***Update***: Margot’s CD is now available on iTunes! … Margot Saites comes from a fundamentalist Christian family and only began her journey to atheism when she was 30. She recently put out a CD of her own music (a talent I find absolutely incredible) and one of her songs, “Steeple Hands,” has lyrics readers might appreciate: When it’s time to choose a side, I’ll give you a clue Where the theories collide, It’s not hard to misconstrue We’re born with… Read more
I recently attended the Netroots Nation panel in Pittsburgh on the proposal for a “New Progressive Vision of Church and State.” The proposal, which I criticized last week, was written by Bruce Ledewitz, an atheist himself and author of “Hallowed Secularism.” The panel wasn’t as bad as I had feared, as he had invited staunch defenders of the separation of church and state like Fred Clarkson of Talk2Action. For a more complete description of the panel, check out what Greta… Read more
Ron was playing around with Google’s predictive text feature and noticed that if he typed in the names of some conservative Christians, Google suggested some interesting query completions… Other examples are on his site. He left out the “Ted Haggard is” query (which I find amusing). And the “Rick Warren is” query was surprising to me given his popularity. Type them in (sans quotation marks) and you’ll see what I’m talking about. (Thanks to Sandra for the link!) Read more
We’ve seen a lot of stories about children — like Kara Neumann and Ava Worthington — who died because their parents trusted a god instead of modern medicine. They let their children suffer because they wrongly thought a god was going to save them. John Worth knows what goes on in those parents’ heads… because he used to be one of them: It breaks my heart to think about that poor little 11-year-old girl, dying so young of such a… Read more
William Lobdell’s time working as a religion reporter for the LA Times helped him become an atheist. It looks like he has a counterpart in the UK. Stephen Bates is a former religion reporter for The Guardian. His time reporting on religion led him to agnosticism. The thing that astounded me was the vituperation directed not at other faiths (a degree of Islamophobia came later) but at those who happened to disagree within the same faith communities. You get evangelical… Read more
Last year, a school administrator at a public high school in Florida said a prayer at a school luncheon at the request of another administrator. That’s illegal to say the least, since children were present, and school officials should not be using their positions of authority to promote a particular faith. Apparently, that wasn’t the only time that happened, either. The ACLU filed suit last year against the district on behalf of two [Pace High School] students who alleged that… Read more
The posters would read, “No Gods, No Masters” and they would go up on trams in Zagreb, Croatia. … Bojana Genov said today (Tues) she was very optimistic and believed the posters would soon be on Zagreb trams. Similar posters have already been seen in Spain, the UK and Italy. The Croatian Catholic Church has declined comment on the posters. The country is 88% Roman Catholic, so I’m curious how the ads will go over. (via missvinyard) Read more
I’m conflicted here. We already know psychics are frauds, but should the government ban the practice of fortune-tellers? It’s hard to know when we should prevent people from making claims about the future. Where does one draw a line between horoscope writers and pastors who claim that God knows your future? At least commercials for psychics tend to include the fine print about how they’re for “entertainment purposes only.” (Just like commercials for baldness cures and penis enlargers always say… Read more
Like many of you, I’m pro-choice without also being pro-abortion. I would love to see the number of abortions reduced (while birth control use increases) and I’m personally much happier to hear that a woman had a baby and gave it up for adoption rather than chose to abort it. (Of course, that choice depends on the situation and the woman and sometimes you don’t have both options. I get that.) A lot of Christians are pro-life with no exceptions… Read more
Talk Like a Pirate Day, the international holiday celebrated by good Pastafarians everywhere, is only a month away! It will take place Saturday, September 19th. This video from Pontius Pirate showcases some events that took place on the special day last year, along with great music, and some interesting commentary: Nice work, Central Arkansas Pastafarians! What are the rest of you going to do to celebrate this year? Read more
