Austin's Atheism Blog

Read Article: Defining Atheism as Not Worshipping Gods: Atheism Is About Worship, Not Belief?

Read Article: Godless Science vs. Religion: Why & How Godless Science is Superior to Religion

_{Image © Austin Cline
Original Poster:
National Archives}

An unsigned editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette lambasted atheists for daring to question why the Democratic Party would hold a special event designed to cater to religious theists and exclude nonbelievers. Wayne Laugesen, the editorial page editor for the Gazette, took personal responsibility for the screed in comments while trying to defend his "arguments." The sad truth is that he was only digging his hole deeper because he revealed more and more the extent to which he was unable to give the same treatment or consideration towards atheists which he manages to do without a second thought for religious believers. Read more...

I read several web comics regularly and one that I recently added to the group that I open in my browser every morning is In The Puddle, written and drawn by Cique Johnson. I haven't been reading it quite long enough to entirely know what's going on and who everyone is, but I like it enough anyway to keep up with it (and this suggests it will get better once I do know what's going on).

Being the oh-so-observant reader that I am, I never noticed the link to The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the right-hand column. Well, no worries because Cique found a way to work it into her comic from 08.25.08 — her character, Cique, is hosting a booth at a comics convention (I think?) and she's visited by a biology teacher who actually manages to teach evolution in his class. He gets a reward from Cique that I'm sure he wasn't expecting...

Anyway, this gives me a chance to recommend In The Puddle generally as a web comic. I don't normally get to do that since it's rare that comics, or at least the ones I read, mention anything relevant to his site. Since the topic has been raised, though, what web comics do you read regularly?

Read Article: Is Evolution Scientific?

_{John McCain June 3, 2008
Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images}

McCain doesn't quite come out and say that Obama is the Anti-Christ, but the same would be true if the ad said that Obama had the number 666 tattooed on his butt. I don't think anyone would try to split hairs on what the real message of such a claim would be and the meaning of the actual advertisement is no less blatant. It's called "dog whistle" politics because it uses loaded language that "calls" to people who know the codes while remaining under the radar to those who don't (or at least while creating "plausible deniability" so the creators can avoid taking responsibility for their actions).

Historically such unethical tactics have been found primarily in Republican ads promoting and pandering to racism, a pedigree which tells us even more about who John McCain really is. Read more...

_{Image courtesy PriceGrabber.com}

Belief in paranormal, supernatural and mysterious claims have always been very popular, so how can skeptics best approach such claims to evaluate their credibility and offer a critical perspective? What tools and principles should we employ in dealing with obviously weird things that come up in life? What are the methods of thinking which people should be employing more often, but aren't? So long as separating truth from falsehood is important, these are vital questions for everyone.

Book of the Week: How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age