godlessness
pharyngula | December 27, 2008Tune in on Sunday morning at 9am Central time to Atheists Talk radio for an all-science hour, reviewing the top science stories of the past year. It's going to have a bit of a developmental bias, and maybe even some zebrafish bias, as the big man of the hour will be Perry Hackett of the UMTC, a well-known zebrafish researcher who has been doing a lot of work on gene therapy related experiments. They're also sneaking in another developmentalist/zebrafish guy — me — in a call-in.
pharyngula | December 23, 2008Once upon a time, one of the more popular atheist sites on the web was The Raving Atheist. Then the blogger became the raving anti-abortionist, and most of his readership left — they even set up an independent forum where they could continue their discussions without the weirdo in charge of the blog butting in (uh-oh…I just gave you all an idea, didn't I?).
Anyway, now the process of conversion is complete. Say goodbye to the Raving Atheist.
There's an interesting analysis of the process of deconversion to be made here. I suspect he's been getting a lot of personal support and attention from…
pharyngula | December 20, 2008Sunday morning, 9am Central time: Atheists Talk radio asks whether atheists can now relax, since Obama will soon be in office. I think you know the answer to that one: no. We'll have to tune in to see what Lori Lipman Brown has to say!
pharyngula | December 19, 2008This one is for the godless among us: a survey on Coming Out as an Atheist. It's a little longer than the previous one, I'm afraid.
pharyngula | December 17, 2008There was an atheist sign among the holiday displays at the Illinois capitol — and it was stolen! How strange — I guess the Ten Commandments are only a set of rough guidelines that Christians can throw out when confronted with uppity atheists. They've got the ethics of convenience, I guess.
pharyngula | December 14, 2008All the smart people in the 56267 zip code will be tuned in to Atheists Talk radio this morning at 9am, to hear about the winter solstice and godless bus signage. You can too!
Oh, and at noon we're all going to tune in to Nic McPhee's and Susan Gilbert's radio show on KUMM for an eclectic mix of interesting music. We're all planning on bunkering down today, since we're supposed to get slammed with a major blizzard…which I can see is gearing up outside my window right now.
pharyngula | December 13, 2008Australia has taken an interesting step forward: they're going to allow instruction in humanism in their schools, apparently in place of traditional religion classes.
Victorian state primary school students will soon have an alternative -- religious education lessons taught by people who do not believe in God and say there is "no evidence of any supernatural power".
The Humanist Society of Victoria has developed a curriculum, which the State Government accreditation body says it intends to approve, to deliver 30-minute lessons each week of "humanist applied ethics" to primary pupils.…
pharyngula | December 12, 2008Richard Dawkins' spring tour of the United States is bringing him to Minneapolis — he'll be speaking in Northrup Auditorium (the huge auditorium on the UMTC campus, so there should be lots of room for everyone) on 4 March 2009. Be there!
In other Dawkins news, he has posted an unused and unedited interview with Father George Coyne on his site. It's long and it's very aggravating, so not many of you will make it through the whole thing, but you'll understand why it wasn't used in any documentary. Coyne is personable, intelligent, and pleasant without fault. He's the kind of avuncular and…
pharyngula | December 11, 2008Last spring, I mentioned that Americans United was suing to block South Carolina from promoting religion via an "I Believe" license plate. Good news today: a judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the state. Christmas is doomed!
pharyngula | December 8, 2008At one of my talks this weekend, I was asked if there was a list of secular charities somewhere…and alas, I didn't have one off the top of my head. Now I have one: Techskeptic's Data Daily: Atheist Charities. Give!
pharyngula | December 7, 2008For the first time ever, my talk at UCF actually had protestors. Here's photographic evidence:
They were just lining the sidewalk at the entrance to the hall where I spoke, silently playing with their rosary beads. We invited them in, but none bothered — they quietly disappeared sometime around the time it started. We also had a couple of security guards sitting in the back of the room, whether to make sure the rowdy atheists didn't do something evil or to protect us from the fierce horde of prayerful Catholics, I don't know.
I'm flattered. Thank you, devout true believers of Florida — you…
pharyngula | December 7, 2008It must be the season. The godless are popping up all over.
Strange Doctrines is back after a hiatus. I suspect he was off in mystic Tibet studying the rituals of Dormammu.
Go say hello to the Hooping Humanist. He's even got a picture of me!
I don't know if we want to encourage this: atheists are also busting out in song. The Midwest Humanist channels Monty Python.
You can turn your godless musical talents into fame and glory: Q Transmissions is running a musical contest. They've already adapted some lyrics from Miss Prism, which you can listen to. If you must.
pharyngula | December 7, 2008Austin Dacey is an interesting fellow who has written a book on the non-religious basis of morality, The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and he is going to be on Atheists Talk radio this morning at 9am Central time. He'll be talking specifically about the Islamic threat to secular government. Tune in! I suspect he'll have something to say about the UN resolution to condemn defamation of religions, but if he doesn't, call in and ask. This is another day of traveling for me, so I'm going to have to miss it, but you probably don't have that excuse —…
pharyngula | December 5, 2008Christianist thugs stole the atheist sign from the Washington state capitol building. It's revealing of their mindset — that it's OK to censor anything that disagrees with their petty beliefs.
However, I'm getting a few emails that hint that maybe this means it's now time for open season on nativity scenes. Emphatically NO. Right now we claim the moral high ground here, and we need to maintain it. Put that baby Jesus down right now, guy. Defend their right to display their beliefs and demand equal time for ours!
pharyngula | December 2, 2008My old home state, Washington (uh, I've got the right one, right? This isn't DC, I hope), is waging the war on Christmas, as is appropriate for one of the most godless states in the country. The FFRF has put up a sign nestled among the religious symbols at the Capitol:
At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
I'm impressed with the guy who put up a nativity scene, too: he says the atheist sign doesn't…
pharyngula | December 2, 2008The Unreasonable Faith blog has started a series on "An Evil God?", documenting the horrible little stories and nasty tribal morality of the Bible.
He has already started with page 1. It's a l o n g book, so he's committing himself to a very long series, I think.
pharyngula | December 1, 2008
I just received a sampling of
Order of St. Nick's Alternative Holiday Greeting Cards, so I have to give them a plug. If you've been looking for atheist Christmas cards, they've got 'em.
I was thinking of sending them to my family back in the Pacific Northwest, but I may have to get some more so I can send some to Bill Donohue and Bill O'Reilly, too.
Oh, my — they also have evil Christmas cards. Maybe those would be more appropriate for the Bills.
pharyngula | November 30, 2008At 9am Central time, Atheists Talk radio will host Robert M. Price, who is going to explain to us where all this nonsense about biblical inerrancy came from.
pharyngula | November 26, 2008Bold atheists have been buying ad space on buses in London and Washington DC—it's been a successful tactic for raising the profile of godless groups, and has also been somewhat controversial. The Atheist Foundation of Australia sought to emulate those successes, and met an obstacle: the ad company simply refused to allow them to buy ad space, without giving a reason, and you can tell it was simply religious bigotry behind the decision.
It's not as if they were trying to put up abusive or profane messages. Here are some of the slogans they suggested.
We started off with "Atheism - because…