***Update***: The Salvation Army in Canada has put out a statement saying that what occurred in the Calgary branch is not in line with national policy: The Salvation Army has no policy against distributing Harry Potter or similar toys and, in fact, these types of toys are donated and distributed in some areas. Decisions about what to distribute are made at the local level, often in consultation with parents of recipients and based on years of feedback. The Salvation Army… Read more
Boston University has two groups specifically for atheists: one deals with discussion and debate. The other focuses on dialogue with theists and community service. The campus newspaper sets them up as competitive, but I don’t know why that would necessarily be the case on a college campus: The disparate approaches of the two BU groups partly reflect a broader division among American humanists. On one side, New Atheist writers like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris deride religion as… Read more
It’s some clever marketing by The City Church near Seattle, but it can so easily backfire… So, help them out by filling in the blank. I don’t know if they’ll like my Sarah-Silverman-inspired submission… If you’re actually submitting something, you’re better off not being a jerk about it. (So don’t say “Jesus is a herpes-magnet.”) But I’m sure the church would love to hear some reasonable commentary about him… For what it’s worth, here’s how other people have been filling… Read more
Brazos Valley (Texas) has an atheist marching band! And they play vuvuzelas. This is offensive to Tina Corgey — the atheist part, not the vuvuzelas. She’s upset because she has to explain to her kids that atheists exist. Really. … I spent many years teaching my children to love and respect other people and to love the fact that they were children of God and I don’t feel that they should be influenced in any other way especially not at… Read more
There’s a nice article making the rounds dealing with atheists in Indonesia, a country where you’re apparently free to choose your own religion, as long as you believe in a god: Embedded within Indonesia’s constitution are the following two lines: “all persons have the right to worship according to their own religion or belief” and “the nation is based upon belief in one supreme God.” Placed side by side, it’s almost as if those two lines take on a new… Read more
Forget keeping Christ in Christmas. It’s way more fun to walk around in a shirt bearing an image of Yul Brynner: Awesome. You can get that shirt here, courtesy of the South Jersey Humanists! Or… you can win one! All you have to do is fill in the blanks to the following phrase: Keep _____ in ____________ Make me laugh (because it’s more fun that way)! A winner will be picked at random. If you’d like to be considered for… Read more
I’m not a gamer, but Civilization 5 recently came out and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. Reader Larry points out that the game has a very interesting way of separating piety and rationalism, two of the game’s “social policy branches.” Turns out you can’t have both at once: Before you begin to gloat, keep in mind that “Piety increases the Happiness and Culture of the adopting civilization” while Rationalism “improves the civilization’s ability to use and generate Science.” Those… Read more
Recently, the Dallas – Forth Worth Coalition of Reason put up a generally well-received bus ad: It’s completely positive. It says that people like us exist. But that notion was enough to offend some local Christians. They suggested boycotting the buses until the atheist ads were removed. Despite being offered the chance to pay for their own bus ads, they decided to take another route. Now, they’re just stalking one of the “atheist buses” with a mobile billboard of their… Read more
Take a famous essay on privilege (PDF), apply it to religion, add Christmas music, ask whether Christians are really being “oppressed” this holiday season, and you get this simple-but-insightful video: Christians aren’t oppressed over Christmas. And they’re certainly not oppressed in America. They have damn near every privilege you can imagine. That’s why it’s so frustrating (or laughable) when they complain about one of our billboards, or that an atheist said something anti-religious on TV, or that separation of church… Read more
