Who needs a religious wedding day when you can have a wonderful impromptu reception (with no mention of a god, I might add)? This is sweet 🙂 True story: I went to an American wedding a couple years ago… a break from the usual, traditional Indian ones I’m used to. The groom tossed the bride’s garter. When he did, all the other men must have backed away because I caught it without a fight. (I was excited! I caught something!)… Read more
Reader Josh is getting married in a few weeks. He and his fiancé are both atheists. Her brother (also an atheist) is officiating. All the plans look to be on track. So what’s the problem? Josh writes: The only issue we have left is what to do about our last name. We are both progressive and trying to break away from some of the social and religious traditions regarding it. This is proving to be rather difficult as we don’t… Read more
The Center for Inquiry announced today that they will be going though some leadership changes. It sounds like a natural progression — all groups change leaders — but this one is especially significant. The founder of the organization, Paul Kurtz, has effectively been ousted by his own board. Kurtz is a legend in the world of Secular Humanism. Besides starting CFI, he established Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer magazines and founded Prometheus Books (publishers of Victor Stenger’s God: The Failed… Read more
On Angry Asian Man’s list of the 30 Most Influential Asian Americans Under 30, I didn’t quite make the cut. I lost to the Gosselin Kids. And all the winners of America’s Best Dance Crew. Rest assured this travesty will never happen again. Next year, I vow to learn how to breakdance. Read more
This post is by Jesse Galef, who works for the Secular Coalition for America. He also blogs at Rant & Reason … This was a fascinating and eye-opening chart from Gallup: There are other findings on the site, but the implications are consistent: when people spend time around gays or lesbians, they’re more comfortable around them and more willing to support their rights. Need I go on? I’m sure you see the parallels. This is why things like the Out… Read more
In 2006, Erica Corder was named valedictorian at Lewis-Palmer High School near Colorado Springs, CO. She was one of 15 valedictorians (which I say defeats the whole purpose of the title). Because of the number of top-ranked students, it was decided that all of them would give a 30-second speech at graduation. The principal would approve their speeches ahead of time. The speech Corder gave to the principal, however, was very different from the one she delivered at graduation… Her… Read more
Pastor Deacon Fred has seen Disney PIXAR’s Up and he doesn’t like it one bit: If the sight of an old man with balloons in a confined space, alone with a little boy doesn’t raise every anointed hair on your Godly neck, then you need to check yourself into a Baptist Mental Hospital!… … As Pastor explains, “A boy with a balloon is fine, my friends! But if you throw an old man into the mix, he acts as a… Read more
The United Coalition of Reason is sponsoring an essay contest that could earn you $1,000. What do you have to do? Please tell us your personal story, in 500 words or less: what does it mean for you to be Good Without God? How do you live out your positive values as a Humanist, atheist, agnostic, secularist, or freethinker? Please write in the first person. We highly encourage you to share specific examples about your god-free involvement in service to… Read more
God loves the Orlando Magic, says center Dwight Howard. Again. Or to put it another way, God hates the LA Lakers. And LeBron James. Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com is tired of Howard’s Godtalk: Why, Howard was asked, should the Orlando Magic be picked by the media or others to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers? “God,” was Howard’s response. He apparently wasn’t joking… … And here we are again. Another athlete unwisely sticks God into a place where She doesn’t belong…. Read more