Here’s an interesting project that could be used in a variety of ways. Reader Chiara was trying to come up with two separate, alphabetical lists — one is a list of what atheists call ourselves; the other is a list of what others call us. Can you help her fill out the blank cells? Also, if you don’t like a certain word in a cell, what would you suggest as a replacement? What We Call Ourselves What Others Call Us… Read more
Simple question: How did you hear about this website? From me personally? Via a link from another site? Something else entirely? It’s always helpful to know 🙂 (via Cynical-C Blog) Read more
Look at this picture and then tell me it’s not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen: There is an explanation behind it, but I think it’s more entertaining to think up original captions. What do you say? In any case, it makes me impatient. I want my atheist quiverfull now. (via Raising Three Thinkers) Read more
Hey, this is Ron Gold (obviously). Today marks a year of blogging for me, so I decided to commemorate the event by telling the story of how I became an atheist. I hope everyone enjoys it: I was only six or seven years old at the time, but I remember it vividly. I was going through my first (and as it turns out, my last) crisis of faith. To this day, I have never been so burdened with doubt. This wasn’t… Read more
When I heard about the following program at PromiseLand West church in Austin, Texas, I got excited: I love it when churches do this! They are asking which side of their theological spectrum makes more sense — belief or non-belief in God. Of course they’re going to say belief makes more sense. But it’s a chance for the other side to be heard and critiqued. I think churches should do this more often… partially because their criticisms of atheism are… Read more
Photographer Joe Johnson has a new exhibit in Boston’s Gallery Kafayas that displays photos of empty megachurches. If you’ve never been to a church like this before, you should see some of these photos. It’s unbelievable how decked out they are: That one is a children’s ministry. One setup (“Instruments, St. Louis MO”) looks likes the set of the musical Rent. Another picture, the one with all the empty seats (Titled: “Seating, Temperance MI”), just gives me the creeps. The… Read more
There never seem to be many of us minorities in the atheist crowd. You go to a conference or a local meeting, the percentage of minorities are a lot smaller than in the general population. Quick: Name ten non-white atheists! (Can you do it? Are you struggling?) Vjack has a theory about this: This is mere speculation on my part, but I wonder if minority group members tend to view atheism as a less important part of their identity than… Read more
The Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign is picking up speed. They have the ad ready to go and a slow but steady influx of donations (they’ve raised $7500, with $1000 coming just in the past few days). They also applied to get a phone number — that way, people interested in learning more about atheism because they saw the ad would have someone to talk to. The person who assigned them a number must have a sense of humor about all… Read more
Check out this ad (PDF) that the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) placed in the Connecticut Post (click for larger image) a few days ago: It reads: You’re Cordially Invited To Witness Your Rights Being Taken Away We wish to inform you that: Same-Sex Marriage Bill 899 will deny citizens their religious rights. Schools that wish not to teach gay marriage will have no choice in the matter. Their parents won’t either. Church groups who won’t comply will be punished… Read more
Recently, Iowa State University’s Atheist and Agnostic Society heard that a certain Christian preacher, Tom Short, was visiting their campus. Short is one of those guys who thinks everyone who doesn’t believe exactly what he does is doomed. Listening doesn’t appear to be one of his strengths. So what is an atheist group to do? You might expect them to stage a protest — Short would be allowed his free speech, but nearby, you’d hear the atheist group offering a… Read more