Since the weather is so wonderful outside, we decided to have a little atheist get-together near Chicago! I’ll be there. So will Blag Hag and Godless Girl! (It sounds like a convention for superheroes…) You *know* you want to join us. Here are the details: Date: Saturday, January 2nd Time: 7:00 p.m. Where: Palos Hills Village Pub 9750 S Roberts Rd Palos Hills, IL 60465-1470 Come by yourself, bring a friend, or find me a wife and tell her to… Read more
Yes, it’s a meaningless poll for the “most vocal atheist of 2009.” Yes, I’m aware there are no women on it and that is an injustice of many sorts. Yes, I’m aware PZ has gotten to it already. But. He can be defeated! Really! He can! You just have to vote for me and not him! Help me out, people! I’m losing to Richard Dawkins?! Pssh — what has he done for atheism lately. (Don’t answer that.) … I would… Read more
Crispian Jago has created a wonderful little children’s book version of how the Atheist Bus Campaign began: I think this is my favorite page: (via Science, Reason and Critical Thinking) Read more
Aalif Surti and Aditi Shedde are making news because of the birth of their child. The reason? According to Mohammed Wajihuddin of The Times of India, they refuse to list a religious identity for him: It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. “A few months into my pregnancy, we had decided that we would not give our child any religious identity,” says Aditi. “We are not against religion, but who are we to choose a religion on our baby’s behalf? We will… Read more
People are losing their faith and it’s not just a recent fad. It’s a trend that continues to go in our direction. A new Gallup poll shows a lot of progress on the side of rational thought. Protestants? Declining. Catholics? They had been going up but they’re heading back down. No religion? Steadily increasing. This is fantastic news. But wait. There’s more! How important is religion in your life? Very Important? Yes, a slight increase over the past couple decades… Read more
This was on PostSecret today: It raises this question for me: Is there anything you were better at doing back when you were religious? I guess I could say I was better at calming myself down in stressful situations (because I would pray)… but there is some power in being able to rationally think my way through a tough situation even if the conclusion may not be something I like. Of course, I can also attribute a lot of that… Read more
I didn’t realize how much awful Jesus Junk there actually was! The Redheaded Skeptic has example after example of cheesy Christian clothing: And there’s more where those came from… Scary. Read more
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is a Presbyterian who thinks “the purpose of life is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever’.” Those are mistaken priorities and a scary thought when you consider he’s in charge of the entire state. I was almost willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, when I read this quotation from him: I don’t talk about [my personal faith] for two reasons. One is [that] although faith is very central to me, I… Read more
Wow, it looks like a lot of people had the Flying Spaghetti Monster adorning their holiday trees! Prophet Bobby has a whole slew of pics on his site. Read more
YouTube user Kimdonesia went from being one of the most watched Islamic female vloggers… to being an ex-Muslim atheist. How does that deconversion happen? She explains in this video: She also explains it on her YouTube page: It was a tough process. My beloved canine companion of 14 years (“Beauty”) passed away, which resulted in thinking about death. This led me to think about the Hereafter, and whether the god in the Qur’an was truly just with his judgment. I… Read more
