PZ’s not winning this poll, but it’s ok, because all the nominees are worthy! … the Mormon Alumni Association is here to remedy the situation with a brand-new yearly award for the X-Mormon who has made the biggest impact!!! The list of former Mormons (Formons?) includes Mr. Deity, Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter of Milk), and Heather Armstrong (Dooce). Go vote and support the people who have broken the chains of their faith. (via Main Street Plaza — Thanks to Carol… Read more
Grant Desme was a rising star in the Oakland A’s franchise, possibly starting this season playing AA baseball. (AAA is even better, followed by the major leagues.) He batted .288 with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs in 131 games last year. Then he starred in the Arizona Fall League, where some of the game’s top prospects compete. … Desme hit one home run in his 12-game tenure with the team, but [broadcaster Rob] Fai remembers it as “probably the… Read more
JulietEcho has written a couple widely-read pieces about polyamory. But I have to break it to her: polyamory is wrong: Good to get that off my chest. Laurie Higgins would be proud. (Thanks to Ungullible for the link!) Read more
by Jesse Galef – If a story didn’t happen, can it still be useful? I first started thinking about this question in college after taking a Hebrew Bible course with professor Bart Ehrman. Evidence points to most of the Bible being historically inaccurate. As Ehrman presented argument after argument for why the stories in the Bible couldn’t be taken literally, he took pains to mention that even if the stories didn’t happen, they might be “metaphorically true.” Most of this post… Read more
Remember how the Canadian atheists were going to do battle on a TV show, in an IQ test, against nerds, believers, politicians, twins, and athletes? It aired. Atheists took 3rd. Believers took 4th. And the Nerds won. (Ok, so that wasn’t really a huge surprise…) Lindsay gives us a few of the other highlights: The person in the in-studio groups that had the highest IQ was an atheist, who scored 140. Woo! … There were some comments made by the… Read more
Indiana Rep. Vanessa Summers (D-Indianapolis) is the chair of the Family, Children and Human Affairs Committee. Recently, she introduced a sensible piece of legislation. It has to do with child-care facilities in religious places — churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. At the moment, none of them need licenses to operate and anyone can be a caregiver. Summers’ legislation would require them to register with the state… and to meet certain standards. Caregivers would have to be at least 17 and enrolled… Read more
Crispian Jago’s work is absolutely beautiful: Science is a mosaic. Good science from disparate fields seems to conveniently converge to help us gradually gain a clearer overall view of our universe and make valid predictions based on that knowledge. No one joined this rich mosaic of scientists together more sublimely and eloquently and passionately communicated this amassed wisdom better than Carl Sagan. If you read the first few comments, you can find out how to get a larger, 50 MB,… Read more
Stephen Baldwin, “actor” and evangelist, is currently appearing on the British version of Celebrity Big Brother. He’s providing everyone with memorable soundbytes. Like: If we’re from apes, why are the apes still here? If we evolved from apes, they would have died out… But this next one isn’t just stupid, it’s frightening: If someone pointed a machine gun at my daughter and said: “Say Jesus doesn’t exist” and if she turned to me and asked: “What do I do?”, I’d… Read more
The Cutler Bay Brewing Company produces what I’m told is very delicious beer. It’s home-grown for now and not for sale anywhere. Perhaps even better than the beer are the bottle labels. Here’s one of their latest: There’s one reason to wish heaven actually existed, yes? The other labels are funny, too, but likely NSFW. I’m a fan of the Oktoberfest one 🙂 (Thanks to Todd for the link!) Read more
What are your thoughts about god? David Hayward shows us a Christian’s “clearest thoughts about god”: Funny, I think I feel the same way… (via nakedpastor) Read more
