At 9:55 this morning there was a knock on my door. I was kind of surprised because people don’t generally just drop by my house. I went to answer the door, accompanied, of course, by the curious resident pit bull who would do nothing more to a stranger than sniff and lick him to death. I was only able to open the door slightly (I am not very wide) so as to keep the dog from fleeing the house. Who should… Read more
Doctoral student Kathleen Goodman and Professor John Mueller teamed up to write a fantastic article on why colleges should embrace and acknowledge atheists on campuses nationwide. They mention this website a couple times as well. (Woo!) I don’t know whether that version from The Chronicle of Higher Education is the same as the one that will appear in a future issue of New Directions for Student Services, but it provides a great snapshot of campus atheism: People who follow trends… Read more
Imagine if Mary appeared on Maury to get a paternity test to find out who the father of Jesus was… Sample line from Joseph: “I am 5,000% sure that I am NOT the father of that baby.” The key bit happens at the 4:05 mark. I wonder how this will end… (via DarkMatter2525) Read more
Rose experienced something truly frightening the other day. I had a wreck yesterday on the way home from work. I hit a patch of ice and lost control of the car and as it slid toward the guard rail, I yelled loudly, “Fuck!” and thought of all the things I haven’t done. Her thoughts didn’t turn to God or religion — she didn’t recant and accept Jesus into her life or anything — she thought of her life and everything… Read more
My life’s work is nearly complete. I am on Daniel Florien’s list of the Top 30 Atheist blogs! The Top 5 Pharyngula Friendly Atheist Cynical-C Debunking Christianity Atheist Media Blog There’s even a graphic: See? Watch out, PZ. You’re going down. Or you will as soon as I get done defending myself against the Skepchicks. They’re coming after me. … Of course, this is all subjective. There are plenty of fantastic blogs that were left off the list. Maybe we… Read more
***Update***: Transcript is below. … I don’t have time to transcribe it right now, but in case you missed it, Jon Stewart had a great conversation on The Daily Show last night where he talked about how “a person of faith” and “a good person” seem to have become linked in politics. The consequence of this? Atheists won’t get elected president anytime soon. You already knew that, but it’s useful to see someone else mentioning it, too: The Daily Show… Read more
It’s strange hearing a politician mention non-religious people in a positive, inclusive way. I could get used to this. At the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, Obama made a couple more mentions of atheists (PDF): There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going… Read more
Hey everyone, Ron Gold here: When I hear President Obama talk about his plans to beef up the office of faith-based initiatives, it irritates me twofold. First of all, as an atheist, it’s only natural that religious groups receiving federal funding would bother me. But additionally, the very words “faith-based” get to me, as they are intentionally misleading. We should call them what they really are: religious-based initiatives. These days, it seems that very few Americans mind the massive rip… Read more
Not this: Or any of the other shirts on this site. And why doesn’t this girl just get one shirt that tells us she’s an ex-hypocritical-masturbator? The Skepchick versions are much better: This is why it’s hard to take these Christians seriously. They are proud to rid themselves of something that was never bad in the first place. It’s a case of mistaken priorities. (Thanks to everyone for the links!) Read more
