Betty McCollum is a Democrat running for re-election in Minnesota’s 4th congressional district. It looks like she’s going to win her seat back, but not before a last-second attack from her opponent. The attacks comes courtesy of an 8-year-old video of McCollum leading the Pledge of Allegiance in the House of Representatives. It turns out she leaves the words “Under God” out of the Pledge. Was that on purpose or just a case of nerves? You be the judge: The… Read more
Hmm… I didn’t know atheists were green and dinosaur-like: A spork would save him time. (Thanks to Keith for the link!) Read more
Think you know the history of separation of church and state? Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article on the subject by Kenneth C. Davis — he argues that our knowledge of that doctrine contains a lot more myth than we think: From the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever” — including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it… Read more
The current edition of the Secular Student Alliance newsletter has a debate on the topic of atheist cooperation in the interfaith community. Jason C. Romero is the Co-President of Interfaith Atheists Agnostics & Humanists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and he believes atheist cooperation in interfaith groups is a good thing: … when most people think of secular individuals, or at least hear the word atheist, what typically comes to mind is someone who is stubbornly overcritical of… Read more
JT Eberhard, Captain of the Missouri State University Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is one of the organizers of the upcoming Skepticon 3 — a free conference featuring all sorts of awesome people (really, check out that list). In order to raise money for the event, the organizers created calendars. Sexy calendars. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Hemant, why aren’t you in one of these calendars, you sexy beast? Because then the calendars would sell out too fast… Read more
There’s been a statement released by Blaine Greenberg, the counsel for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, regarding the lawsuit against former employee Josh Timonen, his girlfriend, and his production company: Despite the public interest in this case, I have asked Professor Dawkins and the staff and Trustees of RDFRS not to comment on this litigation while it is still pending. I hasten to emphasize, however, that the scope of this suit is narrow. Richard Dawkins’ only role… Read more
A reader shares this story of a former friend and pastor: When I was a young teenager I followed a boy I had a crush on to his church youth group. I went for less than a school year. At first it was all about impressing the boy, then when I learned what they truly believed it was all about trying to understand that. The church had a youth pastor who was a very charismatic, intelligent, and passionate young man… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Hi, I am a mother of two preschoolers. I am an Atheist. Those two things often isolate me on their own, but together, I often feel completely alone. To make my isolation worse, we recently moved to a new place, with no friends or family nearby. I have found that in my community, the only active ‘Mommy and Me’ group meets at a local church, is sponsored by that church… Read more
This is really what the Catholic Church needs right now: A group of people trying to make Catholicism even less inclusive. The Associated Press reports that conservative Catholic bloggers are trying to hold the church more accountable: Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church. … Among [Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com’s] many media ventures is the CIA — the… Read more
The Alabama Atheists and Agnostics have an awesome logo: If that atom came in plush form, I’d totally buy it. (via Reddit) Read more
