The question is whether you think this is real or satire: After the success of an ambitious pilot program, Campus Crusade for Christ International is shifting all future evangelism efforts away from college students and to pre-school children. “Within five years we’ll be out of college ministry entirely,” says CCCI president Steve Douglass. “Campus pre-school ministry has proven much more effective.” … Campus Crusade says pre-schools offer a unique avenue for evangelism. Because most are not publicly funded, there are… Read more
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is putting a display of its own alongside religious symbols in the state Capitol building in Olympia, Washington: The foundation’s co-president, Dan Barker, said it was important for atheists to offer their viewpoint alongside the overtly religious Nativity scene and Christmas-style holiday tree. “Our members want equal time,” Barker said. “Not to muscle, not to coerce, but just to have a place at the table.” The three displays, all privately sponsored, were granted permits from… Read more
***Update***: Here’s a PDF of the lawsuit. … By now, you’ve heard this absurd story. Kentucky’s first line of defense against terrorism is God. Specifically, Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God’s benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.” State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern… Read more
I heard a fascinating story from one reader recently. He has been working at a Christian university for several years, but during his time there, he became an atheist. This is a problem for several reasons. For one, he signed a “faith statement” when he accepted the job. If his bosses found out about his atheism, he’d be out of a job. As it stands, though, he plays an “influential role” in the organization. He agrees with many of the… Read more
(There’s a NSFW image at the bottom of this post, just fyi.) You may have already heard this disturbing story: An Iranian man (Majid Movahedi) blinded a woman (Ameneh Bahrami) with acid in 2004 after she refused a marriage proposal from him. “I decided to splash acid on her face so her husband would leave her and I could have her,” he told the court. He said he had earlier contemplated suicide. Asked if he would still be prepared to… Read more
That is all. I saw the movie yesterday. It was *incredible*. Best movie I’ve seen in a really long time. Yay for movies with brown people. Read more
Shannon Murphy, a senior at Bryn Mawr college in Pennsylvania, is surprised that students at her (fairly liberal) university would question how atheists could be moral: In speaking to a fellow atheist friend about the [Deborah] Stone lecture, the topic of morality and religion at Bryn Mawr came up. My friend told me that she had been confronted by another student who knew her to be an atheist. This woman asked my friend, similarly, how she could be both atheist… Read more
Members of the Colorado Coalition of Reason (COCORE) recently paid to put up 11 atheist billboards, a variant of a common billboard being put up by local groups around the country: Two of those billboards will not be going up, though, because Christians complained to the media company owning the billboard space, Next Media, which then said no to carrying the atheists’ message. The obvious question: Who cares what the Christians think in this case? The billboards are not about… Read more
Pastor Mike here… So we get out of church this morning where my three-year-old has heard the Annunciation story in Children’s Church (i.e. the story of the angel visiting Mary and telling her she’s pregnant with the Messiah), and after telling us all about it, she goes on to say that “It’s just a story. It didn’t really happen.” Now I’m wondering how I managed to raise such a little skeptic. 🙂 Read more
