Topic - Friendly Atheist

I loved it only in part because of the premise: A man spills salsa on his Jersey to reveal an outline of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. People come from miles around to see the "Miracle Stain"... until the man's wife (a Baltimore Ravens fan) washes it away with Tide detergent:

In an interview airing at halftime of the Super Bowl, President Obama tells Scott Pelley that he thinks gays should be allowed in the Boy Scouts of America:In general, he says the Scouts are a great group and there's no reason to deny gay scouts (or troop leaders) access to the opportunities the BSA provides:It's the last line that gets me:The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and... exposing them to opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest...

Here's the Creation Museum's Ken Ham explaining the other day how people never rode dinosaurs (even though, in his mind, they lived at the same time):

James Dobson (circa 1993) wants to scare you away from pre-marital sex by showing you how uncool it is:

The Illinois Family Institute recently hosted former lesbian Linda Jernigan at an event for pastors. (I'm deeply offended that they didn't send me an invitation.)What did she say to the crowd? You have to hear this to believe it:

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The San Diego Coalition of Reason just put up their last billboard and, based on your comments, you all love it:A local news channel has already reported on the message:

Sometimes, I hear a conversation so awful that I just don't know how to respond. This is one of those times. But I'm going to try, anyway.Here is a clip of two idiotic, misogynistic, small-minded numbskulls who (because the world just isn't fair) have a radio show of their very own with, I guess, people who listen to it:[youtube]http://youtu.be/jeQAe55qY9w[/youtube]The only reason I would recommend actually listening to it is, if you read the transcription -- and yes, I painstakingly and pain...

Nicome Taylor is a California native, with a religious background rooted in the Baptist Church. Now 30, she admits that this type of upbringing had a great impact on her worldviews especially during times of hardship. Her grandmother's principles and values were heavily influenced by the Bible and her southern roots laid the Christian foundation that would be adhered to by her children as well as her grandchildren.Nicome’s mother battled with kidney failure, so having faith in “God's promise”...

Remember when an 11-year-old boy outwitted Young Earth Creationist Eric Hovind during a debate against atheist (and the boy's father) Bernie Dehler?The boy is back.

Lawrence Krauss gives his take on a touchy subject: Should math and science teachers get paid more than those who teach the humanities?As much as I want to get behind this, it's a short-sighted solution...

The “Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism” is given out by the Humanist Community at Harvard, the American Humanist Association, and the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.The first year, the award went to Salman Rushdie. In the years to follow, it went to Greg Graffin (lead singer of Bad Religion), Joss Whedon, Mythbusters' Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, and Stephen Fry.Last year, author Mary Roach received the honor.And this year, the Outstanding ...

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In the clip below, Penn Jillette talks about his bullshit detector:

Last June, I gave a talk at the FreeOK Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma about The Young Atheist's Survival Guide (before the book had a title).It's an expanded version of some of my similar talks online and Seth Andrews and his team did a great job of putting the video together. Hope you like it!

There is a certain comfort to the constants in life.Sun comes up, Sun comes down.Tide goes in, tide goes out, never a miscommunication.Pat Robertson says something disgusting.And the folks at 1Flesh are, once again, publishing bad information in pursuit of their religious goals.This time they've neatly packaged their fail in an attractive little graphic:

We already know the government gave $542,400,000 in funding to Planned Parenthood last year. That money paid for cancer screenings, STD/STI tests, contraception... and not abortions (since those are not funded by the government).Liberty Counsel founder and Religious Right spokesbigot Mat Staver not only ignores that reality entirely, he's making the claim that Obama (and Congress and liberals and everyone else, pretty much) is just like... well... take a look (beginning at the 7:00 mark):You ...

G. Andrews, also known as Flexx, is a 31-year-old trans man living in Miami, Florida. He* is the youngest child in his family and was the only one designated female at birth. His father's side of the family is from Grenada, West Indies, and his mother's side is multi-racial (French, Irish and African), hailing from Virginia.

We found out late Monday night that the School Board had given a group permission to hand out Bibles at our schools. The news reported it and David Williamson, leader of the Central Florida Freethought Community, alerted several local leaders in a message headed “URGENT.” It certainly was. That night, we found out that a possible church-state violation would occur two days later.

Earlier today, the Barack Obama took the "official" Presidential Oath of Office:I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.You may have noticed that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said "So help me God" at the end (and Obama repeated after him). But that's not part of the official of the oath, is it?

There's nothing safe for work about this song.You hear me?Not. Safe. For. Work.But it's Garfunkel and Oates so you know it's hilarious. They sing about a loophole to abstinence that Jesus himself would surely approve of...:

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Why, oh why, are people still asking Pat Robertson for advice?He's either going senile or just plain mean. Or somewhere in between. I am going to call it "Mean-ile." (Trademarked.)It's no secret that Robertson doesn't think a whole lot of women in general, so when a 17-year-old kid writes into the 700 Club because his parents seem to be having marital problems, you know we're in for a treat:

Daniel is back with another montage of some of the awful things done in the name of God over the past month:

In this week's issue of the New Yorker, James Surowiecki digs into the frustrating problem now confronting the New York Jets: They owe less-than-stellar quarterback Mark Sanchez $8,250,000 next year whether or not he plays... but he's not playing well at all. What should they do? Stick with him and hope he improves or go with a different quarterback (Tim Tebow?) altogether?

In case you missed it last night, Lawrence O'Donnell hit the Louie Giglio story out of the ballpark while taking down the Bible in the process:It gets really good at the 1:36 and 6:54 marks.

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About a month ago, I spent some time speaking to Sylvia Broeckx, a filmmaker working on a documentary ("Hug An Atheist") about what atheists have to deal with in America and how we're not as horrible as pastors make us out to be.

dogmaticCURE brings together images and music with the words of atheists (in this case, Richard Dawkins).This video focuses on religious "morality," and whether it's really any better than anything we could come up with on our own:

Louie Giglio is the pastor who once sermonized about how the shape of the protein laminin somehow proved Christianity true:

At the high school I work at, there are a lot of pictures of students on the walls, ones who excel in Science, Art, English, Music, Athletics, etc.At Jackson Middle School in Jackson, Ohio, they have this picture on the wall:Believe it or not, that's not a student. (I know! I couldn't believe it either!)

I wanted to start this post with "Is nothing sacred?" but seeing as I write what I write about, I just couldn't get past the irony.I discovered Rufus Wainwright's cover of Hallelujah when I was a sophomore in high school. Because I am a regular person with ears, I immediately fell in love with it and used to drive around the suburbs in my Oldsmobile listening to it and feeling like this song "got me, in that way. Over a decade later, I still just adore it. In fact, I recently dusted off my ke...

Your daily dose of atheist inspiration (and beautiful imagery) is brought to you by Brandon Fibbs:The first 8:30 is Fibbs' original words, while the rest of the video features movie clips that'll make you want to take over the world.

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The Catholic Church doesn't allow women to become priests. Because I guess the Bible and vaginas don't mix. So hats off to the Women's Ordination Conference for pushing for gender equality within the Church with this video:

What will happen if gay marriage becomes legal throughout America?Correct answer: More gay couples will get married... and that's about it.What will happen if gay marriage becomes legal throughout America, and you're the dean of a fundamentalist Christian law school?Correct answer: The institution of marriage will be destroyed, families will cease to exist, churches will die a slow miserable death, a revolution will occur, a Civil War will begin, and the United States will implode.At least th...

The votes have been tallied up and here are your picks for the top five atheist billboards from 2012! Keep in mind that votes were given to the best, most controversial, and most talked about billboards -- not just the ones that garnered the most media attention or were the most hotly debated....

Scott Burdick is the filmmaker who, earlier this year, released a documentary called In God We Trust? about the town of King, North Carolina and a battle over a war memorial that included a Christian flag.

This video by XandarsMeteor is depressing at hell but hard to stop watching. (It's gotta be the voice.)Among other things, he talks about why religious explanations for the problems in the world don't do us justice and why a world without God just makes more sense.

During the Pope's Christmas address, he used his time to criticize gay people for... being gay...Emma Tattenbaum-Fine has a message for His Holy Popeness: Come have dinner with my two moms

David Niose picked up on something Mike Huckabee said in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre that a lot of people ignored.First, here's what Huckabee said:

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Last month, Mehdi Hasan, the political director of The Huffington Post UK, interviewed Richard Dawkins at the Oxford Union for al-Jazeera television:

Some things are just too awesome not to share.

One of the stories I share in The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide is about Brian Lisco and his quest to start a Secular Student Alliance group at Stephen Austin High School in Sugarland, Texas. Here’s the quick version as seen in USA Today: Brian Lisco, 18, a senior [at] Stephen Austin High School in the [...]

Media Matters for America, a progressive watchdog center tracking conservative media misinformation, compared different news networks' coverage of the viral song Gangnam Style to coverage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill up for consideration in Uganda.What's wrong with this picture?