The Foundation Beyond Belief (which I am on the board of) is an organization that encourages non-religious people to give to charity. In fact, we support a variety of charity categories: Health Poverty Environment Education Peace Child Welfare Human Rights Freedom of Expression Animal Protection A featured small charity One of the most difficult (yet worthwhile) tasks for members is choosing which charities should receive funding during each quarter. To accomplish this, we’re looking for volunteers to help us out… Read more
Here’s everything you need to now about the proposed history curriculum from the Texas Board of Education, courtesy of Houston Chronicle editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson: The new standards (PDF) would follow a conservative Christian, revisionist view of history. Jerry Coyne has a perfect (actual!) screenshot from the proposed standards (the blue words are the proposed changes): Phil Plait explains why this isn’t just a problem for young Texans: … Texas has such a huge school system that textbook publishers will… Read more
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern — the man responsible for introducing the ridiculous €25,000 fine for blasphemy — may now be suggesting the government get rid of it. Dermot Ahern, the justice minister, is proposing that a vote to remove the criminal offence of blasphemy be held as part of a planned series of referendums this autumn, writes Stephen O’Brien. … A final decision on a blasphemy referendum rests with the cabinet, but if Ahern remains justice minister after this… Read more
Thunderf00t has a terrific video about how religions grow and die — and how the Internet is helping with the latter. It includes Godzilla, Mr. Deity, Richard Dawkins, and Sexy Santa. Why would you not watch it?!: Read more
Sean Faircloth, the executive director of Secular Coalition for America, has now announced publicly what his vision is for the future of our movement at least as it pertains to the SCA. The last bit (emphasis mine) is the part I’m most interested about: First, national reporters will instinctively seek quotes and analysis from SCA about public policies that privilege religion — just as now they seek quotes from the ACLU on civil liberties. Soon after, our stands on issues… Read more
Despite what we hear about the lavish lifestyles of some famous pastors, most church leaders live on relatively little cash. The health benefits aren’t that great, either. A recent article in USA Today points out salary differences between certain federal jobs that had “a private-sector equivalent.” I’m really curious why clergy working for the government get paid so much more than in the private section. Any ideas? (Thanks to NN for the link!) Read more
I forgot how much I *loved* this show as a kid. Somehow, this episode went completely under my radar when it first aired. Probably because I was 11. Yay, Dinosaurs! They figured it all out in the end… The Baby kicked ass. (via Atheist Media Blog) Read more
You’ve probably heard the story of Constance McMillen by now — she’s the high school senior who wanted to wear a tuxedo and attend prom with her girlfriend. The school board responded by canceling prom altogether. Morons. McMillen is taking this all very well considering the school board is forcing the other students to blame her for their idiotic decision. Constance McMillen said she didn’t want to go back the day after the Itawamba County school board’s decision, but her… Read more
Nearly 10 years ago, in 2002, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. Chaos ensued, atheist Michael Newdow represented himself in front of the Supreme Court, and the case was ultimately thrown out because the court ruled he didn’t have proper standing (i.e. he didn’t have full custody of his daughter whom he was filing the lawsuit on behalf of) to bring the issue to them. A… Read more
Dear Richard, I recently “came out” as an atheist and it has been somewhat difficult on a number of fronts. Although I have been skeptical of religion for many years both as gut instinct that it was self-serving, and rational analysis that what they teach is nearly impossible, when I finally decided to officially tell people that I did not believe in a god rather than hiding behind “I’m spiritual not religious” things have gotten strange. Almost everyone I know… Read more
