There have been several recent responses to the planned building of a Muslim community center and mosque (a.k.a. Park51) close to Ground Zero. I’m not opposed to it — more on that later — but I’ve been reading some interesting responses to the situation. President Obama supports the right for Muslims to build the mosque, though he took no official stance on whether it should be built. White House officials said earlier in the day that Mr. Obama was not… Read more
It’s always fun to make Christians explain why a kind person who doesn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus will go to Hell, while a repentant serial killer who accepts Jesus in his heart will go to Heaven. Next time you have that conversation, just hand them this article from The Onion: If it weren’t for the Savior, I’d still be living with a horribly tormented conscience like some chump. I used to think that maybe, just maybe, I could… Read more
The Madison Catholic Diocese and St. Mary’s Hospital in the area have issued this (slightly paraphrased) statement to all of its employees: Our new insurance plan covers prescription contraceptives like birth-control. But if you ever take those pills, we’re so going to fire you. They have this insurance plan because Wisconsin law has mandated that “all commercial insurance policies with a drug benefit [have] to cover prescription contraceptives.” And that was the cheaper option, so the Diocese went with it…. Read more
Reader Chelsea lives in Tennessee and she’s getting married this September. She and her fiancé are both atheists and plan to have a secular wedding ceremony, so they were a bit surprised when they went to go get their marriage license and saw this: “Holy Bonds of Matrimony”? Chelsea writes: … It didn’t really make sense to me for a legal document to deem our marriage “holy.” I thought that the word “legal” might make more sense. Do you know… Read more
Freelance writer Rebecca Fernandez suggests five lessons learned during the ScienceBlogs PepsiGate scandal. She goes into more depth in her article, but here are the the bulletpoints: Lesson #1: You might be a journalist. Lesson #2: Your brand is no longer your own. Lesson #3: You can’t buy a seat in a meritocracy. Lesson #4: The Internet never forgets. Lesson #5: Sorry, Seth, but it’s pretty hard to be a linchpin. The one that stands out to me is #1…. Read more
Kurt Westergaard is the Danish cartoonist responsible for this not-at-all-controversial drawing: His autobiography, Manden Bag Stregen (“The Man Behind the Line”), is coming out this November, but that iconic picture won’t be on the cover. Instead, you’ll see this: That image is the “farewell drawing in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper when he retired earlier this year.” (The Turbomb comic is inside the pages of the book.) I mean, I get the decision… If the controversial cartoon graced the cover, no publishing… Read more
At the Secular Student Alliance conference a few weeks ago, the Center for Inquiry’s Debbie Goddard spoke about diversity in the Freethought Movement — how it’s not always there and how we can take steps to fix it. Debbie has a great sense of humor about all this but that doesn’t detract from her important message. We can pride ourselves for being more inclusive and accepting than a lot of religious groups but, as Debbie points out, we have a… Read more
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is on a billboard frenzy this week. Just days after announcing 20 new billboards in Florida, they’re putting another one up — a brand new one — in Watertown, Wisconsin. It’s paid for by an unnamed benefactor. The Lifetime Foundation member, who is elderly and prefers not to be publicly named, recently contacted the Foundation suggesting the new slogan and offering to pay for it. He also expressed the hope that other FFRF members might… Read more
Myq Kaplan is one clever, funny dude. He finished 5th in the season finale of Last Comic Standing earlier this week. If you need any proof of his appeal to atheists and science/math geeks everywhere, just take a look at these two clips of him in action: Jokes.com Read more
I sent two. Truth Wins Out sent one (who got short audio recordings). Gapers Block sent one. How many people were actually attending the conference? (Reader Matt sent me this seemingly-appropriate Onion link 🙂 ) Our next job should totally be to get a speaker on the AFTAH roster… it shouldn’t be hard to do. Just spew whatever anti-gay rhetoric you want — citations be damned — and they’ll just smile, nod, and give you a time slot. Am I… Read more
