Penn Jillette tells the story of a former Orthodox Jew who finally ate non-kosher food — including bacon — for the first time. It’s a bit lengthy, but well worth it: I’m still a vegetarian, but I found the story really touching. It’s nice to hear about someone finally jumping that last hurdle away from religious dogma — even if that hurdle involves something as seemingly inconsequential as a bacon cheeseburger. What was that hurdle for you? When did you… Read more
I will be speaking at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, IL tomorrow (Tuesday) night. The event is free and, if you come, I’ll privately dance for you. It begins at 8:00 pm in The Founder’s Lounge of the Frick Center. — And for those of you in Indiana, the student group at Purdue University will be hosting lawyer Eddie Tabash this Thursday evening for a free event. He will be speaking on the topic “Why There Really Is No God.” Tabash… Read more
According to an Associated Press article by Justin Pope, the economic crisis has played a major role in the closings of several Christian colleges: Late last month, [Cascade College,] the small Christian college with just 280 students and $4 million in debt announced it would have to shut down at the end of the current academic year. “Our hearts would have said we would like to continue trying,” said Cascade President Bill Goad, somberly adding he never imagined his duties… Read more
Reader Samuel is a leader of the Agnostic & Atheist Student Association (AgASA) at the University of California Davis. Friday night, Dan Barker — author of Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists — spoke to the group. It was a successful event and Samuel is facing a wonderful problem: … Through our efforts to advertise the event, we expected maybe about 150 people to show up. However, the 500-seat capacity lecture hall was almost filled… Read more
This video speaks for itself. The money part begins at the 2:35 mark: I don’t know the story behind this, but reader Jason gives us the abridged version of the video as well as the claims we ought to be skeptical about: Egyptian guy claims that the doctors (never named them or the hospital or anything) told him he has strength equal to 300,000 men, approximately 260 horsepower. He has 4 wives, needing 4 to satisfy his sexual appetite without… Read more
Reader (and lawyer) Bruce offers his take on the Catholic Churches denying Communion crackers to anyone who voted for Barack Obama — and whether that constitutes a violation of separation of church and state: … I don’t know that urging those who voted for X not to participate in a religious rite AFTER the election has been held may not constitute “political activity” because it is not a recommendation on how to vote, AND it cannot influence the vote that… Read more
North Carolina Senator-elect Kay Hagan is dropping her defamation suit against opponent Elizabeth Dole — Dole had claimed that Hagan was linked to an atheist organization: “It’s clear that the people of North Carolina have rejected personal attacks aimed at dividing people of this state instead of bringing them together to solve the problems at hand,” said Colleen Flanagan, communications director for Hagan’s campaign. “This lawsuit would just continue the focus on a very personal and negative attack against Kay,… Read more
I wrote about my recent dilemma over whether pay the full $42 price I owed for parking at the airport lot for three days… or claim to have “lost” my ticket and pay the $14 lost ticket fine instead. What did I end up doing? I paid the $42. But part of me is still mad about it. Read more
I spoke to members of Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers at Northern Illinois University earlier this week. Part of the talk was about my book and part of it was advice on how to overcome the atheist stereotypes and recast our image. The Northern Star student newspaper wrote up a nice story about the talk. Mehta’s main focuses during his speech were to promote “the happy Atheist” and to try to help erase stereotypes of “the angry Atheist.” “One thing Atheists… Read more