The Creation Museum event is over a week away and the publicity is starting. Steve Goble from the Mansfield NewsJournal is fascinated with the museum: Perhaps, like me, you harbor a morbid fascination for the infamous Creation Museum near Cincinnati. … Maybe you’ve even opined that you’d prefer to have your skin peeled off — followed by a bath in orange juice — than spend a day at the Creation Museum. … There’s this morbidly curious side of me, however,… Read more
I love this idea from Joel Guttormson and the Metro State Atheists in Colorado. They’re running a charity event called Food for Freethought 2009. Given the existing goals of Metro State Atheists, it is only natural that we would attempt to help the hungry by promoting freethought, freedom of expression, and free inquiry. With the proper support, we can have an immeasurable positive community impact! Here’s how it works: You give them non-perishable foods, and they’ll give you a banned… Read more
You can never have too much publicity. A couple more articles on Camp Quest UK are popping up, and they’re finally getting more of the details right (as opposed to last time…). It’s not run by Richard Dawkins. It’s not a camp for “atheist children” (Rather, it’s a camp for children of atheist parents). It’s not an indoctrination factory for atheism. The publicity is positive and it’ll hopefully mean more donations and registrants next year. You can read the articles… Read more
Two things for the atheist photographers out there. Mojoey is running a photography contest and there are five categories in which to enter: Atheism/Religion Travel and People Self-Portrait Altered Images The Natural World I think the winner just gets the pride of winning. But that’s not a bad thing at all. All the rules are on his site! … Jen at Purdue is planning out activities for her campus atheist group this fall and she has decided to hold a… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance received an email this morning from the Creation Museum regarding the horde of rationalists who will be visiting in a few weeks. It was addressed to us and PZ Myers. PZ posted it on his site earlier. The SSA wanted to clear up a few things up with the museum before putting it up on our site. More on that in a bit. First, here’s the letter that comes via Mark Looy, the Chief Communications Officer,… Read more
Prodigal Jon mentions (only half-jokingly) that if churches want to boost membership, they just need to have a sermon series on sex. And many have done just that. Jon also put the following quiz up on his site: Which of the following are actual sermon series used at churches or things a pastor said or real websites… and which are completely fake? “Yourultimatelover.com” “Great Sex for You” “Bringing Sexy Back” “Electric Sex” “Whatsbetweenthesheets.com” “Desperatesexlives.com” “Solomon is the OT’s version of… Read more
The Secular Coalition for America sent out an amusing fundraising email that’s worth checking out. It relates to their new offices on famed lobbying haven “K Street” and what they could use: A financial contribution of: $2,375 pays for one month of rent in our new space. This new office will allow us to host allies for strategy meetings. $1,129 creates a stock pile of 6,000 brochures to distribute in Congress and across the country to build awareness of our… Read more
Richard Leroy Walters died a couple of years ago, leaving behind $4,000,000. Per his wishes, the money was divided between NPR, a Catholic mission in Phoenix, and several other non-profits. Despite his wealth, Walters didn’t own a car. Or a home. [Friend Rita] Belle knew him as a very well-informed man who could fix her air conditioning — someone she just assumed had a place to live. Then he told her that he had no home. She heard that he… Read more
***Update***: I’m getting taken to task for some of the comments below. Some of it is deserved. I don’t know the histories of these murderers, and I don’t know how religious they are and if they go to church on a regular basis. As some commenters below note, people are told by pastors often that the Devil is real and that God exists and talks to us. We’re taught to admire Abraham because he obeyed God when told to kill… Read more
Denny’s is just setting itself up for a lawsuit. JREF Communication Manager Jeff Wagg went to Denny’s recently where he saw the following flyer: This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. I mentioned a similar incident on this site a couple years ago — that one also took place in Euless, Texas — and Wagg has a list of several other incidents where non-churchgoers were discriminated against. You can read Jeff’s account of the story here. The… Read more
