Last week, I was a guest on an episode of Culture Shocks with Barry Lynn. Reverend Barry Lynn is the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and if you ever get a chance to see him give a speech, go watch him. He’s intelligent, funny, and knows his stuff. Want proof? Here’s Pat Robertson talking about him: “Barry Lynn is an intolerant jerk.” So you know he’s good. This is quite possibly the best interview… Read more
I’m going to be speaking at California State University, Long Beach this Thursday evening. If you’re in the area and would like to come, please stop on by! The event is free so you have no excuses. Here are the details: Where: In Cal State Long Beach’s University Student Union (USU), specifically in the Alamitos Bay Room. Here’s a campus map (look for USU in box E4). When: Thursday, May 3 at 8:00 p.m. The event is sponsored by the… Read more
The other night, a Friend and I went out with a number of her classmates– I didn’t know any of them. But I introduced myself and things were fine. When I left, a couple of the classmates asked the Friend who I was, what’s my deal, and the other typical interrogation questions all people ask about strangers. As my Friend told them about me, it came out that I was an atheist. The classmates were apparently stunned. They told my… Read more
The second episode of Life Today that Jim and I taped is airing today! Like before, if you’d like to check it out on TV, a station guide can be found here. Yesterday’s episode is streaming up on the Life Today website (go to April 30) and it’s also available in other versions: QuickTime, MP3, Transcript. Same deal with today’s episode. Streaming video is up on the site (Go to May 1) and other versions are also available: QuickTime, MP3,… Read more
Andrew Post, a senior at North Dakota State University, has a very straightforward column explaining how he (as an atheist) responds to the question of what the purpose of life is. Echoing the reason that people often use when they climb Mount Everest, Post writes: I hate to burst bubbles, but the only reason life exists on this planet, simply put, because it can. The fish swimming around in the ancient seas moved onto land because (a) it was a… Read more
Another fun drawing from Indexed: Some other entertaining notecards can be found here. [tags]athiest, atheism, lottery, Christian, prayer, Jessica Hagy, Indexed[/tags] Read more
Last month, Jim Henderson and I taped an interview with a Christian television program, Life Today, talking about our new books. Today, Part 1 (focusing on I Sold My Soul on eBay) is airing across the country. Tomorrow, Part 2 (focusing on Jim’s book, Evangelism Without Additives) will air. If you’d like to check it out on TV, a station guide can be found here. Better yet, watch the episode online! Once the episode is available for downloading, I’ll update… Read more
At the American Atheists convention in Seattle earlier this month, I was surrounded by people who were presumably non-religious. But there was a small group (three people?) of Christians who came there as well. They weren’t there to stop the event or protest or anything. But they were questioning a number of people who attended and were willing to engage them. It was slightly annoying to many atheists, gauging from the reactions I saw, but the Christians didn’t seem to… Read more
There’s an article in today’s New York Times about Barack Obama’s search for faith. It details how Obama came to find the Christian God through the help of Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. It won’t be long before some atheists use this as another reason to criticize Obama for being too pious. What might they use against him? Here are some excerpts from the article: The Christianity that Mr. Obama adopted at [Trinity United Church of Christ] has infused not… Read more
According to the BBC, Turkey is adamant that church and state be kept separate: [Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk was determined that this mainly Muslim nation would be a modern, secular country, and he introduced wide-ranging reforms, including the emancipation of women, the introduction of western dress, legal code and alphabet, and the abolition of Islamic institutions. Turkey’s ruling elite and the powerful military have seen it as their job to protect what Ataturk set up. Even politically Islamic parties… Read more
