Seattle Atheists is preparing to launch a bus ad campaign of its own, humorously enough, on April 1st, a.k.a. April Fool’s Day, a.k.a. the Atheist’s Holiday (ha ha ha)… Here’s what you will be seeing on local buses: I like it. Short and sweet and pro-atheist instead of anti-religious. And leading into that campaign will be a regional conference — called Darwin @ 200 (and other matters) — held at Portland State University, sponsored by the Northwest Freethought Alliance and… Read more
Last night, I attended a workshop about “homosexual activism in the public schools.” The meeting took place at a church and it was sponsored by the Illinois Family Institute, a conservative group. About 80 people were packed into a tiny room. My observations: I overheard one man sitting near me talking to a friend of his before the event started. He quoted the Edmund Burke line, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do… Read more
Remember a couple months ago when the North Carolina Senate race was in full swing? It was Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole against Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. To many outside NC, Hagan was a relatively unknown figure — that is, until Dole’s campaign put out a press release saying she was promoting atheist values and had attended a fundraiser at the home of atheists. They later ran a TV ad saying the same thing. Hagan was a Sunday School teacher who… Read more
A couple months ago, Italian atheists were ready to purchase bus ads reading: “The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that you do not need him.” That slogan was deemed too offensive and advertising agencies turned the Union of Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists (UAAR) down. UAAR decided to use a slightly watered-down slogan instead — this one was approved and can be seen on a couple buses in the city of Genoa at least… Read more
After much discussion, it looks like there’s a green light on my summer o’ Christianity project… In short, I’ll be living with a Christian family for ten weeks, attending their church, meeting their friends, and perhaps branching out from there. More on the details soon. In the meantime, I’m trying to thing of some basic questions I’d like to explore while I’m a part of this Christian world. Understand that I’ve never been in this serious of a mainstream Christian… Read more
Conservative Christians are freaking out because an Illinois high school held a dance for GLBT students and their straight allies. Who is to blame for this approval of all-but-certain debauchery? English teachers. And now we have the first dance for students who self-identify as homosexual, which was approved by English teacher, Bill Fritz. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this kind of corrupt event would be supported by an English teacher. Although nowadays moral mischief emerges from all quarters in public… Read more
A couple months ago, I mentioned that 19 non-theistic organizations had written a letter to then President-elect Obama urging him not to accept the title of Honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America. Those efforts seem to have fallen on deaf ears. On Tuesday, Obama hinted that he would accept that title: Obama was meeting with a delegation of the Boy Scouts in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, at which time he was to accept the group’s 2008… Read more
During this recession, it’s important for state governments to get their priorities straight. Which must be why the Pennsylvania General Assembly is spending $13,700 on only the most important things: With the state sinking deeper into a fiscal hole, the Pennsylvania General Assembly bought 220 Bibles and other holy books for legislators as they took the oath of office last month. And the public paid for them — roughly $13,700 in all. … Volumes were ordered for 24 of the… Read more
Edward Current shows us the horrors that would befall us if God disappeared. My favorite part comes at the 0:13 mark. (via Edward Current) Read more