Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by atheist Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day’s floor session wasn’t a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in “repentance.”
If you live in Rep. Mendez’s district, you can use our Action Alert page to thank him for openly admitting his nontheism: http://action.americanhumanist.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=13523
In this month’s podcast, Todd Stiefel’s co-host is Amanda K. Metskas. Together they interview Julia Galef, the president of the Center for Applied Rationality.
Bravo to Rebecca Vitsmun for being honest about her atheism to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer! Support relief efforts in Oklahoma by donating to Humanist Charities: www.humanistcharities.org
Here is another great story this week about humanist celebrants. (Check out the Happy Human tie pin in the slide show!)
For more information about The Humanist Society, the AHA’s adjunct that certifies humanist celebrants, click here: http://humanist-society.org/
Zack Kopplin, the Louisiana student-turned-activist, continues to keep his eye on the push by some of his home state legislators to teach creationism and historical inaccuracies in the public schools there.
Humanist Charities is raising money to support the wide ranging relief efforts needed to help. Use the link below and your donations will be sent to the Red Cross.
Other humanist groups are also organizing relief efforts and you can find links for them on the Humanist Charities page above.
If you’re searching for a missing person, please check the Red Cross’ Safe & Well site (https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php).
The AHA has offered long-standing support for making death a dignified part of life, including the individual’s choice on when it should end.
AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt wrote about this in a recent The Huffington Post article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roy-speckhardt/assisted-suicide_b_3087201.html
You can also read a 2001 article from the AHA’s “Humanist” magazine on the topic: http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/rogatz.htm
The U.S. Department of State just released its 2012 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. The report states, “Whether it be a single deity, or multiple deities, or no deities at all, freedom to believe—including the freedom not to believe—is a universal human right.” Secretary of State John Kerry echoed this in his opening remarks.
The American Humanist Association is proud to be one of many human rights organizations that submitted reports to the State Department on atheist discrimination abroad, some of which were included, particularly the cases of Alexander Aan in Indonesia and Alber Saber in Egypt.
The author of this Psychology Today article, Leon F. Seltzer, will be speaking at the upcoming AHA conference in San Diego, May 30-June 2.
More details on the conference here: http://conference.americanhumanist.org/
