CNN has an article about a recent atheist conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Much of it focuses on the difficulties of being an atheist in the Bible belt, but there's one section in it that jumped out at me. I'm afraid I have to disagree with Bart Ehrman on this one: … [Read more...]
Heina Dadabhoy in the New York Times
May 28, 2014 by 4 Comments
The New York Times did a story about the Women in Secularism conference that took place recently in Alexandria, VA and much of the article focuses on Heina Dadabhoy, who will be joining Freethought Blogs as soon as the redesign is finished (yes, it's still coming, I promise), and a few other ex-Muslims. She talked about the difficulties of leaving Islam: … [Read more...]
Introducing ‘Openly Secular’
May 10, 2014 by 5 Comments
I'm pleased to see the creation of a new coalition, Openly Secular, that will encourage atheists, agnostics, skeptics and humanists to be open about their beliefs if they can and give them a forum for documenting instances of discrimination that may occur. … [Read more...]
Another Atheist Sign Vandalized
May 7, 2014 by 28 Comments
Yet another atheist sign has been vandalized, but this time it isn't even a billboard or a sign advocating atheism at all, it's a road sign that only says that a particular section of the highway is being cleaned up by the Omaha Atheists. Here's a picture of what was done: … [Read more...]
No, Easter is Not Based on Ishtar
April 23, 2014 by 25 Comments
Leading up to Easter last weekend I saw a whole lot of people on my Facebook friends list sharing a meme saying that Easter "was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex." It was posted by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science on their Facebook page and then shared almost 200,000 times. There's just one problem: It simply isn't true. … [Read more...]
Guest Post: Secular Collaboration for Everyone
April 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This is a guest post by John Shook, who has started a fascinating new project called Partners for Secular Activism (PSA). It's an online platform for classes that teach about skepticism, atheism and related topics. In this post, he explains exactly what the plans are and who is involved. … [Read more...]
Even Atheists Distrust Atheists?
April 18, 2014 by 17 Comments
Hemant calls attention to a new study from Will Gervais, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky who has focused much of his scholarly attention to atheism and atheists. That study finds that people will jump at the chance to view a bad person as an atheist even in the absence of any evidence of that -- and that atheists do it too! The abstract: … [Read more...]
Battle of the T-Shirts
April 1, 2014 by 13 Comments
A friend on Facebook put up a link to this t-shirt that is being sold by Hobby Lobby on their website. My response is on the right: … [Read more...]
Atheists, Please Stop Saying These Things
March 31, 2014 by 107 Comments
Tuesday night I participated in a panel discussion at Grand Valley State University with six other atheists (three students, three professors and me). Someone brought up something that is often said to atheists by Christians, that they really do believe in God even if they claim not to ("in their heart of hearts" in the often annoying phrase). I pointed out that this was offensive and patronizing. … [Read more...]
Guest Post: Forced Baptisms and Other Misadventures in Public Communication
March 24, 2014 by 12 Comments
This is a guest post by my friend Dan Linford about a rather unfortunate situation that took place last week after he appeared on HuffPo Live. Dan is, in my opinion, one of the most thoughtful voices in atheism and deserves much more attention and I'm happy to give him this platform to clear the air. … [Read more...]
Why Sagan Matters
March 10, 2014 by 18 Comments
As the reboot of the famous Cosmos TV show is set to begin, with Neil deGrasse Tyson at the helm, original host Carl Sagan is the subject of a great deal of discussion. Kimberly Winston at the Washington Post looks at Sagan's enormous influence in the atheist, skeptic and humanist community and quotes a lot of people I'm happy to consider friends. … [Read more...]
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