With a reliably liberal justice like John Paul Stevens stepping down from the Supreme Court, his potential replacement Elena Kagan has a lot to prove when looking for support. Since her nomination hearings are set to begin Monday, groups are weighing in on what the Judiciary Committee should be asking her. The Secular Coalition for America is opposing her nomination: … Secular Coalition for America opposes Ms. Kagan’s nomination until she makes her support for church-state separation much more clear… Read more
Scott Robertson and Richard Anthony rented an apartment together in Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada). They signed a one-year lease and paid the security fee… and then saw the same property re-advertised weeks before they were set to move in. It turned out the owner of the property, Will Goertzen, was not going to let them move in. Homosexuality “isn’t natural and it’s a crime against nature. I can definitely not have a part in it,” Goertzen told a commission adjudicator… Read more
When a Christian starts preaching on campus, some students use boots to protest. And some people just yell random things back… YouTube start Ray William Johnson explains: I thought the Boot Protest was clever and smart. But I found the “pancake mix” student in the video to be pretty annoying. Less annoying than the preacher, no doubt, but still… Does anyone support what he was doing? Why? (Thanks to AJ for the link!) Read more
YouTube has once again censored a video without a good explanation. It sounds to me like a few people were offended by the content and wanted to make sure no one else could see it either. This time, the victim is the video for the song “The Music Made Me Do it” by the band Fuji Minx (possibly NSFW). Meh. I don’t see the big deal. Mild nudity + Christian symbols + overblown hype = When’s Bill Donohue going to… Read more
The Illinois Family Institute’s Laurie Higgins has it out for me again and I responded. Now, Americans for “Truth” About Homosexuality is piggybacking on her cause. Of course, Higgins is correct about Hemant Mehta, a supposedly “Friendly Atheist” blogger and high school math teacher who not only can’t seem to understand the difference between “hate and bigotry” and disagreeing with homosexuality, but whose lack of judgment (i.e., using the F-word on a blog surely read by many of his students)… Read more
Here’s an interesting thread in the Friendly Atheist Forums: Write a book review of the Bible as if it’s never been published before. xpastor wrote this entertaining review: We’re told nothing about the authors. Internal evidence — chiefly the pictures of young men with wavy shoulder-length hair and beards — suggests that it may be comprised of the scribbling recovered from a hippy commune of the 1960’s. No tie-dyed shirts and jeans; they’re all dressed in long robes, possibly indicating… Read more
What would happen if you took the Sermon on the Mount… … and put it on YouTube? Go here to find out. This is why I never bother reading YouTube comments… (Thanks to J B for the link!) Read more
My friend Maressa Brown has a wonderful story at Lemondrop about how an atheist named Jaclyn Johnston got married and left god out of the proceedings. Jaclyn tells her story to Maressa like this: When I got married this past weekend, there was no mention of God, faith or heaven. My husband and I were married in upstate New York by a family friend who happens to be a judge, in a beautiful banquet center in Skaneateles, the town where… Read more
I’ve been spending 8 hours a day, every day this week, at a seminar so that I am prepared to teach Advanced Placement Statistics to my math students next year. Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when I sat in my seat, checked my email, and saw a message from my BFF Laurie Higgins! Subject line: The Friendly Atheist: Poor Role Model for Teens (At least she used a badass picture of me. I’m all gangsta or something.) It’s funny how… Read more
David Hayward takes us on a visit to a Christian church: My own experience is that questions aren’t welcomed and are actually considered dangerous. It’s okay to have questions, as long as you keep them to yourself. Once they escape your keyboard, your pen or your mouth, all havoc breaks loose. You will pay the consequences. I think a lot of atheists have had similar experiences and that’s ultimately why they left their church. They got unsatisfactory answers or –… Read more
