The Atheism subReddit has taken up the cause to raise $42,000 for Doctors without Borders — the amount is an homage to Douglas Adams. This is a friendly competition with the members of the Christianity subReddit, who are donating to the World Vision Clean Water Fund. Much like with Kiva, we’re crushing them with our generosity 🙂 (I should’ve pointed out that this is hardly a fair fight because the Atheism subReddit outnumbers the Christian subReddit by a longshot. There’s… Read more
American Atheists legal director Edwin Kagin offers some poetry about the recent “You Know It’s a Myth” atheist billboard (and a few other similar ones): But let some atheists post one sign saying reason should prevail Over the myth of Christmas, and you will hear the Fundies’ wail That atheists are not respectful, that they should die, leave, or go to jail. And thus we learn the lesson, from what we see with solemn awe, That they think Christians are… Read more
Mark Juddery has a ridiculous article on the Huffington Post (surprised?) discussing the “10 Most Overrated Things of the Decade”… First on his list? New Atheism: … just as it was cool in the nineties to come out as gay, it was cool in the 2000s (especially for really smart people) to adopt another once-scandalous lifestyle choice: atheism… [Christopher] Hitchens’ book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything was (as you might guess) an attack on religion, justifying the… Read more
Between a Speech Team tournament all of today and a friend’s wedding tonight, I’m out of commission most of this weekend. But here’s a random story: I was looking through some old family photos last night when I came across one I’d never seen before… it’s my dad holding me right after I was born. I think the look on his face says everything 🙂 Got an amusing caption for it? Leave it in the comments 🙂 I’ll pick my… Read more
The Centre for Inquiry Canada’s “Extraordinary Claims” campaign featuring bus ads and in-person educational events is now underway: National Post columnist Kelly McParland doesn’t get the campaign at all: So why does he care if people believe in God, Allah or the tooth fairy? Atheists are defined by their disbelief. i.e. the biggest thing in their life is that they don’t believe in something. But rather than just go around quietly, not believing, Trottier and his pals feel compelled to… Read more
You may have heard the awful story about how Belmont University fired the women’s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, because she is expecting a child… with her same-sex partner. The best commentary I’ve read about it comes from Christy Frink, a social worker in Nashville. In her life, she has gone from Southern Baptist to Focus on the Family magazine reader to pro-life-activist to George W. Bush-supporter… to having gay friends over the past few years… to now being completely free… Read more
The Cherokee County School District in Georgia thinks it’s a good idea to have graduation in the First Baptist Church of Woodstock. Not because it’s a religious place, of course. No, no, no… it’s tradition. They’ve done it since 2005. So they have to keep doing it, see?! (By the way, just ignore the massive cross in the back of the worship space…) Americans United for Separation of Church and State has threatened the district with legal action if it… Read more
It’s a year away from being published, but I’m already excited about former Daily Show executive producer David Javerbaum’s upcoming book (PDF): … David Javerbaum’s untitled book… will be published as the memoir of God, “Supreme Being, wellspring of existence, quintessence of glory, and source of everlasting life”… for publication in late 2011… The idea of parodying God is nothing new, but Javerbaum is hilarious and I’m sure the book will reflect that. Much like it did in his previous… Read more
***Update***: The Jesus version of the song was made by a comedy troupe called Totally Sketch, not a Christian one as I implied below. My mistake. But would you really have been that surprised if Christians made the Jesus version…? … The band Far East Movement recently had a hit song called “Like a G6.” You haven’t heard it yet because you’re too busy reading blogs instead of being cool 🙂 Poppin bottles in the ice, like a blizzard When… Read more
Hi Richard, I was home-schooled in a fundamentalist home from K-12. After being out on my own as an adult and going to secular university, I’ve learned to think for myself. It’s been a long and difficult personal journey but I’ve become an atheist. There are quite a few people who have come from fundamentalist settings and become atheists but I have never heard of a home schooler from a fundamentalist home turn atheist like myself. I feel alone like… Read more
