It’s never too early to get excited about Camp Quest! Amie Parsons, the director of CQ Texas, recently announced next year’s dates at the Texas Freethought Convention. Gotta love those presents at the end of the video 🙂 (Thanks to Joe for the link!) Read more
Note: When a letter writer signs with their first name instead of a pseudonym, I randomly change their first name to add another layer of privacy. Hi Richard, I am currently getting my Master’s in Counseling. I am a Christian, but have never gone to a Christian school until now. The degree is broad enough that I would be able to work in either secular or Christian counseling. My license would be simply Licensed Mental Health Counselor and my degree… Read more
by Jesse Galef Cash reward up front: in all of America’s efforts to encourage and promote marriage, it’s something our government hasn’t tried. You would think that in the land of both manic capitalism and manic religiosity we would have come up with the idea first, but we were beaten to it. By whom, you ask? Iraq! And they’re putting an interesting twist on it: extra money to couples from different sects. “After 2006, we found that mixed marriages had… Read more
I love watching the Spelling Bee — despite what a lot of people think, most of the participants will tell you they don’t try to memorize every word in the dictionary. It’s next to impossible and not a good use of time. Instead, you should brush up on the derivations of words and know all the common prefixes and suffixes. When you get a word you’ve never heard of before, it’s still possible to spell it correctly simply by asking… Read more
This doesn’t look like anything to worry about, but it is a disturbing proposal to the U.N. General Assembly and it needs to be stopped. Four years after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West…. Read more
Last week, I posted about Australian senator Nick Xenophon’s inquiry into the Church of Scientology’s tax exempt status because of the crimes they have committed. Aaron Saxton was an “enforcer of the Church of Scientology’s policies in the Sea Org” Xenophon cited seven former Scientologists when making his case against them — Saxton was one of them. Bef [redacted], a student, managed to get an interview with Saxton and asked him quite a bit about the Church of Scientology. He got… Read more
Over the weekend, an article about the Secular Student Alliance and a couple of our affiliates was written up by Eric Gorski of the AP and published in several media outlets throughout the country. “A lot of people on campus either don’t know we exist or are afraid of us or hate us,” says [Anastasia] Bodnar, president of the [Iowa State University] Atheist and Agnostic Society. “People assume we’re rabble-rousing, when we’re one of the gentlest groups on campus.” As… Read more
by Jesse Galef When people simultaneously try to serve their country and serve God’s will, conflicts will arise. Some politicians are worse than others at separating their faith from their policies *cough DeMint cough* but it’s pretty consistent for us to see them putting their personal convictions over sound, secular policy. But Representative Patrick Kennedy is under pressure for for NOT allowing the Catholic Church to dictate his stances. In another highly publicized confrontation between the church and pro-choice Democrats,… Read more
Last year, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers tried to erect a holiday display at the state Capitol building. They were denied because they weren’t very specific about the type of display they wanted to put up. They made no such mistake this time around: This year, the group submitted a detailed description along with a website, complete with pictures, showing exactly what they had in mind. Their request was, once again, denied. They weren’t even given a reason. Meanwhile, a… Read more
If I had known about this, it would’ve made combatting Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort’s misinformation campaign *so* much easier: (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars) Read more
