I don’t really understand how the acceptance of GLBT people can be such a controversial position in the Christian world. It seems like such an obvious answer to me — of course, gay people should be allowed to get married. Of course, gay people should have the same rights as straight people. Leave it to religion to make a “debate” out of something so obvious to everyone else. It happened again just a few weeks ago, when Christians were taking… Read more
Hey Richard- I’m a 24-year old atheist living in the mountains of Colorado. My immediate family recognizes me as an atheist, but few family members beyond that know about my beliefs. I live in a younger community and many of my friends have similar beliefs to my own. My identification with atheism is not something I typically trumpet around everyday, although I did participate in a few A-Week functions which sparked some great dialog between myself and several theistic friends…. Read more
Illinois already has a broken school system, but our legislators took time yesterday to hear a curriculum suggestion from a celebrity Scientologist: Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson. Why her? Well, first, you have to understand that the Illinois School Code currently mandates that public schools teach character education: “which includes the teaching of respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness, and citizenship, in order to raise pupils’ honesty, kindness, justice, discipline, respect for others, and moral courage for the purpose… Read more
June 3rd is the first Friday in June and you know what that means: It’s “Hug An Atheist Day”! But you already knew that… right? Right. Here’s the basic information: 1. Find an atheist, agnostic, ignostic, nontheist, antitheist, antireligionist, apatheist, secular humanist, skeptic, misotheist, dystheist, structuralist, freethinker, naturalistic pantheist, absurdist, deist, therevada buddhist, nihiilst, marxist, pastafarian, spagnostic, existentialist, or anyone else who doubts the existence of a god. 2. Run up to that nonbeliever, and give him/her a gigantic hug!… Read more
Atheists are doing some awesome things on college campuses in Kansas. I’ve spent the past two weekends there. The first was at Kansas State University where I spoke to a large gathering of Christians and atheists. This past weekend, I was at the University of Kansas, where the Society of Open Minded Atheists and Agnostics put on ReasonFest — a student-run conference where attendees could come for free to hear speakers like Dan Barker and Darrel Ray. Now, Air Capital… Read more
There’s no one way to run a political campaign, but we certainly need more atheists running for public office. Cecil Bothwell is currently a City Council member in Asheville, North Carolina. He’s one of a small handful of local politicians who is openly atheist, and he’s running for Congress in 2012. He spoke at the recent American Humanist Association conference in Boston for the Secular Student Alliance’s “Leadership Track” for students. In the video below, he tells his own story… Read more
The Washington Post On Faith moderators sent this question to all the panelists this week: Radio evangelist Harold Camping believes that he has calculated the exact date of the rapture: May 21, 2011. While many are laughing at the suggestion, Camping’s followers are taking him seriously, bringing his message of impending doom to billboards and public spaces around the country. ??What does your tradition teach about the end of the world? How does end time theology impact real world behavior?… Read more
The cover of Richard Dawkins’ new book has just been released! It’s called The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True. I love the title — it’s much better than the original “working” title, What is a Rainbow, Really? But judging from the table of contents, it looks like it’s aimed at a younger generation as well as science novices: Some people might be glad to see Dawkins writing another book about science instead of religion. I don’t… Read more
A month ago, a couple atheist bus ads went up in Kelowna, British Columbia: And last week, they were stolen from the bus yard. So what’s going on now? After an investigation, the city says it has no idea what happened: Regional Programs Manager, Jerry Dombrowski says they have concluded their investigation into the removal of the two bus ads and the results have come back inconclusive. … “At this point we have no idea if they were removed on-site… Read more
Ladies, no matter what you think of your husbands, be thankful none of them are like Bruce Huff. His wife Candy became unconscious weeks ago and the only thing that would save her was a blood transfusion, something that Jehovah’s Witnesses, like Bruce Huff, forbid. “I love Candy. I told them to do absolutely anything to save her life except give her blood or blood products,” Bruce Huff said. Bruce Huff was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness several decades ago,… Read more
