BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Girls ‘becoming Facebook addicts’

Parents fear their daughters are becoming addicted to social networking sites, a girls’ school leader says.
Girls seem to be “permanently connected” to sites like Facebook and Bebo, president of the Girls’ Schools Association Jill Berry said.
This issue now tops the list of parents’ worries by some way, she told the association’s annual conference.
Mrs Berry also [...]

Activists Protest Church of Christian Science

MEDICAL NEGLECT IS CHILD ABUSE! JOIN VICTIMS IN PROTEST!!!
June 8 from 11:30-3:30pm
200 Mass Ave., Boston, Mary Baker Eddy Library
Dr. Seth Asser, a pediatrician who is dedicated to the cause of protecting children from medical neglect, CHILD, Inc, the RI skeptics Society and the RI Atheist Society would like to invite you to protest the [...]

How to Say You Don’t Believe

By Nica Lalli
writer, educator
With the recent publication of the new American Religious Identification Survey, we now know that there is a full 20% of the U.S. population that claims their religious identity as either a “none” (one who identifies as non-religious) or a “don’t know” (one who chooses to not answer the religion question or [...]

Activism 101

Activism 101
1. What Is an Atheist Radical?
A radical seeks fundamental changes in political, social, economic, or cultural institutions and power relationships. Since atheism doesn’t imply any particular political outlook and is compatible with just about any system, it’s a bit difficult to talk sensibly about atheist radicals. However, when the subject turns to the elimination [...]

Douglas Adams Speaks

This was originally billed as a debate only because I was a bit anxious coming here. I didn’t think I was going to have time to prepare anything and also, in a room full of such luminaries, I thought ‘what could I, as an amateur, possibly have to say’? So I thought I would settle [...]

George Carlin’s Last Interview

Ten days ago, on Friday, June 13th, 2008, I had the extraordinary privilege of talking to George Carlin. As far as I know it was the last in-depth interview he gave before he passed away yesterday at age 71. Originally it was slated to run as a 350-word Q&A on the back page of Psychology [...]

Living in the Light of Naturalism

How I Got Here
Time and memory being the mysterious creatures they are, for the most part it feels like I have always had my current naturalistic point of view, but when I think about it, I realize it’s been a long, circuitous, and sometimes painful evolution, beginning, oddly enough, with [...]

Sam Harris on Sarah Palin

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin’s performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin’s speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal [...]

Sarah Palin’s Religion: What Do Sarah Palin’s Churches & Pastors Preach?

In principle, the sermons preached in a politician’s church shouldn’t be a political issue, but religious believers themselves insist on making their religion an issue so those sermons and teachings can’t be ignored. If politicians are going to present their religion and religious beliefs to the voting public as part of their qualifications for office, [...]

Charles Darwin: ‘Is man an ape or an angel?’

A century and a half after Darwin put forward the theory of natural selection, Steve Jones explains the power of his idea - and the stink it caused

In 1842, Queen Victoria went to London Zoo. She was not amused: “The orang-outang is too wonderful… he is frightfully, and [...]

A Naturalist System of Virtues

A system of virtues is like a how-to manual or road map describing how to thrive and be effective in the world.
A system of virtues is superior than a moral code because it is up to each individual to decide how best to actualize these virtues in their own lives. In addition, a moral [...]

An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee

By the end of the weekend I realized how quaint was the mere suggestion that Christians of this type should learn to “be rational” or “set aside your religion” about such things as the Iraq War or other policy matters. Once you’ve made a journey like this — once you’ve gone this far — you [...]

Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

FORT RILEY, Kan. — When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending.
But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote [...]