Last year in Polk County, Florida, a Christian group performed “road-anointings” on several streets in an effort to cleanse the city. It was all part of a campaign called “Polk Under Prayer.” PUP stands for Polk Under Prayer. It’s objective is to place Holy Angels at all roads that lead into or out of Polk County. A strip of anointed oil has been placed over all lanes of highway at the county line and a prayer has been given at… Read more
Back in 2009, Bart Centre created a website called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA. The way the business worked was that if you were a Christian, and you got Raptured, Bart promised to take care of your pets. That is, if you paid him $110… We (atheists) already knew it was just Fundie Bait. No one was ever going to get Raptured, so Bart would never have to actually do anything. But the bigger story turned out to be how many… Read more
Catholic Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is scheduled to appear in a videotaped message that will play during the Reason Rally. Since Harkin has promoted alternative medicine in the past, his “reason” credentials are in question, but it’s still a net plus that we have a high-ranking government official speaking at the event. With a week to go before the Rally, here’s an excerpt from Harkin’s video, courtesy of Roll Call: This is Sen. Tom Harkin, and I welcome all of… Read more
Well, that was quick. Last week, I mentioned that the Perth County Council (In Ontario, Canada) had removed saying the Lord’s Prayer from their agenda, replacing it with a “Moment of Reflection.” That upset Councillor Walter McKenzie who wanted the prayer reinstated. He said people were opposed to their removing it, so why try to fix something that wasn’t broken? That’s where all of you came in. You wrote to McKenzie and the other councillors. You called their offices. You… Read more
Reader Donna spotted this church sign outside United Pentecostal Church in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia: The person without faith has a greater handicap than the person without feet. Besides the fact that it’s just offensive to disabled people, how do you respond to something that idiotic? I didn’t know. So I asked Twitter. The responses were hilarious and insightful 🙂 How would you respond to the church’s message? Read more
You can argue that the PA Nonbelievers/American Atheists billboard that featured a Bible verse about slavery wasn’t offensive if you took a second to read the fine print and understand the (anti-slavery) meaning behind it: But it’s also true that the intended message wasn’t conveyed properly. Most locals just didn’t get it. And even some of you who knew precisely what the message was didn’t like it. If that’s the reaction, then the billboard creators are at fault. Billboards are… Read more
Take a look at the subject of the OC Weekly’s cover story: Bruce Gleason of the Backyard Skeptics! Bruce Gleason, a 57-year-old Villa Park resident, has become something of a legend in the community of godless Orange Countians who read his quotes in news reports, devour his writing on his website and watch his public-access, cable-TV show on atheism. But while his method may be satire, his message is as serious as sin, he says: defending the skeptic community in… Read more
When disasters occur, prayers don’t help… Click here for the rest of the Ape, Not Monkey comic. Read more
