One of the common misconceptions that religious and spiritual people sometimes have about atheists like me is the belief that we do not experience awe. I once had a dear friend ask me “How can you not believe in anything bigger than yourself?” I laughed when he said it, and said that the universe was big enough for me, thank you very much. I can understand why some religious people mig... »
I saw the movie Aeon Flux when it came to theatres, approximately forever ago. Over the years I remembered liking it (because what’s not to like about Charlize Theron being a badass?), but that was pretty much it. I watched it again recently with my Queer Feminist Media Critique goggles on and was unexpectedly delighted by it – there are problems, because everything has problems (oh please oh pl... »
Coming from a deeply Catholic family, Christmas has been a big deal since I can remember. Even though I have never ever been particularly fond of religious traditions, I’ve always cherished it, the one day a year when the whole approximately 40-components-big family gets together with an spectacular amount of good food and good will. That has always been what Christmas meant: family, food, n... »
A dear friend of mine, who is into every kind of woo out there, posted this link today on Twitter: NYPD Cop Buys Homeless Man Boots. It’s a nice story about a person doing something for someone in need. I like this kind of story; I think good stuff should make the news too. What my friend said in her tweet was “THAT is the god I worship.” She did not credit this action to the per... »
((Continuation from here)) Many people I know say their persistent shame makes them prone to crying far more often than they think is healthy, while in the last year and a half, I’ve truly wept only once. Further, it was because of an experience designed, with the help of a sexual sadist and my own enthusiastic consent, to make me cry. It took them a good half hour or so, but we got there, and hug... »
In any very large event where the people attending do not know most other attendees, there are two things, which characterize the event. First will be some kind of activity: athletic competition, a march, a concert. Second, and usually most important, there is a complicated and evolving dynamic of shared identity, which binds the attendees together and erases individuals (with their enthusiastic c... »
College newspapers are rich sources of lulz and rage, and this article is no exception. Michelle Robertson is a staff writer for UC Berkeley’s newspaper, the Daily Cal. She wrote a pompously titled article, Believing in Tolerance, where she mansplains in a truly admirable fashion why atheists are atheists, why theists are theists, and why she’s smart enough to get the best of both w... »
It’s hard to get more timely with these questions about objectification and science than right now. Our own network’s founder’s decision to not attend TAM this year, which I’m confident anyone reading this has also read about, underscores how germane this all is. Between that and… well, arguably pre-historical practices of subjugation and objectification that persist ... »
