The Secular Coalition for America is set to introduce its first state affiliate! This is part of Sean Faircloth’s Secular Decade plan (PDF). And of all the places to begin this program, Arizona has to be at the top of the list right now. There’s a party to celebrate the new group on Tuesday, October 12th and you can RSVP here. Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema will be on hand as well. I’m really excited about this. Wouldn’t it be… Read more
Reading a random article about the Pope… The Pope is visiting Scotland… He admits there are child molesters within the church hierarchy.. Nothing new… I’ve heard all this before… Holy crap. There are about 850,000 Catholics in Scotland, according to the 2001 U.K. Census, but 27 percent of Scots — about 1.5 million — did not register a religion or said they were atheists. Detractors such as the Humanist Society of Scotland believe people are indifferent to the papal visit… Read more
I’m going to Harvard University this weekend for a very different kind of talk than the ones I usually give. Actually, I’m not talking very much at all. I’ll give an introduction of sorts, but really, this is a group discussion. It’ll be a chance to look at a number of different scenarios that atheists have had to deal with in recent years (like whether or not to chalk your campus with smiling faces on Draw Muhammad Day) and discuss… Read more
Robert Ingersoll may have been called “The Great Agnostic,” but when you read some of his rhetoric, you realize he would’ve made one hell of a New Atheist. George White has a piece about Ingersoll in the just-now-online-even-though-it’s-from-August issue of Freethought Today. Just check out some of Ingersoll’s statements: “It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.” … “The inspiration of the Bible depends… Read more
I’ve heard plenty of talk the past couple weeks about Christians burning Korans and trying to stop a mosque from being built. But finally, there’s a good story about the two faiths colliding. In Memphis, a mosque was built right across from an already established Christian church. But the construction wasn’t quite complete in time for Ramadan… so the church’s pastor invited them in: Under a gigantic cross constructed of salvaged wood, nearly 200 area Muslims have been gathering each… Read more
Yes we are atheists at the JREF, most of us. But as individuals, not as an organization. In this sense, the JREF is no more an atheist organization than the U.S. is a Christian nation merely because the majority of folks in this country are Christian. That’s James Randi Educational Foundation’s president D.J. Grothe, explaining why the JREF focuses on testable skepticism regarding “pseudoscience, the paranormal, and the supernatural” instead of on religious claims about God. D.J. adds that “being… Read more
My friend (and Christian author) Anne Jackson is going to Haiti in November. It’s her second trip there — she was compelled to go back after she saw firsthand the post-earthquake devastation. She’s going with a group called To Write Love on Her Arms. While it may be a group of Christians going on the trip, they’re not there to proselytize or build churches or “save” everyone in sight. They’re there to help. For real. We’ll be helping by working… Read more
The New Pornographers are hands down my favorite band. I’ve seen them live in concert twice and it was an incredible experience both times. I have all their albums, the B-sides, the bootlegs I’m not supposed to have, etc. They play colleges, too, and Calvin College — a Christian school in Grand Rapids, Michigan — invited them to do a show. But that’s not happening anymore. Why not? Because — oh no! — their name has the word “pornography” in… Read more
I know the piece is satire, but if Pastor Terry Jones ever decided to burn copies of The God Delusion, I hope this is the way we would respond: A spokesman for the Atheist Brotherhood in Australia was quoted as saying: ”We feel strangely unaffected and will seek revenge by raising our eyebrows and shrugging our shoulders. I’ve already sent Pastor Terry a message wishing him good luck with his ecclesiastical grandstanding, and I feel sure he can grab a… Read more
Add St. Louis, Missouri to the list of places that are home to an atheist billboard: “We… want people to know there are many humanists, freethinkers, agnostics and atheists living here,” added Kate Lovelady, coordinator of the Greater St. Louis Coalition of Reason. “We’re your coworkers, neighbors, friends and family members. And like many people, we contribute to the community and hold ethical values we live by.” The billboard is near St. Louis University and was funded by $5,850 from… Read more
