Dear Richard, I am an atheist and have been open about my atheism for about 2 years now. Although I have been met with some resistance from family, who are Orthodox Christians, overall my atheism hasn’t caused too much turmoil in my or their lives. My wife is a Christian, but she’s fairly open-minded to my thoughts and discussions about religion. I have two kids, 6 and 2½. My 6-year-old is in a Catholic school down the street from our… Read more
Next Thursday is Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. As I’ve written a few times this past week, I support this. I stand behind the college students who have been courageous enough to do this over the past couple weeks. No doubt this event is divisive, though. If you’re thinking about chalking Muhammad on your own campus, the Secular Student Alliance has some excellent advice on their website, like this tip: Discuss what, exactly, your message is: Discuss with your group what… Read more
by Jesse Galef — When is society justified in discouraging certain ideas from being expressed? I see this question at the heart of the controversy around our recent “Chalking Muhammad” campaigns. The issue has never been about the law. Pretty much everyone is on the same page that death threats are unacceptable and that people have the legal right to draw images of Muhammad if they so choose. But wherever secular students actually try to do it, they’re met with… Read more
Roy Zimmerman reworked his song “Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual” to describe some current events… 🙂 Read more
American Atheists is sponsoring a rally to be held on the steps of the Texas Capitol building next Sunday, May 16th. The purpose is to fight back against the revisionist history being proposed by the conservatives on the state’s Board of Education. The “Texans for Truthful Textbooks” rally is organized to protest the Texas Board of Education’s recent decision to inject conservative politics and personal agendas into the state’s textbook curriculum by changing the standards in several significant ways. The… Read more
Senior citizens at the Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah, Georgia receive reduced-price meals partly paid for with federal money. Because of that, they’re being told they can’t pray before meals: … Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state. On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center… Read more
Doug Stewart lives in Louisiana and he’s wondering if his “godless evangelism” has gone too far. He’s very proud of being an atheist and he wants to share that with anyone willing to listen. (You might recall how Doug had previously held pro-atheist signs during Mardi Gras.) This time, Doug is being a little more active about it all. Instead of just waiting for people to come to him, he’s helping facilitate that conversation. First, his “GODLESS” license plate holder… Read more
Bradley Byrne is a former Democrat, current Republican, running to become Governor of Alabama. His background includes degrees from Duke and the University of Alabama — he even served as Chancellor of Alabama’s community colleges — so you would think he has a decent head on his shoulders. He’s currently the subject of a rather interesting attack ad…: What?! He supported evolution!? Heathen. Byrne wisely responded by saying: It seems obvious to me that parts of the Bible are meant… Read more
by Jesse Galef – I have quite a lot to say on the subject of drawing Muhammad. At my day job as Communications Director for the Secular Student Alliance I’m watching the recent developments closely, and on a personal level I feel passionately about the issues of free speech, respect, and taboos. But I won’t get into all of that quite yet. I just wanted to take a moment to dispute something in Eboo Patel’s OnFaith paean to religious respect. … Read more
Lars Vilks is a Swedish artist who was at the center of controversy in 2007 because he drew the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body. Yeah… I’m not impressed by it even as a work of art. But it still managed to piss off Muslims. Vilks said a couple months ago that he “had secured his property with a homemade panic room and booby-trapped artwork.” He got a weapon, too. He said he also has an ax “to chop… Read more
