So today I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Darrel Ray at the Austin History Center in downtown Austin.

I didn’t expect Dr. Ray to be as funny as he was, having a great sense of humor while lecturing on how religion is essentially a virus that infects people, the way they think, interact with others and how it all correlates with life itself, from sex to dealing with death.

I’ve actually had this book on my read to do list for quite some but since they had them on sale at the event, I went ahead and picked up a copy. Might as well have the author sign it as well right when I greeted and met him after the lecture.

The thing that differentiates Dr. Ray’s book compared to Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and most of the other new atheists is Dr. Ray takes the psychological approach when it comes to religion, not the scientific or philosophical approach. It looks like a great read and after hearing him speak and lecture on the subject of his book, makes it that more enticing to read.

Dr. Ray has been a psychologist for over 30 years, also holds a MA in religion and also holds a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and a Doctorate in psychology, almost becoming a minister at one point in his life but is now an atheist.

Cecil Bothwell is an atheist. He was also recently elected to the Asheville City Counsel. He wants to abolish the death penalty, conserve water and believes in government reform. But there’s a few other politicians who are threatening to sue because of his stance on not believing in a god.

North Carolina’s Constitution states only those that believe in an “Almighty God” are permitted to hold public office, but this is the dumbest law ever and the U.S. Constitution says otherwise. What a person believes in has no bearing of how they will perform on the job. If public office is considered a job that just happens to be decided by voters, then this is discrimination at it’s best. When you apply for a job, they can’t turn you down for the job based on sex, religion, age and plenty of other reasons that have nothing to do with the job function.

H.K. Edgerton wants to waste tax dollars and bring a suit to challenge Bothwell’s appointment as a city councilman. He’s not playing religion, he’s playing politics. He has been noted in saying, “My father was a Baptist minister. I’m a Christian man. I have problems with people who don’t believe in God.”

Well Mr. Edgerton, perhaps you should stop shoving your nose in other people’s personal business and get back to doing whatever it is you do. Simply put, get use to the idea not everyone thinks like you. By saying you have a problem with those that don’t believe in a God is like the KKK members saying they have a problem with the color of your skin, it’s called hate!

In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that federal law prohibits states from requiring any kind of religious test to serve in office when it ruled in favor of a Maryland atheist seeking appointment as a notary public.

There are still lots of dumb state laws that are now irrelevant and unchanged. Anything that the Federal government has ruled on automatically makes such laws mute and trying to bring them back to light is just wasted dollars and resources that could benefit so many other things.

Read the original article here.

It’s not what you think though, banana man and his chimp are not passing out Darwin’s “Origin of Species” in good faith. Ray Comfort is including a 54 page special introduction which is utter crapola.

From the Don’t Diss Darwin website created by the NCSE folks, they quoted Darwin biographer and science writer David Quammen in saying it best about Comforts lame special introduction in which he said:

“Comfort’s confused polemic, disguised as an informational Introduction but full of mistakes, half truths, untruths, muddled logic, old creationist arguments, misleadingly excerpted quotations, and ill-framed analogies — plus a good dose of fire and brimstone at the end — will do a severe disservice to anyone who takes it for an entryway to Darwin’s great book.”

So if you’re at one of the Universities where they are handing out this book, take one, read the actual book, laugh at the introduction or tear out the first 54 pages of utter garbage. It looks like a nicely printed book. I just can’t come to conclude whether or not Comfort wasted his money printing these just to throw in his introduction as it’s a time waster or it’s just overall a good thing they’re handing these out because most students I know have enough common sense to accept the portion Darwin wrote and not what some banana man wrote.

Also you can do a lot of good if you are on campus, print out some of the flyers created by the Don’t Diss Darwin site and plaster them everywhere or perhaps hand them out next to those handing out the books.

I’ve converted the PDF flyer by NCSE as a JPG so just click on the image for the full view. Print it out, pass it around where they are handing out these books.

It’s that time of year again, where all the marketing and advertising picks up to draw in the masses to buy gifts, junk and a bunch of shit no one actually needs.

But GAP seems to distance itself from a lot of the other corporations and companies who seem to only include one religion in their holiday themed commercials. See for yourself.



More advertising should target the masses and not just Christians since we live in a very diverse country and not just a Christian one.

Good for GAP, they might just get a little more money out of me for realizing that there’s more than just Christians out there shopping for whatever they celebrate this holiday season.

So Brittany McComb thought she could basically preach at her high school graduation. She graduated as valedictorian and school officials approve speeches before they’re actually made.

School officials asked that she edit her paper to remove references to God, Jesus and the religious tone of her speech, in which she did but upon graduation day, she swayed from the approved speech to her own, saying ““God’s love is so great that he gave up His only son to an excruciating death on a cross so His blood would cover all our shortcomings and our relationship with Him could be restored,” before officials cut off her microphone.

This prompted Brittany McComb to file a suit against the school officials claiming they violated her First Amendment rights but the 9th Circuit dismissed McComb’s lawsuit against school officials in a two-page order in March in which you can read here in PDF format.

Basically to put it short and sweet, the order says, “Defendants did not violate McComb’s free speech and free exercise rights by preventing her from making a proselytizing graduation speech.” It went on to say, “Nor did they violate McComb’s right to equal protection; they did not allow other graduation speakers to proselytize.”

I just have one thing to say about this, justice has been served Brittany. Keep your religion at your church and home, don’t impose it to others. If you want to preach at your high school graduation, attend a private religious school, that’s why we have them. The only other bad thing about all of this is the amount of tax dollars she wasted in filing such a suit, should have just kept with the original edited version that the school approved.