It happened a couple weeks ago, but it’s worth a mention: The Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious group on microlending website Kiva have now loaned out over $3,000,000. It’s a fantastic accomplishment. (To be fair, it doesn’t mean they’ve given out a total of $3,000,000+. It means they’ve loaned the money, received some (or most) of it back, and then reloaned it.) It was just over a year ago when the Kiva Atheists were the first… Read more
In order to raise money for Skepticon 4 later this year, the team members there are creating handmade “Skepticards” for Valentine’s Day: As a math person, I really like the 95% one, though I would prefer the wording: “You’re more than three standard deviations above the mean in Awesomeness.” (By the way, they’ll also make custom cards with the message of your choice!) The cards are $5 each and the money’s going to a great cause, so act early and… Read more
… so that I can send out these delicious baby shower invitations: [Cue the vegetarian singing “I want my babybackbabybackbabyback…”] Apparently, it’s not just a play on words, either. BaByQ grills exist! 🙂 (Thanks to Laura for the link!) Read more
In Brussels, Belgium, de-baptisms are becoming more popular. And, when you think about it, why wouldn’t they be? “When you don’t agree with an organisation that you never chose to join in the first place, the healthiest thing to do is to leave,” [de-baptized] Damien Spleeters told AFP. It is, and it worries the Catholic Church. That’s why they make it so hard to leave. If it was easy to leave, their “official” membership would drop precipitously. In practise, de-baptism… Read more
***Update***: American Atheists has issued a more official statement: … American Atheists does NOT support or condone any activity that results in vandalized property, either openly or secretly. We do not giggle about this under our breath or behind closed doors, because it’s not funny, it’s not clever, and it’s not cool. Freedom goes both ways. If we are to defend our right to free expression, we must do the same for others, even when they disagree. Also, commenter jenea… Read more
If we support freedom from religion, we must also support freedom of religion. Coptic Christians (Christians living in Egypt) have been under attack from Muslim radicals lately — 21 Christians in Alexandria were killed in a church attack on New Year’s Eve — there was danger involved in simply attending Christmas mass. But there was a group of people ready to defend them: From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s… Read more
For all the Foxhole Atheists, family members, and civilians living in or working in Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, there’s now a new group starting up and it looks fantastic: M*A*S*H is looking to build a core group of serious and active members, military or civilian, who wish to be a part of a meaningful community. We are Active Duty Soldiers, Army spouses, parents, retirees, from many backgrounds coming together for shared goals and friendship. Goals: 1) To serve… Read more
Dear Richard, I hope this will get published as I would like not only your views on this, but the general web views as well. Either way here is my story: Let me first start off by saying that I am Agnostic and I do not believe in any religion. I have a friend, let’s call him SM, who was born into Catholicism. He is the only child in his family and therefore the only son. He grew up being… Read more
There’s a new Texas-based non-profit group called “Changing the Face of Christianity” — their mission is “to reverse negative Christian stereotypes in the world.” Well, that sounds all well and good. There are certainly many stereotypes about Christians… but they’re usually well-deserved, right? In the book UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, the authors wrote about the terms people most often thought of when they heard the word “Christian”: Homophobic. Hypocritical. Too political. Judgmental. Having a “must-save-you-or-else” mentality. Sheltered…. Read more
The good people at Nirmukta, a freethought group in India, have been organizing meetups for Indian atheists in cities like Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai. This month, they’ll be holding meetings in Delhi and Chennai. If you’re able to attend, all the information can be found here. If you can’t attend but live in the country, consider checking out IndianAtheists.com and their Facebook page which has information on future meetups. Read more
