A couple months ago, there was a Canadian radio host who decided to pay people to go to church. The story was eerily familiar… You can see some media of the host talking about the experience on his site. Did these people call my eBay auction a “bizarre online sale”? I’ll take that as a compliment. And I really need to burn that picture that makes it look like I’m in a wheelchair… (Via Jim) [tags]atheist, atheism, eBay, Drew Marshall,… Read more
Lunatic Fringe points out the obvious. Alvin was an atheist ahead of his time: (via Saint Gasoline) [tags]atheist, atheism, Alvin, chipmunks, OUT campaign, scarlet A[/tags] Read more
Brian Flemming notes that 6 out of 20 of the all-time most discussed videos on YouTube have to do with religion. It’s a small sampling, but the breakdown is interesting: Five of those six videos are strongly critical of religion, and three of them are from a specifically atheist point of view. Not a single one advocates for religion. It’s a different story if you look at most viewed videos, where the religious videos fade away quickly and you realize… Read more
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) surveyed seniors about their views on what will happen to them when they die. The results aren’t very surprising: To begin, we found that people 50 and over tend to be downright conventional in their basic beliefs: nearly three quarters (73 percent) agree with the statement “I believe in life after death.” Women are a lot more likely to believe in an afterlife (80 percent) than men (64 percent). Two thirds of those… Read more
After wondering who bought the atheist books out there, and receiving quite a large response, Steven Levitt had this to say: Yesterday I wrote a nondescript post on books that knock God. It got more than 100 comments in a day — about as many as we have ever gotten on any post where we weren’t giving something away. Now I know who buys these books: the same people who read this blog. [tags]atheist, atheism, Steven Levitt, Freakonomics, God, religion,… Read more
The Fark headline reads: Atheists urge atheists to come out of the closet by wearing an ‘A’ to make it even easier for fundies to round them up and stone them as required by the Old Testament If you’d like to see what people who don’t normally read atheist blogs have to say about it, check out the comments. The most amusing discussion for me stemmed from the guy who asked: But I’m agnostic. What do I do? The best… Read more
Steven Levitt, the co-author of the (wonderfully entertaining and informative) book Freakonomics, writes on the Freakonomics Blog: I’m not religious. I don’t think much about God, except when I am in a pinch and need some special favors. I have no particular reason to think he’ll deliver, but I sometimes take a shot anyway. Other than that, I’m just not that interested in God. I’m definitely not interested enough to go out and buy books explaining to me why I… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance is looking to hire a part-time Campus Organizer in New York City. The position is made possible through a grant from the New York City Atheists. If you’re a college student interested in getting more involved in secular causes, the SSA would love to hear from you. You can find out more information about the position here. [tags]Secular Student Alliance, atheist, atheism, job, Campus Organizer, New York City[/tags] Read more
The words “Under God” were officially inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. The words “Under God” were officially inserted into the Texas Pledge of Allegiance in 2007. State Rep. Debbie Riddle, who sponsored the bill, said it had always bothered her that God was omitted in the state’s pledge. “Personally, I felt like the Texas pledge had a big old hole in it, and it occurred to me, ‘You know what? We need to fix that,’ ” said… Read more
And not just because the website is Baptists for [Sam] Brownback 2008. *shudder* ***Update*** It’s most likely a parody, but with Brownback supporters, can you ever be certain…? Referring to the idea of using the Scarlet A to represent atheists, Pastor Tobin Maker writes this: I remember how the brilliance of this “A” idea was seared into my consciousness when I first read The Scarlet Letter in my college days. It led me to wonder why such a device is… Read more
