The term “New Atheist” is overused… I’m guilty of it, too. I automatically use it whenever I refer to successful atheist authors, whether or not that’s appropriate. SarahH proposes a new definition of the term: A “New Atheist” is an atheist who has somehow pissed off the person using the term “New Atheist.” Is there a more accurate definition? Are you a “New Atheist”? Is there an atheist in the news these days who isn’t one? Are there any female… Read more
The Virgin Mary has been found yet again. In bird shit. Holy crap. (Literally?) It’s not even a joke. They’re taking it seriously. Cristal Pachuca said she took pictures and began making calls to invite others to see, what she describes as, a miracle. “We just all feel protected. It’s a blessing to our family and to everybody that comes to see it,” says Cristal Pachuca. … Since Sunday, a steady stream of family, friends, neighbors and strangers has stopped… Read more
There’s a fantastic interview with Zach Weiner, the man behind Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, at The Freethinker. And it features one of my favorite SMBC comics: Here’s the exchange that stood out to me the most: FT: There has recently been a change of tone in the discourse surrounding religion, with the so-called New Atheists arriving on the scene and causing a stir. One of these is PZ Myers of Pharyngula, who has featured your cartoons on a number of… Read more
I don’t understand this: Why would there be a cemetery of baby heads? Everyone knows those are the tastiest parts and you should never let them go to waste. Read more
Hey Richard, I have a question that deals more with a moral dilemma than an awkward social situation. Due to the decent amount of atheist literature I have been reading recently, I would consider myself a relatively new “convert” to the faith (of course I still have to use quotes around convert, I have a ways to go). Anyway, my question is this. I tend not to believe in a higher power, but I do believe in some form of… Read more
Bob Ritter is a civil rights attorney for the American Humanist Association. Outside that organization, though, he’s working on a project of his own: Getting references to God removed from Little League baseball. He’s doing this locally, in his town of Falls Church, Virginia. Ritter, an assistant coach on a league team and whose son, Vincent, is a first-year player, was present for the opening ceremonies held at Westgate Park in Falls Church last April. During the event, Ritter said… Read more
I always hear people talking about where they can meet other atheists for dating/mating purposes. So I put the question out to several atheist lady-friends and the Twitter/Facebook worlds: What do the rest of us need to know in order to woo female atheists? The response was overwhelming. I’ve compiled the advice below from what they said (along with my own thoughts). #1: Know where to look Not at her boobs (see Step 3). Meetings of local or campus atheist… Read more
The sign below was found outside a church in Balham, London. That’s absurd. We all know you could never find anything Jesus-related on eBay… (Thanks to Andrew for the pic!) Read more
My friend Anne Jackson is going to publish a book later this year called Permission to Speak Freely. It’s a sort of Christian version of PostSecret, where people confess things they believe but feel they cannot say in church. For example: … I support civil unions for homosexual couples. … I just had a drink last night and it tasted really good. I hate it when people ask for prayer for their neighbors brother’s cousin (or some person like 5… Read more
Last night, I went out with a friend from high school. Let’s call her… Bob. Bob’s an engineer and she’s religious. At some point, conversation turned to God (I swear, it always does when I’m around…) and I mentioned that I’d been reading a lot of the back and forth over Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum’s new book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future. The authors make a claim that scientists hurt their own cause when they say… Read more
