Update: The letter writer has written a follow-up letter four years later. Dear Richard, I’m in 8th grade and have been “officially” Atheist since the beginning of 7th grade. I think I’ve been subconsciously Atheist since about third grade, though. It was then that I started thinking “How do I know this is true and not Hinduism, Islam, etc?” As I grew older I would avoid any quizzes that my friends would see that asked anything about religion because I… Read more
There are a few interesting thoughts to take from the new ARIS study on American “Nones” (people who aren’t affiliated with a particular religion*). PZ Myers raised a point, and Hemant is posting his take a little later in the day. I’ll try not to step on his toes, and focus on chart I found particularly interesting: (I retyped the numbers for clarity, click for larger original) These are the political affiliations of both the US population as a whole… Read more
Marilyn Loeffel of the Memphis Commercial Appeal doesn’t like the fact that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is trying to stop the Memphis City Council from opening sessions with prayer. And she uses her brilliant insight to tell us why FFRF is wrong: A group in Wisconsin is interfering with our lifestyle down here in the Bible Belt. They want the Memphis City Council to discontinue opening its meetings with a prayer. If they knew how much this city needs… Read more
Yesterday, I posted a review of Victor Stenger’s new book The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason (Prometheus Books). As much as I liked it, I had one particular problem with the book: There is also no mention at all of the atheist blogosphere — even PZ Myers gets short-shrifted. I’m not exactly unbiased about this, but I feel like blogs are one of the main ways people find out about what is going on in the… Read more
President Barack Obama is a bleeding-heart conservative when compared to politicians like former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The late Trudeau was an inaugural inductee into the new Queer Hall of Fame. The former prime minister was a key figure in decriminalizing homosexuality and his famous partial quote — “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” — helped convince Parliament to pass the law in 1969. Trudeau’s son, Justin, said he is incredibly honoured that… Read more
John T. Elson is the former religion editor for Time magazine who came up with that cover in 1966 — for the Easter issue. He died a couple weeks ago at the age of 78. The New York Times notes the significance of the cover: The issue caused an uproar, equaled only by John Lennon’s offhand remark, published in a magazine for teenagers a few months later, that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The “Is God Dead?” issue… Read more
Hamodia, the “Daily Newspaper of Torah Jewry” recently published an interview with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. As you might expect, he had a lot of ridiculous things to say about church/state separation: I have been here for a long time now — 23 years. In that time, I think the Court has become more receptive to the needs of religious practice. We have allowed government practices that favor religion, practices to which, in the 60s and 70s, we were… Read more
Ariane Sherine, the brain behind the original Atheist Bus Campaign and the author of the forthcoming The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, wrote a review of the new Creation movie for The Guardian: A kind, funny and humble family man, Darwin is as endearing as they come, and yet he refuses to sing or pray in church, walks abruptly out of a service and takes issue with the cruel local vicar. He can’t accept the idea of a God who would… Read more
The infamous (and original) atheist bus ad will be put up in Switzerland next month: It’ll be everywhere… except in the city of Lucerne. Reader Gavrilo translates (because Google didn’t do a good job of it): Rico de Bona, the person responsible for the infrastructure of the city, said, “Ads from an organization that motivates people to leave the church will not be tolerated here” (personal translation). This is pretty shocking in Switzerland. The city will probably be sued. Even… Read more
Today is the release date for Victor Stenger’s new book The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason (Prometheus Books). Stenger previously authored the God: The Failed Hypothesis, the first-ever book released by Prometheus Books to make it onto the New York Times Bestsellers List. The new book is a history of atheism… over the past five years. It essentially spans the release of Sam Harris’ The End of Faith in 2004 to the present day, explaining how… Read more
