In Maryland, a 13-year-old girl didn’t want to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance and her teacher threw a hissy fit. “The teacher in that class began to yell at her, began to shout at her,” said Ajmel Quereshi, the ACLU attorney representing the girl. “Other students began to jump in and mock her when they saw that he was calling her names and calling her stupid. She was feeling embarassed so, not knowing what to do, she stood… Read more
One question that atheists often get asked is: Why don’t you support Christian missionaries who help so many people in poverty-stricken countries? It’s certainly wonderful that they have the ability and generosity to do the good work — I wish atheists had more of both — but there’s a reason we don’t like the way some churches do it. Case in point, Pastor Frank Amedia of Touch Heaven Ministries, who has been distributing food in Haiti: “We would give food… Read more
Ziztur claimed one of Ray Comfort’s food gift certificates and has a sincere thank-you post about it. Ray and I completely disagree with each other theologically, and I am against a lot of the things he stands for. We’ve obviously come to completely different conclusions about the nature of morality and how the universe operates. At the same time, It is clear that Ray sincerely believes what he preaches. He sincerely believes that his god is real, that we have… Read more
Chris Stedman is running a contest at his website NonProphet Status in which he’s looking for (previously unpublished) personal stories from a secular perspective. The secular stories that do get broadcast are most often volatile –- secular people taking swipes at religious people –- and reflect a divisive “us versus them” mentality. What gets told less often are the stories of people, secular and religious alike, living alongside one another peacefully and secular people expressing their own values within a… Read more
I was there. Sean Hannity wasn’t. So why is he acting like he knows what happened at the Secular Coalition for America’s briefing with Obama Administration officials? Hannity: The Obama administration earlier today rolled out the red carpet for a coalition of atheist groups. Now, among the individuals in attendance was Michael Newdow. That’s the California man who sued unsuccessfully to have the words “under God” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, religious groups, however, have not received this… Read more
Oh no! Christians are attacking atheists! Or maybe it’s fundamentalist Christians attacking liberal Christians. Or maybe it’s church elders attacking the doubting youth. Or maybe it’s aggressive atheists attacking appeasing atheists. Or maybe… Oh, who knows. In any case, it seems like the wrong person is getting attacked. (via nakedpastor) Read more
Last weekend, I was at a Christian conference called Jubilee to participate in a panel discussion (not debate) on religion. Interestingly enough, the (Christian) moderator Steve Lutz put together a list of the questions he wanted to ask us (and did), the audience-submitted questions he did ask us, and the audience-submitted questions he decided were better left unasked… That last set of questions is the one I’m most curious about 🙂 I had fun with such a list a year… Read more
Arkansas State University has an atheist group now, so you should join 🙂 “[The Atheist Community of Jonesboro] was formed because Northeast Arkansas non-theists have no representation in the area, and no forum through which to socialize, to network and to organize,” Joseph Langston, ACJ president, wrote in an e-mail. “…We aren’t against the religious, we are pro non-theist. Our goal is to find those non-theists in [Northeastern Arkansas] and let them know we’re here for them to serve their… Read more
I mentioned earlier that during the Secular Coalition for America’s briefing with White House officials, Liz Heywood, one of the speakers from our side, was unable to make it because of the weather. As a child, Liz’s Christian Scientist parents saw that she had a bone infection. Instead of getting her the medical help she needed, they just sat there and prayed for her, accomplishing nothing. The infection got worse and Liz had to live with it for decades. Three… Read more
