Clark Adams wrote a biting critique of The New Humanism conference on the Internet Infidels Discussion Board (IIDB), though he prefaces his remarks with the following: I greatly admire and respect Greg Epstein, Tom Ferrick and others who established and run the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy. I think all major universities should have one, especially when tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech occur. Only a few universities in the US have one (Harvard, Columbia and Adelphi). That said, here’s his… Read more
They’re gay. One of them is Christian. The other is not, but he’ll go to church if the other guy sleeps with him. The Christians says ok. The two guys grope each other. Everyone’s happy. Except me. Because I’m confused. What just happened? … You can read the short comic book at the WeHoChurch (not a typo) website. (Thanks to Logos for the link) [tags]atheist, atheism, gay, Christian, WeHoChurch[/tags] Read more
Here’s a link to the video of Richard Dawkins on the O’Reilly Factor. O’Reilly, like many other Christians that interview atheists, doesn’t stray from the usual, refutable, stop-using-them-because-they-don’t-work arguments. As OneGoodMove writes: Apparently Bill’s only standard for truth is that he believes it. My only complaint, it was too short. EvolutionBlog provides an unofficial (but accurate) transcript of the interview. (Thanks to Joe for the picture) [tags]atheist, atheism, Richard Dawkins O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly, OneGoodMove, EvolutionBlog[/tags] Read more
Chris Fann at The Preface has a nice review of I Sold My Soul on eBay up at his site! He tells you why he finds the book interesting, entertaining, and (*gasp*) infuriating: The two most helpful observations Mr. Mehta had were that in some churches there was a sense of elitism – a country club mentality of I’m in & you’re out. The other was more opportunity for dialogue with opposing viewpoints. I don’t know that the Sunday service… Read more
Spazeboy has the audio of the panel discussion up on his site! [Update: The link should now be working!] However, even better than that is the great video he has of Ned Lamont speaking about his uncle Corliss Lamont, former director of the ACLU and past Honorary President of the American Humanist Association. Ned was introduced by Woody Kaplan, chair of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board. You can check out all of the audio/video goodness here. [tags]atheist, atheism,… Read more
Mapantsula at Daily Kos has a response to Dinesh D’Souza (who thinks atheists have no way to respond to tragic events like the shooting at Virginia Tech and are nowhere to be found in these cases). It’s a beautiful piece, worth reading in it’s entirety. But here are a couple excerpts: I know that brutal death can come unannounced into any life, but that we should aspire to look at our approaching death with equanimity, with a sense that it… Read more
Rebecca Watson has a nice writeup of the event, so I’ll just link to her and add a couple comments. Also, spazeboy says he will have an mp3 of “The Next Generation of Humanism” panel (which I sat on) sometime this morning. If he has it, check it out! [Update: Here’s a link to the audio] … Here’s one minor complaint, and it’s not just from this past weekend. Ever hear of the term “blogwhoring”? It’s when someone posts a… Read more
This started out with a bad premise (God doesn’t stop school shootings because God has been kicked out of school. Those damn atheists). But then the video starts attacking everything from Dr. Spock telling us not to spank our children to teachers’ lack of “disciplining” students in a classroom. Apparently the author thinks a little violence is needed to prevent major violence. I wonder why the comments were disabled on the video. Were too many people making good arguments as… Read more
Street Evangelist Saves 300 Souls From Enjoying ParkSAN FRANSISCO—"All of you will burn in hellfire, so sayeth the Lord," said open-air preacher "Brother Sam" Hinson to a stroller-bound toddler and her picknicking parents. [tags]atheist, atheism, Evangelical, Christian, The Onion[/tags] Read more
But I can’t go to bed without offering three things from the first day of The New Humanism conference that will make you completely jealous. The largest slice of pizza you’ve ever seen in your life: Steven #*&(@* Pinker! Author of The Blank Slate and one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2004): Rebecca Watson of Skepchicks! And some guy named Salman Rushdie spoke, too. Let this be a lesson to those of you not at… Read more
