“Renoir”: A Nickell-odeon Review

Investigative Briefs  with Joe Nickell
May 21, 2013

[Pierre] Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was, with Claude Monet and other French painters in the 1860s, a founder of Impressionism, a movement allied with artistic Naturalism. Its adherents sought to paint real life directly from nature—among their goals being to capture light’s changing effects. Why do we care? Because appreciation of art is part of what makes us truly human. As philosopher Paul Kurtz stated, speaking of secular humanist values, “We are engaged by the arts no less than the sciences.”

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The Wise Old Goat in a Flock of Sheep

The Morning Heresy  with Paul Fidalgo
May 21, 2013

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

Obviously, most Americans' hearts and minds are concentrated on the victims of the tornadoes in Oklahoma and across the Midwest. We'll have a formal statement soon, and in the mean time please consider donating to help those affected.

Wowie-wow-wow-WOW. The already-loathsome Daily Caller outdoes itself by harrassing and insulting one of our own. Read about the saga of SCA's Lauren Anderson Youngblood and the "Dick pic" email from Christopher Bedford. You rock on, Lauren. <communications directors' secret high-five-handshake>

Ryan Koronowski dismantles the gee-that's-really-wrong WaPo op-ed on climate change by House science chair Lamar Smith.  

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If You Threw Yourself in Front of a Train

The Morning Heresy  with Paul Fidalgo
May 20, 2013

The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.  

The conference was great. It had a high bar to meet with last year's huge success, but it was easily cleared. Talk to talk, panel to panel, and the amazing freaking voice of Shelley Segal, it was a real and substantive pleasure to be at Women in Secularism 2. 

We, of course, had our controversies. CFI chief Ron Lindsay has posted the prepared text of his opening remarks that caused an enormous amount of debate and very strong feelings, reactions to which can be found all about the interwebs. 

I know, many, many folks are itching for video of the conference talks. While you wait for us to crank up the movie machine, sate your desire with videos from last year's conference. 

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Watson’s World and Two Models of Communication

No Faith Value  with Ronald A. Lindsay
May 18, 2013

Rebecca Watson inhabits an alternate universe.  At least that is the most charitable explanation I can provide for her recent smear.  Watson has posted comments on my opening talk at Women in Secularism 2.  It may be the most intellectually dishonest piece of writing since the last communique issued by North Korea. 

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