Dan Barker is the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, along with his wife Annie Laurie Gaylor. Even if you’ve read Dan’s book, the story of how he met Annie Laurie is unique and hilarious 🙂 It involves an almost-lost letter and Oprah Winfrey: My favorite bit comes at the 5:20 mark (but it makes more sense in context, so no skipping to it). Can you even imagine Oprah doing an episode on atheism these days? Me neither. (via… Read more
Remember Anna Falling? She was the woman running for mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma on a platform of getting the Tulsa Zoo to include an exhibit on Creationism. And she wanted to do away with any sort of church/state separation… She had her Republican primary the other day… and earned a whopping 10% of the vote. The two candidates who beat her got 54% and 32% of the votes, respectively. So, in other words, even Oklahoma Republicans didn’t want a Christian… Read more
A reader sent in this dilemma: I was raised as a full-on, tongue-speaking, fundy Christian. After getting married, having a couple of kids, and generally settling into life, I started to question my Christianity. Over a period of a few years, I became an atheist. My children were very young at the time. My first husband and I divorced while I was still a Christian. After the divorce, he continued to take them to church on his weekends. After I… Read more
Dale McGowan overheard his children Delaney and Connor having this conversation and it worried him: From the next room, I heard Delaney (7) sharing a conversation she had with a friend at school. “I told her I didn’t really believe in God, but I was still thinking about it. She said she didn’t know anybody else who…” “Lane…” Connor said, then sighed with exaggerated patience. She stopped. “What?” “Lane, you really shouldn’t talk about religion at school.” “Why not? It’s… Read more
The Telegraph (UK) has a list of the 20 best atheist t-shirts. They include the following: There are some good ones on the list, but I’m sure I’ve seen funnier ones. If you have any favorites, please provide links in the comments! (via RichardDawkins.net) Read more
I’d never heard of Resurrection Cookies… but Christians are supposed to make them with their children, explaining the Bible along the way: 1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3. 2. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when… Read more
Dan Gilbert recently visited the Creation Museum and documented his trip. I know, I know. You’ve heard all you ever needed to hear about the museum. But! This is one of the most thorough walkthroughs you’ll read of the place and Dan has some of the *best* images I’ve seen. The posts are broken up into six parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 (via Rationality Now) Read more
I’m sure Focus on the Family, the Mormons, and anyone else who supported Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage in California) will be thrilled about John Marcotte’s amusing petition to get the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act on the ballot. The act would ban divorce in the state. People who supported Prop 8 weren’t trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That’s why I’m confident that they will support this initiative, even though this… Read more
Here’s a depressing statistic: One in every 33 women who attend worship services regularly has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader, a survey released Wednesday says. The study, by Baylor University researchers, found that the problem is so pervasive that it almost certainly involves a wide range of denominations, religious traditions and leaders. … It found that more than two-thirds of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance. Carolyn Waterstradt,… Read more
Say what you will about religious chaplains, Rev. Chester Cook is not too bad of a guy. I actually wouldn’t mind his services every now and then… By some definitions, Cook has the largest church in the country. As the full-time chaplain of Atlanta’s international airport, his flock includes the 56,000 employees and a quarter of a million travelers who pass through each day. … … Cook recalls the time he found an elderly woman stranded in the airport. She… Read more
