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I must confess to a cruel game with this post. I saw this poster and thought, “What? But most of these people weren’t atheists!” Surely someone could do a far better job with this idea than that, and everyone would see the problem here (at least John Wilkins did, as did many of the commenters). You were supposed to be inspired to make a better version. At least one person was, but they took it in a completely different direction than I expected.

Anyone care to try and do something better, with a positive message?

The Birmingham city council has put up blocking software to lock out atheist websites, which is OK — they’ve got to crack that whip and keep their employees focused on the work at hand, of course. Unfortunately, they apparently aren’t doing this to improve productivity, but simply to shut down a point of view some bureaucrat doesn’t like.

The authority’s Bluecoat Software computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism”.

I’m always peeved at this inconsistent categorization. If you’re going to group undesirable topics under the heading of “Forms of mysticism”, then atheism does not belong there, but Christianity and Islam do, right along with witchcraft, the occult, voodoo, and New Age nonsense. I suppose we could even stretch that category to cover pornography, since it largely seems to consist of imaginary bodies airbrushed and photoshopped into an impossibly ideal form.

Sunday at 9am on Atheists Talk radio it’s…me! And C.L. Hanson, too! Listen, and if you’re local, come on down to Q.Cumbers restaurant at 11 for a godless brunch. We shall have fun!

I lived in Indiana for a short while long ago, and they didn’t have any of these freethought groups in my neighborhood. It’s good to see Hoosiers are wising up: FreeThought Fort Wayne is hosting Dr. Robert M. Price who will be speaking about his recent book, “Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms.” The presentation with a Q&A will be on Wed. Aug. 6th at 7 PM in the Main Allen County Public Library theater located on lower level 2.

Get on out there — Price is very entertaining.

On his last visit to the US, Richard Dawkins was having little conversations with various people — people like Steven Weinberg, Lawrence Krauss, and David Buss — and recording them. Now you can get them on DVD. It’s a clever and understated idea; instead of having these guys lecture at a crowd, capture them in some quiet one-on-one conversation.

Yeah, I’m in there, too. Unfortunately, I just can’t watch myself. The others are very good, though!

Nick Spencer of the Telegraph says Americans don’t do atheism. It’s a weird piece that frets over the religiosity of American politicians, but somehow seems to find it reassuring that there are different ways to be religious, and that maybe the US is moving away from dominionist wackaloonery towards religously-motivated social activism — doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, in other words. There’s a germ of hope there, that the country might get somewhat less insane — but at the same time it represents an opportunity to entrench superstition deeper into the republic. I really don’t consider a liberal theocracy any better than a conservative theocracy: both are built on ignorance and dogma.

Worse, Spencer thinks Rick Warren, glib cult-leader and bubble-gum philosopher, is a good thing for the country. Blah. He seems to be a nice fellow on some subjects, but ultimately he’s a patriarchal loon who thinks gays and atheists will burn in hell. Maybe he is representative of the country, though…superficially earnest and well meaning, with a seething core of stupid that means we’ll do horrible things in spite of good intentions.

That isn’t anything to inspire optimism.

This is a nicely done essay prompted by the papal poltroonery that has been going on in Sydney recently. Here are a few bits:

I don’t give a stuff what people believe in, but it won’t stop me poking at it or prodding it. Why should religion be any exemption? Telling me I’m going to hell won’t bother me because I have the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn and Bertrand Russell’s Teapot in my heart. Google them if you are in the market for some red hot enlightenment.

And this is really true — throwing off the foolishness is liberating.

It’s been a revelation to me a year since my “epiphany”. I feel as if I’m walking through life with the blinkers off. Suddenly all the religious mumbo-jumbo jumps out as so bonkers. Wearing certain things, eating certain things, mumbling certain things at certain times so some imaginary friend will let you into a club in the sky when you die. I want to do my living now, thanks. I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of never having lived.

I don’t care what people believe in, but I do care that religion impacts on political discourse, public policy and that it stunts the ability of people to think for themselves and question. And that it kills people and causes suffering. But most of all I care that the invisible electric fences that are wired in the minds of children brainwashed by religion are difficult to remove. And impossible if you don’t even know they’re there.

This time it’s the American Freethought Podcast.