Someone at The New York Times has a sense of humor: (via RumorsDaily) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times keeps reviewing Expelled even after the actual article has ended… … Mixing physical apples and metaphysical oranges at every turn “Expelled” is an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike. In its fudging, eliding and refusal to define terms, the movie proves that the only expulsion here is of reason itself. “Expelled” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has smoking guns and drunken logic. Beautiful. [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
At last year’s Freedom From Religion Foundation conference, Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great, received the “Emperor Has No Clothes Award” — an award “for public figures who engage in public dissent of religion.” The transcript of his acceptance speech is now available on FFRF’s website. Here are some excerpts: I do feel I might give you a brief report on my swing through the areas of piety. I guess it was lucky that in the first week,… Read more
Pastor Mike Clawson here again. For those interested in thoughtful Christian responses to atheism and especially the “New Atheism” characterized by Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, et al. (as opposed to the kind of responses you might get from say, Ray Comfort or Ken Ham), you might be interested in this new book by Dr. John Haught, a distinguished theologian at Georgetown University. According to Wikipedia: [Haught’s] area of expertise is systematic theology, with a special interest in issues of science, cosmology,… Read more
There are a few book clubs that specifically target atheists and require in-person gatherings… But if you want to discuss interesting books with a group of non-religious people, you have a number of options that don’t require much physical travel: The Nonbelieving Literati. P-Momma’s Book Group. And the newest addition to the list: The Atheist Blogger Book Club. Join one of them. Join all of them. (When you join, don’t hesitate to recommend this book!) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
A few weeks ago, Jennifer at Purdue University threw out the idea of having people swap their Bibles (or other religious texts) for novels: Fiction for Fiction. The event took place recently and Jennifer gave us an update: We ended up receiving a bunch of books, mainly Bibles or other Christian spiritual books. We also had people turn in a Book of Mormon, the Tanakh, and two Bhagavad Gitas. While we did get a lot of glares or confused looks… Read more
Here’s Roger Moore’s smackdown of Expelled. Knowing Mark Mathis and his ilk, though, the producers will probably combine four of these reviews and say the movie received four stars. “Expelled” relies on the viewer’s inability or unwillingness to wrestle with a complex corner of science, double-talking its way toward a “must be a miracle” solution to anything that science may not claim to have an answer for. Dismiss that for having no basis in fact, and you’re infringing on “academic… Read more
A reader named Mike passed along the message below. I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of this project before, but for those of you with access to a working computer (which I *think* is most of you…), you could help a great cause and support a team of atheists at the same time! You might have heard of Stanford’s Folding@Home distributed computing project. It’s a massive network of computers running software that simulates the folding of proteins. Anyone can download the… Read more
I feel the urge the vomit: Why, dear God, why!? (via My Confined Space) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
