Conservative Christian teens have the Silver Ring Thing. What do non-religious people have? How about a Secular Principles Pinky Swear? It was started by a group of young humanist activists from Georgia: I strive to live my life according to progressive, secular values, not dogma or superstition. Therefore, because the conservative religious community promotes pledges of abstinence and religious obedience, I want to demonstrate that I am committed to legitimate and ethical secular principles. I commit to living by my… Read more
The Onion mockup addresses a real situation: When people talk about their faith, the downsides include hearing a lot of bad logic, listening to superstitious nonsense, and having fundamentalists say they want an even more Christian society: At least The Onion gives space to people who share a fundamentalist mindset: Goddamn it, nothing’s working! It’s trapped us in our own unsubstantiated claims! We need to switch fundamentally unsound tactics. Hurry, throw up the straw man! Look, I think it’s going… Read more
Apparently, I have a habit of linking to attractive atheist women on YouTube and saying as much. You say you want fair and balanced. Ok then. I give you an attractive male, Scott Clifton (a.k.a. TheoreticalBullshit), a former actor on General Hospital and current actor on One Life to Live, explaining the problems with the ontological argument: Can I go back to the pretty women now? (Thanks to Aaron for the link!) Read more
Every so often, I go to this show in Chicago where the actors perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. The plays can be funny, sad, political, symbolic, etc. Each of them has a cryptic title that may or may not tell you what the play is about… Last year, one of the plays I saw was titled “Helium.” When they performed it, the stage became dark. When the lights came up, one man stood in the center of the stage… Read more
This Sunday, Rebecca Rubin will go on sale. She’s the latest American Girl doll in the collection. (photo via The New York Times) What makes her unique? She is a 9-year-old girl living on the Lower East Side in 1914 with her Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, siblings and a grandmother known only as Bubbie. … … Rebecca is [American Girl’s] first Jewish historical character. (Apparently, people thought the Molly character was Jewish, but they were wrong.) Obviously, they’re referring to Rebecca’s… Read more
Even Time magazine is reporting on the atheist bus campaign in Chicago (and beyond). It’s not an opinion piece; it’s just giving background on the bus campaign and what supporters hope to accomplish: The aim, [American Humanist Association executive director Roy] Speckhardt says, “is to attract the interest of those who already believe as we do. We’re not trying to convert people.” Referring to a recent poll, he notes that more Americans view themselves as non- believers than the population… Read more
Atheist reader Santiago has a friend (let’s call him Bob) who is a fundamentalist Christian… or used to be, anyway. After several years of the two men discussing and debating faith, Bob has finally admitted that his faith is under severe stress and that he has “very serious doubts about the validity of Christianity” — Bob now accepts evolution, among other things. But this has led to a major problem. Santiago writes: The problem is this: he’s feeling miserable at… Read more
Indian people: We make up 0% of the NBA, 0% of the NFL, 0% of the NHL, and 37% of the Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinalists. And this is why watching the Spelling Bee semifinals (on ESPN) and finals (on ABC) on Thursday will be awesome. 15 of the 41 remaining contestants are Indian. We probably have a common ancestor more recently than you. Hell, I’m probably closely related to several of them. Which means when one of them wins… Read more
Some people never want to hear about how you are motivated by compassion or guided by reason. All they care about is whether or not you have God in your life…: (via Atheist Cartoons) Read more
This is why I never get to go on dates with the cute women who work at Borders: Next time I buy hardcore atheist books, I’ll just include a copy of The Shack to confuse the hell out of the cashier. That’s when I’ll make my move. (via The Redheaded Skeptic) Read more
