How hard is it to be an atheist soldier? Even at a Memorial Day parade, they can’t get respect… Thesaintsrevenge was among other Foxhole Atheists marching in the Annville Memorial Day Parade 2011 in Pennsylvania. The PA Nonbelievers were there. So was Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers (MAAF). And some of the spectators were not happy to see them… It gets particularly nasty at the 8:23 mark. There’s also a telling exchange at the 9:42… Read more
After all the graduation prayer chaos of the past few weeks, you would hope everyone learned their lesson: Graduation ceremonies are not a substitute for church. School officials can’t say a prayer. Individuals students may reference god in their speeches, but they shouldn’t be giving sermons or leading everyone in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s one thing to talk about your own beliefs. It’s another thing to make everyone else join you in praising your deity. Christa and Danny Schultz had… Read more
Sweet — the Atheist Community of Tulsa created this nicely-produced video to promote their group! It features a lot of the same awesome people who took part in the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Out of the Closet” campaign in that area. Not sure where they plan on airing this video, but it definitely looks inviting. My only critique would be to get more college students in there. So what’s your group (if you have one) doing to promote itself? (via… Read more
Ted Burnham created a fun little mockumentary about Skeptics for a class at the University of Colorado, featuring the Secular Students and Skeptics Society. The video answers those burning questions: “What is a Skeptic?” “How are they distinguished from other humans?” and “Why do they ask so many questions?” 🙂 (via Bad Astronomy) Read more
If you’re already in an emotional sort of mood, you may want to read this later… it’s the story of a teenager whose mother sent her to Cross Creek, a “behavior modification” facility that tried to cure her of Teh Gay. It’s disturbing, to say the least. (Thanks to Atalaya for the link) Read more
When you know the Rapture’s not coming when Harold Camping says it is, you might as well have fun with it. That’s what Allen Stephens was doing when he made this video with a few friends: Nice to see the crowd had a sense of humor about it 🙂 (Thanks to Alice for the link!) Read more
In 1994, Dr. Jack Kevorkian received the American Humanist Association’s “Humanist Hero Award.” At the AHA’s annual conference in Detroit that year, he gave the acceptance speech below (PDF). I’m reprinting an adapted version of it here, on the day of his own death at the age of 83. This is probably the first time that this august body has been addressed by someone under indictment on two counts of first-degree murder. I was ignorant of many things when I… Read more
Dr. Jack Kevorkian died earlier today at the age of 83. He was known as “Dr. Death” to most of the public but “Dr. Dignity” to a lot of Humanists because of how he helped people end their lives on their own terms. “Somebody has to do something for suffering humanity,” Kevorkian once said. “I put myself in my patients’ place. This is something I would want.” … [Former attorney Geoffrey] Fieger said Friday that Kevorkian didn’t accept money and… Read more
Some of you may recall an organization called Atheist Alliance International. It had been around for a long while and even hosted a major conference a few years ago that brought together Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali all under one roof. While they sometimes helped sponsor conferences outside America, it’s probably unfair to call them “international” when it’s pretty U.S.-centric. So they’re changing that. They voted in October, 2010 to split up the… Read more
If you haven’t attended before, the Secular Student Alliance conference is fantastic for current high school and college students — as well as anyone else who wants to learn more about what atheist students are doing across the country. This year, it’s taking place July 29th – 31st at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Attending an SSA conference was how I first got involved with our movement… and that was about ten years ago. It clearly had a positive… Read more
