Brooke Gladstone of NPR talks about the “Atheist Brigade” that is becoming more vocal. You can listen to the story here. One part of the story talks about the ludicrous saying “There are no atheists in foxholes.” A soundbyte with that quotation was played– spoken by NPR reporter John Burnett. Burnett is asked about why he used the line– he didn’t realize it was offensive, he says. He adds “they spammed me for weeks,” referring to the numerous complaints from… Read more
Tomorrow’s New York Times will have an article about atheists celebrating Christmas. It’s titled “The Grinch Delusion: An Atheist Can Believe in Christmas”… (Thanks, NYT, for spreading the pleasant holiday cheer.) So how do notable atheists spend Christmas? Sam Harris: With all this high-profile atheism in mind, it might come as something of a surprise to learn what sort of tree Mr. Harris has sitting in his living room right now. Let’s just say that it is not a ficus,… Read more
Blogger Joel Schlosberg had a great idea: organizing a Carl Sagan blog-a-thon on the tenth anniversary of Sagan’s passing. The date will be December 20. If Sagan’s ever touched your life, or you’ve been influenced by his books or the PBS Cosmos series, write about it! I’ll be doing something, too. Joel will collect and link to the different blogs celebrating the day. It’ll be like Christmas in December! Even Carl Sagan’s son, Nick, is a fan. [tags]Carl Sagan, blog-a-thon,… Read more
Enjoy this lovely Christmas message from Mr. Garrison, circa 1999. Oh yeah… it’s explicit. And offensive. And all other things that make South Park so fun to watch. Keep the kiddies away. [tags]Mr. Garrison, South Park, atheist, Muslim, Hindu, India, Santa Claus[/tags] Read more
As I mentioned a couple months ago, the Secular Coalition for America is having a contest to find the highest-ranking, openly non-religious, elected official. The contest will end on December 31st, and the winner (and the winning entry) will presumably be announced shortly after that. Only currently serving officials qualify as entries for this contest. So all you secular sixth-grade class presidents, submit your self-nominations before time runs out! [tags]Secular Coalition for America, Lori Lipman Brown, contest, atheist, humanist, freethinker,… Read more
Not that he was hiding from them before, but this Q + A from The Independent (UK) features Dawkins making quick work of frequently asked questions. (Via the eBay Atheist blog) [tags]Richard Dawkins, The Independent, atheist, atheism, eBay atheist[/tags] Read more
Doug Thomas writes an interesting article in the latest Humanist Network News. He mentions how a British philosopher, Roger Scruton, criticized Richard Dawkins and other atheists because “atheists rely on science to arrive at answers.” Why is this a problem? Scruton says “science is often wrong and to base one’s philosophy on it [is] prone to error as well.” Thomas goes on to write why science is a positive thing. Science has the benefit of self-correction. Even if something is… Read more
Retired Marquette University professor Robert F. Boyd wrote a fantastic editorial last week. It needs to be read. Read it here. Some excerpts: The most recent bogeyman is the atheist. You know who he is — the secularist who wants a wall of separation between church and state, the elitist scientist who believes in evolution and not creationism, and the pagan who not only promotes pornography and abortion but also has created a social climate reprehensible to all Christian values…. Read more
Next Monday night, December 18, the Sundance Channel will premiere an hour-long documentary called Godless in America. The documentary will show “the plight of the estimated 30 million American atheists and their struggle not to be ignored.” It will also focus on Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the founder of American Atheists, self-proclaimed “Most hated woman in America,” and (sadly) murder victim. Variety had written about it a couple months ago– read that article here. I don’t get Sundance, but I’m sure… Read more
A couple news stories today show that people can’t handle the truth. A pastor from Colorado has stepped down from the pulpit because he’s gay. (Fark headline: “Evangelical megachurch preacher in Colorado admits he’s gay. No, not that preacher, the other one. No, the other other one”) Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Douglas County says, “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy… I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself… Read more
