Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I really enjoy reading your column on Friendly Atheist. I think it is so helpful to have someone advise people from an alternative point of view. That was one of the first blogs that I started reading when I started feeling like an atheist. I’m writing to you today for advice on how to encourage my wonderful 10-year-old brother to be skeptical about his world. A little bit… Read more
A few weeks ago, the Louisville Coalition of Reason put up an atheist billboard in Kentucky. Why is it a useful, needed ad? Because in the South, people don’t always know that atheists exist. A sign like this can function as a welcoming message for other non-theists, directing them to a website listing various local freethought groups. But somehow, that harmless sign always seems to make Christians upset… Louisville Bible College is now responding with an ad of their own… Read more
A new study in the Journal of Medical Ethics says: … doctors who described themselves as non-religious were more likely than others to report having given continuous deep sedation until death, having taken decisions they expected or partly intended to end life, and to have discussed these decisions with patients judged to have the capacity to participate in discussions. The Guardian summarized the study like this: Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that… Read more
More than 100 religious groups are whining because new legislation may “prohibit them from receiving federal money if they consider a job applicant’s religion when hiring.” Cry me a fucking river. “Those four lines in the legislation would be a seismic change in bedrock civil rights law for religious organizations,” said Steven McFarland, chief legal counsel at World Vision USA, a Christian aid organization that is leading the protest. “The impact would be huge and severely affect our ability to… Read more
Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a fantastic article about why our country’s presidents don’t need faith to do their job: Two centuries of American democracy has come to this — a de facto religious test for the highest office in the land. That’s why many people, believers and nonbelievers alike, pray for a sincere skeptic in the White House. An agnostic or an atheist would have the latitude and political freedom to tell our nation’s ayatollahs to go… Read more
What kind of Christians would stand in front of a gay couple’s house in order to convert or condemn them? The ones in this video: They’re well-dressed and not holding up evil Fred Phelps-like signs… but they’re destructive nonetheless, having harassed this gay couple for seven years. Where are all the other Christians? Why are they not putting a stop to this? Where are the other Christians to teach them that God is unhappy with them? I guess they’re too… Read more
Nearly a third of Republicans wrongly believe President Obama is a Muslim, according to a Pew Research Institute poll. It’s even higher in other surveys. But it’s one thing for random, delusional people to think that. It’s another thing when people running for office either believe it or perpetuate the myth to help rile up their base. It’s happening all over Massachusetts: “I believe that — that he is a Muslim,” said Republican Robert Chipman of Plainville, a candidate for… Read more
I liked Charlie Brooker’s take on the “Ground Zero Mosque” that really isn’t either of those things: To get to the Cordoba Centre from Ground Zero, you’d have to walk in the opposite direction for two blocks, before turning a corner and walking a bit more. The journey should take roughly two minutes, or possibly slightly longer if you’re heading an angry mob who can’t hear your directions over the sound of their own enraged bellowing. Perhaps spatial reality functions… Read more
Sam Harris offers his thoughts about what Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf should be saying right now about the (close to) Ground Zero Mosque (and community center) — really, it’s a chance for him to speak out against Islam in general: “… While the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity also contain terrible passages, it has been many centuries since they truly informed the mainstream faith. Hence, we do not tend to see vast numbers of Jews and Christians calling for the… Read more
It’s a sad day when an article that essentially says “evolution is supported by the evidence” is a cause for celebration. But when it comes from Rachel Held Evans, a Christian who was taught that Darwin was wrong, we should be happy, right? This idea [that evolution is false] was perpetuated at my Christian college, where one of the science professors liked to tell the story of how, as a sophomore in high school, he had dreams of becoming a… Read more
