I don’t usually disagree with Keith on such things, but I think this was tongue in cheek.

Last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith, as usual, presented his “Worst Person” segment. An atheist was honored by coming in number three (bronze) on his list. (We are assuming the person is an atheist. After all, we don’t really know for sure, do we?)

He pointed out that the person who coughed up the $10,000 to help fund the atheist bus ad campaign in NYC was an anonymous donor. As the campaign is geared to encourage atheists to come out, he found this move particularly amusing.

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From Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists

We are announcing today that, starting 1 July 2009, individual annual dues for American Atheists will be dramatically reduced to $20–and if two or more people living at the same address join, it will just be $35 for them. We’re making this change for two main reasons:
1. Some of our current members are under financial strain now and we cannot afford to lose them over the cost of dues.
2. American Atheists can only thrive and get stronger by having many more members than we have now. We need their intellectual support, their ideas, and, for those who can afford it, their voluntary dollars. A vigorous program will be put in place in the coming months to recruit new members nation-wide, but an important first brick in building that foundation is a dues rate that is low, affordable, and simple.

We want every Atheist in America to look up and say, “You mean I can join the best organization in America for advancing Atheism for only $20? What am I waiting for?” We want every current member to say to herself or himself, I care about this organization and I want to support it–I cannot afford to do what Helen Mitzman did and contribute $100,000. I will give what I can–but I can certainly say to my irreligious friends, ‘Here’s a brochure on American Atheists, the group you’ve been hearing about for nearly fifty years–and you can join for just $20!’”

Godless? Good!
Join us. $20.
American Atheists, www.atheists.org

In an effort to increase our membership and spur new activism, effective July 1 we will be lowering our dues to $20/year for a person and $35 for a family.

This blog, this web page, the board (with few exceptions), the State Directors, Regional Directors are all volunteer. I’m a volunteer. We are here for a cause, and we need your help. If you’re not a member, please join. If you are a member, please help us find new members!

This work is important, time-consuming, and expensive. Your help is greatly appreciated!

First off, thanks to Blair Scott for blogging while I was on vacation. Now on to the cheery subject of death.

This wasn’t a vacation for me, really, it was a “visit” — one of those yearly mandatory vacations to Florida to see your aging parents and other family members. The last time we went down was during the election, and since then things have gotten worse.

Dad has cancer and is 83. His body has withered from age and war injuries, but his mind is still sharp. My mother in law is is perfectly healthy, but her brain is going fast due to Alzheimer’s and she is beginning to lose her grip on reality. Their respective spouses are overwhelmed an terribly sad.

We returned in time for me to appear on CNN to talk (coincidentally) about life after death, which was soon canceled due to the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon.

So as you can see, death has been on my mind quite a bit lately, and I really wish it would go away. It’s times like this when I envy the theists who think they are going to live forever. Wouldn’t it be great if I had secure knowledge that after the eventual passing of my family members, that they’d somehow “be ok” forever? You can certainly see the advantage there.

I’m not one of those people that “accepts death as a part of life”, which it clearly is. Rather, I hate death. I wish it were gone. I can’t stand that some people hold back medical science like Stem Cell research which could prolong life in the name of an afterlife! There is no invisible place in the sky for our souls (don’t exist) to go. Death is death. That’s why it’s a tragedy.

A federal court has ruled that the Contra Costa library must allow a local Christian ministry to use its facilities. The library’s policy had been to disallow all religious services and did not discriminate against just Christian services. The Alliance Defense Fund carried on about how it was discrimination against Christians and that Christians have a First Amendment right as well. The ADF, as usual, is about promoting Christianity and not about promiting equality for all religions. They also failed to note, that the library’s policy excluded all religions from having religious services in the property.

You can read a biased report in the California Catholic Daily HERE.

Posted by Blair Scott