Anders Behring Breivik, the man responsible for the recent terror in Norway, says he’s a Christian — some of his writings point to him being only a cultural Christian while several media sources have called him a “Fundamentalist Christian.” At the very least, the speculation brings up a thought experiment that I find interesting regardless of what we eventually learn about his beliefs. If he were really a Christian (even in name only), he would likely accept the divinity of… Read more
I’ve never watched (or cared to watch) a NASCAR race in my life, and I couldn’t care less about a pre-race prayer… but somehow, when Pastor Joe Nelms said the invocation before the Nationwide Federated Auto Parts 300, I couldn’t help but smile: Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for all your blessings. You said in all things, give thanks. So we want to thank you tonight for these mighty machines that you’ve brought before us. Thank you for the… Read more
This is another interview I was really looking forward to in anticipation of The Amazing Meeting 9 in Las Vegas last week. As a math teacher, who better to talk to than Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries, a book about math for people who… well… tend to fear math. Excerpts from our conversation are below. The remarks are entirely those of Ms. Ouellette, except for my own, which are [marked off in brackets]. I’ve edited our remarks for… Read more
Reader Brian explains: Folding@Home is basically a distributed computing project designed to cure diseases like cancer and Alzheimers. It works by borrowing spare CPU cycles from people who install the program on their computer. If you’d like to help out, just download the software and type in #182116 in the “team” box during setup (so that your points get counted toward the Atheists, Skeptics, & Humanists team). They’re currently ranked 88 — can we make it any better? Read more
Last week, the beautiful animated movie Sita Sings the Blues was going to be screened at Starlight Pavilion in Queens, New York. If you haven’t seen it, set aside some time and watch it: Roger Ebert, who words contain more truth than you’ll ever find in a Holy Book, loved the film. Anyway, I say it “was going to be screened” because that never actually happened thanks to a group of Hindus who say the film is offensive: Rohan Narine,… Read more
Pastafarians have a new hymn! As Prophet Bobby Henderson says: Who can resist accepting information as Truth when it’s set against delightful music and animation? I think all good propaganda straddles the boundary between happy and creepy. (via Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) Read more
Hi there, I’m a 15 year old guy, and I’ve been in a relationship with a Christian, self proclaimed “holy-roller” for about 7 months. In high school, let me tell you, that’s a long time. Anyway, I really like this girl. I mean, I think I may love her. Now, my deeply logical brain is what keeps me from accepting the Christianity that previous generations of my family hold so dear, and yet I stayed with this girl knowing that… Read more
Reader Kim sent this email: I work as an adult case manager and while I was out accompanying two separate clients to office visits (one doctor and one dental) I came across these. It is completely unprofessional for them to have ANY kind of religious material in the waiting area and if I wasn’t there in a professional capacity I would have stated so. For the sake of my job and making nice, I said nothing but quickly snapped these… Read more
***Update***: On Monday, July 25th, American Atheists and select individuals filed a complaint (PDF) against people involved with the WTC memorial. The lawsuit has begun… … Days after 9/11, in the middle of all the rubble, there were steel beams from the World Trade Center everywhere. Some of that debris looked like a Christian Cross and, at a time when people were looking for any sign of hope, that did it. The person who found the giant cross put it… Read more
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything on the lawsuit between the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and former employee Josh Timonen. In short: RDFRS was accusing Timonen of “embezzling $375,000” from the charity. Latest news? Dawkins has dropped his suit. His lawyer claims it was just too costly to keep it going: “We’d been litigating for nine months and estimated that it probably would cost at least another $100,000,” Dawkins’s lawyer, Blaine Greenberg, tells Mandrake. “I… Read more
