Is it useful to dialogue with Christians who strongly disagree with you and will probably never change their minds? It’s debatable, but I generally think it’s a good thing. This video takes that to the extreme, though. Atheist vloggers MannixThePirate & xCrowMagnuSx sat down with Shirley Phelps-Roper (daughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps) for what appears to be a very civil conversation. A crazy, *face-palming*, this-is-going-nowhere conversation, but a conversation nonetheless. There are moments where Phelps looks like… Read more
***Update***: Links have been fixed! … In case you’re one of the three people who weren’t aware of it, Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair debated the resolution “Religion is a force for good in the world”… and Hitchens seems to be the winner with more than 10% of the audience changing their minds and siding with Hitchens during the course of the debate (giving him 68% of the audience vote). For those interested, here is the rest of the debate:… Read more
Remember that trailer for “Christmas with a Capital C,” the straight-to-DVD movie about the battle over a Nativity scene on public property? Awesome, right? It turns out there’s a book called The Judge Who Stole Christmas by Randy Singer, unrelated to the movie, that focuses on virtually the same thing: This holiday novella’s premise is a Christmas-time court battle over a live crèche scene set up in the town square of Possum, Va. Thomas Hammond loves playing Joseph in this… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I will be attending a Catholic college in a few months and as an Atheist I have to admit I almost didn’t go simply for this reason, but I desperately wanted to be a part of a major program they offer, and the location is fantastic. I have spoken to current students and they have said that aside from a mass during the freshman orientation, all other Christian… Read more
I heard a question the other day that really bothered me… I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this: Why do atheists target Christians when Christians do many good things in the world? Yes, it’s true that a lot of Christians do some really wonderful things — they give money to charity, volunteer their time, travel overseas to help with disaster relief, etc. (A lot of atheists do those things, too, for what it’s worth.) So why go after Christians?… Read more
When I first saw the ad American Atheists was putting up near the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, I questioned its effectiveness: But now that it’s getting all sorts of media attention, I’m hearing a lot of reactions I wasn’t expecting, like this one from (feminist blog) Jezebel: … is it necessary to attack people’s beliefs in the process? Why not just focus on celebrating your own beliefs rather than pissing people off by putting theirs down? Ridiculing a… Read more
The sound of a professor talking usually makes me fall asleep, even if the topic is one I enjoy… But when QualiaSoup talks his way through a wonderful debunking of Intelligent Design, I am completely hooked. Treat yourself and block out 11 minutes to watch this thing in its entirety. It’s well worth it. How awesome was that? I *loved* the bit about the venus flytrap. And this line: When people — not content with squandering their own opportunities for… Read more
You Buffalo Bills fans probably don’t want a reminder of what your wide receiver Steve Johnson did in overtime during today’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers… After that miss, the Steelers got the ball, got a field goal, and won the game 19-16. So who did Johnson blame for his miss? So I guess we all know the truth now: God is a Steelers fan. I do complain that not enough athletes blame a god for their losses (and only… Read more
A fellow atheist blogger, Kate Holden of Cuddly Atheism, recently suffered a stroke. She’s doing ok, but she’s currently dealing with Broca’s aphasia. As her husband Jay puts it: Broca’s aphasia is what is known as an expressive aphasia. It limits her ability to express the ideas in her head, whether in speech or in writing. She is still “all there”; she just has extreme difficulty in communicating. As you can well imagine, this is extremely frustrating, particularly for someone… Read more
The Vigo County School Corporation (public school) headquarters in Indiana had this message in front of their main building last year: Best Wishes For a Blessed New Year As reader Meg drove past the same building today, she caught a similar message: Have a Blessed Thanksgiving Is the word “blessing” worth raising a fuss over (by contacting a school official) or do you just let something like this slide? My initial thought is to let this slide, though I worry… Read more
