In honor of Charles Darwin’s birthday next Tuesday, many churches across the country are gathering this weekend to celebrate Evolution Weekend: Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science. One important goal is to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic – to move beyond soundbytes. A second critical goal is to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and… Read more
Hilarious. Stephen Colbert interviews Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign: [tags]atheist, atheism, homosexual, gay, lesbian[/tags] Read more
Paul Constant in The Stranger rants about the seemingly random ways certain bookstore chains categorize atheist books (that is, if they categorize them at all): If you should happen to be in the U-Village Barnes & Noble and you should happen to ask to see the atheism/agnosticism section, well, you should prepare for disappointment. A number of atheist books were released last year—God Is Not Great, The God Delusion, The Portable Atheist—and a good many of them became best sellers…. Read more
I live a couple miles from the Lane Bryant store that was the site of a horrible shooting this past week. Five people died. They haven’t caught the gunman. Two of the victims have funerals this Saturday… and Fred Phelps’ people are coming to picket. Bastards. Here’s one description from their “picket schedule”: St. Damian Church 5220 W. 155th St. This is for the funeral of Sarah T. Szafranski. God is killing your children! You have institutionalized sin and shame… Read more
Brent Rasmussen walked into a convenience store yesterday. When he was paying for his stuff, he noticed something odd about the clerk… “Hey,” I gestured with a friendly smile, “you have a little smudge there on your forehead.” I snagged a Kleenex from the box thoughtfully provided for customers between the registers and handed it to him. It was Ash Wednesday. Somehow, Brent managed to play this off like it was no big deal. Friendly? Maybe not. Funny? Hell yes…. Read more
The atheist student group at Wilfrid Laurier University has been getting a lot of terrific press coverage. They were denied “official campus group” status at their school because they promoted “a fulfilling life without religion and superstition.” This was deemed intolerant… which made no sense at all. The campus newspaper wrote about this yesterday. The mainstream media picked up on it today. Here’s Barbara Aggerholm’s article from The Record, a local paper in Ontario: The campus clubs’ executive, a part… Read more
I help coach the Speech Team (a.k.a. Forensics Team) at my high school. It’s very competitive. There are hundreds of people all across Illinois vying to become state champion in each of the 13 different events. Sectionals is this weekend, and hopefully, we’ll be sending a number of kids to the State finals next weekend. One of the events in Speech is called Original Comedy. Essentially, you write the script and play all of the characters yourself, “popping” between different… Read more
The International Humanist and Ethical Union will be hosting the 17th Humanist World Congress in Washington, D.C. June 5-8. This event will be in conjunction with both the American Humanist Association’s and the Secular Student Alliance’s 2008 conventions. Each organization will hold their own breakout sessions, while coming together for bigger speakers and larger events. Registration is now open! I’ve already signed up. If you’re interested, you should get your tickets before the event gets sold out! Speakers include non-theistic… Read more
Hehe 🙂 This made me laugh: The movie is coming out soon… (via Bay of Fundie) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Devon Smith (below), a sophomore at Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas, didn’t recite or stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on Monday morning. This is perfectly acceptable. A lot of atheists don’t say/stand for the Pledge because of its reference to America being a nation “under God.” Devon’s teacher, Susan Rheinwald, didn’t see it that way. She kicked him out of class. Here are some excerpts from the article by Paul Harasim: “I wasn’t being disruptive,” [Smith] said… Read more
