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Freethought in the light of the sun
My friend Sarah Moglia has written an essay, titled Why I Don't Call Myself a Skeptic, that's been making waves in the atheist blogosphere. She's got a thought-provoking argument with which I agree in part and disagree in part, and I thought I'd share my reaction to it. But first, let me echo ...
These days, one of the blogs where I spend the most time commenting is Leah Libresco's Unequally Yoked on Patheos. This isn't just because its author has a unique and interesting perspective unlike any I've seen elsewhere, but also because there's a lot more give-and-take between atheists and ...
(Author's Note: The following review was solicited and is written in accordance with this site's policy for such reviews.) Summary: A surprising, welcome reminder that atheism has a long and storied history in the U.S. Letters from an Atheist Nation, edited by Thomas Lawson, is a compilation ...
This Saturday, April 28, is the date for a collective movement of nationwide marches and rallies, organized by UniteWomen.org and backed by a national coalition of non-profit organizations, the Center for Inquiry among them. I wanted to write a bit about what motivated this and what's at stake ...
Once again, I've gotten enmeshed in a debate on Twitter. This time it wasn't with a theist, but with two atheists, Daniel Loxton and Reed Esau. It started with these two posts, which I happened to overhear: I'd support a focussed movement to counter bigoted "atheists as hostile outsiders ...
My latest column is now up on AlterNet, Apocalypse Soon: Why Are Christians So Obsessed With the End Times? In it, I trace the long and ignoble history of failed apocalypse predictions in Christianity: from Harold Camping's infamous pratfall last year all the way back to prominent colonial and ...
Back in January, I wrote about Jessica Ahlquist's court victory over an illegal "School Prayer" banner in her high school in Cranston, Rhode Island. That was almost the end of the story, but since then, there have been a few further developments. In February, following a tumultuous hearing, the ...
There are some times when it gives me little pleasure to be right, and this is one of them: The Vatican has launched a crackdown on the umbrella group that represents most of America's 55,000 Catholic nuns, saying that the group was not speaking out strongly enough against gay marriage ...
The weekend is a good time to get some culture, and since there are a lot of things lately that I'm enjoying, I figured I'd write one completely miscellaneous post to mention all of them. Music: As I mentioned in the last "random & interesting" thread, I'm always looking to expand my musical ...
I read an article this week about a questionnaire whose creator, the "corporate philosopher" Roger Steare, calls the Moral DNA test. Over 50,000 people from 200 countries have taken this survey, which its creator says is designed to help humanity understand how we make moral decisions. He also says ...
If you're an American, you probably know that this week is income-tax time. (If you didn't already know that, sorry to tell you, but you missed the deadline.) Most people anticipate tax season with dread, but for me, this isn't an especially painful time. In fact, I almost look forward to it ...
One of my favorite features of the old site was "Little-Known Bible Verses", a regular series highlighting frequently overlooked passages from scripture that are immoral, bizarre, or contradict well-established parts of Christian belief. In the past, I've discussed verses saying, among other things ...
In my early days of blogging, I would have exhaustive debates, sometimes lasting for weeks, with believers who came across one of my websites and posed a challenge to me. But although it was fun in its time, I've wearied of it, and with occasional rare exceptions, I don't argue with theists over e ...
At the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. last month, my friend Greta Christina told me something that I, a lifelong New Yorker, never knew: Harry Houdini is buried in a cemetery in New York City. Houdini, of course, made his fame in the early 20th century as a magician who could escape from ...
As anyone who knows me is aware, I'm generally a peaceful and diplomatic fellow. I'm not one to pick fights just for the hell of it. But that said, I'm afraid I have to raise some objections to a recent front-page post by Mark Cheney here at Big Think: Are You a Believer? Take The Dawkins Test. ...