Every year, the Secular Student Alliance gives out awards to the best campus atheist groups in the country in a variety of areas. Each group receives a plaque and a cash reward (ranging from $300-$500). Here are this year’s winners: Affiliate of the Year: University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers. In addition to hosting speakers, UNIFI has been involved in secularist activism in a number of other ways. For example, the group got national media attention for its Blasphemy… Read more
Let’s play a game: how many *facepalms* can you do while reading this press release from Liberty Counsel? Right off the bat, the headline is misleading: Florida School Tries to Ban Bibles on Religious Freedom Day No public school is banning Bibles. Ever. All students can bring a Bible to school if they want to. There’s gotta be more to this story, right? Of course. World Changers of Florida is suing because they wanted to hand out Bibles at a… Read more
Sean Faircloth of the Secular Coalition for America issues a reminder that faith-based discrimination (with federal money) is still allowed in our country. President Obama could stop it in an instant, but he hasn’t done it yet. There’s no reason to wait on this. Obama knows this is an illegal use of tax-payer dollars and he ought to put a stop to it. Read more
It’s not easy to defend Stephen Prothero when he writes about atheists. I wrote before that he knows a lot about our “community” even if he wrongly calls atheism a religion with our own brand of fundamentalists. His new book is God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter and he’s still doing interviews all over the place for it. But the more of those he does, the more I… Read more
Dear Richard, I’ve been an atheist for all my adult life. When I first came out to my Lutheran parents, they were surprisingly accepting, and now I regularly discuss religion and current religious issues with them respectfully. A few years ago, I met a wonderful man I’ll call Craig. He was raised by Catholic parents, but never really considered himself a religious person. He is not as actively passionate about his religious opinions as I am; religion is more “irrelevant”… Read more
Starting today, three different atheist billboards will be seen in New Zealand: After all the setbacks they had in getting these billboards up, I’m glad they’re off to a strong start. (A bus company refused to run the ads months ago after receiving complaints.) If you’d like to help the New Zealand Atheist Bus Campaign put more of these billboards up, you can donate to them here. (Thanks to Charlotte for the link!) Read more
At the Pride Parade in Chicago this past weekend, a group of Christians from the Marin Foundation stood with signs reading, “I’m sorry”: The signs read: “I’m sorry for how the church has hurt you” “I’m sorry for how the church has treated you!” “I used to be a Bible-banging homophobe. Sorry.” Tim Schraeder explains the significance of this: While the ultimate message Jesus came to preach was one of love, grace and compassion, we’ve sadly misrepresented Him and alienated… Read more
Ed Buckner, who took over the position of President of American Atheists after Ellen Johnson was unceremoniously fired, has announced his upcoming retirement. He will step down in September, two years after initially taking on the job: … He gave several reasons for choosing to not continue as president: “I need more time to write and reflect, as well as simply to relax more, and the organization needs fresh leadership. I am proud of what we — a few staff… Read more
Christopher Hitchens has had to cancel a lot of his recent appearances promoting Hitch-22. He finally released a short statement about it: I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice. Yikes… hope he gets better soon. Knowing him, he’ll argue the cancer into submission. In the meantime, please don’t bother praying… Read more
Rose at The Jewmanist explains why she didn’t take her husband’s last name after marriage: People would ask me after I got married when I was changing my name. I would sometimes simply say “I’m not” but sometimes I felt offended and would utter “what’s wrong with mine?” 25 years it took me to love my own name. And now I have to change it? That, in conjunction with my general feminist attitude towards life, afforded me my only choice…. Read more
