The Secular Student Union was promoting their upcoming meeting, where they will be discussing the topic, “Is religion more plausible than the Flying Spaghetti Monster?” (If you’re in Seattle, go stop by!)
Watch how people react to their campus outreach. They come up to the Pastafarians. They take the brochures. Some even have conversations. No arguments. Nice:
Congratulations to the winners! The top three will be receiving specially-made Friendly Atheist wristbands (in the color of their choice), sent to me by blog reader Shauna and her sister Danni!
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If you’d like to win your own wristband, here is the new contest.
Q: I’m interested in your comments on evolution. If you have read PZ Myer’s deconstruction of your opinions on evolution, I think they point out not only your misconceptions, but also those of a large number of people unfamiliar with theory.
A: Actually, PZ Myer deconstructs his misinterpretations of my arguments. If he ever addresses my actual arguments, he might realize he agrees with them. That’s what makes him so entertaining.
Q: What do you see as the actual flaws in the Darwin-esque explanations for evolution, and what possibilities can you see for alternate explanations of the phenomena and evidence?
A: Evolution passes all the tests of science to be treated as a fact. But if physicists someday demonstrate that our perception of reality has no connection to actual reality, which I consider likely, then evolution is just a point of view, albeit a useful one.
My main criticism of evolution has to do with the way it is presented to the public. And beyond that, I enjoy yanking the chain of people who think they believe things for actual reasons as opposed to taking a side.
You can put the Scarlet A from Richard Dawkins‘ OUT campaign on your Facebook page!
It’s pretty simple. It’s not annoying or obtrusive. The image just shows up on your page, and it links to the OUT campaign home page. Unlike other apps, this one doesn’t force itself onto your friends, either.
The application was created by the talented Andrew Chalkley. Go to his site to check out some screenshots of the application in action!
A Sunday School teacher I know has to follow the basic curriculum set by her church. How she presents the material is up to her.
Recently, her 3rd and 4th 5th and 6th grade students were told to draw pictures of what people look like when they have Christ versus when they don’t. They were given a blank “gingerbread man” type outline (below) and told to fill it in.
Think about that for a moment.
How can you tell if people are Christian (or not) just by looking at them?
You can’t.
And the Sunday School teacher knew this. She wasn’t a fan of the assignment, but she had to teach it. So she spent some time stressing to the kids that they cannot know if someone is a fellow Christian simply because of how they look.
At least one of the children missed that point.
Here’s the picture he drew of someone who has Christ in his life:
Let’s see here…
Holding a cross.
Saying, “I LOVE GOD!!” (They teach the Christian kids to use ALL CAPS when making their points early in life, I see).
Ok, ok. Enough of that. What did this child draw on the person who didn’t have Christ in his life?
Wow.
Drugs in the form of alcohol.
Barbed wire tattoo.
Crazy wild hair.
Unibrow (truly the mark of an atheist).
Cigarette in hand.
Brow piercing.
Multiple, asymmetric ear piercings.
A mouth “cussing! God isn’t real!”
No sleeves (because we all know sleeves are too damn Christian for us).
The guy’s clothes aren’t even colored in all the way! (What’s up with that?)
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In my friend’s defense, she was appalled by this. She did what she could to teach the kids that the very idea of drawing these images was misleading from the start. Christians, atheists, and people of faith come in all types. You can’t label people unless you talk to them and find out what they believe.
Somehow, though, this kid has these perceptions. He got them from somewhere. Maybe his parents. Or church. Or Kirk Cameron.
Is it any surprise that so many children from religious households grow up to fear atheists?
If you don’t live in Illinois, click here to find out how you can donate.
It would make more sense to me if people had to fill out a form if they didn’t want to donate their organs… just make donation the default option. We’d all be better off that way.
There’s no good reason not to be an organ donor. It’s selfish to want to keep your organs after you die if your parts can help someone else. Donate them, or just donate your whole body to science. Medical students benefit from studying real cadavers.
For skeptics, here are some common myths about organ/tissue donation along with responses to them.
Posted in Dating, General at 2:20 am by Hemant Mehta
I spent the day at Harding University (A Church of Christ affiliated school) in Searcy, Arkansas and gave a talk to the students/faculty in the evening about my book and atheism in general.
Here are some of the highlights:
The students gave me a great opportunity to talk about my story on their “home turf,” and they asked fair questions afterwards. It was fun for me. I hope it was fun for them. (On a side note, I wish I could better answer the audience’s questions about Philosophy and Biology, but those aren’t my areas of expertise, and I can never give proper/satisfactory responses… I need to get better at that.)
Going to a coffee shop after the event with several Harding students and a couple fellow atheists gave us all a wonderful opportunity to talk about our beliefs in a non-threatening, really-fun, why-can’t-this-happen-more-often sort of way.
Conversion attempts = 0.
I’m impressed.
In my on-campus hotel room last night, I realized that there was a filter blocking out certain websites… one guilty pleasure of mine is to read the Missed Connections section on Craigslist.
It was blocked.
Apparently, that’s a “dating/social” section of the site and is therefore not allowed. I wondered if that was the case everywhere on CL…
Sean Hannity’s conservative dating site, Hannidate? Not blocked.
Hmm…
There were 2389233 people at the event, which was very exciting and a bit unnerving all at once:
You know that spinning globe that is part of the backdrop at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church…?
The “old” globe now resides in the on-campus hotel’s foyer!
It’s like Joel was speaking directly to me… Clearly, a sign of good things.
I had a chance to visit the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. First thing to note? No mention of Monica Lewinsky (that I saw…) and only a brief mention of his impeachment hearing.
Second thing? This now-ironic note from Mother Teresa to Hillary Clinton:
Thanks to Brett, Patrick, Tessa, Emily, Andrea, John, Jacob, Dr. Hopper, Professor Monte Cox, and the several others students and faculty members who helped make this event possible!
Update — Some people have posted their thoughts on the event:
I’ll be speaking about the book at Harding University (a Christian college) in Searcy, Arkansas (about 50 miles north-east of Little Rock) tonight in the Heritage Building’s Cone Chapel at 7:00 p.m. (local time).
Secular Student Alliance Member Todd Stiefel has agreed to match all donations to us by 12/21/2009 up to a total of $50,000. Double the value of your support and help us get the whole match by donating now.
