The initial sentence says it all: A disturbing number of doctors do not feel obligated to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally, such as abortion and teen birth control, and believe they have no duty to refer people elsewhere for such treatments, researchers say. I don’t mind the doctor not performing an operation he/she is morally opposed to if there is a qualified doctor who can perform the operation nearby. But too often, this is not the case…. Read more
Speaking of the American Humanist Association, they’re teaming up with EvolveFISH and the Rational Response Squad on a video challenge. But this one is quite different from the Blasphemy Challenge. This challenge is for all those people who asked, “Where are the positive aspects of being non-religious?” Create a video showing a “Positive Vision of Humanism” and upload it to YouTube. If you submit it by May 3, 2007 (The National Day of Reason), you might even win the $500… Read more
Until recently, the American Humanist Association had been a “religious” organization as classified by the IRS. Why religious? Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the AHA, shed some light on this in his article in the most recent Humanist Network News. He writes: The American Humanist Association (AHA) was founded with an educational tax exemption in 1941. In the 1960’s, without specific board authorization, a religious tax exemption was successfully attained from the Internal Revenue Service to enable the organization to… Read more
After doing a segment on how atheists are discriminated, and then following that with a panel discussion that unwittingly showed this discrimination first hand, Paula Zahn is trying again. This time she’s including an atheist in the discussion. What a novel idea. Richard Dawkins will be a guest on Paula Zahn Now Friday night, 8:00 p.m. EST. This time, they’re showing the first segment but not the panel discussion. Isn’t this a discussion about atheism in America, though? Why are… Read more
It’s random… but I’m amused. Lovie Smith Becomes First African-American Coach To Lose Super BowlMIAMI—As devastating as their 29-17 Super Bowl XLI loss to the Colts was for the proud Chicago Bears, it was worse for their coach: Lovie Smith will forever be remembered as the first African-American coach to lose a Super Bowl… Read more
Remember that woman that looked like a blonde Rachel Dratch from the CNN (“we-don’t-need-no-atheists-in-our-segment-about-atheists”) videos? The one that *really* wants to be Ann Coulter? Her name is Debbie Schlussel. And she got your emails. And she blogged about it. And she’s become even crazier than before. Some excerpts: It’s hard to believe their letters because they were all attacking me for my appearance on CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” a week ago, but coincidentally each letter claims the sender just watched… Read more
I wrote about this lawsuit a couple months ago. And you can read more about it here. Basically, it begs the question of whether taxpayers have standing to sue the government when it supports religion in violation of the Establishment Clause (like with the Office of Faith-based Initiatives). The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) says that you should be able to sue as a taxpayer. A brief history: A federal judge denied this challenge. Then, the Seventh Circuit Court of… Read more
This isn’t news. It’s just a good read. A couple years ago (May 26, 2005), the Oxford Union held a debate on the following issue: American religion undermines American values. Against this proposition were Richard Lowry (editor of National Review), Eric Metaxas (director of Socrates in the City) and Joseph Loconte (Fellow at The Heritage Foundation). For this proposition were Welton Gaddy (president of The Interfaith Alliance) and my friend Herb Silverman (president of the Secular Coalition for America). You… Read more
Siamang made a great post on the eBay atheist blog last week, where he speculates on the religiosity of the characters on The Office. It’s funny! Go read it. [tags]The Office, NBC, atheist, atheism, religion, Siamang[/tags] Read more
This is just infuriating. And on CNN? For shame… Part 1: Part 2: Here are a couple responses to the piece. The first link, especially, is well-condensed rage. You can send feedback to CNN by going here. (Thanks to Keith for the link.) [tags]atheist, atheism, CNN[/tags] Read more
