I love this picture, from none other than the good folks at National Geographic. Got any caption ideas?

Stay tuned for an announcement on Sunday.

KINGSVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this friendly little ranching town, “hello” is wearing out its welcome. And Leonso Canales Jr. is happy as heck.

At his urging, the Kleberg County commissioners on Monday unanimously designated “heaven-o” as the county’s official greeting. The reason: “hello” contains the word “hell.”

“When you go to school and church, they tell you ‘hell’ is negative and ‘heaven’ is positive,’” said the 56-year-old Canales, who owns the Kingsville Flea Market. “I think it’s time that we set a new precedent, to tell our kids that we are positive adults.”

The new salutation, according to the county resolution, is a “symbol of peace, friendship and welcome” in this “age of anxiety.”

On Thursday, courthouse employees were answering the phones, “heaven-o.” And the chamber of commerce was working on a campaign promoting Kingsville, a Rio Grande Valley town of 25,000, as a “heavenly” place to visit.

Read More

Yes, this is a violation of church and state (the government is clearly promoting Heaven, which is solely Christian, as “good and positive”), but it’s sooo stupid I think the best thing to do is just make fun of them.

I wonder if the general store sells heavenvetica cheese, or if they only allow Heavenocoptors to land in their airport, or if they re-wrote the Miracle Worker to be about Heavenen Keller…

This can be fun! Give me all your suggestions to changes to recommend to Kingsville, and I’ll do an Atheist Viewpoint on it. It will be a heaven of a lot of fun!

On June 7, 1797, John Adams signed into law the Treaty of Tripoli. This was the first Treaty for the USA and it was read and ratified unanimously by the founding Senate. The treaty states, in part, that “the government of the United States is not in any sense founded in the Christian Religion”.

This is checkmate — a silver bullet. A written statement by the founding fathers that says, among other things, that we are right and the Christian Right is wrong.

I invite targeted debate on this thread. Please stay on topic, but I’d love to hear if anyone out there still thinks the USA was intended to be a Christian Nation, and specifically why you deny that this is a perfect proof that you are wrong.

Just when you thoguht the Christians could stoop no lower

Yes folks, before Dr. Tiller’s body is cool, we are being accused of being violent and dangerous because we are atheists. Beware the atheist — the 12% of Americans (20% of people under 20) are shooting people all over the place because we are dangerous. Heh.

To be clear, we ARE dangerous — we are dangerous because we think, we are dangerous because we speak, and we are dangerous because we do good for no other reason than to do good. We are very dangerous to those who make money off lies to gullible people who say THEY are the only good people, and that their invisible man in the sky is real.

These kinds of ads make me very happy. They reek of desperation. They offer nothing but deception, and they follow the Christian murder of a doctor — how ironic. They are losing, and they know it. Behold the last throes of the professional liars in all their glory!

PLEASE write your local papers and express your outrage at this. Imagine if it were against Jews or gays or Muslims. Urge the Christians to rise above this kind of backwards bunk and join the country as one of many.

The United Coalition of Reason is delighted to announce an essay contest as part of our upcoming Good Without God campaign tied not only to a social movement but to a book that’s being published in the fall. Please forward this message as widely as possible and help us unite the millions of voices of reason across the country.

The contest is simple. Please tell us your personal story, in 500 words or less: what does it mean for you to be Good Without God? How do you live out your positive values as a Humanist, atheist, agnostic, secularist, or freethinker? Please write in the first person.

Read more

Help each other out! This is a great place to help others win the 1K prize by reviewing each others’ articles. If you have an essay for this,contest, post your email address here and see if someone will edit you. Also, if you have some ideas, but not the inclination to write the essay, jot them down here!