The Vatican just forgave John Lennon for saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Now, Bob Jones University is apologizing for its former stance on race: For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture… Read more
Richard Wade recently mentioned the atheist billboard that was taken down near Los Angeles: One email that was circulating around about it went like this: On November 20, 2008, the city of Rancho Cucamonga pressured General Outdoor Advertising to remove a controversial billboard with the message “Imagine No Religion” on it because some of its citizens were offended by it. The billboard, paid for by Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national non-profit advocacy group for atheists and agnostics, included only… Read more
Google is still not a fan of this site, but there’s a quick way that may help raise this site’s ranking. I’m paraphrasing what reader Tokenadult wrote to me. Essentially, search for “Friendly Atheist” on Google and find this site — it was on page 4 for me. If you’re logged into Google, you have a chance to click on the “up arrow” next to the result. You can bring this site to the first page of your results. tokenadult… Read more
Time for a new contest! It’s been a while… Why are atheists Tiana and Kate praying outside the Discovery Institute? (Pic via Kate_Holden) Remember — you’re playing for Friendly Atheist wristbands! Funny and creative answers will have a shot at winning. Good luck! (And, by the way, both girls will soon be appearing on the Skepticality podcast.) Read more
August Berkshire, president of Minnesota Atheists and author of 34 Unconvincing Arguments for God, explains in an opinion piece for the Minnesota Star Tribune how atheists will spend their holiday season: The cards we will be purchasing will not say “Merry Christmas” (or “Happy Hanukah” or “Happy Eid”) but rather “Season’s Greetings.” … The trees that many of us will have in our homes will have colorful lights, originally symbolic of the postsolstice lengthening of days, but now just a… Read more
In true fashion, the Vatican is late in making an apology. At least this time they’re only decades late instead of centuries. Next time, maybe they’ll only be years behind the rest of us: The Vatican’s newspaper has finally forgiven John Lennon for declaring that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, calling the remark a “boast” by a young man grappling with sudden fame. The comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in… Read more
The Exterminator has another game for us! It involves pictures: I can only get three of the answers… Beat me. I dare you. Read more
Barry A. Hazle Jr. was in prison for drug possession until February of 2007 when he was paroled. Part of his parole included mandatory attendance at a drug treatment program. That program involved the 12-Step method used most commonly by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Hazle wanted no part of that, so he asked to be reassigned to a secular treatment program. Three days later, he “was called out of a program class and arrested for violating parole… He was… Read more
I wonder what this religion’s fundamentalists are like… “The orgasm is God, the orgasm should be worshiped,” [founder Carlos] Bebeacua told the Kvällsposten newspaper. He’s serious. According to Bebeacua, the church has a few hundred followers, and he hopes that registering the Madonna of Orgasm Church will get more people to consider the orgasm as God. The church only has priestesses and its scriptures are called the Catechism of the Orgasm. The only gospel peached is the gospel of sex…. Read more
