I’m back from the briefing. Here is some of what all went down. After meeting in the Secular Coalition for America’s offices in DC, we made the trek to the EEOB, where the policy briefing would take place: Some of the nearly-60 attendees included American Atheists National Spokesperson Dave Silverman and Matt LaClair and Catherine Blackwell of the Secular Student Alliance: The briefing essentially consisted of a few White House officials — no, you probably don’t know them — explaining… Read more
Hey everyone, this is Ron Gold checking in: There have been a string of arson attacks against churches this year in Texas, which is obviously horrible. Happily, it looks like the ordeal is over, as the suspected perpetrators were arrested last Sunday. I’m curious to learn what their motivation was, but since many details have yet to emerge, it’s too early for me to guess. However, it’s not too early for the Associated Press. They have published an article titled… Read more
Note: When letter writers sign with their first names instead of a pseudonym or nickname, I randomly change their name for added anonymity. My name is Aaron and I’ve been an atheist for almost 1 and a half years. I’m almost 25 and was raised my entire life in a fundamentalist Christian church. I married my wife around the same time I knew I was becoming an atheist but kept it to myself. My wife is Christian (though extremely liberally)… Read more
For ten years when he was younger, reader Brody gave a tithe — 10% of every gift and paycheck went directly back to his church. Since he was in his teens most of that time, that amounted to only one or two thousand dollars. But still, that’s money that could have been better used elsewhere. Brody is now 30 and he remembers something his pastor said to him when he went to church: Our pastor said that everything was given… Read more
About a month ago I posted here asking for y’all’s help on a research paper I was doing on atheists’ experiences as outsiders here in America. It was for a seminary class on “outsider” religious groups in America, and my hope for the paper was to persuade my professor to include a segment on atheists the next time he taught the course. Well, I finally got the graded paper back from my professor, and I have good news. Not only… Read more
Occasionally, certain groups will get briefed by the White House on issues relating to their interests. This happens for environmental groups, health groups, and even religious groups. But never an atheist group… until tomorrow. Friday morning, surrounded by representatives from various national atheist organizations as part of the Secular Coalition for America, we will be meeting with White House officials about issues that matter to us. Here is the official press release from the SCA (PDF). Marking the first time… Read more
Today, I turn 27. (Though I’m told that’s not a special enough birthday to celebrate.) Too bad. I’m planning on making the most of it! It turns out the Secular Student Alliance is growing faster than ever before. Less than a year ago, we had 150 affiliates. At the moment, we have 213. It’s astonishing how fast groups are forming and even more amazing where they’re forming! Some of these groups are in high school and others are in the… Read more
Sam Harris is now on Twitter. He’s been on there for less than a day and already has more friends than you. How does that make you feel? 🙂 (P.S. His new book will be called The Moral Landscape: How science can determine human values. It hits the shelves October 5th.) Read more
A couple months ago, I wrote about Ted Cox: An atheist, Ted Cox, spent the past two years going undercover as a gay man undergoing gay-to-straight therapy programs run by Christian groups (as if there were any other kind). What he found was precisely what you would think: These programs do nothing to “convert” you from gay to straight. They just try to make you suppress your (gay) sexual urges. They make up their own “facts” — you’re not born… Read more
There was a time when you could expect to see atheist bus ads in New Zealand. Atheists had raised tens of thousands of dollars and everything was going as planned. Now, the company NZ Bus — which had tentatively approved the ad — has said they will not accept it. Apparently, that phrase is too controversial: NZ Bus stated that they have received a number of complaints from the public about the proposed ads, which read “There’s probably no god…. Read more
