In other words, this has nothing to do with atheism.) If you’re interested, you can listen to the interview here. Good luck getting over your discomfort with the word “Maths” 🙂 I gave a similar talk at the 2011 Secular Student Alliance Conference last month… Read more
I support stem-cell research. And I oppose killing animals for food when alternatives are readily available (even if they’re “humanely killed”). I’m 28 and I’ve still never (purposely) eaten beef or fried chicken or turkey on Thanksgiving or fish or… you get the point. It used to be for religious reasons, but for most of my life now, it’s been for personal ones. Here’s a hypothetical scenario I’ve never considered until now: What if you took stem cells from a… Read more
***Update***: This story is from 2000, just FYI. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out. … Just read the headline: The gist of that particular article is that Unity Truth Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba created a food bank to help feed the hungry — a wonderful gesture by any group of people — but they’re shutting it down for a couple different reasons. 1) It’s attracting unpleasant clientele: … The church’s board of trustees made the decision to cancel the… Read more
Some exciting news from the home office! Patheos.com, the web’s premier destination for dialogue on religion and spirituality, announced that its site traffic has surpassed 1 million monthly unique visitors. … In just over two years, Patheos has vaulted into the No. 3 position globally among websites focused on discussion of religion and spirituality. An impressive accomplishment in its own right, what makes this more impressive is that Patheos has been able to accomplish this at a fraction of the… Read more
