Holy shit. If you’re an atheist in Amarillo, TX, I’d be scared. There are Christian soldiers out to get you. And they have frightening flash animations on their website. (Thanks to Carmen for the link. I think.) Read more
My Spring Break is next week and I’m going all over the place. More of the talks have been confirmed with details so I wanted to post an update. All readers who come to an event get a free hug! (For everyone else, it’s $2.50.) Confirmed: School Date City Time Location Valencia Community College 03/29/10 Orlando, FL 3:00 p.m. 11-106 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 03/30/10 Troy, NY 7:30 p.m. Darrin 330 Syracuse University 03/31/10 Syracuse, NY 7:00 p.m. Maxwell Auditorium University… Read more
Photographer Jean Lewis is displaying some of her unique work at the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln right now. The black and white photographs depict stylized architectural elements in gravestones, cemetery gates and storefront shops. Lewis took the photos during her 20-year career in Nebraska. Specifically, she focuses on the Nebraskan Czech population and their connection with cemeteries. It turns out they had their own, but not necessarily because they wanted to be segregated from everyone else. Why is… Read more
The American Society of Trial Consultants publishes a journal called The Jury Expert, which features an article about atheists this month (PDF). Douglas L. Keene and Rita R. Handrich write about how lawyers should act when they have atheist clients and when an atheist may be on the jury. They offer a few tips to lawyers, most of which make sense if the only purpose is to win the case: If your client isn’t ‘out’ as an atheist, it is… Read more
It shouldn’t evoke any big reaction anymore, but it’s a wonderful thing anytime someone feels comfortable enough to come out of the closet. 81-year-old James Randi has done just that today on the JREF blog Swift and on the For Good Reason podcast: Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted. I’m gay. … I should apologize for having used Swift as the venue to publish this note, an item that… Read more
You promise not to hate me, right? Good. Because here goes the rest of your day: And there’s more where that came from… (Thanks to Curse Joe for the link!) Read more
Baba Brinkman is an atheist rapper I’ve mentioned in the past. Today. he released the new video for his song “Off That” — fantastic lyrics mixed with beautiful animation (by Tommy Nagle). Plus, when was the last time you heard a rap song that referred to double-blind studies and the word “Fiddaith”? How awesome is that? I feel ten points cooler now. (via New Humanist) Read more
The backstory from PassiveAggressiveNotes: A college RA puts inspiration quotes on the bathroom wall. Someone writes on one of the posts, asking why the quotes are always from the Bible. The RA doesn’t like the tone of that question and issues a response as follows: Damn… someone took that criticism a little too hard. I think the critic could’ve achieved the same result by cherry-picking a less-than-inspirational Bible quote and posting it right next to this one 🙂 (Thanks to… Read more
Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church was set to descend upon Dutchtown High School in Louisiana Thursday night because they were staging a production of “The Laramie Project.” Instead, 500 counter-protesters made a stand and Westboro was nowhere to be found 🙂 My friend Doug Stewart was there and took some great pics (click to expand). He also brought along a few amusing signs of his own. What was most amazing wasn’t merely the number of (mostly student) anti-protesters, but the… Read more
There’s a lot of religious nonsense that takes place in India. A lot of times, it’s just a petty scam and people lose only money as a result. Sometimes, it’s much more tragic and lives are lost. Last week, it was reported that an Indian couple couldn’t conceive a child, so they went to a tantrik who told them they needed to kill 11 children to fix the problem. They went to work immediately: Between December 13 and March 4,… Read more