If I didn’t have a grad school midterm tomorrow, I’d be doing this right now: When was the last time you were that happy? 🙂 (via Kottke) Read more
A couple months ago, I wrote about how, if atheists couldn’t get elected to public office, perhaps they could be appointed. It seems that may have already happened. Ted Kaufman (pictured above) is now the junior Senator from Delaware, replacing Vice President Joe Biden.. The New York Times hints at his potentially non-religious viewpoint: In a Senate dominated by lawyers and career public servants, Mr. Kaufman, who holds an undergraduate degree from Duke and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School,… Read more
It promotes Darwin instead of Dogma: Cute… but the “Praise Darwin” bit is just feeding into the stereotype that atheists treat Darwin as some infallible God. (I’m sure they know that and they did it on purpose.) The billboard was be making the rounds in Madison, Wisconsin… before it heads to (wait for it) Dayton, Tennessee and Dover, Pennsylvania. Score! The beautiful billboard image, designed by Adams Outdoor Co., in Madison, Wis., utilizes the Foundation’s ironical signature stained-glass window motif… Read more
Valerie Tarico, the author of The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth, used to be a psychologist. We all know about how atheists are often called “arrogant,” but Tarico writes about how, beneath that label, there are actually a whole host of emotions we have that slip under the radar: EMPATHY Not all atheist pain about religion is personal. Many nontheists feel anguished by the sexual abuse that is enabled by religious hierarchy, by women shrouded in… Read more
First they were deemed too offensive. But a slogan change means that Genoa, Italy will be seeing an atheist bus ads next month! Just on one bus, though. The old (supposedly offensive) slogan was: “The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that you do not need him.” The new one reads: “The Good News Is There Are Millions of Atheists In Italy; The Excellent News Is They Believe In Freedom Of Expression.” I like… Read more
Gallup just put out the lists of the Top 10 Most Religious States and Top 10 least Religious States in the country. This was based on responses to the question: “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” Can you guess which states are at the top? My guesses were pretty good on that one. Except for Utah — Not in the top 10. The ones at the bottom, though? Not so much. (Who knew Sarah Palin’s state was… Read more
If you’re in New York City, you can get your dose of atheism and comedy at The PIT tonight! One of the actors in the show informs me that the cast is preparing material for an atheist comedy mini-tour. (That would be awesome. I call dibs on front row seats.) The show is tonight at 7:00 p.m. It features: Mike Drucker (The Onion) John Knefel (Huffington Post) Myq Kaplan (Comedy Central Live @ Gotham) Lee Camp (Mocked Fox News on… Read more
Not that you need another reason to dislike religion… this one comes from a pastor, Thomas Steagald. His daughter is a server at Chili’s. She was working last Sunday when some church-goers came in and… well, let the pastor tell the story: A group of six church-goers came in last night after their evening services and sat down, not in her area but in another server’s. When the girl came to greet them and take their drink order, one of… Read more
Hey everyone, this is Ron Gold from The Invisible Pink Unicorn blog. Hemant has graciously invited me to do some guest posts. It’s a pleasure to be writing here. I just saw the new HBO documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard – it follows the former evangelical megachurch pastor’s life after he was exiled for having trysts with a methamphetamine peddling gay prostitute – and I have to say it changed my opinion of him. Before his downfall, I loathed… Read more
This is Part 3 of the ongoing Lee-Strobel-answers-your-questions series. Previous parts can be found here. What argument is most convincing to plant the seeds of doubt (or, rather, faith) in an atheist’s mind? Do you mind if I restate your question while retaining its original intent? It might be more interesting to phrase it this way: Atheists on this site have kindly submitted questions for me, but what questions would I ask an atheist? As I pondered that issue, I… Read more
