Author Darrel Ray has come out with a new book called The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. I had a chance to read this a few months ago and really enjoyed it. The book extends the metaphor of religion as a cultural virus, discussing how it spreads and how it can be stopped. In the intro, Ray talks about when the religion virus is most infectious: Virtually all religions rely upon early childhood indoctrination as the… Read more
Here’s an interesting experiment. You’ve seen American newspaper vending machines: You put the money in, the glass door opens, you get your paper. Now, let’s go to a province in Austria: Here, you put the money in at the top. And you just grab your paper from the moisture-sealed bag below. There’s nothing forcing you to pay, though. You could theoretically not pay anything and still grab a paper. It’s all based on the honor system. And therein lies the… 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. Today, we had the first prayer of the four, delivered by Rev. Gene Robinson. The text is below and the Religious Word Count is below that. O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will… Bless us with tears — for a world in… Read more
When I have my three-score children, I hope this company is still in business. For having the balls to go with that name, they deserve to be: Apparently, they make all sorts of yummy stuff. (Thanks to Jennifer for the link!) Read more
It’s not too late for you to support the Canadian atheists so they can put ads on buses! So far they’ve raised nearly $12,000. But the more they get, the more ads they can buy, the bigger impact they can have. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here. If you give and would like to tell us about it (hopefully inspiring others in the process), please leave a comment! They’re already getting some fantastic publicity. (Thanks to… Read more
Tomorrow (January 19th), comedienne and activist Kate Clinton, along with several others, will be engaging in a bit of superstition you may actually want to get behind. They will be “Saging the White House” — from a distance, anyway. In essence, they will be gathering by the fountain in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. at 6:00 p.m. (ET) in order to get rid of the evil spirits from the Bush White House. It’s all in good fun. (I don’t think… Read more
Gays are mad that anti-gay Rick Warren is delivering a prayer at Barack Obama’s Inauguration. Gays are happy that gay bishop Gene Robinson was invited to deliver a prayer separate from the Inauguration. Conservative Christians are mad that Obama invited Robinson to deliver a prayer. Rick Warren is happy that Obama invited Robinson to deliver a prayer. Conservative Christians are mad that Warren is happy about Robinson. Reporters are mad that Rick Warren can be against gay relations and happy… Read more
After the remarkable fact that all 155 passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 are alive and fairly well, I’m not surprised to hear people saying it was a miracle and that this was God’s will. (Of course, no one is saying God directed the geese to fly into the plane’s engines… but that’s another story.) Superstitious nonsense aside, though, I’m not hearing as much miracle-talk as I thought I would be. Credit seems to be going to where it should… Read more
The British atheist bus ad controversy develops into an erudite debate… …that eventually is boiled down to the essential impasse. Read more
