At The Amazing Meeting 8 last month, the most controversial talk turned out to be Phil Plait’s “Don’t Be a Dick” speech. (Check that link for more background info.) Video of his talk has now been made available by JREF, so watch it unfiltered: Has your mind about the talk changed from before now that you’ve seen it? ***Update***: Phil’s take on the talk is here. Read more
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (a.k.a. anti-gay-marriage-people) had a poll up on their website asking “What do you think about Judge Walker’s decision to overturn Prop. 8 banning same-sex ‘marriage’ in California?” At one point, it was hit hard by the people from Daily Kos and these were the results: “I support the decision” was ahead by a longshot. So what did the right-wing Catholic group do? According to homogenius at Daily Kos, they… Read more
Yet another opinion on Park51, this time from Keith Olbermann: “This is America, dammit, and in America, when somebody comes for your neighbor, or his Bible, or his Torah, or his Atheist Manifesto, or his Koran, you and I do what our fathers did and our grandmothers did and our Founders did. You and I speak up!” I know a lot of atheists don’t have a lot of respect for religion, much less Islam. But I’ve always known (most) atheists… Read more
I’ve mentioned Will Phillips here before. He’s the 10-year-old boy who didn’t stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance last year because we live in a country where we don’t have “liberty and justice for all” — just ask all the gay couples who can’t get married. The other day, Will spoke at a rally protesting the National Organization for Marriage’s national bus tour (to sparse audiences) opposing same-sex marriage: *Hemant bows down to Will* Maggie Gallagher just got pwned… Read more
I wrote a column for the Washington Post On Faith blog about the Ground Zero community center with the mosque inside. It’s a mixture of some of the things I’ve written about it on this site and a reaction to many of your comments. If you like it (or hate it), please leave your comments there! (I’m closing them here.) Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Mr. Wade, I’m starting my senior year in high school and I’m preparing for college applications. I am an American but I’m applying to colleges in the UK. I want to study there because I know Britain has a much more secular society. I would love to live somewhere with that difference, even if it is slight. I also really admire their government’s ability to separate church and state… Read more
Reader Jordan broke away from Christianity a while back. His wife is an agnostic but still “culturally Catholic,” meaning she attends services with her family when she’s visiting them, among other things. She likes the tradition and ceremonies but doesn’t hold Catholic beliefs. They’ve talked about having kids and the issue of getting the child baptized comes up frequently. Jordan is very much against it. His wife likes the idea. It’s become a point of contention and Jordan made a… Read more
The Center For Inquiry is opening a new branch in Ottawa, Canada (which, I suppose, makes it the Centre for Inquiry?) and their inaugural event on September 22nd will feature Marci McDonald, author of the new book The Armageddon Factor: the Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada. The sponsors include Humanist Canada and The Humanist Association of Ottawa. If you’re in the area, consider checking it out! All the information can be found here. Also, Canadian atheists rule. (Thanks to… Read more
At the recent Secular Student Alliance conference, I participated in a panel discussion on interfaith cooperation. We talked about how campus atheist groups should interact with religious groups, when it’s appropriate to criticize their beliefs, and a lot more. The other panelists were (from left to right in the video) Rev. Jonathan Weyer, President of the University Interfaith Alliance at The Ohio State University, me, Chris Stedman, Content Developer for the Interfaith Youth Core, and Lewis Marshall, President of Atheists,… Read more
David Hayward offers this visual of the sort of alienation seen in the Christian world: What does someone have to say to become the red dot in the atheist world? (via nakedpastor) Read more
