And some theists are not happy: (via heathen.tv) [tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, Jesus, religion[/tags] Read more
Satanists, beware. The Pope is coming after you. And he looks like he means business: I can’t believe this is a real headline: Pope’s exorcist squads will wage war on Satan. Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession. The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican “exorcistinchief,” to the online Catholic news service Petrus. “Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has… Read more
Some background on the Congressional Research Service and Open CRS: American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a “think tank” that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports… Read more
Occasionally, I give talks about the eBay auction and my book to various groups. I talk about the auction itself (“No, I did not sell my soul”), the aftermath (“Kirk Cameron, what happened to you?”), and the various ways atheists can get our message out to a larger audience (“Step one: Don’t be mean”). Earlier this month, I spoke to the Humanists of West Suburban Chicagoland at a unitarian church in Naperville, IL. Below is a brief excerpt from that… Read more
The American Jewish University hosted authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe to discuss the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society. You can watch the full video here. Steve Padilla, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, moderated the informal debate and wrote about the event. He excerpts a few snippets of the dialogue. Like this bit: To this Harris observed: “The one thing to notice is that the dialogue between science and religion… Read more
The Christopher Hitchens Surprise: 1 Bottle Scotch whiskey: Johnnie Walker Black Label preferred 20 Cigarettes An empty scotch glass 1 Bottle Grecian Formula 1 Live Christian infant Using the scotch glass, empty the entire contents of the scotch, one glass at a time, into your mouth, occasionally smoking an entire cigarette in less than a minute. Muss your hair and apply some Grecian Formula to it, not enough to actually dye your hair, just enough to make it smell like… Read more
First watch this video: It’s not a ghost. You know how I know it’s not a ghost? Because ghosts don’t exist. And there’s probably a more likely explanation. Of course, this is CNN. They wouldn’t want to do any actual investigation now, would they? They’ll just find the most idiotic, gullible people they can find and have them make up some crazy explanation for what they just saw. Now, let’s look at what a random person can do with a… Read more
Now, Bananaman Ray Comfort is not just lying about the definition of an atheist; he’s lying about my friend. First, Ray talks about a random person who claims he was once a Christian and then became an atheist: … Hold it there for a moment. He was once a strong Christian? Let’s analyze what he is saying. A Christian is someone who knows the Lord: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and… Read more
The latest Humanist Network News rounds up the year’s biggest stories pertaining to Humanism and freethought in general. Feel free to compare the list to HNN’s top stories of 2006. Seems to me like there were a lot more positive stories to report this year… [tags]atheist, atheism, Humanism[/tags] Read more
The Tri-City Herald (Washington state) has a front-page story today about atheist Fernando Aguilar. The article is called “A belief in the here and now”: This guy’s incredible. Aguilar, 55, of Walla Walla, is a civil engineer and his work has taken him to some of the most dangerous places in the world. He’s been to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once since 2003, helping to build water systems, hospitals and schools. He’s also done relief work in Southeast Asia and… Read more