Francis Beckett imagines what the “Richard Dawkins Humanist Conservatoire” would look like: As a humanist school, we will pride ourselves on our teaching of religion. Other faith schools have agitated for and been given the right to discriminate against teachers and pupils who are not of the correct religion, but we will not. Our children will learn about all beliefs. Children can cope with the fact that adults believe different things. And we see nothing but good in the idea… Read more
Some basic background for those of you who don’t follow Icelandic politics: Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir is the prime minister of Iceland — she’s the world’s first openly gay PM, married to Jónina Leósdóttir, and she and her wife recently visited the Faroe Islands “to try to boost political and cultural ties between the neighbouring territories.” Jenis av Rana is a member of Parliament and leader of the fundamentalist Christian political party, Midflokkurin. It seems that there was a state dinner in… Read more
***Update***: I posted this earlier with incorrect information. Now that I’ve had a chance to fix it, I’m reposting it with the old comments still intact. Sorry for any confusion! … Last week, the Wall Street Journal had a really excellent article profiling Religious Programs Specialist 2nd Class Philip Chute, the atheist whose job it is to protect Bible-believing Navy Chaplain Terry Moran. “He trusts God to keep him safe,” says RP2 Chute. “And I’m here just in case that… Read more
I curse Jen McCreight for pointing this out to me: friendlyatheist.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 66-100 years old. The writing style is personal and upset most of the time. That is *so* far from the truth. I rarely get upset. Read more
At the University of Minnesota, there’s a tradition called “Paint the Bridge,” where campus groups can paint panels on the side of a bridge with their logo, meeting info, etc. The Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists (CASH) have participated for years. I love how this year’s panels are looking: 2/3 of the final image is finished: ***Update***: And here’s the finished product: Looks fantastic. And positive. In 2008, their panels were vandalized. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen this year. (via… Read more
The J-Walk Blog explains it step-by-step: It’s easy. Here’s how to do it in Windows: Go here and download the Holy Quran as a PDF file Locate the PDF file on your computer Select the file and click Burn Insert a CD, when prompted Click OK Wait for the free publicity and inevitable outrage Hmm… I just threw mine in the trash. Read more
I’m off to Mobile, Alabama today to speak at the University of South Alabama! The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the USA Humanities Building — Auditorium Room 170. The newspapers haven’t offered much coverage, but I was told someone called the Mobile Press Register to leave them a “Sound Off” message — easier to call in rather than write a letter-to-the-editor, I suppose? Where’s outrage over atheist? — The world is in a rage about a preacher… Read more
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is heading to Atlanta with a bang — they’re putting up 50 billboards in the area for a month: This is the largest single billboard campaign undertaken to date by the Madison, Wis.-based Foundation, which has more than 16,000 nonreligious members nationwide, and more than 270 in Georgia. The Foundation works to keep church and state separate. Well, Atlanta won’t be able to ignore the ads, but if it only takes one billboard in some… Read more
William Lobdell, the author of Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace, is working on a new project and he could use your help. He is looking to hear stories from people whose “views of sexuality were warped by their Christian faith.” I’m looking for first-person accounts (I could either interview the people or they could tell their story in an e-mail) from former believers who struggled with their sexuality/impluses/lust/etc…. Read more
I know we’re not fans of labeling children with any particular religion, but I kinda want to read Crispian Jago’s story to a little kid… The full story can be read here 🙂 (via Science, Reason and Critical Thinking) Read more
