Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, For any number of reasons, I am unable and unwilling to be open with most of the people in my life about my atheism. This includes both my family and my coworkers. I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home. My parents and extended family are deeply committed to a literal interpretation of the Bible and to extremely conservative social and political views (think of James Dobson; not… Read more
The Secular Students at Howard University have some *very* exciting events coming up on Tuesday, September 28th. Both events are free if you pick up tickets at the box office. (Or you can get the free tickets via Ticketmaster, but you’d still owe them $7.50 $12.00 (says Frank in the comments below) in service charges. Punks.) First, there’s a panel discussion on “Science and Faith in the Black Community,” featuring Richard Dawkins, Anthony Pinn, Sikivu Hutchinson, and Todd Stiefel. It’s… Read more
There’s a Baldwin brother in a crazy Christian movie and it’s not Stephen? And the guy from the (super-Christian!) show Married with Children is in it? “Christmas with a Capital C” was filmed in Seward the last of February and early March. The movie stars Daniel Baldwin (the second-oldest of the Baldwin brothers) and Ted McGinley (from “Married … with Children), plus a slew of Seward extras, including high school students, stay-at-home moms and guys standing in the cold rain… Read more
The Greensboro Atheist Organization adopted a highway recently, and the work they’re doing to keep the highway clean is just pretty damn cool and deserves some positive attention. Calvin Spealman, the co founder of the GAO, spent his morning climbing into ditches and digging out the nastiest of debris including condoms, a crack pipe, and tons of fast food garbage. … The Adopt a Highway program is important to us as a group, both because environmentalism is incredibly important –… Read more
You may have seen the video of Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the American Alliance of Jews & Christians on Glenn Beck last week, explaining how atheists were “parasites”: “I do believe that atheists are parasites in the sense that they are benefiting from everything that religious culture has built in America, but they’re doing nothing to add energy into the system.” Well, that prompted one enterprising blogger to create “A Field Guide to Atheist Parasites”: The purpose of this blog… Read more
by Jesse Galef — Yar, the glorious day be upon us once again – ’tis Talk Like a Pirate Day! I don’t know whether it’s growing in popularity or whether Twitter and Facebook are making it seem that way, but I’ve been hearing a lot of excitement for today. Are you celebrating? A lot of our Secular Student groups take the opportunity to dress up and preach the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so I wish them all a… Read more
***Update***: Dawkins’ full speech can be read here. … Richard Dawkins spoke at the “Protest the Pope” rally the other day. He spends quite a bit of time explaining (and debunking) that whole “Hitler was an atheist” claim. My friend Josh Kutchinsky passes along the video: “Joseph Ratzinger is an enemy of humanity. He is an enemy of children whose bodies he allowed to be raped and whose minds he has encouraged to be infected with guilt. It’s embarrassingly clear… Read more
Joe Zamecki and fellow atheists in Austin, Texas have been helping the homeless frequently over the past couple years and tomorrow is their 16th such giveaway. It’ll take place at 8:00 a.m. and all the details can be found here. Joe gave me a few more details in an email: We’ll have multiple birthday cakes to share, in addition to the regular items we give out. Plus we’ll be giving out a few new types of items, like stuffed animals… Read more
There are some peaceful protesters making the Pope feel welcome in the UK. Protest organizer Mike Williamson, of campaign group “Protest the Pope,” told CNN: “It’s inappropriate to offer a state visit for many reasons. One is the Church pedophile scandal. “Another is because of the pope’s comments about condoms helping to spread HIV and Aids, even when he visited Africa where many are dying because of this issue. “The list goes on and on so that’s why we think… Read more
The Metro State Atheists in Colorado are running their annual Food for Freethought charity event next week! This is the event in which you give them non-perishable foods (which will be donated), and they’ll give you a banned book. It’s awesome. If you can donate food, books, or money, the relevant links can all be found here. Read more
