On June 17, 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. That event may not be familiar to you but it is what caused her husband to build her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
- A Closed Letter to Myself About Thievery, Heckling, and Rape Jokes – Patton Oswalt discusses Rape Culture and comedy. You probably want to read this. From fmcp.
- You Are Here: A Whole-Sky Time-Lapse of the Galactic Center – I wish I lived in a place where I could see more stars, but until then at least there are videos like these.
- A Fascinating New Theory About the Human Mind, Evolution and Mortality – From CriticalDragon1177.
- Fake Nerd Boys – “I know I’m not the only one who has been noticing this prevalence of fake nerd boys. Guys who just pretend to play video games and like Sci-Fi to get attention and be mean to other people.” Haha. From Geoff.
- Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity – I kind of understood this except that part about “proselytize more.” No thanks. What do you think of this piece?
- Girl, 5, Collects Hundreds Of Dollars For Peace Selling Lemonade Outside Westboro Baptist Church – Yay, something good happened in Kansas! From Daniela.
- Time-Lapse Video: The Magnificent Power of a Supercell – Nature is amazing. From a distance.
- VICTORY: Transgender People Can Now Change Their Social Security Record’s Gender Identity – From Amy.
- Is Barefoot-Style Running Best? New Studies Cast Doubt – But I think we can all agree that the shoes are ugly, amirite?
- At The Movies, The Women Are Gone – And on that note, I really want to see Before Midnight. Who’s with me? From miserlyoldman
I actually thought those shoes were a Parks and Rec joke.
I’m partway through the Atlantic piece on young atheists. So far the only interesting part has been the author, a Christian talking about why he is fascinated by atheists:
“Perhaps it’s because I consider their philosophy… historically naive and potentially dangerous.”
Which made me laugh out loud, since this is exactly why I find the religious so fascinating.
More notes as they develop.
Taunton makes sweeping generalizations about the sort of people who are atheists in colleges today. Given that he never discusses the methods used in finding subjects or analyzing their responses, I find it hard to take them entirely seriously. Then again, we didn’t have a Secular Student Alliance chapter when I was in college and my personal interaction with other atheists talking about our atheism has been limited. His conclusions would not have helped him with me, as I was raised in an atheistic household, but they may be valid for most. I simply don’t know.
In the end, it seems that he is unable to get past viewing atheists as lost sheep rather than rational human beings. Atheists are portrayed as paying lip service to rational ideas while secretly only turning from faith due to emotional or petty reasons.
And Taunton’s several references to atheists [HItchens, Jillette, and Hume] showing respect to Christians due to the sincerity of their religious beliefs strike me as being both cherry picked and incongruous with his previous comment about how it is possible to be both sincere and wrong.
Thanks for this. I hate that the article seems to be abouttalking to atheists in order to prevent people from becoming atheists (like mentioning the age range).
I used to be Christian and I have lots of friends/family who are very religious, so I can see their point of view. They’re always looking for the magical Bible verse that will convince nonbelievers. (But then again, I probably do the same thing, except with facts and logic.)
Well, we all want faith desperately, we just didn’t have good enough churches, obviously.
I also took issue with the notion that most deconverted (reverted?) atheists were raised Christian is a complete revelation. It means of course that it’s only that their churches failed them, not that they’re churches are demonstrably wrong. Uh, dude, you’re asking American college kids. Sampling bias. Ask atheists almost literally anywhere in the eastern hemisphere, and it’ll be different.
Even funnier than the fake nerd boys video are the comments from people who can’t recognize satire.
“Go grill me a steak,” is my new favorite.
Mary,
I take it, that fake “nerd boy,” is a parody of the “fake geek girl”