Posted on November 17th, 2010 by Staks
Every year for at least three years now, the Freethought Society (of Greater Philadelphia) has put up a Tree of Knowledge outside the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, PA. The tree is a large evergreen decorated with the laminated book covers of various atheist, scientific, philosophical, and even religious books. Every year there is […]
Filed under: atheism, censorship, church/state, free speech, People of Reason, Tree of Knowledge | 8 Comments »
Posted on November 8th, 2010 by Staks
Last Tuesday was Election Day and I spent the entire day at the polls as Minority Election Inspector. Toward the end of the day after the polls had closed, I got into a short conversation with a Republican poll watcher who was hanging out waiting for the results. The topic was on the role of […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Current Events, Law, Political Activism, Politics | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 3rd, 2010 by Staks
I don’t know what was more discouraging yesterday, the Republicans winning in so many places or top progressives like Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold losing. In my state of Pennsylvania, the Republicans really won big. They took the Governor position. Crazy former Constitutional Party wacko Pat Toomey defeated my congressman Joe Sestak for Senate. Bryan […]
Filed under: church/state, Election, Personal, Politics | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 2nd, 2010 by Staks
Today I will be performing my duties as an elected official. Last year I won the race for Minority Election Inspector for my local precinct. I won this election by exactly one vote… mine. Let this be a lesson to everyone, if there is no candidate for a local office that you like, don’t be […]
Filed under: church/state, Current Events, Personal, Politics | No Comments »
Posted on November 1st, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, Jon Stewart held the Rally to Restore Sanity and tomorrow is Election Day so I thought I would talk about this myth that both political parties are equally extreme. Toward the end of the rally, Stewart gave his closing speech in which he talked about how people from both sides of the […]
Filed under: church/state, conversation, culture war, Current Events, Election, End of Days, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 28th, 2010 by Staks
While the forces of sanity and fear square off in our nation’s capital, the forces of reason are also converging. For those going to the Comedy Central rallies hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, atheists are gathering together at the event. I just posted an Examiner article with all the details. Unfortunately I will […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, humanism, People of Reason, Personal, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 22nd, 2010 by Staks
Not long ago, I made the case that the Tea Party was a re-branding of the Christian Right. A few “Tea Baggers” disagreed and reiterated the position that it is an pro-Constitution/cut government waste movement. Well, this is their lucky day, because I have discovered a perfect test to see which one of us is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, culture war, Political Activism, Politics, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on October 14th, 2010 by Staks
So yesterday was the big debate between Delaware Senate candidates Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons. The debate has gotten a surprising amount of press for a race that seems all but decided. Despite Chris Coons’s unfortunate name he came into the debate up almost 20 points in the polls. It isn’t like this is an […]
Filed under: church/state, journalism, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 12th, 2010 by Staks
I was talking to a fundamentalist Christian friend yesterday and I asked him if he thought gay marriage should be illegal. He informed me that homosexuality was a sin and that he has no objections to making “wallowing in sin” illegal. So I asked him if all sin should be illegal and he said, yes. […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Political Activism, the bible | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 11th, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, two of my friends got married… I mean Civil Unioned. This was the second Civil Union I’ve attended. While everyone had a great time and I am very happy for my friends, I can stop thinking about the fact that technically they are not actually married. While they have most of the […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Gay Issues, Mainstream Christians, Religion | 6 Comments »
Posted on October 6th, 2010 by Staks
If I through a loud party, there would be a pretty good chance that he police would come over and either talk to me about it or ticket me about it. There are of course local town ordinances dealing with sound. Yet everyday at noon, I am forced to hear church bells ringing from every […]
Filed under: church/state, Law, Religion | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 16th, 2010 by Staks
Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society. This month’s guest speaker was former American Atheist President Ellen Johnson. Johnson was promoting her new organization called “Enlighten the Vote” and she said a lot of very interesting things. First, I want to point out that while I think what Ellen Johnson said […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 2nd, 2010 by Staks
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from someone who works at a state agency in the Bible Belt. The head of the agency often uses working lunches and meetings to conduct a short prayer session. According to the e-mail, this happens often and most people just go along with it rather than risk their jobs. Most […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Posted on August 6th, 2010 by Staks
Yesterday, the United States Senate confirmed this nation’s newest Supreme Court Justice, Elana Kagan. But while many of my progressive and freethinker friends are celebrating, I remain skeptical. For starters, the Court is still middle of the road at best. We have four extremely right wing Justices who will nine times out of ten support […]
Filed under: church/state, Current Events, Politics | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 5th, 2010 by Staks
I am really getting tired of always being on the defensive. Why is it that the Religious Right are always trying to make these ridiculous laws and we are always trying to stop them? I think it is time we go on the offensive for a change. Dangerous Talk has obtained this video (from YouTube) […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Gay Issues, Law, Political Activism, Religion | 6 Comments »
Posted on July 19th, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, I was putting together an Examiner article on the upcoming PhillyCoR Picnic. This is an event that I have been promoting for months so I was very excited to be writing the article. However, I noticed that the PhillyCoR website was down and so I contacted the PhillyCoR president to find out […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, healthcare, Obama, Politics | 5 Comments »
Posted on June 7th, 2010 by Staks
Recently, I have been telling a lot of Christians and atheists alike that I have heard so many arguments both for and against religion, that it seems like I have heard them all. I have even told some people how excited I would get if I actually heard a new argument. Today I heard a […]
Filed under: Capitalism, church/state, culture war, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 2nd, 2010 by Staks
I am a pretty outspoken atheist and I criticize religion often and in some cases extremely harshly. I generally argue against particular religious ideas and lines of “reasoning” rather than arguing behavior (although I do argue against some behavior of particular religious people or groups of people from time to time). Often when I present […]
Filed under: church/state, conversation, culture war, People of Reason, Personal, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 19th, 2010 by Staks
There are many movies about war and films like Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket are among the finest fiction Hollywood has produced dealing with the subject. Severe Clear is not just a film about war; it is a war on film. Before I get too far into this review, I have something that […]
Filed under: church/state, death, journalism, Politics, Preaching | 17 Comments »
Posted on May 10th, 2010 by Staks
Last night, Obama made his pick for the replacement of Supreme Court Justice Paul Stevens. His pick is Elena Kagan, the current Solicitor General. Is it a good pick? Should we as atheists be supporting her? Earlier today I wrote an article of the Examiner page talking about Elena Kagan’s record on church/state issues. It […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Law, Obama, People of Reason, Politics, Religion | 18 Comments »
Posted on May 6th, 2010 by Staks
Today is the day that the followers of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy decided to designate as the National Day of Prayer. Recently of course this federal endorsement of religion has been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. But no one appears to have told the federal government or the religious right about this. […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, faith, Law, Obama, People of Reason, Political Activism, prayer, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Staks
Recently a Catholic School in Colorado kicked out a student for having lesbian parents. But that is not what today’s blog is about. People have asked whether or not the Church has the right to have whatever rules they want since they are a private school. Most people including atheists say sure. It may not […]
Filed under: Catholics, church/state, Law, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 2nd, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend I watched a documentary titled: The Education of Shelby Knox. The documentary is about a teenaged girl’s attempt to bring comprehensive sex education to the fundamentalist controlled city of Lubbock, Texas. Shelby Knox is a Christian. Her whole family is Christian and the film portrays the city as being almost entirely fundamentalist […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, education, Evils of Christianity, family values, Gay Issues, Religion, sex, Vague Higher Power | 6 Comments »
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by Staks
Despite President Obama’s rhetoric about transparency in government, the White House has made the delegates from the Secular Coalition of America (SCA) take an oath of secrecy. I have talked about this more in my Examiner article which I hope everyone will check out. But I want to say a bit more about this issue. […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Obama, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 12 Comments »
Posted on January 26th, 2010 by Staks
It is kind of funny sometimes when religious fundamentalists claim that America is an atheist nation. Sometimes they even say that in the same breath as when they tell me that America is a Christian nation. Of course I have to inquire. Sometimes religious people don’t understand the difference between atheism and secularism and as […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, education, Religion | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 25th, 2010 by Staks
Many well reasoned atheists disagree on issues of taxation, foreign policy, states rights, etc. So I can understand why not all atheists are politically active and that all the atheists that are politically active may not all be Democrats. But what I can’t understand is how any well reasoned atheist could possibly be a Republican. […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, evolution, free speech, Gay Issues, global climate change, palin, People of Reason, Politics, Religion, science | 22 Comments »
Posted on August 18th, 2009 by Staks
After failing to be allowed to teach Creationism in public classrooms across America, Creationists moved to the idea of Intelligent Design. Now that watered down version of Creationism has also been thrown out of public schools for being a ridiculously poor attempt to indoctrinate children about Creationism. But Creationists aren’t giving up. They have now […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, Current Events, education, Politics, Religion | 12 Comments »
Posted on August 5th, 2009 by Staks
On occasion, some Christians will inform me that America is a Christian Nation. In the sense that the majority of Americans are Christian that maybe true, but in the sense that Christianity is the national religion, it is obviously false. These particular Christians who claim that America is a Christian Nation really mean to say […]
Filed under: church/state, Politics, Religion | 30 Comments »
Posted on July 20th, 2009 by Staks
In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman. The court ruled that public school money could not fund private religious school text books and salaries. But more importantly than that, this case created what has been called the “Lemon Test.” The Lemon Test was supposed to have settled the issue […]
Filed under: church/state, Current Events, Religion | 10 Comments »
