Last week, the Mojave cross at the center of the recent Salazar v. Buono Supreme Court decision was stolen. Now, someone has put a new cross in its place: The National Park Service said in a press release Thursday afternoon that the replica cross would be removed. Late Thursday, Mojave National Preserve spokeswoman Linda Slater told reporters in California that the new cross is illegal and must come down. Still no information has been found about who placed the replica… Read more
Hemant’s note: Brittany Meyer is a guest-blogger who will be writing exclusively about law-related issues. You can read her bio here. … Church and State cases are often very difficult, legally and constitutionally, and the “right” answer is always elusive. It’s almost impossible to completely comply with the establishment clause, “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” without infringing on the free exercise clause, “ or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Church and State law isn’t the… Read more
Why should we draw Muhammad? Because Muslims say we can’t. They say any depiction of Muhammad is offensive, whether he’s angry or smiling or not even human. The Muhammad who was recently depicted on South Park did not need to be censored. The stick figure drawings of Muhammad that appeared on college campuses over the past couple weeks were pretty mild, too. They were not offensive to anyone looking at it rationally. You know what is offensive? Killing or attacking… Read more
Just a reminder that I’ll be speaking at the University of Oregon (in the city of Eugene) this Friday night for the Alliance of Happy Atheists. All the details can be found here! The event is free and we’ll all be going out for dinner afterwards! Hope you can make it. Read more
***Update***: Many current CFI staffers and local advisory board members (independent from CFI management and Board of Directors) have signed a “Letter of Gratitude,” thanking Paul Kurtz for all he has done. We, the undersigned CFI staff and local advisory board members, wish to express our profound gratitude to Paul Kurtz for his many decades of service to the causes of secular humanism and skepticism. Through his tireless efforts, Dr. Kurtz has been an inspiration for the entire secular and… Read more
Everytime it seems like the Catholic Church child-raping scandal can’t possibly get any worse, some new story turns up. In 1975, young victims of sexual abuse were told to sign “vows of silence” that they wouldn’t speak out against Father Brendan Smyth. Cardinal Sean Brady was in the room when that happened and said nothing. Now that those children are speaking out, Brady has been discovered, and this was his response: On Tuesday, he said he would continue as leader… Read more
***Update***: Joshua Deaton and other members of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Atheists/Agnostics/Skeptics attended last night’s city council meeting to voice their opposition to the invocations. Here is Joshua’s speech: … Bill Knight is the mayor of Greensboro, North Carolina and he’s decided to do away with moments of silence before city council meetings! Good for him! Finally a mayor with some common sen—-Oh, Christ, he replaced it with something even worse: The moment of silence at the… Read more
In case you missed Real Time with Bill Maher last week, you missed a long discussion on religion with conservative atheist S.E. Cupp and the other panelists: Maher made his usual points: That religious people are delusional. Cupp — who seems to use conservative Christian talking points in her attempt to defend religion — argued that while she is an atheist, she didn’t think religious people were delusional. Maybe it’s a semantics game with her, but what I got out… Read more
David Hayward documents a conversation between someone who questions faith and someone who thinks “doubt” is a four-letter word: (via nakedpastor) Read more
Everybody Draw Muhammad Day is on Thursday and different people are still deciding how to approach it. Do you draw a picture (or chalk your campus) or do you criticize people doing that? In any case, I support it. And if you agree with me, I invite you to send me your Muhammad images by Wednesday so I can post them on Thursday. The ones I have received so far have been thought-provoking, funny, provocative, and artistic. I can’t wait… Read more
