Atheist Media Blog

Bill Moyers Essay: Freedom of and From Religion

2012-02-17T14:17:00.001-05:00

February 16, 2012 on BillMoyers.com

In this video essay, Bill Moyers addresses the question of how to honor religious liberty without it becoming the liberty to impose on others moral beliefs they don’t share. The recent debate over contraception coverage in Catholic hospitals and other faith-based institutions brought this question to the forefront, but then something surprising happened — a reasonable, practical, and equitable solution from President Obama that took the political steam out of what some saw as a holy war.
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(via RDnet)

Italy Plans to Tax Vatican on Commercial Property

2012-02-17T11:24:00.000-05:00

From BBC News:

Italy's Catholic Church faces an annual multi-million euro bill over government plans to strip it of its tax-exempt status.

Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced the Vatican must pay taxes on non-religious property, from which it previously enjoyed an exemption.

The annual cost could be up to 720m euros ($945m; £598m) according to municipal government bodies.

Italy's Catholic Church has 110,000 properties, worth about 9bn euros. It includes shopping centres and a range of residential property.
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BBC Newsnight: Secularism vs. Religion in National Affairs

2012-02-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

February 15, 2012 on BBC Two

Richard Dawkins, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali and Ruth Gledhill discuss secularism in the UK

Andrew Copson and Anne Atkins discussing "militant secularism"

2012-02-16T09:24:00.000-05:00

BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson on the BBC News channel, discussing Baroness Warsi's claims of 'militant secularism' with Anne Atkins.

(via RDnet)

Fears for Blogger After Extradition to Saudi Arabia

2012-02-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

From Euro News:

Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has been deported from Malaysia back to Saudi Arabia. The 23-year-old columnist had sparked outrage following controversial Twitter comments on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed which were seen to be insulting.

The columnist had fled the oil-rich kingdom and was arrested in transit through Kuala Lumpur airport on Thursday. Malaysia and Saudi have close ties.

Some Islam clerics had called for him to face the death penalty. Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. It is not a capital crime in Malaysia.

Human rights groups have protested. Adding to the controversy is a claim his lawyer had obtained a court order preventing deportation, but had not been allowed to see his client.

Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss - Something From Nothing?

2012-02-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Join critically-acclaimed author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss as they discuss biology, cosmology, religion, and a host of other topics.

The authors will also discuss their new books. Dawkins recently published The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True, an exploration of the magic of discovery embodied in the practice of science. Written for all age groups, the book moves forward from historical examples of supernatural explanations of natural phenomena to focus on the actual science behind how the world works.

Krauss's latest book, A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing, explains the scientific advances that provide insight into how the universe formed. Krauss tackles the age-old assumption that something cannot arise from nothing by arguing that not only can something arise from nothing, but something will always arise from nothing.

Founded in 2008, the ASU Origins Project is a university-wide transdisciplinary initiative aimed at facilitating cutting edge research and inquiry about origins questions, enhancing public science literacy, and improving science education. Since its inception, the Origins Project has brought the world's leading scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, to Tempe to explore origins questions. The Origins Project has hosted workshops and public events that have focused on questions as fundamental as the origin of the universe, how life began, the origins of human uniqueness, and the origins of morality.

via RichardDawkins.net

About a Jesus...

2012-02-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

via Friendly Atheist
(Thanks Josh)

The Reason Rally - March 24, 2012

2012-02-06T14:39:00.002-05:00

ReasonRally.org

New Rule: Atheism is not a religion! - Bill Maher

2012-02-06T14:12:00.002-05:00

February 3, 2012 on Real Time with Bill Maher

The Real Time host brings Mitt Romney's father-in-law back to the realm of the dead atheist.

Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0 - TED

2012-01-30T16:21:00.000-05:00

What aspects of religion should atheists (respectfully) adopt? Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists" -- call it Atheism 2.0 -- that incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence.

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.
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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.
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(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.
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Saudi Woman Beheaded for 'Sorcery'

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

December 13, 2011 on CNN