There has been quite a bit of attention paid to a recent Pew poll that revealed that belief in evolution has dropped sharply from 54% in 2009 to 43% today among those who identify themselves as Republicans, while belief among the overall population has remained the same at about 60%. [Read more…]
Dan Savage says something that absolutely resonates with me. It had never bothered me to have people wish me merry Christmas or for me to wish them similarly in return. But this whole nonsense of the ‘war of Christmas’ which has made the phrase ‘merry Christmas’ into a shibboleth to prove that one was not hostile to Christmas has actually had the reverse effect, where I hesitate to say it so as to avoid looking like I am on the side of the Christian nutcases. [Read more…]
It is a measure of how out of touch I am with popular culture that I often learn about a media phenomenon only long after it has been around or if it goes down in flames. Sometimes the names associated with the phenomenon (Honey Boo Boo, Miley Cyrus, the Kardashians) lurk in the fringes of my consciousness because the news headlines feature them but I know next to nothing about them. [Read more…]
Chris Mooney makes the case that the Affordable Care Act could eventually result in more people becoming atheists. Why? [Read more…]
Stephen Colbert has some thoughts on the season and how Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and John Stossel view the spirit of giving. [Read more…]
And the secularists are gaining ground. A new survey indicates that while the holiday is still celebrated, fewer are doing it for religious reasons. It is returning to its roots as a secular holiday meant to lift people’s spirits in the darkest days of winter. [Read more…]
You should hop over to Digital Cuttlefish who has an interesting post discussing the results of a recent Harris survey that finds a decrease in belief in a god and all the things associated with it, when compared to previous polls in 2005, 2007, and 2009.
And with Cuttlefish you almost always get as a bonus an original poem to go along with the post.
Harold Camping, who predicted that the world would end in 2011, died today at the age of 92. [Read more…]
Remember when opponents of same-sex marriage warned that changing the idea that marriage can only be between one man and one woman would inevitably lead to polygamy, bestiality, marrying of children, and other horrors? It should not be too hard to recall since they are still making those same arguments.
Those people received what they thought was an “I told you so” moment when a US District Court judge in Utah outlawed as unconstitutional a state law that banned cohabitation. (You can read the ruling here.) [Read more…]