Comedian/author/playwright/pundit Lewis Black stars in his second HBO solo special, an all-new hour of frenetic, take-no-prisoners stand-up comedy, taped before a live audience at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed features Black's opinions and insights into such issues as the State of the Union, abortion, frozen embryos, defecation habits, fossils , bad language, FEMA and, of course, Dick Cheney's aim. Stand-up comedian, author, playwright, and actor takes on a few issues regarding faith and science.

By Valerie Tarico In this post about the mythic origins of Easter, Valerie Tarico , author of The Dark Side , interviews Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions and mythology. Dr. Nugent is a symbologist, an expert in ancient symbols. He has taught at Seattle University for the past fifteen years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and is a Presbyterian minister. Tarico: Easter is coming. Some people are saying that the crucifixion and resurrection narratives simply retell the cycle of seasons, the death and return of the Sun. Others say that these stories are literal histories. But you say the reality is more complicated than either of these. You argue that the Easter stories – the death and resurrection of Jesus have very specific mythic origins. Nugent: I view the story of Christ in the Gospels of the New Testament as a powerful and spiritually wise sacred story. While the story is told as if it happened, it is a theologically and mythically constructed history...

By DocMike Today's comic was inspired by a recent comment (to my last comic) on Ex-Christian.net . A christian poster made the statement, " There is much science in the Bible ". To which, several ex-christian posters responded with various examples of scientific errors in the bible. "... talking snakes and donkeys", "...riding chariots of fire into heaven", "...holding up a striped staff to copulating goats so they have striped kids", "... the classification of bats as birds", "Floating axe heads", "Walking on water", "Raising the dead", "Commanding the sun to stand still", "creation story", "firmament", etc. The christian then posted links to websites that actually claim dinosaurs were mentioned in the book of Job and that they lived alongside humans! This is so preposterous that I can only laugh to keep from crying. I guess years of scientific discoveries and fossil evid...

By Eris Discordia Hi everyone! I have been hanging around this site for quite some time now and I feel like you all are my extended family! It is so nice to be able to voice my anti-Christian opinions, vent my outrage at their insanity and just rant whenever I am overwhelmed with frustration at having my rights continuously violated in this Bible-Hell called the Midwest, USA! Today is one of those days, so here goes... I have four lovely children. Two are happy non-religious adults who barely tolerate their crazy fundie relatives on their father's side of the family. My other two boys are ages 11 and 14. They are happy, well-adjusted atheists who appreciate the idea of being good, honest people just for the sake of being good. They don't have the pressure of having to please some imaginary god so they are free to explore their own conscience. They are amazingly grounded and seem to have no problems understanding right from wrong. Now, having said that, I hope you will und...

A non-Christian replies to a cute little Christian apologetic. Loved by Catholics and Protestants alike, this thing shows up periodically in email inboxes everywhere. By David Isn't it strange how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping? We get something for the $20, and it doesn't seem to go that far. In contrast, we get nothing for donating $20 to an organization that promotes imaginary friends and imaginary enemies. So, $20 seems like a lot to give for nothing. Isn't it strange how two hours seem so long when you're at church, and how short they seem when you're watching a good movie? This one is real easy. You're totally bored in church most of the time, but when you go to the movie you are relaxing and being entertained. An additional onus, at least for women, is that no one is judging you by your shoes and/or dress. Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to...

Thanks to Brand New Atheist for discovering these videos. In these two short videos are described a few of the problems with theistic based morality. These videos suggest how one can be moral and a non-believer. Part I Part II

By Chucky Jesus I'm both an ex-Christian and an atheist. I almost don't think of myself as ex-anything any more, because my deconversion was so long ago; I'm 53 now and I gave up on Christianity by the time I was 18. Since then there's been one thing about Christianity in the back of my mind -- this notion of "worship." I suppose if I thought about it at all, it was in reaction to a question which is often posed to freethinkers by theists, "So, what do you worship?" My reaction has been, well we don't worship anybody, silly -- and why do you feel the need to worship someone? Are you all syncophants? Then again, perhaps many freethinkers do worship, in a sense. I think I've decided that I worship life -- all aspects of life, which, in a way includes the entire universe, as it's all tied together. After all, the stuff we're made from and the most distant galaxies were all part of the same "cosmic" egg "before...

By Doc Mike In the wake of the tornadoes that recently ravaged the Southern US, I am once again amazed by the ability of Christians to justify and excuse their god for the evil in the world and praise him for the things that turn out positive. What's worse, they sometimes claim that their "omnipotent" god is not even responsible for the bad things! "Thirteen were killed in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky, and five were killed in Alabama where some 500 homes were also destroyed. Tennessee was the hardest hit, with 34 killed and 230 citizens still unaccounted for in the poor, farming areas of Macon County near the Kentucky border." Today's comic was inspired by a report on NPR , in the aftermath of the tornadoes. A woman being interviewed had survived (not in very good shape, mind you) her mobile home being destroyed around her. When the interviewer asked why she thinks she survived, she said, "God must have a plan for me." The very next question was ab...

This post is part of a dialogue, In Two Minds: The Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter, between former minister Brian Worley and psychologist Valerie Tarico . In the series, Brian Worley, an ordained Baptist, describes some of his encounters with Christian friends and family since he deconverted and Valerie Tarico responds. In Letter 3 Brian talked about what attracted him to the Christian faith and he puzzles over why Christianity provokes such intense and even violent reactions toward apostates and outsiders. Dear Brian, The things that attracted you to the Christian faith are the same that attract many people. Recently I attended a meeting called “Vintage Jesus” held on the University of Washington campus. There were two to three hundred local students who had come to hear a charismatic mega-church minister tell them who Jesus was. I watched with fascination as Pastor Mark Driscoll wove his story, subtly distorting, blurring ideas together, overstating agreement among Christians,...

By Valerie Tarico Recently a fellow traveler asked me how he could explain to his children the changes that he is going through. I realized, as I wrote out some thoughts for him, that I had never shared these same thoughts with my own family members who have grieved and feared for my soul. If they could understand the following, perhaps they might worry less: One of the most central themes of Judaism and then Christianity is an ongoing hunger, a quest to understand God more deeply and completely. For over 3000 years, our spiritual ancestors have been working hard to figure out answers to life’s most important questions: What is good? What is real (often framed as what is God)? And how can we live in moral community with each other? Each generation of our ancestors received a package of handed down answers to these questions. This package contained the very best answers their ancestors had to these questions. But those answers were always imperfect. They had bits of timeless w...

Daniel C. Dennett , philosophy professor and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University , offers a unique perspective on the role of philosophy in the cognitive and behavioral sciences. Dennett is known for his research on the mind and consciousness, relating philosophy to the scientific study of the brain, evolution and artificial intelligence. Click here for books by Dennett . This video is approximately one hour in length.

Last week we talked about this program and saw some clips . This week the entire program is available on YouTube. Comments?

By Massimo Pigliucci, Ph.D. I’m not making this up, I swear. “ Answers in Genesis ,” the same nonsensical outlet that has given us Ken Ham ’s “ Creation Museum ,” recently launched a “peer reviewed” “technical” journal, called, of course, “ Answers Research Journal .” The idea, we learn from the “About” section of the journal’s web page, is to provide an outlet for “interdisciplinary scientific and other relevant research from the perspective of the recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework.” See, apparently “there has been a pressing need for such a journal,” because “people want to know they can trust what is published on the Internet,” and they “can give you absolute assurance that the papers we will be publishing in Answers Research Journal are of the highest scientific and theological standard.” Of course, a high theological standard is a bit of an oxymoron, but let’s not quibble on the details. The editor of this prestigious new arrival...

A recent debate held at the University of Waterloo , sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ and the Atheists, Agnostics and Free Thinkers Society of Waterloo.

A hilarious clip from Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill .

Two girls sing about the benefits of saving it for the Lord! Written by Katie Goodman & Soren Kisel. Staring Katie Goodman & Sallie Sills. Edited by Aaron Brown. Directed by Ryan Stumpe.

...in only five minutes.

by Lee Salisbury A recent study conducted by the University of Minnesota shows that atheists are more distrusted and despised than any other minority and that an atheist is the last person for whom Americans would vote in a presidential election. “Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians” all ranked higher than atheists in public acceptability. Furthermore, Americans are “least willing to allow their children to marry” atheists. State laws instill and perpetuate this attitude. Article IX, Sec. 2, of the Tennessee constitution states: “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.” Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas have similar laws. George H. W. Bush while campaigning for President in 1987 exhibited this same attitude, “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation unde...