Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday is approaching (February 12, 2009). That date will also be the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species. Case Western Reserve University in Ohio is already getting ready for the celebration. Case Western plans a series of lectures by prominent researchers and other events to make clear the enduring soundness and profound impact of Darwin’s concept. Collaborating with various Case schools and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, planners are inviting evolution-oriented speakers… Read more
If you’re a college atheist seeking out other like-minded people, Andy Buttler has a helpful article on how to use Facebook to help you achieve that goal: Search within your campus network or geographic area. Search by “Religious Views.” If you’re doing an advanced search, Facebook will only let you select from a drop-down box. This is a good place to start, since you can search for atheists, agnostics, and Unitarian Universalists. Some people list their religious views as humanist,… Read more
The Larry King Live “religion” poll over time… Nice job, you atheist majority 🙂 So what have we all learned from this? [tags]atheist, atheism, survey, poll[/tags] Read more
Skeptic Magazine publisher Michael Shermer was on The Colbert Report tonight. The video’s not up on the show’s website, but when it is, please post the link in the comments! Read more
If only everybody read I Sold My Soul on eBay like I told them to, this wouldn’t be an issue… One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. To pick out the religious bits: … those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently. … The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the… Read more
Why a rally? Joe Zemecki, the Texas state director of American Atheists, states these goals: To speak out for the civil rights of non-religious Americans. To vocally promote the separation of government from religion. To show support for the Croft family in Carrollton who have sued over the moment of silence in their public school. (No matter how the case ends, or whether it’s over by then or not.) To protest the flurry of religious bills and now religious laws… Read more
A reminder that tonight is the Wheaton Atheists Meetup. Come on out and say hello! And if you’re not busy this Friday night, there’s a one-man comedy show by a devout-Shiite-Muslim-turned-atheist playing at Lakeshore Theater. The actor is Kumail Nanjiani and the show is called Unpronounceable. Tickets are $15 and still available. Here’s the theater’s description of it: The July debut of Kumail Nanjiani: Unpronounceable played to a rapt, sold-out house. Now it’s back by popular demand. Be sure to… Read more
This winter, a movie is coming out based on a series by atheist author Philip Pullman. It’s called The Golden Compass. Nicole Kidman stars in it. One article writes: Pullman wrote these books with the intention of indoctrinating children with atheistic values. While the full interpretation and presentation of the movie has not yet been seen, the books’ underlying message promotes antagonism towards Christianity. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out around the holiday season. Pullman does make… Read more
A while back, I wrote about a person concerned about his brother-in-law’s alcoholism. This is the letter she sent me: I received a disturbing phone call from my sister-in-law yesterday about her husband, my brother-in-law. Seems that my bro-in-law is experiencing difficulty with alcoholism, but he is reluctant to attend AA meetings because of their insistence that in order to be successful in the AA program, you must submit to a higher power – a power greater than yourself -… Read more
