My heart breaks at the news. I just did a post at Friendly Atheist on Alber’s conviction, and here’s a taste: Egypt has struck a major blow to the fundamental human right to freedom of expression, and unjustly stripped an innocent man of his freedom, as Alber Saber, the 27-year-old atheist activist and blogger, was …
Tag Archive: religion
Dec 04 2012
Cry-Me-a-River Tweet of the Century
Thus: I am amazed at the hatred, filth, sacrilege, anger, condescension, ignorance, triviality, & flippancy heaped upon @pontifex on #askpontifex — John Mercer (@jfmercer) December 4, 2012 Yeah, you know, the Pope has enabled and covered up the rape and assault of countless children, but guys, let’s not be so mean to him on Twitter. …
Nov 17 2012
Contempt for the reality of human suffering
We can … know with certainty that the Christian God does not exist as standardly defined: a being who is omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly benevolent. The proof lies in the world, which is full of extraordinary suffering. If someone claims to have a sensus divinitatis that picks up a Christian God, they are deluded. It …
May 30 2012
In Which I Read the Sam Harris-Bruce Schneier Debate So You Don’t Have To
Long story short: Sam Harris said that we should specifically profile Muslims at airports, not grandmas in wheelchairs and 4-year-old girls, because if someone’s going to try to crash a plane in 2012, it’s almost certainly going to be a radicalized Muslim. Liberals went insane, calling Harris a racist and other terrible things, atheists disowned …
Apr 11 2012
Don’t Get in a Car with an Atheist!
Spotted on Indeed.com, a “job listing” from a Texas mother looking for someone to help her transport her teenage daughters to school and activities, emphasis mine: I am a mother who is 38 years old, I am a teacher in Tomball ISD, my husband is American and I am Mexican. I need to find a …
Feb 18 2012
The Age of Wonder: Science as a Means to Emancipation
Richard Holmes’ 2009 tome is aptly titled. It’s a wonder, and it takes an age to read it. Right. I wanted to get that out of the way, as the fact of its lengthiness weighs on me as I consider penning a reaction to its substance. It feels really long. But, as with many efforts, …
Dec 26 2011
Constructive versus Destructive Atheist Activism
Chris Stedman gives voice to a concern I’ve had of late (and unfortunately does so in the Huffington Post, but we’ll let that go): I maintain significant disagreement with many religious beliefs, but I do not wish to be associated with narrow-minded, dehumanizing generalizations about religious people. I am disappointed that such positions represent atheist …
Nov 20 2011
My Atheism Will Not Save the World, Ctd.
Friend-of-the-blog Marty Pribble picks up on my lamentations about the state of atheist/skeptic activism, and explains my point about there being a deeper core of crisis than religion alone better than I did: I feel we are lacking focus. The problems of the world are not caused by religion alone, rather abuse of religious privilege, …
Nov 19 2011
My Atheism Will Not Save the World
After working professionally in the atheist movement, something about my passion for the cause dwindled. This happens a lot to me — I take on a given subject as my profession, and I subsequently grow disillusioned in said subject. Something about a thing becoming one’s job can spoil it. But after putting aside theatre a …
Sep 05 2011
Save Science by Not Talking about Science, Ctd.
Side note: My dad actually bought me this shirt. I love it, and my wife hates it when I wear it. She just thinks it makes me look stupid. I don’t think she cares about the rabbit. John Timmer at Ars Technica places a plague o’ both your houses when it comes to the convenient …
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