by Jesse Galef – You guys love polls about religious attitudes, right? Of course you do, how silly of me to ask – everyone loves polling data! It’s so intoxicating to go digging through the numbers, finding information about the world… that’s not just me, right? …Guys? I was thrilled to read that Religion News Service reports the PEW Research Center has a new poll asking how Americans would feel if a family member married an atheist. Unfortunately, my perverse… Read more
MoveOn.org couldn’t do it. PETA couldn’t do it. But Focus on the Family has been given a green light to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. Focus on the Family is known for taking a pro-life stance and valuing marriage as an institution for opposite-sex couples. … Its Super Bowl commercial is not polarizing and does not take an “anti” stance against any issue, according to a person familiar with the situation. The organization’s ad will feature college football… Read more
It’s a question that doesn’t have a supernatural answer, even though religious nuts everywhere won’t hesitate to offer their own explanation. The Secular Coalition for America’s president, Herb Silverman, has a far more honest response to the question of “why God allows innocents to suffer” in Haiti: Here’s an alternative view. The “fault” lies under the Atlantic Ocean, not in the sins of Haitians. The earth’s tectonic plates are neither good nor evil. The more we learn about their shifting,… Read more
Hey friends, Mike Clawson here again. Once more I feel like I should apologize for being such an infrequent contributor here. Graduate school keeps getting in the way of doing any extra writing. Speaking of that, however, I would like to ask for your assistance on a research paper I’m doing for a class called “The Outsiders: Alternative Religious Traditions in America.” The class has been about non-mainstream religious (e.g. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, New Age groups, etc.)… Read more
Crazy Christian icon Pat Robertson said that Haiti experienced a horrific earthquake because Haitian slaves once “swore a pact with the devil.” The Onion informs us of his explanations for other terrible tragedies: It’s funny… until you realize that he’s on the air because millions of people take him completely seriously. Read more
These pictures are in need of captions. I’m sure someone can take care of that… (Thanks to Hillary for the links!) Read more
Dinesh D’Souza and John W. Loftus will spar at the University of Illinois on February 9th! I got good money on Loftus taking him down in round 4. There will be blood. But D’Souza will go for a Million Dollar Baby-like illegal knockdown. Loftus better watch his back. Wait… It’s just a debate? Hm. Well, that’ll be interesting, too. (via Skeptic Money) Read more
St. Cloud State University in Minnesota is home to a new campus atheist group (an affiliate of the Secular Student Alliance):. They were recently featured in their campus newspaper: “I hope that this is something that stay alive on the Campus,” [co-founder Sarah] Maddox said. SSA’s goal is to work as an umbrella organization for students who are without religion. SSA works with atheists, agnostics, humanists and other non religious students. “The official mission statement is to create a sense… Read more
This Rubes cartoon is all a big metaphor… The Creationists can try all they want, but the theory of evolution will win every time. (Thanks to Ross for the link!) Read more
What the hell, brown people… it’s all fun and games until someone hurts babies for real. In the video, Sanal Edamarku discusses a very disturbing ritual from Bihar, India performed by a “godman” — he’s trampling infants in an effort to “bless” them. The possibly NSFW video is here (the sound is extremely low). There’s at least one positive to come from all this: Two days after this TV interview, the godman was arrested and this ritual ended. So why… Read more
