Between 1884 and 1910, Charles Chilton Moore created a freethought newspaper called “The Blue-grass Blade.” A mildly progressive paper in the beginning, the Blade quickly evolved into an outright freethinking pulpit with a strong emphasis on the separation of church and state. The Blade openly supported other controversial causes of the time as well, from women’s suffrage to free trade to “special National legislation to improve the condition, financial and educational, of Negroes and Indians,” while always remaining devoted to… Read more
It’s amazing they don’t actually make these. You could proselytize without even getting up! From the book This Is a Book by Demetri Martin. Copyright © 2011 by Demetri Martin. Reprinted by permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved. Read more
There are several atheists groups that hold a “National Day of Reason” or a “National Day of Service” in response to the “National Day of Prayer.” The point being: Sitting around praying accomplishes nothing. Standing up and helping other people makes a real difference. The Secular Student Alliance affiliate at the University of Northern Iowa decided to do some volunteering early. In response to their campus’ “second annual 24/7 Prayer Week” (a Christian effort to encourage “seven days of continuous… Read more
Let’s say you’re a high school administrator who wants to make sure a Gay Straight Alliance group can’t form. (How *dare* those students act like homosexuality is acceptable?!) At a public school, it’s illegal to ban that one group alone. So what can you legally do? Ban every single club at the school, of course. That’s what a superintendent and school board in Clovis, New Mexico planned to vote on last night: The chess and key clubs, Future Farmers of… Read more
The New York Times has a great article on the front page of Tuesday’s paper about how atheist groups are trying to get a non-theist into the chaplain corps: Joining the chaplain corps is part of a broader campaign by atheists to win official acceptance in the military. Such recognition would make it easier for them to raise money and meet on military bases. It would help ensure that chaplains, religious or atheist, would distribute their literature, advertise their events… Read more
A lot of readers have loved the recent atheist billboards from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. This is just one example of the ones currently up in Raleigh, North Carolina: Now, the FFRf is giving you a chance to make your own with any phrase you’d like to use: All you have to do is submit your photo and enter your quotation. (You can see what other people have done here.) Although we can’t put everyone on a real billboard,… Read more
Via trevorfiasco on Reddit comes these fantastic atheist-themed Easter eggs: The Christopher Hitchens egg looks a little *too* perfect… (via Illini Secular Student Alliance) Read more
Religion can give you license to do some awful things but this is just despicable. The Incredible Happenings Ministry in South Africa recently held a “demon banishing” service. It appears that it was really just an excuse to molest and abuse young women. Two reporters were there conducting a two-month investigation of the church in question (as well as its leaders). Besides discovering proof that “prophet” Paseka Motsoeneng is a complete fraud, they gave an account of certain sexual acts… Read more
There’s never a bad time for politicians to say, “To hell with separation of church and state; I wanna rally my Christian base!” That’s why Texas Governor Rick Perry called for people to pray for rain last week. In Florida, Mayor Sonny Nobles of Live Oak took it one step further. He didn’t just wish his city a Happy Easter. He took the time to pin the world’s problems on atheists: The main point is that if people around the… Read more
My one-time-soul-owner Jim Henderson has a neat little video up where he’s talking with Ira Glass (host of “This American Life”). (I’m forever jealous.) They talk about whether the clip is really part of a training video for Christians called “Beat the Atheist” as well as Jim’s idea for a reality show. Jim appeared on TAL in 2009 on an episode called “Bait and Switch.” Ira mentioned my name in the intro to Jim’s segment. I did a little dance…. Read more
