I live in Pennsylvania and apparently around there, the right wing “think tank” Freedom Works has put up signs all over the place saying, “School Choice is the Right Choice.” Every time I see these signs, my blood boils. The problem with these signs is that it frames the issue as a choice issue rather […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, education, Politics | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, Jessica over at the FriendlyAtheist wrote about how there is a crazy website promoting a write-in campaign for Jesus. I thought it would be fun to talk about all the reasons why Jesus can’t be President. For starters, it is unlikely that Jesus was even a real person. Despite even Bart Ehrman’s claim that […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Jesus, Politics, wwjd | No Comments »
This week, the Secular Coalition for America is starting their 50 state push to create local branches. Today, Pennsylvania is up and I will try to get in on that call. This is a pretty ambitious plan on the part of the SCA and there are a lot of atheists who don’t think it will […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Current Events | 1 Comment »
I am willing to admit that I was wrong. People told me that President Obama was just waiting until his second term before he openly supports same-gender marriage and I laughed. I didn’t think he would support it until after he was out of office when there wasn’t anything he could actually do about it. […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Gay Issues, Obama, Political Activism, Politics | 3 Comments »
The Secular Coalition for America hired a new Executive Director who is a Republican. That means that she voted for Republicans and she worked for Republicans. Yet for some reason people are shocked that she gave money to Rick Perry and worked for Trent Lott. Atheism is not a religion and yet even the religious […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, church/state, culture war, People of Reason | No Comments »
Democrats used to talk about the two Americas, one for the rich and one for the poor. This is certainty true, but there is another set of two Americas developing. With relation to the rule of law, there is one set of laws for the religious and another set for everyone else. Religious groups have […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Evils of Christianity, Law | No Comments »
Yesterday, I wrote an Examiner article about how religious institutions are always seeking exemptions from the law. Why can’t atheists play this game too? One person commented on my article asking why we can’t have an atheist exemption from the gay marriage bans in some states. I think this is a great idea. I think […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, discrimination, Gay Issues, Government, humanism, morality, Political Activism | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, I attended my county Democratic Party nomination convention and it really pissed me off. I was already a bit disenfranchised with the Party because included in last year’s slate of endorsed candidates were a Christian Dominionist running for Judge and a Creationist running for County Council. This year, the convention was opened with a […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Politics | 2 Comments »
The state of the union is fucked up. It is fucked up because we have politicians who are bought and sold by corporate lobbyists and who more often than not try to appease religious zealots rather than scientifically minded constituents. Our country and our world will not get better until we take the money out […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Obama, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Fundamentalist Christians are upset because apparently President Obama didn’t mention God in his Thanksgiving Day address. Personally, I don’t know why the President has to even have a Thanksgiving Day address. But the Right Wing has been complaining all weekend that Obama “omitted” God from the address. The Amazing Atheist did a great video on […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Obama, Offensiveness, Religion, thanksgiving | No Comments »
In a debate between Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe, Harris talked about how when people talk about their belief that Elvis is still alive in job interviews, etc. there is an immediate price to be paid. When politicians invoke religious terminology there should be a price they too should have to pay. Let’s be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, Decline of Religion, Election, Government, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Political Activism | No Comments »
Awhile back, I met a Democratic Party candidate running for a local county office. I have met this candidate several times since I am active within the county party. But not long ago, my friend learned that this candidate rejects the science of evolution in favor of Creationism. It is one thing for the wacky […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, Creationism, culture war, education, facebook, faith, free speech, Personal, Politics | 4 Comments »
Today is International Blasphemy Day! I love holidays like this. For one thing, I am a huge supporter of free speech and this is an opportunity to express free speech in a creative way that hopefully sends a powerful message to those who need it most. For this reason, I consider it among the most […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, church/state, culture war, family values, free speech, Law, Offensiveness, Political Activism, sex | 2 Comments »
For some reason the question of whether or not the 17 foot tall 9/11 Cross should go into a federally funded museum has become a controversy within the atheist community. It has actually gotten pretty heated and I have taken the obvious position that Christians have over stepped their bounds and are once again trying […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Preaching | No Comments »
Once again I am on my rant about taking the fight to the religious and playing their games on them for a change. This time, I think we should force Christians to stop calling their blood kin “family.” They can use some other name, but I don’t think they can call it “family.” According to […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Gay Issues, Political Activism, Religion | 1 Comment »
I am tired of churches lobbying to pass laws that force schools to teach their religion in science classes. Sure we can fight their efforts again and again, but it is time we go on the offense. It is time we start pushing laws that force churches to teach the science at least once a […]
Filed under: atheism, Church, church/state, culture war, education, evolution, global climate change, science | No Comments »
On Friday, New York passed and signed into law a gay marriage bill. The interesting thing is that the bill almost didn’t pass. It seems that religious groups led by the Catholic Church were lobbying pretty hard against allowing gays to marry. It has never been clearer that religion is the primary force against equal […]
Filed under: Catholics, Church, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Evils of Christianity, Gay Issues, Religion | 3 Comments »
It really bothers me that we can’t come together to form a strong voter block. I keep hearing excuses why we can’t do it and that just seems silly and lazy to me. Atheists are a very diverse group and we are fiercely independent. Yeah, I get that and yes, the only thing we have […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 4 Comments »
A few days ago, seven Republican candidates debated in New Hampshire (You know, the state where the first shots of the Revolution were fired and Paul Revere had his famous ride to warn the British). While I was only able to catch the middle of the debate, I saw a few clips and read a […]
Filed under: church/state, Coexist, culture war, Politics | No Comments »
While being an atheist is still a minority in America, it is surprisingly a larger group of people then Jews and Mormons. There is of course a big difference however. Jews and Mormons have a belief system in common and a common culture. So they have little to no problem voting for and donating money […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Election, humanism, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 10 Comments »
So there is a new Pew Research Poll that once again shows that people don’t want to elect atheists to public office. This is nothing new. We already know that we are the most distrusted minority. However, I am still going to call BULLSHIT! Look, there is no doubt that there is discrimination against atheists. […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, discrimination, Election, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 14 Comments »
One of the things I love about being the Minority Election Inspector in a heavily Catholic Republican district on Primary Day is that I get a glimpse inside “enemy lines.” Not to say that I consider the people I work with enemies, I don’t. However, I do consider their affiliations to be enemy affiliations. First, […]
Filed under: Catholics, Church, church/state, conversation, culture war, Obama, Personal, Politics | No Comments »
Recently, Sojourner’s Magazine refused to run an advertising campaign which welcomes gays. Sojourners Magazine is supposed to be the liberal good guy Christians, so a lot of people seem to be shocked by their position on this issue. Jim Wallis is the founder of Sojourner’s Magazine and their principle spokes person and decision maker. While […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Evils of Christianity, Gay Issues, Progressive Christians, Religion | 3 Comments »
Religious fundamentalists tend to be a politically conservative which is actually pretty funny considering that political conservatives whine about big government all the time and religious fundamentalist love to use big government to push their religion every chance they get. For the last 60 years, they have used the power of big government to declare […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, Current Events, People of Reason, prayer, Religion | 2 Comments »
Right before the 2008 Primary, I was going inside the local public library when an elderly man asked me if I would consider voting for Barack Obama during the primary election. When he saw that I was not that interested, he told me that he thought Obama would be the next Robert Kennedy and he […]
Filed under: church/state, Obama, Politics | 9 Comments »
I keep hearing this thing where atheists pose the question, “what if all the atheists left America,” and then they point out particular atheists who would leave and how that would make the country worse. I guess that might convince someone that atheists aren’t evil baby eaters, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I have […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, Coexist, culture war, Political Activism | 7 Comments »
For the last few weeks, there have been some pretty big protests going on in the Middle East. Governments have fallen as a result. Twitter and Facebook were key weapons for the rebel groups. I think it is type that some kind of protest starts here in America. I think it is time we demand […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Election, facebook, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics, Progressive Christians, Religion | 9 Comments »
I recently read an article by a fellow Atheist Examiner, Hugh Kramer. In the article, Hugh makes a great point about the ridiculous word games fundamentalist Christians play when they say that the phrase, “Separation of Church & State” is not in the Constitution. Of course these religious right politicians and believers are correct. The […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Gay Issues, Politics, Religion | 2 Comments »
Today is the day we celebrate the birth and life of Martin Luther King Jr. To start off, I am a fan, I think Dr. King’s “I had a dream” speech was a great. Aside from the spattering of references to God, which one would expect to find in any political speech, this speech expresses […]
Filed under: church/state, Coexist, culture war, humanism, Martin Luther King Jr., People of Reason | 3 Comments »
For too long, Christians have claimed the monopoly on the winter season. While they have allowed Jews into the club despite the fact that Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday. A few years ago many in the atheist community made our claim for inclusion in the winter season with the holiday of Human Light and […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Christmas, church/state, culture war, Current Events, free speech, humanism, Neighbor, People of Reason, Personal, Tree of Knowledge | 4 Comments »
