For the first time ever, support for gay marriage (and the rights that come with it) is in the majority. According to Gallup: Andrew Sullivan puts this in context: To go from 41 points behind to 8 points ahead in a decade and a half must count as one of the most successful political and social campaigns in history. I also see this as a rebuke to those Evangelical Christians and other religious groups who have done everything in their… Read more
Actor Paul Giamatti made a statement affirming his atheism in an interview with the Metro (UK) Are you a religious man? I consider myself an atheist. My wife is Jewish and I’m fine with my son being raised as a Jew. He’s learning Hebrew and is really into it. I will talk to my son about my atheism when the time is right. But there’s a great tradition of Jewish atheism, there are no better atheists in the world than… Read more
***Update***: The band is now returning the loan and the album is being taken off the shelves: “The product will be withdrawn from the domestic market immediately, and we requested our international partners to withdraw product internationally as well,” Black Box Music’s Ian Stanger said in a statement on Tuesday. … “We understand the band’s desire to maintain their creative integrity,” Stanger’s statement continues. “Therefore the album will be re-released as a non-FACTOR supported project in the coming weeks. “The… Read more
Remember last summer when I sent a couple people to sit in on an anti-gay conference…? Well, another opportunity has come up. And I need a couple volunteers. It’s a chance to see the conservative Christian world from the inside. I’ll pay for your registration costs. I’ll even take the volunteers out to dinner 🙂 In return, you’re promising to do a writeup for this site. Here are the things you need to know: The event takes place in the… Read more
First, it was Madison, Wisconsin. Then Raleigh, North Carolina. Now, the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Out of the Closet” billboard campaign is debuting in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said she picked Tulsa as the third city for her “atheists out of the closet” campaign because of the support from the Tulsa atheist community. … “Tulsa is a perfect place for our ‘out of the closet’ campaign,” Gaylor said. “When I visited Tulsa for the first time last… Read more
There’s a new video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 called L.A. Noire and there’s one particular part of it worth mentioning on this site. You can see the scene play out in the walk-through below — the relevant bit occurs at the 3:40 mark: As Detective Phelps searches through a murder victim’s belongings, he notices a cross with a Bible verse on it: Ephesians 5:22-23 Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord. For the… Read more
Nope. The only statement Harold Camping has made comes via his daughter: His daughter Sue Espinoza received a call from him Saturday morning, according to the Times. “He just said, ‘I’m a little bewildered that it didn’t happen, but it’s still May 21 [in the United States],'” Espinoza said, standing in the doorway of her Alameda home. “It’s going to be May 21 from now until midnight.” … And what about Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life savings… Read more
Jessica Ahlquist is a high school sophomore and the lead plaintiff in the Rhode Island ACLU’s lawsuit against the city of Cranston. Her high school is the one that has a School Prayer banner that officials don’t think is religious in nature… Jessica just started writing a blog of her own and her first post is about how she got involved in this case as well as what has happened since filing the lawsuit: As I sat down, I said… Read more
While you were busy not getting Raptured, Reverend Bradlee Dean was invited to give the opening prayer for the Minnesota House of Representatives on Friday. It gets interesting at the 2:41 mark: I know this is a non-denominational prayer in this chamber. It’s not about the Baptists, it’s not about the Catholics alone, or the Lutherans, or the Wesleyans, or the Presbyterians, Evangelicals, or any other denomination, but rather the head of the denomination and His name is Jesus –… Read more