If you’re reading this, and you donated money to Harold Camping’s campaign, by now you’re pretty depressed. You’ve been taken, and worse than that, you’ve been embarrassed. You may feel stupid, and that’s because you’ve done a stupid thing – you trusted your preacher blindly. You believed without thinking.

But that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. Smart people sometimes do stupid things. A truly stupid person would NOT learn from this mistake. A truly stupid person would keep following Camping as he ‘recalculates’, or says “god has forgiven us because of the prayers we sent up” or some other lame excuse for his rapture not happening. Hopefully, you aren’t one of these people, who are destined to be hurt again. Hopefully, you have learned a lot in the last few days.

I urge you not to hurt yourself. Your shame will pass, and your money will be re-earned. You can lead a normal life if you start leading with your intellect, and not your desperation to see the end of the world. God is fiction, and preachers lie (most of the time). But no matter where you stand right now, YOU have potential. Use it.

Let nobody doubt that religion hurts people. Good, intelligent, caring people suffer every day and everywhere at the hands of religion, the happy lie.

Religion is used by dishonest people who claim to know the way to the one thing humans want most: immortality. To combat fear of death, religious people ignore their intellect, believe the lie, and follow the preacher, usually blindly and sometimes to the point of insanity.

We are witnessing one very good example of this right now, as a group led by Christian ministry leader Harold Camping prepares for the end of the world this Saturday, May 21.

Read More at CNN.com

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The Sex and Secularism survey report is out. We have worked hundreds of hours analyzing the data and writing and rewriting the report, going over it with academics, taking feedback and criticism and incorporating a lot of it. Why is this report important enough to spend this kind of time on? Secularists don’t know a lot about their own community. Unlike Baptists or Catholics, we don’t have entire organizations dedicated to researching membership and developing programs to infect more people with religion. No one is asking what are secularists like. Are we same or different from the general population? How are we different from religionists and what happened when we left religion? What religions did we belong to before we left? How many religions did we try out before becoming secular? Are there any residual effects of religion after webecome secular?

Read More!

SYNOPSIS:
One step can change a life forever in THE LEDGE, a sexy and suspenseful thriller, starring Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson and Terrence Howard.

After embarking on a passionate affair with his evangelical neighbor’s wife (Tyler), Gavin (Sons of Anarchy’s Hunnam) soon finds himself in a battle of wills that will have life or death consequences. As a nonbeliever, Gavin is lured by his lover’s husband (Insidious’s Wilson) to the ledge of a high rise and told he has one hour to make a choice between his life or the one he loves. Without faith in an afterlife, will he be able to make a decision? It’s up to police officer Hollis (Howard) to save both their lives, but the clock is ticking in this edge-of-your-seat film that will leave you gasping until the final frame.

TRAILER

Directed by: Matthew Chapman

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson, Terrence Howard, and Christopher Gorham
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I attended the American Atheists National Convention in Des Moines, Iowa two weeks ago. There, I listened to lectures on science, atheism, critical thinking, diversity, and several comedians as well as a premier of a new movie.

But more importantly, I was hanging out with friends: both old and new. I was enjoying a weekend with my fellow atheists.

Blair Scott with Jesus (comedian Troy Conrad) at the 37th Annual American Atheists Convention in Des Moines, Iowa.

When members of the American Academy of Neurology gather each year for their convention to discuss the latest science and research is that “churchy?” When members of the Sierra Club gather each month is that “churchy?”

After a lecture at an atheist event, the audience is allowed to question the lecturer. The questioners can ask for more evidence, ask for clarification of a statement, or disagree with the lecturer and offer a counterpoint to their view. Atheist events are full of debate and discussion of ideas. I debate my fellow atheists more than I do theists because there is no atheist Pope telling us what to think and do. Atheists don’t have a Bible or Koran that tells us what to believe or not believe. We don’t start with a prayer, we don’t sing hymns, we don’t preach, we don’t “sit, stand, kneel,” and we don’t do anything else that one would expect to see in a church.

Local atheist events can be a mix of lectures, movies, parties, and other social outlets. The local group here in Huntsville, the North Alabama Freethought Association, offers a wide range of events for local Freethinkers to participate in. The atheist friends I have through the local group are sometimes more like family to me than my actual family (some of whom have shunned me for my atheism).

That leads us to the social aspect of any group or community. As social creatures we enjoy social outlets with our fellow human beings, especially when we share a common idea with those fellow human beings. It is for this reason that Christians hang out with Christians, firefighters hang out with firefighters, Trekkies enjoy Trekkie conventions, and stamp collectors enjoy sharing their collection with fellow stamp collectors.

It’s the social aspect, more than anything else that makes anything we do as a species more enjoyable. The importance of being around like-minded individuals and having social outlets is a key part of the human species. Polls show that most religious people enjoy the social aspect of their church more than anything else that goes on in the pews.

Fellowship is not a religious word: it is a human word.

By Blair Scott

A variation of this editorial appeared in the Huntsville Times on 4/27/2011 (the same day tornadoes ripped the state apart). So far no one has blamed me for the tornadoes.