There’s a workshop taking place tomorrow night not far from where I live. The subject: How to respond to “Homosexual Activism” in our public schools. That is tempting. It’s free and walk-ins are welcome, so I have an urge to drop by. I’ve never been to one of those kinds of meetings, so I’m curious what’s said and what the people there actually think. I’ve heard soundbytes in the media and I’ve read secondhand about what conservative Christians have to… Read more
Over the weekend, I taped an interview for the Chariots of Iron podcast. You can check out that interview here. The first half of the show discusses news items, which the second half (43:45 mark) discusses how atheists can/should communicate with religious people. Give it a listen and subscribe to their podcast! Read more
Guess who’s converting to Judaism? I’m sure the Jews will love Lindsay Lohan. I’m also pretty sure that’s all there is to the conversion, too: Taking a picture in front of a sign that says SYNAGOGUE. Which explains how I changed my name to Senator Barack Obama: My favorite line in the article is this one: Lindsay Lohan is converting to Judaism in a bid to prove her devotion to Jewish girlfriend Samantha Ronson. Although raised a Catholic, the 22-year-old… Read more
I’m offended. No Christian has offered me $50,000 to join their church. Seriously, where are their priorities? But as I mentioned last September, a Jewish man was offering that much to bring people to his synagogue: DOTHAN, Ala. — Larry Blumberg is looking for a few good Jews to move to his corner of the Bible Belt. Blumberg is chairman of an organization offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000… Read more
Released today is a new book atheists may enjoy. It’s called Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible by David Plotz. A couple years ago, Slate columnist Plotz blogged the Bible — reading it front-to-back and writing about his findings. He’s not advocating that you believe what it says; rather, he asks that you read it (the Bible) for the sake of cultural and theological literacy:… Read more
Christian apologist Frank Turek relates the story of his apologist friend David. David was giving a presentation “refuting” the New Atheists last week. After it was over, a young man came up to him to discuss the talk: “I once was a Christian, but now I’m an agnostic, and I don’t think you should be doing what you’re doing.” “What do you mean?” David asked. “I don’t think you should be giving arguments against atheists,” the young man said. “Jesus… Read more
I don’t know why else Sagemont Church officials would decide to erect a 170-foot cross in Houston, Texas. That’s taller than the Statue of Liberty. Some asked why the church made it so big. [Pastor John] Morgan said the bigger the better. “The purpose is for people to know how special they are to God,” he said. “We want them to look at it and remember that God loves them. I’m sure the homeless people in Houston appreciate the reminder…. Read more
Paul Spinrad, a guestblogger at Boing Boing, writes about the future of atheism. To begin with, he thinks the militancy of some atheists backfires and is counter-productive to their own goals. With religion, I think atheists have the same dissonance going on. If they really think the world would be better off without religion, they shouldn’t hate religion and call believers fools. Any successful new belief system must appreciate the beauty of what it’s replacing and strive for backwards-compatibility… I’m… Read more
Good evening, Ron Gold here: I finally got around to reading Hemant’s book, I Sold My Soul on eBay (a good read, you can buy it on the sidebar). Even though Hemant didn’t actually sell his soul, only his attendance in different churches, the book has still inspired me to share the story of when I tried to sell my soul. I was around 11 or 12 at the time, but even at that young age, I had a variety… Read more
Reader AnonyMouse wrote a personal story about coming out to the family as an atheist — unfortunately, it didn’t go nearly as well as he had hoped. Maybe his insights can help others in his shoes. And the note to parents at the end is a must-read: I tried “coming out” to my family once. ONCE. It was about two weeks after I lost my faith (the worst two weeks of my life, incidentally), and it was a complete disaster…. Read more
