First the fags, now the shrimp. What do the fundies have against the shrimp? Oh yeah… Leviticius and Deuteronomy. What is their agenda…? Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God’s law unto the heathens and the sodomites. We call upon all Christians to join the crusade against Long John Silver’s and Red Lobster. Yea, even Popeye’s shall be… Read more
The Military Association of Atheist and Freethinkers is looking to collect stories from atheists in foxholes for use in an upcoming anthology: This anthology will include first-hand accounts of Atheists, Agnostics, Freethinkers, Humanists, Secularists, and other non-believers who have served in the military in any capacity or who have a close association with someone who has served. We atheists have served honorably throughout history and still do today. We serve in foxholes, on planes, on ships, and in the service… Read more
According to a study published in the February issue of the journal Psychological Science, “people who feel lonely are more likely to believe in the supernatural, whether that is God, angels or miracles.” College students were shown a clip from movies to induce feelings of isolation (Castaway) and fear (Silence of the Lambs). A control group watched Major League. Then, they were asked to rate their beliefs in the supernatural (ghosts, angels, Gods, miracles, etc.)… the loneliness group “reported stronger… Read more
Virgil Griffith, a student at Caltech, had a cool idea for an experiment. Using Facebook, look at all the students who attend a particular university. Figure out the top ten most popular books that are read by those students. Then, find out the average SAT scores of students admitted to that college (which is usually available on the schools’ websites). Put that data together and you have a rough estimate of which books correlate with “more intelligent” students. (In the… Read more
It’s an old post, but I just saw it for the first time, so let’s pretend like it’s brand new. 281 Tricks to Irritate an Atheist. (Actually, there are 289.) I’m sure you can think of a few more… (via sapere aude) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Duelity is the brainchild of Vancouver Film School students Marcos Ceravolo and Ryan Uhrich. Their animations present “medieval-church-style” evolution and “scientific” Creationism. Which one is which…? First, the videos can be seen separately. Then you can watch them juxtaposed side by side (above pic). When you watch the latter, it’s really fascinating animation. I’m not a scientist so I won’t comment on the actual problems with the presentation of evolution here. Needless to say, even I caught a number of… Read more
Blog reader Deanna passes along this fantastic op-ed piece by University of North Carolina Charlotte professor David Walters. He praises the favorable qualities of Charlotte before turning to his biggest problem with it: the rise of religion in community life. And when comparing Charlotte’s faith to that of Walter’s home country of Britain, the differences are even more striking: This optimism is tempered however by a concern that might seem strange to some readers: I’m worried about the role of… Read more
Chris Harrison mapped out all the social networks and cross references in the Bible. (Cross references. Get it…? Do you…?! No? Never mind.) As Chris says, “Due to the extremely high number of cross-references, this lands more on the aesthetic side of the information visualization spectrum.” So don’t look for specific names/places/events. Just look at the overall image. In an attempt to explain the picture, each horizontal axis bar represents a chapter of the Bible (in order), the size of… Read more
Humanist Network News has a really interesting article on how Dr. King had the support of a number of non-religious people during the civil rights movement: Asa Philip Randolph, one of the historical figures portrayed in the exhibit, was instrumental in helping King organize the 1963 March on Washington, along with Bayard Rustin, a pacifist and gay man. “Most people would have assumed that it was Doctor King,” Jones told HNN during an interview. “The important thing to remember is… Read more
Jim Wallis, head of Sojourners, a Christian activist organization that is often taking on the Religious Right and advocating for a more politically progressive Christianity focused on issues of poverty and environmental stewardship, was on the Daily Show the other night to promote his new book The Great Awakening. You can watch the interview here. (Sorry, but I can’t get the video to embed properly, just click the link.) Wallis made several comments during the interview that I think folks… Read more
