Mike Tidmus

This ought to put an appreciable twist in the theists’ knickers. Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe BBC News There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new [...]

Can anyone explain why this message so intimidates the theists? (photo: The Freedom from religion Foundation) Well, quelle frickin’ surprise! The bigots are at it again. A Watertown, Wisconsin billboard placed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation has been hit by vandals with yellow paint — probably extracted from whatever’s left of their spines. Here’s [...]

“Our nation’s destiny will be disastrous, not divine, if Glenn Beck has his way. The message Beck and his cronies want to send is clear: if you don’t believe in a government based on his religious vision, you should expect to be treated like a second-class citizen. Beck has made it clear that he has [...]

“The more places that same-sex marriage moves into the mainstream, the more it will become familiar and accepted. More and more, people are getting the chance to see for themselves that gay and lesbian couples are normal human beings, deserving of the same rights as everyone else, and religious prejudice is weakening. Every fight we [...]

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization (video: TEDtalks Director at YouTube) TED: David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut — and it may [...]

“More and more American pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control because of their personal moral objections. Hey, you know what would really teach us a lesson? If you took off your pretend doctor jacket and got another job. … Now, of course, I know the other side is saying, yes, but this [...]

Good news, mes amis. PZ Myers is not dead. That will surely disappoint the fork out of the creepy cons over at Conservapedia and the anti-fun, anti-everything-but-pain religionoids at Focus On The Homos But Keep A Close Eye On That PZ Myers Chap. Sorry, FOTHBKACEOTPZMC staffers, there’ll be no dancing in the streets of Colorado [...]

“The most positive thing I can think of to say, and this is something that many believers have said to me as well, is that religion gives people hope. It gives them optimism for the future, and that is definitely a very good thing. In fact, it’s something I can certainly relate to because, even [...]

“People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in [...]

Republican Rep Eric Cantor: “Everybody knows America’s built on the rights of free expression, the rights to practice your faith, but come on!” (video: The Rachel Maddow Show) The Divine Ms M provides a couple of stellar examples of how America’s god-botherers imagine they have the right to trample the rights of other American god-botherers, [...]

A conversation with Christopher Hitchens (video: The Atlantic) Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Hitchens’s close friend Martin Amis sit down for a conversation with author and atheist Christopher Hitchens, who is undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. Jeffrey Goldberg, a self-described “Jewish hypochondriac,” has a post up that addresses the reactions to Hitchen’s illness among [...]

From the Secular Coalition for America‘s media release: Secular Coalition Applauds Resolution Supporting Fact-Based Education, Denouncing Texas School Board Meddling The Secular Coalition for America lauded a House resolution (H. Res. 1593) supporting fact-based social studies curricula in public schools, introduced by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) in response to the social studies curriculum established [...]

FFRF’s newest message, showing the face of a penny saying “In Reason We Trust,” is debuting in Tampa (graphic: Freedom from Religion Foundation) From Freedom from Religion Foundation: The nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) hopes heads will turn to view a “mini-blitz” of 20 billboards placed throughout the Tampa and St. Petersburg [...]

“How did it happen? For centuries, religion was insulated from criticism in Britain. First its opponents were burned, then jailed, then shunned. But once there was a free marketplace of ideas, once people could finally hear both the religious arguments and the rationalist criticisms of them, the religious lost the British people. Their case was [...]

“When we agree with the Atheist that religion is confined to God, we give him the key to our public schools, to science, to our universities, the media and even our legislative and political venues. “We are entitled to be free from this new wave of religious discrimination. But we will achieve that freedom only [...]