When a new survey that showcases atheists in a good or bad light is released, we’re all writing about it somewhere or another. After the Pew Forum’s recent study on US Religious Knowledge showed that atheists scored higher on basic religious literacy than any faith group, there are a lot of responses out there from our community. I wrote a piece for the Chicago Tribune blog explaining why atheists scored higher than others. My reasons? Many atheists left religion in… Read more
Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia are having meetings with religious leaders. One already took place and another is happening next month: Henrico County Public Schools will host two upcoming breakfast meetings for local faith-based leaders. Superintendent Dr. Patrick Russo will welcome the religious leaders and directly encourage their organizations to partner with Henrico County Public Schools. Henrico County Public Schools plans to work closely with a growing number of local faith-based organizations to take the school division to the… Read more
For the past few years, the “Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism” has been given out by the Harvard Secular Society on behalf of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and the American Humanist Association. The first year, the award went to author Salman Rushdie. The second award went to lead singer of Bad Religion, Greg Graffin. The third award went to Joss Whedon, the man behind the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse. Last year,… Read more
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has just released a new study on US Religious Knowledge. The conclusion: Too many people know jack about faith. More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and… Read more
Reader Greg is an atheist working for the Peace Corps, teaching math and physical science at a girls’ school in Namibia. Besides his in-class work, he’s also spreading the message to his colleagues and community members that it’s possible to be a non-Christian who does good deeds — an important statement to make in a heavily Christian nation. There’s a problem for the girls attending the school, though: At the beginning of this year, my school was given a new… Read more
National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins recently shared some words about his cancer-stricken friend Christopher Hitchens: Over these last few months, we have not talked directly about faith. He knows that I am praying for him. But my prayer is not so much for a supernatural intervention — as a physician I have not seen evidence for such medical miracles in my own experience. Instead I pray for myself and for Christopher along the lines of James 1:5 –… Read more
Christian David Hayward has an idea of what people actually think about when they’re in church. Let’s say he’s right. (I think he is.) One of the biggest problems with the Christian church — that I’ve seen from the outside looking in — is that there are too many people who think their pastor speaks for them. When the pastor says something abominable or incorrect, they let it slide. They remain in the church, stay silent on those issues, and… Read more
Dear Richard, I am now an ‘almost’ recovered former evangelical Christian. I say ‘almost’ because I am not really 100% certain that my former beliefs aren’t true but I see no evidence for them. Anyway now my wife is not happy with me and my mother wrote me a scathing letter full of Bible scriptures of how I have ‘gone bad’ although I don’t think I am now all the sudden a bad person. I help injured people by raising… Read more
Remember this billboard that the Freedom From Religion Foundation recently put up in Oklahoma? The billboard reads “Atheism is OK in Oklahoma,” but members of the group Freedom From Religion say that’s not always the case and that’s why they chose to pay for the sign. “We want to let people know they’re not alone. There are other people that are sane in the state too. Not everyone in Oklahoma is superstitious,” said Bill Dusenberry, Freedom From Religion Foundation. Sounds… Read more
Why burn the Koran or desecrate the Bible when you can bury them with good reason? Right now, the pages swell with moisture, the fibers separate and the chapters turn into pulpy masses. Bacteria bloom and their colonies expand; fungi flourish and their hyphae infiltrate and convert cellulose into spores. The ink runs as nematodes writhe over the surfaces, etching the words with slime and replacing the follies of dead men with the wisdom of worms. The roots of flowers… Read more
