You never hear about Hindus walking into McDonald’s and telling the manager they’re not allowed to use beef products anymore. If they did, we would laugh it off. We’d say that’s absurd because non-Hindus don’t have to follow their rules. But what if the Hindu radicals committed a violent act against the manager? We’d be furious. What if moderate Hindus said it was offensive for someone else to eat a Big Mac? We’d say that’s crazy. In response to all… Read more
Is there a War on Christmas? Nope. Are atheists trying to take over public schools? Of course not. Do atheists dominate local governments? Not even close. And yet, many Christians complain if atheists make themselves known in even the smallest way…: (via Atheist Cartoons) Read more
Tim Minchin sings a lovely little song about the Bible 🙂 Your Christian friends may want to leave the room… Read more
The Mojave Cross was stolen last week and we still don’t know who did it. Someone claims to know who did it and sent a letter to the Desert Dispatch on behalf of the thief. Among the many points made in the letter: 1. The cross in question was not vandalized. It was simply moved. This was done lovingly and with great care. … 11. Despite what many people are saying, this act was definitively not anti-Christian. It was instead… Read more
Even people not interested in the law know that the will of the majority does not trump the rights of the minority. Government prayers are no exception. You can’t pray in the name of Jesus or Vishnu or Zeus to open a city council meeting. Yet, Lancaster, California Mayor R. Rex Parris thinks it’s perfectly fine to do those things. In fact, he knows it’s fine. He asked city residents and 75% of voted were in favor of it! (As… Read more
One of the best books I read last year was Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University. It’s the story of an Ivy League student who spends a semester at Jerry Falwell’s ultra-Christian Liberty University. My review and interview with Kevin can be found here. Recently, I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of the paperback edition of the book in the mail: Even cooler was seeing a blurb from the site listed in… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance is announcing our 2010 conference in Columbus, Ohio, taking place July 23rd – 25th, and it’s already shaping up to be a fantastic one. To give you a really brief preview, Greta Christina will be the keynote speaker. Jen McCreight and I will be giving talks as well. There will be atheist college students present from across the country and we’ll also be taking a trip to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (atheists + monkeys =… Read more
***Update***: The story appeared on the Chicago Tribune’s front page (at the bottom): And if you turn the pages to read the rest of the story…? Freaky, no? The folding of my shirt as I lean over makes my body look oddly-shapen. Oh well. Still kinda cool! … I’ve mentioned ChurchRater before — it’s a website where you can rate worship services that you attend, kind of like a Yelp for churches: Jim Henderson is the man who “bought my… Read more
Here’s a theoretical question that I was discussing with a couple friends recently. We can see both sides of the issue, but we wanted to know how other atheists would react: As an atheist, would you be willing to financially support an efficient and effective charity that is founded and run by a non-dogmatic religious denomination that completely renounces proselytizing? What do you think? Read more
Man, it feels good to watch this clip. Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, schools the FOX News Channel rookie anchor in why the National Day of Prayer in unconstitutional: You almost feel bad for the kid… until you realize he’s just parroting the right-wing talking points on the matter. Hope he learned his lesson — don’t ask questions you don’t know the answer to — especially when your guest is an expert on the topic. Read more
