Fox & Friends Says Protecting Atheists From Discrimination Is Anti-Christian!

While Fox News cheered on the Indiana "religious freedom" bill as a way to protect Christians, they sure don't feel the same way about a Wisconsin ordinance, pushed by the evil Freedom From Religion Foundation, which protects atheists. On this morning's Fox & Friends, we learned that this action is anti-Christian because Christians have a right to discriminate against atheists!

Paragon of tolerant Christianity, Tucker Carlson reported that Madison, Wisconsin is now including atheists as a protected class. Jesus BFF, Anna Kooiman set the propaganda message in asking Fox's favorite race baiting, GOP activist, and former DOJ attorney J Christian Adams "where does this hostility come from." Adams informed us that the measure was driven by the Freedom From

Religion Foundation which is one of Fox's favorite targets for its patented war on atheists and atheism. In Fox's Christian crusade, Adams described the group as "a bunch of angry atheists." (As opposed to the perennially pissed off Christians who host Fox News shows?) READ MORE

If Our Founding Fathers Were All Christians, Why Did They Say This?

Nobody can deny the fact that Christianity has played a huge role in our history. From the first Thanksgiving to the ideas of Jesus Christ that are embroidered in our culture today, Christianity and the Bible is responsible a big part of our heritage.

However, many conservatives will take this fact way out of context. They'll think that you have to be a Christian to be patriotic, which is simply not true. Following the more secular teachings of Jesus Christ (being charitable, loving one another, treating strangers with kindness) is what the men who founded this country were for.

I don't want to waste my time listing all these obscurant far-right arguments, so instead I'll list the facts straight from our forefathers.  READ MORE

Once Again, Believers Have it Wrong: Atheists Don't Just Want Sex, Drugs, and Lack of Morality

As much as religion's defenders would like us to believe otherwise, there is no non-human moral authority.

January 23, 2012

The death of Christopher Hitchens last month sparked an outpouring of tributes. Most of them praised his best qualities: his ferocious courage, his seemingly effortless erudition, and his crusading defense of free speech and rationalism. 

Of course, he had his faults as well -- most notably his support for the Iraq war -- and I was happy to see that relatively few of the eulogies, even those written by his personal friends, overlooked or excused this. Given how averse Hitchens himself was to whitewashing the lives of the deceased, I have no doubt that this is how he would have wanted it.

There was one item, however, that caught my attention -- this column in the New York Times, which had the following line: 

Of course, he took on God, a dangerous occupation in the United States, declaring him not great and religion the product of a time when nobody "had the smallest idea what was going on." Like Einstein, he viewed ethics as "an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it," a position that sparked conflict with his journalist brother, Peter, who has argued that, "For a moral code to be effective, it must be attributed to, and vested in, a nonhuman source. It must be beyond the power of humanity to change it to suit itself." READ MORE

Why Is an Atheist High School Student Getting Vicious Death Threats?

Her state representative has called the student "evil" and she has been threatened with violence, rape and death. What gives?

January 18, 2012

If you take away just two things from the story about atheist high school student Jessica Ahlquist, and the court case she won last week to have a prayer banner taken out of her public school, let it be these:

1. The ruling in this case was entirely unsurprising. It is 100 percent in line with unambiguous legal precedent, established and re-established over many decades, exemplifying a basic principle of constitutional law. 
2.  As a result of this lawsuit, Jessica Ahlquist is now being bullied, ostracized and threatened with violence in her community. She has been called "evil" in public by her state representative, and is being targeted with multiple threats of violence, rape and death.

Which leads one to wonder: What the hell is going on here?

Let's get #1 out of the way first. This court decision -- READ MORE

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No, the majority does not always rule.

In a constitutional democracy, people with minority, dissenting, or unpopular
opinions and identities have some basic rights, which the majority cannot take
away.

If the majority thought that everyone had to dye their hair brown, or that all
witches should be burned at the stake, the majority would not rule.

Redheads have the right not to dye their hair brown; witches have the right
not to be burned at the stake. No matter how much in the minority they are.
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The Santa Delusion: Why 'Religion Is Useful' Is a Terrible Argument For Religion

The argument from utility -- the defense of religion, not because it's true, but because it's psychologically or socially useful -- is freakishly common.
July 29, 2011 |

"But religion is useful. It makes people happy. It comforts people in hard times. It makes people better-behaved. And losing religious faith can be traumatic. So what difference does it make if it isn't true? Shouldn't we be perpetuating it anyway -- or at least leaving it alone? Why do you want to persuade people out of it?"

Atheists hear this a lot. The argument from utility -- the defense of religion, not because it's true, but because it's psychologically or socially useful -- is freakishly common. If you spend any time reading debates in atheist blogs or forums, you're bound to see it come up.
READ MORE