You want some depressing news about the American education system? (Is there any other kind?) Here you go: The majority of high school biology teachers don’t take a solid stance on evolution with their students, mostly to avoid conflicts, and fewer than 30 percent of teachers take an adamant pro-evolutionary stance on the topic, a new study finds. Also, 13 percent of these teachers advocate creationism in their classrooms. … About 60 percent of the teachers polled didn’t take a… Read more
Belmont University’s women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe was fired from her job a couple months ago after she told her team she was expecting a child with her same-sex partner. It’s the sort of anti-gay bigotry we’ve all come to expect from the Christian world. But the backlash against school officials has been overwhelming. Earlier this week, the school announced they would be adding sexual orientation into their non-discrimination policy: A new clause has been added to the anti-discrimination policy… Read more
Over at Reddit, postguy2 created a new icon for atheism: Hmph. That man looks nothing like me. I’m deeply offended. Read more
Rose Schwartz at The Jewmanist has been making some sweet-looking posters of notable quotations along with their atheist authors. A few examples are below: Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that… Read more
Only a few months after announcing the creation of the Secular Coalition for Arizona, the Secular Coalition for America is announcing its next state chapter: “The Secular Coalition for Alabama is needed now to increase the visibility of secular people, promote fact-based education to prepare our children for a complex world, protect the civil rights of all Alabamians and maintain the separation of church and state,” said Charles Miller, an IT services management executive in Huntsville is the founding president… Read more
A few atheists are trying to get a group started at California State University, Fresno. There used to be one there, but it died out when the leaders at the time got busy with other work: Mark Boyd, president of the [Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics], says that it is difficult to keep these campus organizations going because they lack continuity. … The religious groups on campus have churches,” Boyd said. “A church can drop down a thousand… Read more
I’ll be in Indiana this Sunday, speaking to the Purdue Non-Theists! Where:: Lilly Hall Of Life Sciences Room G126, 915 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN When:: The talk begins at 5:00p. It’ll focus on how the Religious Right went after me, how I responded, and what anyone else can do in a similar situation. Hope you can make it 🙂 In addition to the talk, I’ll tell you all about how amazing my Speech Team kids are, heading into… Read more
It’s not quite auto-tune, but it’s a list of what non-theists believe, told from the mouths (sort of) of prominent atheist writers and YouTubers. The song is “Future” by Colony 5: We want to love we want to breathe we want to be Rebuild the world with the knowledge we retrieve We want to feel we want to live we want to see seek the wisdom from the future and believe There are so many wonderful things atheists do believe… Read more
Zachary Moore, the Executive Director for Fellowship of Freethought Dallas, was invited by a local church to speak about his beliefs to a Sunday School class. Regardless of motive, Zach was glad to take them up on it: I was invited by Heath Hill to speak with him during the Sunday School class he teaches at Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas. What’s really surprising to me is that Hill owns the advertising company whose ‘I Still Love You — God”… Read more
Wycliffe Bible Translators has translated the Bible into one hell of a lot of languages (with plans for many more): It prompted reader Brian to ask (via email) whether we can do something similar for books about science: … Wouldn’t it be great if there was an initiative like this one, only instead of the Bible, it worked to translate science textbooks and casual science books (i.e. Universe in a Nutshell, Galileo’s Finger, etc.) into all known languages, so that… Read more
