Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing outside Comic-Con in San Diego Thursday afternoon from 1:15 -2:00 p.m. You may be asking: Why? Are you kidding?! If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their… Read more
The Catholic Church has issued a declaration which puts “female ordination in same category of crime under church law as clerical sex abuse of minors.” [Insert your own joke about how that means the Church will simply ignore it.] But think about that one: Ordaining a woman is now in the same category as raping a little boy. Phil Ferguson has written a brief but straight-forward letter to the women who remain in the Catholic Church. You must now realize… Read more
Hi Friendly Atheist friends! Mike Clawson here. I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted (that’s the problem with graduate school – it doesn’t leave you much time to write anything not class related), but I recently came across an interesting article on AlterNet.org that I wanted to share with y’all. Titled “Should I Quit My Religion? Some Questions for the New Atheists,” the author, a Unitarian/Universalist, challenges the New Atheist claim that “moderate religion” is just as bad as… Read more
Vickie Sandell Stangl, the president of the Great Plains (Kansas) Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, gave a godless invocation before a meeting of the Wichita City Council recently. Believe it or not, some council members weren’t happy about it… Council member Sue Schlapp later blessed the meeting since the invocation didn’t. And people who oppose prayers during city business meetings and council members debated the issue during the public comment period a few minutes later…. Read more
In a matter of days, there were two different segments on ABC about atheism. First, we had the horrible, embarrassing, people-should-be-fired-if-they-think-this-is-journalism piece on Nightline. And last night, Diane Sawyer discussed the “One Nation Indivisible” billboards in Asheville, North Carolina. Strangely, there was no mention of the billboard vandalism. Or (not that it’s closely related) the fact that one of Asheville’s city council members, Cecil Bothwell, is an open “post-theist” — though Bothwell was mentioned in the article posted on ABC’s… Read more
Constance McMillen, the girl whose prom was canceled so that she couldn’t attend it with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo, finally has a victory after all that she’s been through. [The Itawamba County School District] agreed to implement a policy banning discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the first policy to do so at a public school in the state of Mississippi. The school also agreed to pay McMillen $35,000 in damages and… Read more
It’s the adults who buy into all the superstitious nonsense, not the kids. Neil deGrasse Tyson elaborates: That was an excerpt from a longer talk Tyson gave at Google in 2009. You can see the full lecture here. (How are there so few people in the audience?! When a prophet speaks, everyone is supposed to listen!) Read more
When tucking your young children into bed at night, don’t forget to tell them this sweet bedtime story: And remember: God loves you 🙂 Read more
Last night, I was at the Evangelical Free Church in Bloomington, IL for an atheist/Christian dialogue (I don’t do debates). I sat alongside Dr. Todd Daly (left, below) of the Urbana Theological Seminary, and we were moderated by Pastor Brett Miley. I love it when churches hold these kinds of events — it’s incredible to me that so many Christians would be willing to hear what an atheist has to say about their faith and (for the most part) tell… Read more
