Reader Chris sent me an email that boiled down to this: Atheists like to say: You should respect the person, but you don’t have to respect their beliefs. Is this any different from Christians saying, “Love the sinner but hate the sin”? The gist of my response to Chris went like this: There is one major difference. At *no* point are atheists trying to enact laws that would forbid religious people from believing in a god or attending church. We… Read more
A couple weeks ago, The Globe and Mail published a heartbreaking piece by Cerise Morris about her friend’s death and how it made her think twice about her atheism: I have lived comfortably with the belief that this life is all there is, but the experience of watching my friend die put this comfort to the test. … Sandra’s dying made me confront the boundaries of my atheism as nothing had up to this point. I realized how profoundly comforting… Read more
Let’s say you’re someone who wants to help people looking for jobs. You can’t directly give them one, but you think you have some relevant experience and contacts you can share, so you make an open offer: Come visit me, bring your résumé, tell me your work history, and I’ll try to help you out. TracieH at The Atheist Experience extends this further (first emphasis mine): You are a reporter and you’d like to do a story on me and… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Hi Richard, I am a young atheist, age 21. I am also the father of the most beautiful one-year-old girl in the world. I am also just recently married. And I am looking for some advice. My wife’s immediate family is very religious. They are not quite fundamentalist enough to be scary religious, but the stories my wife has told me of the things they were and weren’t allowed to… Read more
This article in the Columbus Dispatch makes me wonder why high school atheist groups aren’t as abundant as they ought to be. Considering how many atheists say they first got rid of their faith at around the age of 14-15, they seem like they would be more prevalent: The students in the group discuss belief systems, science and politics in after-school meetings on Thursdays. They’re planning community-service work, possibly with a Christian club at the school, and considering field trips…. Read more
The Secular Student Alliance at Valencia Community College in Florida saw this flyer floating around their campus recently: Ok, fine… no need to vandalize it or anything, but it does seem silly to trivialize your current life because you think eternity is where all the action is at. At least, that’s what I read into the image. That dot is all that matters. Anyway, it turns out church/state separation hero Ellery Schempp is speaking at Valencia on October 20th, and… Read more
Josh Oxley, the newly-hired (but not paid, I’ve learned) “Humanist Advisor” for the University of Chicago, got some nice press in The Maroon: Maroon: What else does your job entail? Oxley: I advise for the Secular Student Alliance. I’m the graduate advisor for them. But at the same time my role is to really do whatever needs to be done for students. It’s not just about answering questions. One of my roles is to provide a voice for those students… Read more
NPR recently did a nice piece about how secular students are finding their place on college campuses. They interviewed Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard; Debbie Goddard, spokesperson for the Center for Inquiry; and Mark Hatcher, founder of the Secular Students of Howard University. I especially loved this segment discussing African-American Humanism: Michael Martin: And can I ask you though, Debbie, of all your sort of various identities, do you ever feel like being African-American and being a humanist are… Read more
As American Atheists shuffles around its personnel, new faces are emerging. Dave Silverman went from being National Communications Director to AA’s President. Blair Scott went from being AA’s state director of Alabama to being National Communications Director. And now, Scott Savage has become the AA’s state director of Alabama. When Scott Savage was a kid, he took the advice of his Sunday School teachers seriously, and read the Bible. It destroyed his faith. “It scared me first,” Savage said, recalling… Read more
— by Richard Wade A friend of mine, Richard McNally, editor of Rational Alternative, the newsletter of Atheists United will be one of two speakers at a dramatic reading of selected writings by Robert Ingersoll on Saturday Oct. 16 in Santa Barbara, California. I saw his one-man performance of “A Visit with Robert Green Ingersoll” last February, and it was both fascinating and inspiring. If you’re anywhere within reach, I’m sure this recital by two skilled readers in the elegant… Read more
