vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 9, 2012, 6:22 am
I'd like you to join me in believing in some sort of entity I can't define or explain in a logically coherent manner. I know what you're thinking: If I can't explain it, how can I even know what it is that I'm claiming to believe? I believe because it makes me feel good to do so. You see, I have con...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 8, 2012, 5:55 am
In spite of multiple requests from the Freedom From Religion Foundation that he respect the Constitution he once taught in law school, President Obama participated in another National Prayer Breakfast. And the 2,562-word speech he gave suggests that he was not there as a passive observer but a full ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 7, 2012, 6:02 am
Freedom vs. theocracy is appropriate for this image because today's Democratic Party is anything but secular. Instead of standing up for our secular democracy, many have adopted a path of pandering to the religious. For us, regardless of our political leanings, it is about secularism vs. theocracy. ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 6, 2012, 8:27 am
The fact that Willard "Mittens" Romney's second cousin, Park Romney, recently surfaced is not exactly newsworthy. The fact that he's an ex-Mormon who questions whether Mittens could effectively represent the U.S. without his allegiance to church leaders clouding his judgment certainly should be. Eve...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 5, 2012, 8:58 am
I had a bit of a rebellious streak in my youth, and I am sure that there were times when I adopted a minority position simply to rebel against authority. This was probably also a contributing factor to how outspoken I was about my atheism during my college years. But while it may have contributed to...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Feb 4, 2012, 10:40 am
Posted at the request of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Atheist and Freethinking Association We will celebrate DARWIN DAY - with guest speaker Brian Axsmith, Professor of Biology at U of South Alabama. His research interest, local fossil plants from the Pliocene (~ 3 million years ago, a time of e...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 4, 2012, 8:50 am
Staks over at Dangerous Talk recently brought up a great point about how people - especially those in the media - delegitimize atheism in subtle ways. He notes that atheists who are interviewed on TV or for print media are often referred to as "a self-professed atheist" and that this sort of prefix ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 3, 2012, 6:06 am
It is often said that the difference between a religion and a cult comes down to the number of adherents. Longevity seems to be a factor too, as it seems like it is usually the people who belong to older, established religions who use the cult label to describe newer religions. I am curious about w...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Feb 1, 2012, 6:20 am
Atheists in the United States are often asked why we cannot just ignore the Christian majority that surrounds us. Why can't we simply let them go about their business and not pay any attention to them? In part, my answer is that they never seem content to stop trying to legislate their particular vi...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 31, 2012, 6:52 am
There are many things that bother me about the sort of god that Christians claim to worship. This image captures one of them: the absurdity of thinking that a god so powerful, so wise, so good would demand worship from humans and would condemn them to eternal punishment for the crime of not believin...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 30, 2012, 6:29 am
Devil's Playground is a 2002 documentary about a rite-of-passage called "Rumspringa" that Amish teens go through before deciding whether they will join the Amish church and embrace the culture in they were raised or leave it all behind for the modern world. I had heard of the film but never got arou...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 29, 2012, 9:35 am
Every few years, a story appears in the U.S. media suggesting that evangelical fundamentalist Christianity is losing political influence and is on its way out. These predictions never seem to materialize, but that doesn't stop people from making them. With Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum's poll numbers r...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 28, 2012, 9:34 am
If you aren't familiar with Secular News Daily, you are missing out. Increasingly, I am finding that they are one of my go-to sources for breaking news on the subject of church-state separation and related matters. They recently posted an article by Lauren Anderson Youngblood, the Communications Ma...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Jan 27, 2012, 9:14 am
The Secular Coalition for America recently released their 2011 Congressional Report Card based on how our representatives have voted on legislation of relevance to the secular community. Not surprisingly, our elected representatives in Mississippi did not score particularly well. Of the four represe...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 27, 2012, 8:15 am
I think we can all agree that atheists are an unpopular minority in the United States. We've seen countless examples of bigotry directed at us by Christians, including elected officials who are supposed to know better. And it is not just the Christians; the record is not much better for members of o...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 25, 2012, 6:18 am
None of us has as much money as we'd probably like. Even if you reject the "consumer culture" of the United States and many other Western nations, you could probably think of some genuinely good things you'd like to do if you could afford it (e.g., funding secular organizations to the point where th...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 24, 2012, 6:14 am
Sexism and misogyny are loaded terms in that nobody wants to be accused of either of them. But what do they mean? I have seen many prominent atheist bloggers using these terms interchangeably. This was a surprise, as I've always understood them to be related but distinct concepts. I think it may be ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 23, 2012, 6:29 am
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint with the State of Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights after area florists refused to deliver an order to Jessica Ahlquist. The complaint alleges "illegal discrimination based on religion." Under Rhode Island law, a business cannot deny ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 22, 2012, 11:50 am
Today is the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman's legal right to abort a pregnancy. As we celebrate this important case and its promotion of reproductive freedom, we must not forget to acknowledge a very real problem Roe has exposed. In the year...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 22, 2012, 8:57 am
He's an ethically challenged hypocrite who relies on time-tested racist tactics to influence the Republican electorate. He's Newt Gingrich, and he won yesterday's South Carolina primary. As many in the corporate news media try to boost their ratings by suggesting that Willard "Mittens" Romney is in...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 21, 2012, 2:22 pm
I live in a country where a state governor, a Democratic one at that, believes it is appropriate to cut his state's education budget while giving $43 million in tax breaks to a bible-themed amusement park. Keep in mind that this governor, Steve Beshear (D-KY) presides over a state where education is...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 21, 2012, 7:45 am
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) offers a few different scholarships and awards for deserving students and others who contribute to the atheist community. These include essay competitions, student activist awards, and awards for activism and achievement given at their conventions. They ha...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 20, 2012, 3:22 pm
I don't often get to reflect on how proud I am of the American people. And it is even more rare that I get to experience strong positive feelings toward Republican voters in particular. And yet, the news that Rick Perry finally dropped out of the Republican primary does indeed leave me feeling good ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 20, 2012, 8:54 am
Religious thuggery (i.e., attempts to impose religiously derived preferences on others through violence) is nothing new. We have encountered many examples of upset Christians using it to intimidate those with whom they disagree or to punish those who were successful in protecting the separation of c...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 19, 2012, 6:11 am
This simple chart provides a fairly accurate description of why prayer serves no real purpose. Assuming that the god at which religious believers are directing their prayers has some sort of plan for them, as most Christians insist, prayer is either redundant or futile. If one's prayer happens to co...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 16, 2012, 12:22 pm
We've seen it happen countless times. An American citizen has the courage to stand up for the First Amendment of our Constitution and subsequently faces a barrage of insults, including threats of physical harm or even death, from Christians. Why it happens is no mystery. Significant numbers of Chris...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 16, 2012, 7:50 am
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.-- Martin Luther King, ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Jan 15, 2012, 2:27 pm
As you have almost certainly heard by now, a large and influential group of Christian extremists met in Texas yesterday with the goal of choosing a Republican presidential candidate behind which to unify in order to prevent Willard "Mittens" Romney from receiving the nomination. They worry that he's...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 31, 2011, 6:16 am
While some Christians agonize over what to do each year when Halloween rolls around, I have found that many atheists consider it one of their favorite holidays. I am happy to count myself among them. Halloween is one of the few holidays I still enjoy. In fact, it might be the only one. And yes, I su...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 30, 2011, 10:31 am
I know full well what I'm getting when I turn on the History Channel for anything related to religion: pro-Christian propaganda. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on them. After all, they are in the business of entertaining people, the majority of whom do not particularly like to think. Historical acc...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 29, 2011, 11:54 am
You may remember that I had a link in the sidebar a few weeks ago for a petition asking the White House to work on removing "under god" from the Pledge of Allegiance. The petition was part of a new program the Obama administration had announced where they would consider requests with over 5,000 sign...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 29, 2011, 7:45 am
I was initially hesitant to select Noelle for Idiot of the Week "honors" because I thought she had to be joking in this video. Now that I've watched it again and realized that she is a Republican strategist who has made a number of appearances on Fox "News" I think she may be serious. And if there i...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 27, 2011, 5:34 am
Greta Christina has written one of the most thought-provoking posts about coming out atheist I've read in awhile. Her central point is that coming out as an atheist (i.e., disclosing our atheism to others) is an inherently oppositional act because it communicates to believers that they are wrong on ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Oct 26, 2011, 11:12 am
I have spoken to several people who I know to be reasonable, and all of them, to a person, was ignorant about the ramifications of Prop. 26, and being reasonable people, the truth about the proposition caught them off guard. Yes, it will potentially ban almost all forms of birth control. Once peop...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Oct 26, 2011, 11:11 am
Subscribe to Mississippi Atheists
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 25, 2011, 4:52 pm
I know it often seems like our votes do not matter. On the rare occasions when the person I have voted for wins the election, I typically find that little changes. The candidate, now elected, lacks either the will or the support of the other branches of government to bring about meaningful change. I...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Oct 25, 2011, 4:44 pm

Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 24, 2011, 6:15 am
There is no question that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is very different from the atheist movement. But apart from those of us who share many of their goals, is there anything we can learn from their success? I've already highlighted one lesson: that appearances matter. In this post, I want to look at w...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Oct 22, 2011, 10:30 am
On November 8, Mississippi voters will decide whether to amend our state constitution by redefining personhood to include fertilized eggs. The stated goal of those promoting Initiative 26 is to provide the U.S. Supreme Court with the case they need to overturn Roe v. Wade, effectively ending reprodu...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 22, 2011, 9:16 am
And you thought it was going to be Harold Camping! Admittedly, it was a tough call. But I'm always going to give the edge to bigotry over mere stupidity, especially when it comes from someone who seeks power over us. Here's Newt Gingrich during the most recent Republican debate:Now, I happen to thi...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 21, 2011, 5:57 am
One of religious believers' favorite questions for atheists concerns our thoughts on the meaning of life. They typically assume that we must have a meaningless existence because we do not believe in their gods. Not only is this the height of arrogance, but it reflects a lack of understanding about t...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 20, 2011, 6:02 am
Before I leave the subject of Willard "Mitt" Romney and his Mormon religion behind, I want to return to something that happened during his 2008 campaign with special relevance to atheists. We're all familiar with the phenomenon where someone who was the victim of bigotry gains a little bit of status...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 18, 2011, 6:13 am
Richard Mouw is not just a garden variety evangelical. He is President of Fuller Theological Seminary. So when he wrote an article for CNN in which he defended Mormonism against charges that it is a cult, people took notice. However, it seems to me that Mouw managed to disparage Mormons as not quite...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 16, 2011, 8:59 am
Here at Atheist Revolution, reporting on the many crimes perpetrated by clergy has never been a big part of what I do. There are at least two reasons for this. First, there are others who specialize in highlighting the depravity of many religious leaders. They do a more thorough job of it than I cou...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 15, 2011, 6:41 am
I'm taking liberties with the timeline on this one, as this bit of idiocy actually occurred last week. You probably haven't heard of James Bellar. He's the mayor of Whiteville, TN, the town that has a large cross on top of a water tower they own (see picture). The Freedom From Religion Foundation (F...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 13, 2011, 8:57 am
Two fascinating tidbits from this video of David Pakman's interview with American Atheists' David Silverman might come as a surprise: There are "tons and tons of atheists" behind the scenes at Fox "News."Bill O'Reilly is a polite and knowledgeable guy off camera who deliberately plays an angry moron...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 12, 2011, 6:14 am
Some are atheists who do not see atheism as worth discussing. They may even look down at their outspoken colleagues for what they perceive as proselytizing atheism. They may acknowledge the existence of bigotry and discrimination against atheists in the larger culture, but they have not experienced ...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Mississippi Atheists - Oct 10, 2011, 11:04 am
The answer is no, views should not be respected in and of themselves. If a person posits a belief in unicorns, that view should not be respected, but dismissed. That said, I think we have a moral obligation to respect the person who posits the belief, as in, perhaps we should suggest that the unic...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 10, 2011, 6:13 am
We form first impressions very quickly, and images matter a great deal when we are forming impressions of something distant. Many of the negative reactions to the Occupy Wall Street movement I have heard from friends, family members, and acquaintances were based on the appearance of those who appear...
Comment - Like

vjack posted an article on Atheist Revolution - Oct 9, 2011, 9:29 am
The big news from the Values Voters Straw Poll seems that evangelical Christians still haven't gotten over the fact that Willard "Mitt" Romney does not share their religion. Is anybody really surprised by this? One speaker, Pastor Robert Jeffress, called Mormonism a cult and Romney a "non-Christian....
Comment - Like