Just a heads-up. The cover story in tomorrow’s issue of Time magazine is: Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School. Oh boy. Some excerpts: The class has its share of conservative Christians. Front-row center sat Rachel Williams, 18, whose mother does teach Sunday school at Oakwood. But not 20 ft. away sat a blond atheist who asked that her name not be used because she hasn’t outed herself to her parents. Why take a Bible class? I asked… Read more
Let me preface this by saying I realize it’s written for Baptist Press (“News with a Christian Perspective”). John Avant writes: I just read one of the great evangelistic books of our day — “Letters to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris. Actually, there’s just one “Letter.” It takes up the whole book. Seriously, how do you “read the book” but get the title wrong? Anyway, Avant mentions that Harris is an “evangelical atheist”: passionate, wanting to defend his faith,… Read more
Well, my page on the site was approved last night. It hasn’t even been a day. According to my email, I received two friend requests and got three comments in that time. But when I went to check them out, I was unable to log in. I requested a new password but that didn’t work, either. It seems my account has been disabled. Note to self: Next time, don’t use “Bob Jones” as an alias… they seem to catch on… Read more
As if MySpace didn’t have enough clones, Robert’s Thought’s (can someone explain the second apostrophe?) tells us about a new one: HisHolySpace. What is HHS? … HisHolySpace.com separates itself from other online religious community sites, by only allowing those religions that follow [the aforementioned] Core Christian Essentials, to be promoted on the site. Anyone from any religion is welcome to join HisHolySpace.com. But if your religion and/or your beliefs fall outside the realm of the above-mentioned Core Essentials, and it… Read more
The Atheist, Agnostic and Freethinking Student Association (AAFSA) at the University of Florida has a great way to promote an upcoming event they’re organizing (featuring the great speaker and lawyer Eddie Tabash): They’re giving away hugs. “Free Hugs from Atheists” will take place Thursday afternoon, and as the AAFSA website says: We will offer the hugs with no strings attached, but at the same time, afterwards, inform people about the event this Sunday and ask them, if they are interested,… Read more
I’ll be speaking in Memphis, Tennessee this weekend for the Memphis Freethought Alliance. More information can be found here. If you’re in the area this Sunday from 1:00-3:00 pm (EST), it’d be great to have you join us! [tags]atheist, atheism, Memphis Freethought Alliance, Tennessee[/tags] Read more
If you would like to be in next year’s SkepChick or SkepDude calendars, application information is up at the Skepchick blog. A montage of the most recent calendar’s greatest hits are here! I’m wondering whether I should apply. More importantly, I want to apply, but I’m not sure what a funny, creative, I-don’t-want-to-regret-this-when-I-have-children pose would be. I’ll take your suggestions and decide whether or not to apply based on them… [tags]atheist, atheism, SkepChick, SkepDude, calendar[/tags] Read more
According to the Associated Press: During his eight days as a part-time high school biology teacher, Kris Helphinstine included Biblical references in material he provided to students and gave a PowerPoint presentation that made links between evolution, Nazi Germany and Planned Parenthood. They fired him shortly thereafter. I would *love* to see a copy of that PowerPoint… Helphinstine says that he was presenting information on bias in sources and that the “whole purpose was to give accurate information and to… Read more
As I wrote last week, I’m offering free copies of I Sold My Soul on eBay to anyone who can publicize the book in some way: a blog, a website, a church, an atheism discussion group, etc. Many of you have some great ideas and I’m excited to see them come to fruition. There are still a few copies left to give, but I need to hear from you in the next two days if you’re interested in participating! If… Read more
The Barna Group released a report yesterday claiming that the “Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million in the U.S.” It would be fun if atheists could take some credit for this. But the rate hasn’t statistically changed since 1994, says the report. Still, “unchurched” people represent approximately 1/3 of the people in the country. What else does the Barna report tell us? 47% of political liberals are unchurched, more than twice the percentage found among political conservatives (19%). [W]hile about one-third… Read more
