I had mentioned earlier that I won a Christian book award from Outreach Magazine.
Well, I finally obtained a nice scan of the cover (woo!) along with the pages that mention the book!
All in lovely PDF form.
…
Speaking of magazines, an interview I did with New Wineskins magazine now up on their site!
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A collection of amusing links you’ve been sending my way:
The Top Ten Christian Reality TV Stars, courtesy of Beliefnet.com. (Oh, how I love the top two for completely different reasons…)
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Because you don’t have *nearly* enough stuff to pray about…
(via The Dallas Morning News)
…
Albert Einstein leaves no doubt as to where he stands on religion:
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.
…
“No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”
…
“For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions,” he said.
(Thanks to all who sent the links!)
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If you’ve been checking out this site but haven’t made any comments yet, consider this an open invitation to say hello and introduce yourself!
All new commenters must be approved/moderated by me, and once that happens, you’re free to comment whenever you’d like. Its always nice to hear fresh opinions, whether you’re religious or atheist.
As long as you’re respectful to the other people (though you can criticize their beliefs all you want), not trying to convert everyone to your religion, and know how to turn off the CAPS LOCK key when you type, we’d love to have you join the conversation on this site.
So devirginize yourself on this blog if you haven’t done so already!
It’d be nice to put that “approve comment” button to use 
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I was at my cousin’s wedding this past weekend. He lives in Ohio but the wedding took place outside of Chicago (where most of the family and friends live).
During the ceremony/reception, I saw a girl there… she wasn’t in the immediate family (she was white) but she did look familiar. In fact, the few times we made eye contact, we gave each other those brief glances that said: I know you from somewhere…
Midway through the reception, I thought I figured out how I knew her. I decided to throw it out there…
“Christine…?”
I was right! (Go me!)
She didn’t know my name but that wasn’t important.
It turned out the reason I knew her was because she was my (newly-married) cousin’s neighbor back in Columbus, OH. When I was *much* younger, my family would visit his fairly often. The kids would play outside and sometimes the cousin’s neighbors would join us, she being one of them.
It must have been 15 years since I last saw her. But she still looked vaguely like her younger self.
We didn’t know each other very well at all but we made some small talk.
We discussed our jobs. She worked in the athletic department at the college she graduated from. I was a math teacher. She said she had a friend who taught math in the Chicago Public Schools. We talked about that for a bit. Teaching in the city is a tough job. I work in a fairly affluent suburb, far away from that world.
After a few minutes of this, I realized I knew someone who graduated from Christine’s university. Not only that, but the girl I knew had been a part of Teach For America and now worked in Chicago. It was a girl I went to middle school with back when I lived in Tennessee and we still kept in touch.
How weird was that?
She said her Chicago friend also fit that description…
Hmm…
My friend’s name was Kim.
So was Christine’s.
I mentioned a last name.
Then there was an eerie silence for a couple seconds.
“Kim was my roommate for two years in college,” said Christine.
Wow.
So to recap: My friend from 8th grade went to college in another state and was roommates with a girl who had lived two doors down from my cousin.
The first thoughts that I had were: How amazing. What a small world. What are the odds of that?
…
But when you think about it, was it really that big of a deal?
Surely, there were other people at the wedding party who would know at least one of the acquaintances I’ve met in my life — someone we would never guess we were both connected to.
If you ran an experiment where two complete strangers made a list of all the people they’ve ever known and compared them, I’m sure overlaps would turn up between a large number of those pairings (but I don’t have any evidence to back that up). When you consider the two “strangers” to already have a connection (like guests at a wedding), I would think the “random” connections would turn up even more frequently.
The amazing thing about the connection between Christine and I was that we were able to ferret out who it was.
Very cool. But not all that remarkable.
Now, I’m just thinking of all the explanations other people would give for the same “incredible coincidence”…
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High school freethought groups are so important in helping young people develop their skills in critical thinking. It’s one of the first places you can openly talk to other people about your atheism. It’s also tougher than starting a group in college, when you’re likely to have a few more like-minded people around you.
Lucia Guatney is just a freshman at Cherry Creek High School in Colorado.
But she’s started her own freethought group, attended a student conference (hosted by the Center for Inquiry), and met her own personal hero:
I went to my first CFI conference (The Secular Society and Its Enemies) last November in the splendid city of New York. I hadn’t a clue that meeting fellow student freethinkers could be so much fun. For the first time since I’d entered high school, I was in an oasis of thought with intelligent discussions taking place all around me. Not only were there speakers with fascinating subjects, but there was also the opportunity to talk to fellow student freethinkers and other attendees. Later that evening, I was in shock to find myself having dinner right across from Richard Dawkins in the Beekman Pub, and conversing about campus activities with all the other students at the conference.
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About a week after the conference, I e-mailed Richard Dawkins because I felt the need to thank him not only for dining with us but for his books which had helped me appreciate science (”appreciate” being an understatement; more like “love passionately to death”) so much. He wrote back telling me that he had remembered who I was, and not only that…he told me that he’d been “bowled over” when I told him that I was fourteen at the time. I looked up the words in the dictionary—they mean “highly impressed”. Imagine how I reacted.
If you imagined me falling out of my chair and giggling madly, you imagined correctly.
I can’t wait to see what she accomplishes with her group in the next few years and what she’ll be able to do with that knowledge once she gets to college.
The article stresses two points that I think need to be repeated:
First, attending an atheist/Humanist conference when you’re young can change your life. It’s a chance (possibly the first chance) to be around people who share the same thoughts as you. When you feel isolated in your thinking, it’s the prime opportunity to realize you’re not the only one in that position. That’s a powerful thought. And groups like CFI and the Secular Student Alliance give students grant money to attend those kinds of conferences.
Second, it’s not difficult to begin a freethought group, even if you are in high school. You just need someone willing to take charge. If there’s a problem, CFI and SSA and other groups will help you out.
Kudos to Lucia for what she’s done so far.
Where are other high school freethought leaders like her?
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Samantha Stein of the United Kingdom writes about her experience as a Camp Quest counselor in Detroit and lets us know that CQ is arriving in the UK in 2009!
(Incidentally, the title of the article is called “My summer at atheist camp” — not Samantha’s idea. Just a lazy copywriter who assumes all kids attending CQ must be atheists. Not true. Still, it’s not nearly as bad as the NPR copywriter who initially called CQ “Anti-Christian” before CQ’s President Amanda Metskas politely asked for a change in headline.)
… I had just spent most of my remaining student loan on a plane ticket to a city about which I knew nothing (other than that a lot of people get shot there), to meet a group of complete strangers with whom I would work for a week at a YMCA camp, no less, in a state which ranks reasonably high on the scale of religious nuts. Not to mention the fact that I would have to spend my waking hours taking care of other people’s children.
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… As I was introduced to the other counsellors, I was thrown without warning into a group of individuals who were all articulate, passionate, intelligent and hilarious. Every single conversation with them was stimulating, inspiring and entertaining. I felt a part of the team immediately.
…
Soon enough, the children began to open up, telling horror stories from their schools about anti-evolution teachers and the isolation they felt from other children, and it was then that I realised what a blessing (pardon my language) this organisation is. It became evident that for some of them it was the first time they were in a place where it was OK to believe whatever they believed; to express their thoughts and ideas without fear of mockery or reprimands and where they were allowed to question the supposed wisdom of authority. There was no “atheist agenda” imposed on the children; we made it clear from the start that we stood for free enquiry and respect for each other’s views.
The most striking thing about these children was their minds. Without exception, the kids were exceptional. Their precociousness emanated from every aspect of their being, and while the younger ones merely thought that religion was a bit ridiculous, the older ones made a conscious effort to embrace reason and rationality.
If you’re in America, it’s not too late to sign your kids up for this summer’s camps!
(via NoGodBlog)
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I love PZ Myers. He’s a wonderful teacher and, at times, he’s downright hilarious.
But other times he can be… well… something else entirely.
Paul Jones has died. I didn’t know him, or even know about him, until his obituary was sent to me, but it’s an utterly tragic life story. He was an ordained Baptist minister — there’s a waste of a life right there — and his death was ironic and futile.
He died of a heart attack, just as he was about to pray with a member of his Upper Room Fellowship. His last word was “Jesus”.
Someday I’m going to die, too, and I hope it is while doing something productive, and that I don’t go out with the name of an imaginary being on my lips. And in particular, it would be nice if my obituary would say something about the good things in my life, rather than babbling on about dedication to a superstition.
It’s a shame. Jones might have been a wonderful fellow, but all we strangers know about him is that he was “committed to expanding God’s kingdom” — that he had dedicated his life to a lie.
Yes, the man died. And yes, he died dedicating his life to something I strongly believe is a lie.
That said, becoming a minister doesn’t mean you’re wasting your life. It depends what you do with that title.
Are you using it so you have a soapbox to rail against gay marriage, women’s rights, etc?
Or are you using it to help your community or inspire other people to do better, bigger things in life?
There’s a difference. Based on the obituary, Jones was the latter.
Believing in God is not as bad as using God’s name to advance your own political agenda. That doesn’t mean belief in God is correct. But it doesn’t imply a complete waste of time. We could all name plenty of religious people (current and historical) who have done wonderful things in the name of their God. It’s petty to dismiss those good works because they were done in the name of a God we don’t believe in.
The guy’s last word was “Jesus.”
I hope PZ lives a long, productive life. But I wouldn’t be surprised if “Jesus” was his last word, either.
Or “Creationism.”
Or, better yet, “Ben Stein.”
Most peoples’ last words are about what they know, what they’re passionate about, what they were connected with in their lifetime.
I don’t know this Jones guy. But his obituary does say he “opened his home to anyone needing prayer” and provided to “charities as well as individuals in need,”
Which is more than I can say for some others I know, atheist or religious.
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The latest cross-shaped MP3 player — the TEO MP-301 — holds 1 GB of music and costs $49:
According to Joshua Fruhlinger of Engadget:
… According to reviews, the player has some serious interface issues and a weak screen, but if crucifixion is your thing, you can’t go wrong with this necklace cross-cum-MP3 player. Or is that the other way around? Is this an MP3 player that’s also a cross? Anyway, there you have it: the cross-shaped MP3 player, indeed.
I wonder if it’s as good as the 4 GB (but currently unavailable) cross-shaped MP3 player seen here:
The more important questions:
(Thanks to Bjorn for the link!)
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… but it’s something, I suppose:
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, once criticized for leaving out atheists and nonbelievers when he delivered a much-touted speech on faith in America, now says he missed a chance to discuss their role in society.
Romney, who addressed his Mormon faith on Dec. 6 to allay concerns by hesitant voters, was criticized for asserting in that pre-primary speech that, “freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.”
This week, Romney said he is still convinced of that, but that he regrets omitting atheists and agnostics from his initial address.
“Upon reflection,” Romney said at the Metropolitan Club in New York City, “I realized that while I could defend their absence from my address, I had missed an opportunity - an opportunity to clearly assert the following: Nonbelievers have just as great a stake as believers in defending religious liberty.”
As Siamang points out, he could’ve phrased the rest of his remarks slightly better.
Whether or not Romney actually means all this is still in question. It’s not like atheists weren’t around when he made his original remarks on faith. But he wasn’t trying to get their votes, either.
Too little too late?
(Is it even worthy of being called “too little”?)
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She keeps breeding…
She never stops…
Someone make her stop!
And I know some of you don’t like it, but dammit, this image still makes me laugh.
(Thanks to Benjamin for the link!)
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I Sold My Soul on eBay
Jim and Casper Go To Church
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