***Update***: Comments were accidentally turned off when I initially posted this, but they’re back on now! … Dale McGowan gave a great talk at the Secular Student Alliance 2010 Columbia Leadership Summit called “To Hell with the Baby, but Look at That Bathwater.” In other words, yes, religion is a problem (and religious beliefs are untrue), but church culture has a lot of benefits and there are some things we atheists ought to emulate. A lot of people who know… Read more
Azwan Ismail is a brave man in trouble. He recently came out publicly as gay (as part of Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project): Because he lives in the Islamic country of Malaysia, where homosexual acts are illegal, he’s getting death threats: Azwan Ismail told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday he was taking safety precautions following fierce criticism in this conservative, Muslim-majority country over his clip, which has been viewed more than 140,000 times on YouTube in… Read more
Replace “Santa” with “God” and it’s like every Atheist/Christian debate you’ve ever seen. But waaaaaaay more adorable. The girl’s very cute, but I say Ethan wins! Also, someone hand over your children NOW so I can recreate this. (via spricket24 — Thanks to Jin for the link!) Read more
It’s an old song for Unitarians but that’s no reason we can’t repost an atheist version of it… Gods rest ye, merry atheists, let nothing you dismay; Remember there’s no evidence there was a Christmas Day; When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say, O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact. Our current Christmas Customs come from Persia and from Greece, From solstice celebrations of the ancient… Read more
For Christmas, I give you another church/state battle: Oklahoma State Senator Josh Brecheen wants to introduce a bill next year that will hamper the teaching of evolution: Senator Brecheen says children should be given all the facts when it comes to evolution. … The senator says he supports having creationism — the belief that God created the world without evolution — taught in public schools. “You either remove both or you put both in,” he said. In an op-ed he… Read more
Looks like there’s a Christian version of “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha: I’m talkin’ going to Mass on Sunday, Totally Catholic partay, it’s happenin’ in the liturgy. Drop down, I’m kneeling before the mighty King Telling Him He’s my everything. Listen up, Church, we’re gonna sing. … Our God really rocks, yeah, He ticks the devil off. When sin enters in, Jesus fights for us and wins. Tick tock on the clock but the praying don’t stop, no. Amen. Amen. As… Read more
Despite all the press we’ve seen in the past few years, the number of atheist books on the market is still pretty small. It’s even rarer to see a book about atheism from a female perspective. It’s even rarer still to see a book about atheism from a black female perspective. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the only person who comes to mind. But I’m happy to say there’s now someone else contributing to the literature. Sikivu Hutchinson is about to… Read more
Should you tell your kids about Santa? One character struggles with the notion: Click over to Penny Arcade for the atheist-friendly punchline 🙂 (Thanks to everyone for the link!) Read more
A group called Cincinnati Right to Life is putting up five billboards with the following images: That’s Fetus Jesus with a Halo. (Which is also a great band name.) This leads to a number of questions: When the mother gives birth, will the halo produce complications? Christmas does start with Christ. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Did you know Catholic starts with Cat? *Meow* “He came as a baby”? Did anyone think Jesus came out as a fully-formed, bearded man…? “He’s… Read more
It’s newsworthy because it rarely happens: Pat Robertson said something reasonable. He was talking about America’s marijuana policy: “There’s something else we’ve got to recognize. We’re locking up people who take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know, they’ve got ten years. They’ve got mandatory sentences. These judges say, they throw up their hands and say there’s nothing we can do, there’s mandatory sentences. We’ve got to take a look at what we’re considering crimes… Read more
