Dale McGowan’s book Parenting Beyond Belief will be released in the next couple weeks! I’m very excited; it’s not very often you get to read essays specifically for atheist parents, written by the likes of Julia Sweeney, Penn Jillette, and Richard Dawkins, to name a few. You should be excited, too.

The only way to make this news better is to announce the new Parenting Beyond Belief Blog! It’s sure to be a great resource for secular parents (and people who will one day be secular parents). As Dale writes in his usual humorous way:

… this is not a blog about me. It’s about the release of an unusual book, and all the unusual things that are likely to happen in its wake, as well as the general topic of secular parenting. With occasional references to me and my lovely secular family. I’ll try to make it informal, honest, and less guarded than I am in some other venues. Occasional strong language, some nudity.

Here is the RSS feed, and if that isn’t enough, you can also read a previous interview I did with Dale.

Incidentally, I’m not familiar with any other blog about secular parenting written by a “dad.”

Though there are some excellent blogs written by secular moms, including Agnostic Mom, The Atheist Mama, and Humanist Mama


[tags]atheist, atheism, Dale McGowan, Parenting Beyond Belief, Julia Sweeney, Penn Jillette, Richard Dawkins, nudity, Agnostic Mom, The Atheist Mama, Humanist Mama[/tags]

Why do I love my Facebook News Feed? Because it updates me when my friends get new hobbies:

So many jokes in there… But I like Obama and just can’t bring myself to make them.

The first end-of-quarter fundraising deadline for presidential candidates is this Saturday.


[tags]Barack Obama, Facebook, basketball[/tags]

Adam at Daylight Atheism sent a contribution to Congressman Pete Stark’s campaign after his announcement and received a letter from Stark’s office.

Go check it out!

One excerpt:

Some say it took courage to acknowledge being a non-theist. Actually, real courage is exemplified when we work to bring peace around the world through honest diplomacy; address the hunger and poverty that continues to grown [sic] amid areas of wealth; provide high quality health care to every resident; and ensure quality education for all children. We don’t need divine guidance to tell us what is needed. All we need to do is listen to our neighbors, open our hearts, and make the hard political choices that will lead us to a better life for all.

Wow. That is terrific. Adam’s response to the letter is worth reading

On a side note, I just learned how to use HTML coding for a highlighter. Woo!

I’ll stop going overboard with that.


[tags]atheist, atheism, Daylight Atheism, Congressman, Pete Stark[/tags]

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune illuminates a pointless law that was recently approved by the Illinois Senate in today’s column.

This legislation “requires public school students to start each day with a moment of silence.” Right now, teachers may choose this option if they want, but it’s not mandatory. (By the way, if you didn’t click on that link, please do. Scroll to the bottom to see the revision. It’s even more infuriating than just reading about it.)

The law is understandable, of course, because all the other problems in Illinois have already been solved…

I understand the importance of moments of silence in instances where a student was in a fatal accident or when there’s a national tragedy. But to force it every day? It seems like a thinly-veiled attempt to bring mandatory prayer back into the classroom.

Only one person in the state Senate voted against the bill. And he was a Republican (Dan Rutherford). The law was introduced by Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood).

In Illinois, Sen. Lightford said Monday her proposal is about “requiring children to have a moment of reflection for the day’s activities and whatever they might have to deal with. There are a lot of behavior issues, overcrowded classrooms and so on. This gives teachers an extra incentive to gather the class and get the students focused.”

It might help. But of course maybe, depending on the kids, they’d get a better start to the day if they spent that moment singing a happy song, stretching, listening to a good poem, or, hey, here’s an idea, getting right to work learning the material.

Zorn also spoke to Lightford about this law:

I asked Lightford: Why should the legislature make this educational decision instead of the teachers?

“It will allow for more uniformity,” she said. “Here in the General Assembly we open every day with a prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t get a choice about that. I don’t see why students should have a choice.”

The sad thing is, I believe Lightford absolutely when she says she doesn’t see. Almost no one in Springfield seems to.

“I don’t get a choice about that. I don’t see why students should have a choice”???

You’re a legislator! Go fix your own Senate policies before forcing your incorrect ways onto everyone else.

And I highly doubt they’ll punish state senators if they don’t say the prayer and Pledge.

Some readers of Zorn’s blog have some enlightening comments as well:

The difference is that Sen. Lightford chose to run for her position as a senator (and presumably knew a bit about what she was getting herself into). Children by the very virtue of being children do not have a choice but to be at school everyday.

There is one way in which this craven, unconstitutional act of unwarranted interference in our public schools might do some good: if teachers ask their students to use their moment of silence to reflect on why it is that the State legislature passes laughable legislation such as this bill instead of taking action that might actually help kids in Illinois – like fixing our school funding mess, for instance.

The thing is they took a perfectly good statute which said that the schools MAY offer a moment of silence and maimed it by changing it to SHOULD so that all schools must even if local circumstances are not apt for it. If we value diversity in this state, then what’s wrong with the MAY approach?

On a side note, this does bring to mind the entertaining “Moment of Bedlam” one finds at some atheist events


[tags]atheist, atheism, Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, Illinois, Senate, moment of silence, Republican, Dan Rutherford, Kimberly Lightford, Democrat, Maywood, Pledge of Allegiance, Springfield, Moment of Bedlam[/tags]

I already asked this blog’s readers if they would be interested in reading the book (and then reviewing it). And the response was terrific.

So let me ask one more thing: Even if you’re not connected with the particular website or show, where do you think I Sold My Soul on eBay could be pitched?

No answer is meaningless. The morning news shows, late night talk shows, and the like are already on the list. But if you have specifics– shows you listen to, websites you read, a local newspaper– please let me know in the comments, and I’ll make sure the people are contacted! Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks in advance for your help!


[tags]atheist, atheism, I Sold My Soul on eBay[/tags]

If you haven’t registered yet, go do it! It’s going to be amazing. Read more information about the conference here.

And you can now check out the nifty poster (PDF) as well.


[tags]The New Humanism, atheist, atheism, conference[/tags]

Because she uses notecards as much as I do.

And she draws things like this, this, this, and this.

(Ok, it’s a random post. But you know you’re amused.)


[tags]Jessica Hagy, Indexed, notecards[/tags]

Infophilia is *so* going to be in trouble for this:

As he says:

Is this picture immoral? Should it be against the law? If you think so, please do the rest of us a favor and rid the world of yourself (preferably without taking the rest of us with you).

At what point do Islamic fundamentalists take the hint that the rest of us aren’t bound to their belief system?


[tags]atheist, atheism, Infophilia, Islam, fundamentalist, fundamentalism, Muhammed, Mohammed[/tags]