Sounds oxymoronic, but when it’s satirical, anything can happen. The traditional Christmas story of how the baby Jesus came to be born in a manger after Mary and Joseph found that there was no room at the inn, is traditionally performed by Key Stage One pupils all around the country. However, staff at Mount Pleasant School were concerned about causing offence to non-Christians by placing too much emphasis on the religious overtones of the story. ‘With many families from other… Read more
If you’re not sure who Matthew LaClair is, you can find out here, here, and here. In short, Matthew is the high school student who taped his history teacher raving about Creationism, how evolution was untrue, and how non-Christians belonged in hell, among other things. In 2007, he received a scholarship for student activism from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. He delivered a speech at FFRF’s annual convention where he told his story and shared the lessons he had learned…. Read more
Chad at No Gods Allowed was inspired by my book (yay!) and visited Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, Michigan. He didn’t see any speaking in tongues (damn) but he still has a lot to say about it. On a side note, I haven’t been to a church that had a pool table on the premises much less several really nice ones! Chad, you lucky dog, you. And what did this pastor talk about? Chad paraphrases: Your body is holy Treat… Read more
The new Carnival of the Godless is at Axis of Jared. Go check it out! The next CotG is at Tangled Up In Blue Guy in two weeks. Submit your entries here! … The Humanist Symposium can be found this week at Faith in Honest Doubt. Go read it! The next HS is at Countries Beginning with I in three weeks. Submit your entries here! [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief, is offering a number of online seminars (webinars) for non-religious parents over the next few months. Some of the seminar titles (along with topics that would be discussed) include: Secular Family, Religious World This seminar explores issues of secular parenting in a religious world, including * Helping kids to be religiously literate without indoctrination; * Dealing with church-state separation issues in schools; * Helping kids respond to the idea of hell and pressures… Read more
It’s bad enough in America to run for office as an openly atheistic person. Apparently, it’s worse in Brazil. Few Brazilian adults would cast a ballot for a presidential contender with no religious beliefs, according to a poll by Instituto Sensus published in Veja. Only 13 per cent of respondents would vote for an atheist candidate. 59% of the people would not vote for an atheist, the only category of people shunned by more than half the voters. Here’s the… Read more
If you want to make your faith a part of the race, we have a right to question what you believe. Not to mention that Walrus Angels make as much sense as Magical Mormon-y Underwear. (Click image to see larger version of today’s Opus comic strip.) [tags]atheist, atheism[/tags] Read more
A number of you have alluded to the fact that you’re a single atheist and it’s tough for you to meet other like-minded individuals. I want to try something. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe not. Let me know what you think. There are some atheist dating sites on the Internet that never really took off or hit a critical mass of registered users. Secularity.com once had potential, but it folded (the site now links to Meetup). eHarmony obviously doesn’t like you…. Read more
Bill Maher talks about the Republicans and religion on Late Night with Conan O’Brien: Bill’s hilarious (as usual), but if you’ve ever watched Real Time with Bill Maher, you’ve heard him say all this before. It’s even more entertaining to watch Conan O’Brien’s reactions to what Bill is saying. He seems very uncomfortable during the talk of religion and unsure of what to do. So he ends up not reacting at all. No real smiles, no big frowns, just stillness…… Read more
I’ve written before about how much the Secular Student Alliance has meant to me ever since I became more active about my atheism. (The SSA supports campus atheist groups across the country, giving them moral and financial support.) Their support allowed me to meet (and later work with) some of the movers and shakers in the atheist world, first as the leader of my school’s affiliate group and now as the chair of the SSA. In the past year, the… Read more
