Like other parts of Lincoln’s personal life, the answer is ambiguous. Theists and non-theists can claim him at different times in his life, though neither side will be entirely satisfied. Gerald Prokopowicz, author of Did Lincoln Own Slaves?: And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln, answers the question: Lincoln didn’t leave many clues about his views on Sabbatarianism, or on religion in general. His father had been a member of the Little Pigeon Creek Baptist church, and Lincoln must… Read more
When an atheist visits a Baptist church in Mississippi, it’s hard to try and stay objective when social cues are ignored by the congregation and the sermon is full of bigotry against those who are different. First, the pastor, who can barely get a word in due to his interrupting congregation: The preacher got up to deliver his lesson, but before he got very far, a man stood up to tell everyone how much Jesus helped him with his life…. Read more
What do you do if your child is possessed by Satan? Forget performing an exorcism. Only God can cast out demons. But you can take matters into your own hands: “The first thing we do,” Landover Pastor, Deacon Fred explains, “is put a Bible on the ground. If the baby crawls away from the Bible, it immediately becomes a candidate for sterilization.” The possessed child is then placed in a crib with a full grown adult swine to see if… Read more
The Center For Inquiry has put out a paper (PDF) that documents several egregious errors found in James Q. Wilson and John J. DiIulio, Jr.’s American Government: Institutions and Policies textbook. The mistakes are all over the place. While passages directly from the textbook are presented in CFI’s document, brief summaries of their analysis are presented below. On Global Warming: The textbook wrongly portrays the settled, firmly-established science of global warming as a product of “activist scientists” and the source… Read more
From the folks at Wired: Richard Dawkins 22th-Level Evolutionary Biologist Lawful Neutral Human Strength: 12 Dexterity: 13 Constitution: 10 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Special Abilities: Spell Resistance Infinite (because magic is not real). All Cleric-Priest within 60 feet gain 2 negate levels due to logical paradox. Special Equipment: Spectacles of Trueseeing (always sees things as they really are). Damned if I know what any of the numbers mean. (22th?) (via Skepchick) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Stephen Colbert has featured the marijuana lobby and the gay rights lobby on the “Better Know a Lobbyist” segment of his show. But he hasn’t yet spoken to Lori Lipman Brown, lobbyist for the Secular Coalition for America. Lori writes this at Rant & Reason: It’s time for the Secular Coalition Nation to rise up and ask Mr. Colbert why he hasn’t introduced the Colbert Nation to the nontheist lobby. I’ve appeared on Papa Bear’s (Bill O’Reilly’s) show four times… Read more
Lee Strobel, the atheist-turned-Christian author of such books as The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for Easter, has offered to answer questions from this site’s readers. Feel free to leave your questions in the comments and I’ll pass along as many as I can to him. [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Warning: Watching this video will make you a lot more uncomfortable than the guy in the video… Oh, unintentional hilarity, how I love you. Since this guy is changing his story 32894293 times, you would think Jesus would say something about how lying is bad. Guess that doesn’t matter when you’re committing evil, evil thoughtcrimes… (And who talks to their computer while watching porn?) By the way, the last few seconds of the video are priceless if you can make… Read more
For those who didn’t get a chance to see the national simulcast advocating church-state separation (brought to you by Americans United and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation), you can now watch the entire program in its entirety. Besides the fact that the topic is so important, the simulcast is worth watching just to hear the tragic stories the guests have to share. You hear from victims as well as heroes. You learn how important it is to take matters into your… Read more
