If this is accurate (and I can’t seem to find other references to the case), we should all be utterly disgusted. A man is now facing charges of Felony Menacing after police say he threatened to cut off the heads of two women because they were Christians. The encounter happened at 711 Tia Juana around three o’clock in the morning Friday. Police say Russell Bowman, who claims to be an atheist, had made the threat on September 8th. Police say… Read more
After quite a bit of drama, American Atheists has chosen a new president: Dr. Ed Buckner. It’s a fantastic choice. I’ve met him once, a few years ago, at the Lake Hypatia advance (not a “retreat” — atheists don’t retreat) sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. He was a nice guy when I met him, and based on what I’m hearing from leaders of other organizations today, my experience is shared by many others. What should we know about… Read more
Richard Wade here, back to stir up more trouble. Hemant’s recent post about his Christian friend who said he’d rather die than defile his Bible suggested for me that the larger issue there is about idolatry, and how even atheists can slip into it. People create objects to symbolize concepts. Over time they can become emotionally attached to the object itself as well as the concept it symbolizes. In extreme cases the object takes on magical qualities in their minds,… Read more
Sarah Palin is a member of an Assembly of God church. Guess who just so happened to be a preacher in that denomination? Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Well… before he went public as an atheist. He sheds some light on the theology of that church: Pentecostals are “gifted” people. Besides speaking in tongues, they also practice other “gifts of the spirit” (charismata) described in the New Testament, such as “interpretation” of tongues, prophecy, faith healing… Read more
Last night, I met up with an acquaintance of mine — A pretty hard core Christian, even compared to many of the devout religious people I know. One of the topics that came up was PZ Myers’ recent desecration of a communion wafer. I’m not condoning everything PZ did, but I told my friend I thought he made a good point. That is: A communion wafer is not actually the body of Christ, regardless of your religious beliefs. It’s a… Read more
Reader Marina stumbled onto an “Evangelical Catholic Apologetics” website… and guess what she saw at the bottom of the page? Hey! I thought we atheists owned the letter A. I know this is just some guy’s personal website, but still, this reeks of rotting bananas. Read more
We have two of them for you today. The first is a free service. Jesus will answer your questions! I asked Jesus who was going to win the presidential election. I didn’t get the response I wanted…: Dear Hemant, Though some of us here at JustAskJesus.com do have our favorite candidate we simply cannot predict who will win. Do you have a particular candidate you would like to see win? In light of not being able to predict the future… Read more
Take a look at this sign: I was thinking of hanging that banner in my high school math classroom… That shouldn’t be any cause for concern, right? Isn’t it just my freedom of expression? Of course not. Even if you agreed with me, you’d say my banner should be taken down and I should be reprimanded. Who am I to force my views upon my students? Students would feel intimidated by me (if they were religious). They would rightfully be… Read more
