It must be the season. The godless are popping up all over.

• Strange Doctrines is back after a hiatus. I suspect he was off in mystic Tibet studying the rituals of Dormammu.

• Go say hello to the Hooping Humanist. He’s even got a picture of me!

• I don’t know if we want to encourage this: atheists are also busting out in song. The Midwest Humanist channels Monty Python.

• You can turn your godless musical talents into fame and glory: Q Transmissions is running a musical contest. They’ve already adapted some lyrics from Miss Prism, which you can listen to. If you must.

Austin Dacey is an interesting fellow who has written a book on the non-religious basis of morality, The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, and he is going to be on Atheists Talk radio this morning at 9am Central time. He’ll be talking specifically about the Islamic threat to secular government. Tune in! I suspect he’ll have something to say about the UN resolution to condemn defamation of religions, but if he doesn’t, call in and ask. This is another day of traveling for me, so I’m going to have to miss it, but you probably don’t have that excuse — and if you do have an excuse, do like I will and get the podcast later.

Christianist thugs stole the atheist sign from the Washington state capitol building. It’s revealing of their mindset — that it’s OK to censor anything that disagrees with their petty beliefs.

However, I’m getting a few emails that hint that maybe this means it’s now time for open season on nativity scenes. Emphatically NO. Right now we claim the moral high ground here, and we need to maintain it. Put that baby Jesus down right now, guy. Defend their right to display their beliefs and demand equal time for ours!

My old home state, Washington (uh, I’ve got the right one, right? This isn’t DC, I hope), is waging the war on Christmas, as is appropriate for one of the most godless states in the country. The FFRF has put up a sign nestled among the religious symbols at the Capitol:

At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

I’m impressed with the guy who put up a nativity scene, too: he says the atheist sign doesn’t bother him, and that free speech is great. That’s what we need more of — mutual elbow room and tolerance.

Oh, and there’s also a tree, only it’s not a Christmas tree. It’s the Capitol Holiday Kids Tree. I like it.

Not everyone is happy, though: one cranky commentator spills a little bile, and then ironically snarks about the holiday spirit. So not everyone in the state is enlightened, but then there are always a few kooks on the fringe.

The Unreasonable Faith blog has started a series on “An Evil God?”, documenting the horrible little stories and nasty tribal morality of the Bible.

He has already started with page 1. It’s a l o n g book, so he’s committing himself to a very long series, I think.

I just received a sampling of
Order of St. Nick’s Alternative Holiday Greeting Cards, so I have to give them a plug. If you’ve been looking for atheist Christmas cards, they’ve got ’em.

I was thinking of sending them to my family back in the Pacific Northwest, but I may have to get some more so I can send some to Bill Donohue and Bill O’Reilly, too.

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Oh, my — they also have evil Christmas cards. Maybe those would be more appropriate for the Bills.

At 9am Central time, Atheists Talk radio will host Robert M. Price, who is going to explain to us where all this nonsense about biblical inerrancy came from.

Bold atheists have been buying ad space on buses in London and Washington DC—it’s been a successful tactic for raising the profile of godless groups, and has also been somewhat controversial. The Atheist Foundation of Australia sought to emulate those successes, and met an obstacle: the ad company simply refused to allow them to buy ad space, without giving a reason, and you can tell it was simply religious bigotry behind the decision.

It’s not as if they were trying to put up abusive or profane messages. Here are some of the slogans they suggested.

We started off with “Atheism – because there is no credible evidence”, we put that to the bus companies, they didn’t like that and they said the wording wasn’t to their acceptance. And then we changed that to “Celebrate reason” and thought we’d make it a bit comical “Sleep in on Sunday mornings”, but they refused that also.

This refusal is coming from the same company, APN Outdoor, that previously ran Bible verses on buses — it’s clearly simple bias that is behind their decision. I hope someone is considering legal action, since this kind of asymmetry that closes channels of communication to one side of a public issue means the ad company is arbitrarily imposing their faith-based beliefs on others.

Whoa, I was worn out from traveling, and just got up. It’s almost time for Atheists Talk radio! This week, it’s time for some science: we’re going to hear from Matt Kaplan, head of a DNA testing lab, and he’s going to discuss the Genographic Project and procedures for tracing human ancestry.

Recently, we’ve been mocking the sad little website of the Rev. Cockshaw, which had the title “There probably is!” (referring, of course, to a deity). Now someone has done the obvious and grabbed the url for There Probably Isn’t!. So go ahead, post your stories of deconversion there.

I’m feeling a bit sorry for Cockshaw. His efforts got steamrollered rather easily, and now they’re being reversed. Good work!