Ricky Gervais has been making the media rounds the past few weeks to talk about his new movie The Invention of Lying. In the movie, lying leads to, among other things, the invention of religion. So, Gervais has been talking about religion in many of the interviews he’s done: When [Gervais’ character] Mark Bellison learns to lie, he learns it can be used to comfort people, not just for personal gain. Something close to Gervais’s heart. “I’ve been an atheist… Read more
Ben Allison is a jazz bassist whose ninth album, Think Free, will be released in a couple weeks. What’s the deal with the album’s name? Allison explains: This is my “coming out” album. I’ve been living with a secret for quite a while. It’s something that most of my friends know about me but I’ve never divulged it in public. Although at least 10 percent of the U.S. population openly admits to being part of this group, there is tremendous… Read more
Remember when the Freedom From Religion Foundation created a media firestorm after putting up a pro-atheist plaque next to a nativity scene in the Washington state Capitol building last Winter? Everyone wanted a symbol of their faith allowed in the building after that and officials had to put a moratorium on further displays. This year, those officials do not want to see this all happen again. Last month, they issued a temporary ruling on the matter, banning such displays. Now,… Read more
When the “Elephant Crossing” exhibit opened at the Calgary Zoo in 2006, a private donor gave the zoo a statue of the Hindu god Ganesh — it was in honor . For some reason, the zoo accepted it and stripped it of “all religious symbolism.” Which is ridiculous because an elephant in that pose is itself a well-known image of Ganesh. That’s like saying someone donated a statue of a man on a cross, and the zoo accepted it because… Read more
It’s bad enough that the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. is engraving “In God We Trust” in a prominent place. (FFRF is suing, but they’ve had no success yet.) Guess how conservatives are celebrating? By premiering a movie in the building. The title: Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage, a documentary by Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista. The film explores the role of religion in early American history and features a lineup of history experts, including Catholic… Read more
On Friday, about 3,000 Muslims showed up in Washington to pray in front of the U.S. Capitol: “America is not perfect,” Abdul Malik, an organizer of the event called Islam on Capitol Hill, told the crowd. “But I will say something it took me my whole adult life to come to: America is not perfect, but I want to tell the truth: It is one of the best places in the world to live.” … There were also anti-Muslim protesters… Read more
Reed Braden has begun a new website that sounds very promising: The Gaytheists is a new group blog for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning Atheists, skeptics and Humanists. LGBTQ. Perfect. Feel free to check it out and add them to your blogrolls. Read more
Max Feinberg, a dentist from Chicago, died in 1986. His wife Erla took over his estate and she died in 2003. After that, their five grandchildren stood to inherit at least $250,000 apiece. There was only one catch (PDF). According to Max’s will: … any such descendant who married outside the Jewish faith or whose non-Jewish spouse did not convert to Judaism within one year of marriage would be “deemed deceased for all purposes of this instrument as of the… Read more
When Foundation Beyond Belief (that’s the placeholder website) officially opens shop on January 1st, 2010, we’ll be needing bloggers to help us out. If you know an atheist/humanist who blogs brilliantly about the environment, poverty, peace, child welfare, animal protection, human rights, education, health, and/or general issues in philanthropy, please nominate by adding a link to this thread. We’ll invite a few to kick us off in January, then gradually add more voices as we go. Self-nominations gladly accepted! You… Read more
I thought all babies were supposed to know not to play with plastic bags… (I swear I had nothing to do with this.) This image clearly needs a caption. What do you think? (Thanks to Stuart for the image!) Read more
