From MSNBC.com Demonstrations on the town square show how divided people are over the school board's decision to fire a science teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs in the classroom and burning crosses on students' arms. John Freshwater, 52, was fired last month after an outside consulting firm released a report concluding that he taught creationism and was insubordinate in failing to remove a ...

Personally I'm not really a fan of Christopher Hitchens so I enjoyed this a little too much: Late last year, the writer, polemicist and fierce proponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq Christopher Hitchens attempted, in a piece for the online magazine Slate, to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of "extreme interrogation" and "outright torture". From this, his foes inferred that since it wa ...

The word freedom gets tossed around a lot. It seems like the mot-du-jour for anyone smart enough to realize manipulating people is as easy as telling them that such an important value might be taken away. A few years ago, creationists wanted people to 'tech the controversy'. That was their angle, and they had managed to make a few inroads in schools. After a devastating ruling in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Are ...

From Ars Technica: This is a story that starts in triumph, takes a detour through farce, and inadvertently ends raising some profound questions. The triumph is one of scientific progress in the study of evolution; the farce comes courtesy of those who run Conservapedia, who apparently can't believe that any scientific evidence can possibly support evolution. The questions, however, focus on what access the ...

Ever wonder what it would be like to kill Mohammad and Jesus to stop the spread of the powerful monotheistic religions they helped create? Yeah, me neither. But apparently, a small game developer in Virginia has decided it's a good idea. Here's an excerpt from the article: The new game, not yet released, is giving a voice to the atheist community, that's according to the game's creator, a University of Virg ...

From MSNBC" The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters. In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that a lower court erred when it said the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God's First Amendment rights regarding freedom of relig ...

From the Telegraph: Prof Stephen Hawking has come up with a new idea to explain why the Big Bang of creation led to the vast cosmos that we can see today. Astronomers can deduce that the early universe expanded at a mind-boggling rate because regions separated by vast distances have similar background temperatures. They have proposed a process of rapid expansion of neighbouring regions, with similar cosmic ...

From Crooks and Liars Consider what we've learned about McCain's superstitions: * McCain believes it's bad luck for someone to hand him a salt shaker. * McCain believes it's bad luck to throw a hat onto a bed. * McCain regularly carries 31 cents in lucky change in his pocket. * McCain carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass, a lucky penny, a lucky nickel, a lucky quarter, and a laminated four-leaf clover. ...

Well, just like I promised on my website, I have sent out a letter to every member of Parliament asking for the right to be an Ordained Secular Minister. If you'd like to contact your member of Parliament and encourage them to look into this issue, please go here. This is my letter: I must confess that I am in dismay .Canada considers itself free and progressive, but in many instances, we are not. Although ...

Ok, as I'm sure most of you have noticed, I took an extended break from podcasting on the site in order to concentrate on some of my other ventures. Now that I finished moving, it means we can finally go back to weekly podcasts with your two favorite atheists. As always, you guys are free to email me or leave comments about subjects you'd like us to talk about. We survive on fan feedback! ...