Pat Condell: Don't Pray For Me

Another great one from my favorite YouTube atheist.

Billboard Of The Day

God's Gentle Loving People, Part 98

Outside the American Atheists Convention in Des Moines, Iowa last weekend.

(Via - Good As You)

Pat Condell: The Trouble With Christianity

The Queen Of Poe's Law

The young woman whose "God Punished Japan" video rocketed around the world yesterday, has confessed that she is actually an atheist troll.

The woman, with the username TamTamPamela, uploaded a video in the days after last week's massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, claiming the disaster was "God literally waking people up and saying "You are going to hell" However, she was met with such a hostile response - including threats of death and rape (and even had her phone number and address published in some forums) - that she has gone into hiding. Other, less hard-line, wits decided to wage a war of food on her - getting non-stop pizzas delivered to her home. And well-known atheist Richard Dawkins even posted the original video on his website, but did so without providing a comment. A follow-up video in which tamtampamela admits she is a maker of troll videos did nothing to stem the flow of invective directed at her - one blogger encouraged people to "send her a turd" in the mail.

Aside from her superb acting skills, which took in almost everybody unaware of her YouTube history (myself included), TamTamPamela vividly demonstrated Poe's Law, which states that no satire of religious fundamentalism, no matter how offensive or outrageous, can be distinguished from the actual whackadoodles who believe such nonsense.

God Is Punishing Japan For Atheism

This young Christian woman gets positively orgasmic with glee over God's punishment of Japan for having so many doomed atheists.

RELATED: Christian missionaries are seizing upon the opportunity offered by the earthquake to convert Japan's heathens.

"Pray for the church in Japan -- the little, tiny church in Japan -- that we know how to witness in this difficult time and can use our resources," he requests. "Lots of churches in America [want to help]. Our mission wants to send teams -- and of course I said, come. It can only help to give people a vision for this rich, but poor, country that needs the love of Christ so much. And people coming to help shows that as well."

Living Without Religion

A new campaign from the Center For Inquiry.

(Via - Atheist Media Blog)

Judgment Day

The Story Of Suzie

IRELAND: Atheist Group Launches "No Religion" Census Campaign

Ireland's leading atheist group is asking former Catholics to be truthful on the upcoming census form. The "Be Honest To Godless" campaign is being supported on Facebook.

Think before you tick your answer to the religion question, and give an answer that matches your actual religious affiliation. If you still believe in God but you are no longer truly a Roman Catholic, please say so. If you are an atheist or agnostic or humanist and you have no religion, please tick the ‘No Religion’ box. Atheist Ireland wants to see accurate answers to the question on religion. The last Census showed 3.7 million Roman Catholics (that’s about 87% of the population) and 186,000 people with no religion (that’s about 4% of the population). We believe the true figure for Roman Catholics is much lower than 87%, and the true figure for people with no religion is much higher than 4%.

Atheist Ireland notes: "Careless answers to the question of religion will have an impact on the allocation of State resources, and on the political lobbying power of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. If you want a fair future based on accurate statistics, please answer this question honestly."

Bill O'Reilly Vs. American Atheists

Via Atheist Media Blog, watch Bill O'Reilly tangle with the head of the American Atheists over their billboard campaign. "You get on your knees and pray to an invisible man in the sky and you DON'T think that's a scam?" This is good.

Billboard Of The Day

The latest installation in the American Atheists' national billboard campaign has gone up in Huntsville, Alabama declaring that "You KNOW they're all SCAMS." The sign contains symbols for five of the world's major faiths and promotes the group's regional conference, which takes place later this month. The group's last billboard, "You KNOW it's a MYTH," went up over the holidays at the entrance to NYC's Holland Tunnel and resulted in an answering billboard from the Catholic League at the exit of the tunnel.

Billboard Of The Day

Real or photoshopped? The source doesn't give a location.

Ricky Gervais On Creationism

"God is NOT gay. Read the Bible. He hates them."

Fort Worth Bans Atheism Bus Ads

Ricky Gervais On Atheism

"As an atheist, I see nothing 'wrong' in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather you didn’t kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral.

"It’s strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing, omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also want to judge and punish people for what they are. From what I can gather, pretty much the worst type of person you can be is an atheist. The first four commandments hammer this point home. There is a god, I’m him, no one else is, you’re not as good and don’t forget it. (Don’t murder anyone, doesn’t get a mention till number 6.) When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, 'It’s the way God made me.'" - British comedian Ricky Gervais, writing for the Wall Street Journal.

FORT WORTH: Christian Group Chases City Buses With Atheist Message

In a public transit atheism campaign now becoming familiar around the country, some Fort Worth city buses bear a billboard declaring "Millions Of People Are Good Without God." That has pissed off some local Christians, who are now chasing the buses around their routes with a message of their own.

“We want to tell people they are not alone,” said Terry McDonald, the chairman of Metroplex Atheists, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason, which paid for the atheist ads. “People don’t realize there are other atheists. All you hear around here is, ‘Where do you go to church?’" But the reaction from believers has been harsher than anyone in the nonbeliever’s club expected. Some ministers organized a boycott of the buses, with limited success. Other clergy members are pressing the Fort Worth Transportation Authority to ban all religious advertising on public buses. And a group of local businessmen paid for the van with the Christian message to follow the atheist-messaged buses around town. “We just wanted to reach out to them and let them know about God’s love,” said Heath Hill, president of the media company that owns the van and one of the businessmen who arranged for the Christian ads.

Many of the atheism billboards around the nation have been destroyed or defaced. Groups backing the campaigns say their intent in not to insult Christians, but to console non-believers during what can be a lonely holiday season.

Tweet Of The Day - Scott Hurst

Richard Dawkins Reads His Hate Mail

"Our God is a loving God. I hate your fucking guts!"

Billionaires Are "Good Without God"

Gothamist tips us to the latest atheism campaign which just launched on Chicago's public transit system. This one is from the Illini Secular Student Association at the University of Illinois.

ISSA explains, "A consequence of the centuries-spanning PR campaign conflating theism (and especially Christianity) with the impulse to charity has largely duped Americans into believing that Christians are the major givers and that non-believers are selfish, angry loners unconcerned with the struggles of the less fortunate...Not only is the stereotype untrue, it is perversely untrue." The bus campaign ads feature high profile philanthropists including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The ISSA's tagline? "Good without god."

RELATED: On their Secular Samaritan blog, today the ISSA notes that Catholic Cardinal George Pell is calling atheists "immoral, frightened, and without purpose."