Atheist Media Blog

Richard Dawkins at the Jaipur Literature Festival

2012-01-26T20:04:00.001-05:00

Richard Dawkins and Lala Ward read excerpts from The Magic of Reality and Unweaving The Rainbow
(via RDnet and 3 Quarks Daily)

Colorado Springs Billboard: God Is An Imaginary Friend

2012-01-25T11:07:00.003-05:00

January 23, 2012 on KKTV 11 News:

The Colorado Coalition of Reason or COCORE is behind a billboard that will sit on I-25 and Garden Of The Gods.

The billboard will read "God is an imaginary friend. Choose reality, it will be better for all of us," and will face north on the west side of the highway.

COCORE is made up of people who consider themselves agnostic or atheist.

They tell KKTV 11 News the point of the billboard is to encourage discussion between believers and non-believers.

They also say the billboard will let other non-believers know that they are not alone.

Groff Schroeder, the spokesman for COCORE says, often times non-believers have no idea how big their community really is and this billboard will bring them together.
Read more

30 Renowned Writers Speaking About God

2012-01-22T16:13:00.000-05:00

Drew Berry: Animations of unseeable biology

2012-01-20T17:52:00.001-05:00

We have no ways to directly observe molecules and what they do -- Drew Berry wants to change that. At TEDxSydney he shows his scientifically accurate (and entertaining!) animations that help researchers see unseeable processes within our own cells.

(via RichardDawkins.net)

BBC The Big Questions: Has The Time Come To Repent?

2012-01-17T11:45:00.001-05:00

January 8, 2012 on BBC One
With atheist stand-up comic and political activist Kate Smurthwaite
(Thanks to TreVelocita)

Pope: Gay Marriage Could End Humanity

2012-01-12T11:17:00.001-05:00

January 9, 2011 on Jimmy Kimmel Live

The Best of the Hitchslap - Part Two

2012-01-03T18:06:00.001-05:00

Christopher Hitchens' Amazon Page

Tim Minchin: WoodyAllenJesus

2011-12-25T20:38:00.004-05:00

by Tim Minchin

This song was meant to air on the Jonathan Ross Show tomorrow night (23rd December 2011), but at the last minute ITV cut it. Here's my whiney blog about it.

(Thanks Gordon)

Channel 4 - Can Atheists Enjoy Christmas?

2011-12-22T16:09:00.000-05:00

From 4Thought.tv:

Christmas is one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar but what does it mean to non-believers? In the week before Christmas seven atheists spell out their views.
More

(Thanks Dharmender)

The intolerance of diversity

2011-12-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

by Pat Condell

Fischer: God Sent Christopher Hitchens to Hell Because He Loved Him

2011-12-17T14:51:00.003-05:00

Bryan Fischer says that God sent Christopher Hitchens to Hell as a demonstration of his true love for him.

To XMAS And Beyond!

2011-12-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

by The Thinking Atheist

Christopher Hitchens - The Best of the Hitchslap

2011-12-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

Christopher Hitchens Dies at 62

2011-12-16T10:59:00.000-05:00

December 16, 2011 on ABC News:

Christopher Hitchens, the maverick essayist, unabashed atheist and cable television gladiator whose long list of targets included Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and even Mother Teresa and organized religion, has died of complications from pneumonia, a complication of esophageal cancer. He was 62.

Hitchens died Thursday at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, according to a statement released by Vanity Fair late Thursday night.

"There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar," Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter said in the statement. "Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

Born in Britain April 13, 1949, and educated at Oxford, Hitchens authored more than a dozen books. He achieved his greatest notoriety with the 2007 best-seller "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," in which he dismissed faith as wish fulfillment and religion as "the main source of hatred in the world."

With its publication, Hitchens became the public face of atheism. Critics assumed his cancer diagnosis, in 2010, would lead Hitchens to relent and embrace God. But he remained a proud non-believer to the very end, as he made clear in an early October 2011 speech at the annual Atheist Alliance of America convention in Houston, as he accepted the Freethinker of the Year Award.
Read more

Saudi Woman Beheaded for 'Sorcery'

2011-12-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

December 13, 2011 on CNN

Jailed Afghan rape victim freed but 'to marry attacker'

2011-12-07T21:40:00.001-05:00

Video embedding disabled by uploader, watch on Youtube
From BBC News:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a rape victim who was jailed for adultery, after she apparently agreed to marry her attacker.

A government statement said she agreed to the marriage, although her lawyer said she did not wish to marry him.

Senior Afghan officials told the BBC the government put no preconditions on her release.

"President Karzai tasked the minister of justice to go and talk to Gulnaz to see what she wants. During her meeting with the minister, she said she will marry the attacker only if her brother marries the attacker's sister," Emal Faizay, a spokesman for President Karzai, told the BBC.
Read more

Fox News: Outrage Over Rhode Island's 'Holiday Tree'

2011-12-01T09:03:00.001-05:00

December 1, 2011 on Fox & Friends

Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy

2011-12-01T08:57:00.001-05:00

(via RichardDawkins.net)

Sky News: Church Tells HIV Patients To Stop Treatment

2011-11-28T09:57:00.001-05:00

November 25, 2011 on Sky News:

At least six people have died in Britain after being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medication, Sky News has discovered.

There is evidence evangelical churches in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow are claiming to cure HIV through God.

Sky sent three undercover reporters to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), which is based in Southwark, south London.

All of them told the pastors they were HIV positive - all were told they could be healed.

Once a month, the church has a prayer line, where people from across Europe come to be cured of all kinds of illness.
Read more

Stephen Fry & friends on the life, loves and hates of Christopher Hitchens - IQ2 talks

2011-11-26T12:48:00.001-05:00

From Intelligence Squared:

IMPORTANT: This video will not be available to users in the UK and Ireland until February 20. Thank you for your patience.

In this historic event, Stephen Fry and other friends of Christopher Hitchens came together to celebrate the life and work of this great writer, iconoclast and debater. Fry was joined on stage at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall by Richard Dawkins and the two discussed Hitch's unflinching commitment to the truth. Hollywood actor Sean Penn was beamed in from LA by Google+ and, between cigarette puffs, read from Hitch's acclaimed work, The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Five friends of Hitch spoke via satellite in New York: satirist Christopher Buckley and editor Lewis Lapham mused on Hitch's prowess as a journalist. 'Like a pot of gold', said Lapham. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and James Fenton delighted the audience with stories of Hitchens as a young man. Rushdie drew roars of laughter when he recounted a word game invented by Amis and Hitchens where the word 'love' is replaced with 'hysterical sex'. Particular favourites included Hysterical Sex in the Time of Cholera and Hysterical Sex Is All You Need.

Watching the event with Hitch at his bedside in Texas, Hitch's wife Carol and novelist Ian McEwan provided an email commentary. 'His Rolls Royce mind is still purring beautifully', typed McEwan.

The event was watched live by 2500 at the venue, and by thousands more in UK cinemas and online.

http://hitchfry.intelligencesquared.com/

"Is There Anybody There?" - Nicholas Humphrey

2011-11-25T19:37:00.001-05:00

Nicholas Humphrey's devastating study of religious miracles and other paranormal phenomena. Featuring the apparition at Knock, the Enfield poltergeist, the Woodbridge UFO, the moving virgin of Ballinspittle, and much more. A one and a half hour "special" for Channel Four, 1987.

(via RichardDawkins.net)

The Pale Blue Dot - A Tribute to Carl Sagan

2011-11-24T09:27:00.001-05:00

by The Thinking Atheist
(via RichardDawkins.net)

Robin Ince: Science versus wonder? -TED 2011

2011-11-22T11:26:00.001-05:00

Does science ruin the magic of life? In this grumpy but charming monologue, Robin Ince makes the argument against. The more we learn about the astonishing behavior of the universe -- the more we stand in awe.

Sunday Morning Live: Does Reincarnation Exist?

2011-11-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

November 20, 2011 on BBC One

Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids - TED

2011-11-22T11:08:00.001-05:00

What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid - and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them.