I was intrigued by this article concerning the Freedom From Religion Foundation stopping prayers at a school graduation and the parents taking the graduation into the church to allow prayers.

http://ht.ly/l6a9U

They are claiming that it is an unfair attack on the school, even though the school's graduation with prayers would be unconstitutional.

If you listen to the public broadcast debate, you will notice that the atheist representative…

I am going to the Veterans Administration Wednesday for surgery on my right hand to relieve Dupuytren's Contractures, the second time in four years.

This time there is a difference. Four years ago I lived in Oklahoma, where as an atheist my Christian neighbours…

A couple of prayer requests for the President came across my desk a few weeks ago. At first I just deleted them because they came from my religious friends and I didn’t want to offend them even though they probably never considered that the people on their mailing list may be of different religions or no religion at all.…

All I read (actually in 'good news' newspaper funded by I imagine all that's Bush etc.. Koch) is anti gay
anti secular

anti tech; anti green (unless bought out by the koch bros)
anti environment (hey how about those tourist dollars? what happened?)
anti life (imagine that)

anti thought

no imagination hey that's religion dugh!

the most dividing fucking bs mind control crap with gold encrusted bs sadists at the helms...

lame!

[Note: The following was written when I was an adherent of Humanistic Judaism.  I have since left the movement and revised the post, but the basic ideas still apply.]

“Soon silence will have passed into legend.  Man has turned his back on silence.  Day after day he invents machines and devices that increased noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.  Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and…

“If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world.”

Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great

“There is nothing that is too obvious of an absurdity to be firmly planted in the human head as long as you begin to instill before the age of five by constantly repeating it with an air of great seriousness.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

“Hardest of deaths…

Nevermind crazy pseudo-theocratic North Korean regimes that wish to invade them using incursion tunnels. Nevermind that this extremely isolationist rogue state has nukes and rocketry advanced enough to deliver certain nuclear incineration death anywhere in their country.

Some South Korean…

The following is a summary of a discussion I had with a theist or two over at Rational Response Squad after I made by story known and opened a discussion on the subject.  I had been feeling that the load of crap served up to vulnerable people at their most painful moments was too crass to ignore as a subject. Deaths and funerals are used as a platform for evangelizing, using people's grief and fear to fill the pews on…

This may be less than timely, but whatever.

How many times does Texas Gov. Perry have to be snubbed by "the Lord" before he gets it?

April 2011, Texas is starting to suffer widespread drought for which there is no impending meteorological relief. Rick Perry organizes a "prayer" holiday for rain and the drought gets worse, continuing to this very day. Any good witch doctor knows you need to see the clouds building in the west before you schedule the rain dance.…

I've never been affected at all by people around me dying, but I've also never had anyone this close die. So now I'll learn how I deal with death.

All of the relatives are posting messages on Facebook saying "prayers coming in from here" and "more prayers coming from here." I know I shouldn't be insulted by this. He was a Christian and probably would be grateful for these (if he weren't unconscious and all), but it all just seems so silly, like they aren't taking it…

I was indoctrinated into Protestant Christianity from birth and accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior at the ripe old age of four.  I don't remember much about my childhood but I still remember that evening and the place of worship in Panama we called "The Home."  It wasn't a formal church and I imagine it was more like what you would have seen in the Apostle Paul's day where believers gathered in homes to praise god together through song and prayer.

The Home was situated either…

Other adherents will offer this option to me, “If you only would trust your heart, then you would know that God is real.” To this I say, “I have followed what I felt was the Lord's leading in my life for many things as surely as you feel that you are now.”   This also includes for family, friends, in jobs, relationships, where to go for trips and much more. There is not a single area that I didn't try to “bring under” the power of God.  Even my marriage.  But the facts of reality must be…

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SU NOMBRE EN VANO)

As an atheist I don't pray. To me it's no different from talking to the air, or to the ceiling if I'm laying on my bed. Since I know it makes no difference in this world, I don't give up to such wishful thinking. However, I have friends who do pray. I think we all have. One of them is a pastor, a really nice guy who for me is kind of hard to see as the…

Not sure how sharing a candy bar makes you want to have a Prayer Day, but now it's in place in the Federated States of Micronesia, who has had a close tie with the US since World War II, and is very religious, although not as diverse as the US (Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 47%, other 3%).

"[President] Mori explained he was inspired to create this day for FSM after attending the 2007 Annual National Prayer Breakfast at the White House in…

In April of this year, U.S. District Court Judge (Western Wisconsin District) ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, and equated the 1952 and 1988 laws establishing the Day of Prayer as federally mandated calls for religious action. In so deciding, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue or practice magic.…