VIDEO: A Discussion Between Atheists and Mormons: Exposing Myths and Dispelling Stereotypes
As a prelude to the American Atheists National Convention taking place this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, a panel discussion was held Wednesday night between atheists Dave Silverman and author Joanne Hanks and Mormon authors Drs. J. B. Haws and Richard Holzapfel:
Atheists conduct friendly march around Mormon Temple Square
Most of the marchers were former Mormons and many mailed resignations to the LDS Church at the end of the short trek around the square. Ellis dubbed it “the Mormon exodus and mass resignation event.”
“It’s our right to resign from the LDS Church and support others who would like to,” he told the crowd.
Another related article can be found here.
VIDEO: Scientology’s dirty little secrets
From MobileMedia, the great-grandson of L. Ron Hubbard washes the family laundry in public.
The worst atheist-bashing article of the year
This one’s actually a response to this article at Salon.
For some reason, Salon is on a crusade to bash the hell out of atheists, living and dead. Their editors might want to question what the deuce is going on (unless it’s a deliberate editorial decision), for the proliferation of anti-atheist pieces is eroding the site’s credibility. It makes Salon look like an apologist for religion. And the latest atheist-bashing piece is particularly bad, because it’s not only written very poorly, but its argument is so incoherent that I can barely even summarize it.
The new piece is by Sana Saeed, and although it might pain you to read it, it’s not too long, and I’m curious what readers make of it: “Richard Dawkins is so wrong it hurts: What the science-vs.-religion debate ignores.” Its point seems to be that there is no conflict between science and religion, but I don’t understand how Saeed’s arguments support that view.
Here’s Saeed’s profile from the Guardian:
NJ bank won’t notarize American Atheist documents for ‘personal reasons’
According to Knief, she and American Atheists president David Silverman were in the process of getting documents notarized by one of the bank’s notaries public when the woman asked them what the documents were for.
“The documents were charitable organizations registrations for American Atheists in several states,” wrote Knief. “So I told her what AA is about. She looked down, then looked at me and Dave Silverman and said she couldn’t sign the documents because of ‘personal reasons’ and went to find another notary who was eating his lunch to come do the authentications.”
“I have been called names, threatened, hated on and all manner of ridiculed because of my atheist activism, but I think sitting in a bank and having another professional refuse to do business with me because I am an atheist was the worst slight I have ever received,” she continued. “This is completely unacceptable, and far from over.”
Religious belief systems prefer a small cosmos with humans firmly at the center.
Pope Francis asks forgiveness for priests who sexually abused children
It’s more than the Watchtower Society has done…
A Postscript on My Post about Evidence for Dinosaurs and Jesus
I’m actually not all that impressed with books that claim to debunk the “Jesus myth.” Not because I’m a believer, but mostly because those books seem to have a knack for getting their facts wrong. I’m not saying there really was a Jesus (even a merely mortal Jesus) only that there could have been. For those who subscribe to the Jesus myth books, I would only recommend you research secular sources for the other side as well.
What scholars like Bart Ehrman don’t tell you (likely because they don’t fully comprehend it themselves) is that the Jewish-Christian world was totally awash with forged stories of divine divine men of miracles. Ancient Biblical figures from Israel’s mythic past had either written new books about themselves or were written about by unnamed Jewish authorities who were in the know. Although I did my under graduate work in Bible and graduate work in Christianity while having been an active Church member most of my life, I had never realized, nor was I told, that there were more than 295 divine histories and sacred texts about miracle workers sent from God. (I discussed these HERE )
Fred Phelps Created the Monster that Betrayed Him
One can only wonder if the phrase, “et tu, Brute” ran through Fred Phelps mind when the congregation he nurtured and, in most cases, literally spawned, excommunicated him from the Westboro Baptist Church. The sense of betrayal must have been crushing. As Fred’s estranged son Nathan Phelps said, “They took the one thing that meant everything to the man…That old man and his reason to exist have gone away.”
PODCAST: The Angry Atheist #137 w/ Lucien Greaves from The Satanic Temple
This one has a chart examining contradictions in the Gospels and how different groups cope with them.
9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting (And the Answers)