So the RDF has come up with a matching offer of $100,000 that runs through the end of the year. If you wanted you donation to go twice as far, wrap it in a bow and send it off. The donations go to RDF US, so we’ll feel the impact here in the States. The Appignani Foundation, a leader in science, humanism and education advocacy, is asking you to join them in supporting our growth. The Appignani Foundation has pledged... Read more
In his first major exhortation, Pope Francis has said he’s open to suggestions about how to move power away from the Vatican. One can only wonder, if he is truly god’s vicar on earth who can make infallible pronouncements (even when they conflict with previous infallible pronouncements) why he’d want to move power over to fallible mortals. But god works in mysterious ways, right? But one thing is for certain: while the power may be moved, it won’t be finding... Read more
Ugh, my tummy hurts a lot today…so I need some morning happiness. Kids across the United States, and even in Texas, are going to get sound science in their science textbooks: This week, the Texas State Board of Education held hearings to discuss the adoption of new textbooks for Texas schools. Given the SBOE’s past history with creationism, all eyes were specifically on the science textbook hearings, to see whether the SBOE would let real science into Texas textbooks. Going... Read more
Remember those school assemblies in Mississippi that were specifically intended to tell the high school students to accept Jesus into their othwise shallow and meaningless lives? I wrote about the situation when those assemblies happened last spring. In an agreed judgment entered of record Friday, the Rankin County School District administrators admitted that the students’ constitutional rights were violated when they were required to attend a religious assembly and denied permission to leave once they figured out what it was.... Read more
American Atheists…they’re really good at telling the unabashed truth. In fact, with regards to aid to the areas devastated by Hurricane Haiyan, they’re putting up billboards doing just that. What moved American Atheists to put up these billboards? Religion causing people who want to help to wind up not helping at all: While at least $300 million has been pledged by nations around the world to help survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines, a... Read more
It is often said, by members of the majority religion in the United States desperately wishing to feel persecuted, that if atheists were in charge that freedom of religion would quickly become a relic of the past under the iron fist of atheism. Atheists generally respond that we’d stand up for Christians if their religious liberty were ever threatened, but that we don’t care much for confusing liberty with privilege. Let this be our first example. In Angola, a largely... Read more
Hitchens telling it how it is: Another reason to try and convince people that their religion is false is because hope and joy are available without belief in the untrue – and should be found without belief in the untrue and the ludicrous, as those beliefs cause tremendous suffering the world over to people who wanted no part of those religions. Read more
And by “alduterer” they’re including people who just have sex before engaging in some arbitrary religious ceremony. Afghan government officials have proposed reintroducing public stoning as a punishment for adultery, Human Rights Watch said, even though the practice has been denounced both inside and outside the country as one of the most repugnant symbols of the Taliban regime. The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country’s penal code being managed by... Read more
I was sent an article this morning in which a mother writes a letter to her daughter – her daughter who had just asked the mom if she was Santa Claus. Here’s the letter: Dear Lucy, Thank you for your letter. You asked a very good question: “Are you Santa?” I know you’ve wanted the answer to this question for a long time, and I’ve had to give it careful thought to know just what to say. The answer is... Read more
Prepare for a deluge of posts that will fill you with rage…by watching this puppy! 🙂 Read more
What Would JT Do?
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