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Freethought in the light of the sun
(Note: The final post in the free will series will appear tomorrow.) It has been a hundred and twenty-five years since Charles Darwin passed away, but his legacy is alive and well. The theory of evolution which he was first to propose has become the unifying pillar of modern biology, drawing ...
The claim is often bandied about that atheists are "angry". The implication, presumably, is that life without God offers only a life of constant frustration and unhappiness (and, one imagines, damnation thereafter - wrath being one of the seven deadly sins), whereas belief in God is the road to ...
What does it mean to make a choice? This question is at the heart of many of the debates over free will, and justifiably so. It may seem simple initially, but the more deeply one considers it, the knottier it becomes. The basic dilemma seems to be this: Every event that occurs either had ...
A recurring topic of debate among atheists is just how much respect we should pay to people's religious beliefs. A substantial number of nonbelievers, I am certain, would unabashedly proclaim that religion is all so much superstitious rubbish, and we should not pay other people's ridiculous ...
Clearly, what is immaterial in the human mind can influence the physical world, or our acts of will and understanding would be without effect. If our will is free these physical effects are not wholly predictable. —http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9511/revessay.html A merchant in Baghdad ...
The forces of theocracy are on the march, and Daylight Atheism is keeping a close eye on them. First, an article from the March 3 Legal Times, Alabama Judge Declares War on U.S. Supreme Court: Sitting calmly in his impeccably neat office at Alabama's Justice Building, state Supreme Court ...
For most of human history, philosophers have believed that only the possession of an immaterial soul could confer free will on human beings. (There have been exceptions: the ancient Greek Stoics, for example.) This idea has fallen somewhat out of favor, but there are many theists who still hold to ...
A new essay, "Into the Clear Air", has been posted on Ebon Musings. The article details the four common stages of deconversion and offers help and guidance to people in the process of losing their religion. This is an open thread. Comments and feedback are welcome.
(Note: The next post in the free will series will appear tomorrow.) Much mention has been made lately of a recent Pew Research Center study showing that two-thirds of American Christians condone the use of torture. When asked whether the use of torture against terrorism suspects was justified to ...
Over the ages, the question of whether we have free will has engaged, confronted, and puzzled philosophers probably more than any other issue, and untold numbers of papers, conferences, books and debates have been expended on tackling it. It is no surprise that so much philosophical ink has been ...
In a previous post, I defended the conclusion that atheists should, under certain circumstances, evangelize on behalf of atheism. I recently read a story that bears on this conclusion, thanks to a recent edition of the Grand Rounds medical blog carnival - a beautiful and moving post titled "The ...
Turn on the TV, turn to the back pages of a newspaper, or peruse the best-seller lists, and you're almost certain to come across one of those angels in human form, the psychics. Every day they display their powers to the wonder of believers and the astonishment of skeptics, presciently predicting ...
• Daylight Atheism will be hosting the Philosophers' Carnival on April 24, in one month. Send in your best philosophy blogging now! • This blog has been attacked by those most vile of creatures, comment spammers. Thankfully, the built-in spam filters seem to have kept them out so far, but if any ...
My post yesterday, "The Quiet Revolution", discussed some of the positive ways in which atheists are organizing and making inroads into society. But as much as I hate to follow up good news with bad, I feel I would be doing my readers a disservice if I played down the magnitude of what we atheists ...
In a previous post in the Garden, "An Inspiring Story", I discussed two ways in which atheism might make inroads into society: It is not inconceivable that atheists are nearing a critical mass, one which when reached will inspire us to organize en masse. If such a thing were to happen, I have ...