atheism

July 31, 2017April 18, 2020

Center For Inquiry Uses Manufactured Outrage For A Payday

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, had a recent book tour appearance in California canceled because of past insensitive remarks about Muslims. It fanned the flames of misunderstanding about ‘free speech’ as a concept. No matter how many times it’s explained, some people refuse to understand. It also doesn’t help when a freethought group tries to make some money on that misunderstanding.

I thought it was cute to get a fundraising email from the Center for Inquiry (CFI) last week complaining about Dawkins having his free speech blocked by a California radio station. It seems that the station came across some abusive comments Dawkins has made over the years about Islam. The weird neo-con/alt-right/Christian conservative/angry atheist intersection showed how easy it’s for people, including those who should know better, to get the “free speech” concept wrong.

June 3, 2016April 18, 2020

The Reason Rally Downplays The Reason For The Rally

The Reason Rally is being held on Saturday. It will be a great opportunity for Nontheists need to show our growing numbers, on a public stage, as a counter to the religious privilege we have to deal with every day in our local, state, and national government. However in a big write up on the event at CNN, the organizers seemed to be diluting the chief idea behind the rally – celebrating our nontheism. It seems like they missed an opportunity to be more direct in, I guess, a futile effort to change the minds of people who hate us anyway.

I support the rally 100% and even donated to it even if I couldn’t attend myself. I love the idea of the rally and the reasons behind it.

May 12, 2016April 18, 2020

Amy Roth Joins the Tone Police and ‘Dear Muslimas’ Atheist Billboard

A freethought group in the Cincinnati area raised $10,000 to pay for a billboard to counter the taxpayer funded Ark Encounter amusement park, sprung from the mind of serial creationist Ken Ham and features a life size version of Noah’s Ark. Of course not all atheists are happy with the protest. I was shocked that blogger Amy Roth would try to protect Ken Ham’s feelings and use an argument she has rejected when directed against her.

Here is a screencap of the billboard rendering the Tri-State Freethinkers tried to have put up:

May 31, 2015April 18, 2020

Could Fear Of Islamophobia Lead Atheists To Overlook Religious Bigotry?

What started out as story about a soccer team invoking religious privilege, that was posted on an atheist blog, took a left turn as the author and many commenters didn’t seem to be concerned with an Islamic school soccer team forcing two Catholic girls to sit out half a match because the Muslim player’s religion wouldn’t allow them to mix with strange females. Could the fear of Islamophobia lead some atheists to overlook obvious religious bigotry? Looks like it can.

Hemant Mehta, over at Friendly Atheist, posted a story about two girls who played on a boy’s soccer team in Ontario Canada: