Remember last year when Illinois had to deal with an absurd mandatory Moment of Silence law? High school student (and atheist) Dawn Sherman filed a lawsuit to put a stop to it (via her father Rob Sherman). Today, a final ruling (PDF) was issued on the matter from Judge Robert Gettleman. After discussing various aspects of the case, the judge remarked on the proposed Moment of Silence amendment and how it was really a veiled attempt to bring prayer into… Read more
Stephen Dubner of the Freakonomics blog suggests (not very seriously) a new atheist lawsuit. Earlier this year, Mike Pereira, the National Football League’s Vice President of Officiating, explained which sorts of touchdown celebrations would be allowed and which would be considered excessive (and thus penalized): Pereira stated: The whole issue is, you can’t go to the ground on your knees or with your hand or anything. There’s only one time that you’re going to be allowed to go on your… Read more
Think back to the field trips you took when you were in high school — maybe you saw a production of a Shakespeare play or you went to a museum. Now what if your school’s idea of a field trip was to attend a “Just for Jesus” rally? This is a rally that has in the past “featured Christian music, skits dramatizing the effect of being saved, and sermons from local preachers.” That’s a possibility that the Ouachita Parish School… Read more
Gerry Canavan was at the Inauguration and saw several Christian protesters. You can check out his photo gallery here. Here’s one sample: I get Fake Christians. And Muslims. And Atheists. And Baby Killers. And Rebellious Women (those harlots). But “Good People”? (via Cynical-C Blog) Read more
Mike Clawson here one more time… As with my atheist friends here, I too was thrilled when Obama mentioned non-believers, and also when he affirmed the importance of the sciences. However, my absolute favorite part of his address was when he spoke of global poverty, saying: To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations… Read more
As I said earlier, I’ll be making a donation to the Secular Coalition for America for every use of the words “Jesus,” “Christ,” “Lord,” and “God.” I’ll hope you’ll join me in doing that. Yesterday, we heard Rev. Gene Robinson. Today, we heard Rev. Rick Warren deliver the Inaugural Invocation. Shortly afterwards, we heard Rev. Joseph Lowery deliver the Inaugural Benediction. The text is below and the Religious Word Count is below that. God of our weary years, God of… Read more
As I said earlier, I’ll be making a donation to the Secular Coalition for America for every use of the words “Jesus,” “Christ,” “Lord,” and “God.” I’ll hope you’ll join me in doing that. Yesterday, we heard Rev. Gene Robinson. Today, we heard Rev. Rick Warren deliver the Inaugural Invocation. The text is below and the Religious Word Count is below that. Let us pray. Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of… Read more
No doubt Barack Obama threw atheists a bone by referring to “non-believers” in his Inaugural address. But how big of a gesture was this? How much did it actually mean? What is the proper response? Should we act like this is a big deal and thank Obama publicly? Send out press releases praising him for including us? Jump up for joy because we were mentioned at all? Act like we have now reached the mountaintop? Or should we chill out… Read more
Here’s how it went down for me today at my high school. — Scene: My homeroom is watching Barack Obama deliver his Inauguration address Obama:… For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. Entire class: MEHTA!!!!!! — It took me a second to calm them all down. I also had a colleague ask me later if I was ok with… “the… Read more
