At the Secular Student Alliance convention last month, Jen McCreight spoke about how atheists like to be edgy — and that can be a good thing — but it’s important not to go overboard when you’re holding events. There’s a ton of great advice for anyone who’s part of a local or campus atheist group. … Also, don’t have safe-sex orgies while burning an effigy of the pope. Read more
A Roman Catholic adoption agency in the U.K. refused to send children to the homes of gay couples. But anti-discrimination laws have prevailed. I had a *huge* smile on my face as I read this article: Catholic Care wants exemption from new anti-discrimination laws so it can comply with Church teaching ruling out homosexual couples as adoptive parents. The Charity Commission said gay people were suitable parents and religious views did not justify discrimination. The Leeds-based charity said it was… Read more
Years ago, there was a big problem with Utah Highway Patrol officers placing crosses to honor their colleagues who were killed on the job. Memorials are all well and good, but the endorsement of Christianity is not. Crosses are one thing if placed there by a family but another thing when placed there by government officials. American Atheists sued the state over this years ago. In 2008, the courts sided with the state, saying there was nothing wrong with the… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, I’m an agnostic teenager (16 yrs old) and High School Junior. My parents are devout Orthodox Jews, and I have been trying to tell them for over a year now that I have no interest in Orthodox Judaism. In response, they have just laughed it off as teenage rebellion. This would all be okay if not for this one aspect of Orthodox Judaism today: “the off the derech… Read more
This is a guest post by Jamie Bernstein. Jamie is a graduate student in public policy at the University of Chicago. She previously posted about her day at an anti-vaccination rally. Matt Lowry is referenced in the posting and you can read his take on the event here. … When I found out Casey Luskin was going to be giving a talk in Chicago, I knew I had to go. He works for the Discovery Institute and is a well-known… Read more
Last month, Jen McCreight raised $2859 for the Secular Student Alliance during her blogathon. How *dare* she out-fundraise me? Last year, I raised only $2592. I must destroy her. I must help out the SSA even more. I came up with a brilliant way to do this… I will offer prizes! Good ones, too. For years, every time I’ve gone to an atheist conference or to an author’s book signing, I’ve carried a special copy of I Sold My Soul… Read more
I know Conservapedia is a joke to begin with, but someone has to be taking it seriously, right? (Tea Partiers?) In any case, this article — their featured article of the day — is just uncalled for: An atheist trying to stop Christianity. Because that’s supposedly what we do. Even though there are no examples cited. It’s bigoted, paranoid, crazy, and just plain wrong. Which must be why the extremists revel in it. (Thanks to Josh for the link!) Read more
Yet another interesting take on the (close to) Ground Zero Mosque, this one courtesy of Overcompensating: That’s only the first panel; the rest are here. And don’t forget to read the fine print amendment 🙂 (Thanks to Emily for the link!) Read more
Last year, the Center for Inquiry celebrated “International Blasphemy Day” on September 30th. At the time, it was the fourth anniversary of when the Muhammad cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper. What was supposed to be a day celebrating the right to free speech — including criticism of religion — became a free-for-all for mocking faith. To me, it was counter-productive to the actual goal of getting people to think seriously about the problems with faith. There was also… Read more
Give credit to Rob Sherman, the atheist activist from Illinois, when he thinks there’s been a church/state separation violation, he does everything he can to put it to a stop. He just filed a lawsuit last week over the Bald Knob Cross. The reason for the lawsuit is… … to force Friends of the Cross to disgorge a $20,000 State grant that it received from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to reconstruct a giant, 11-story-high Christian cross,… Read more
