Daylight Atheism

LONDON, February 22 - It's been a rough week for Richard Dawkins, prominent evolutionary biologist and noted God-hater. Our reporters can reveal that on Monday, while Dawkins was ordering breakfast at a local shop, he received the wrong change for his coffee and muffin, but failed to count it and ... Read More

Via Slacktivist, I came across a post on the Christian blog Exploring Our Matrix that asks a perfectly reasonable question: Why Doesn't the Bible Contain Superior Medical Advice? ...you will look in vain in the pages of the Bible for a recommendation that people cover their mouth and nose when ... Read More

In my past writings, I've made it a hobby to call attention to potent, but often overlooked, reasons to believe that atheism is true. Two of these that I've written about are the argument from mind-brain unity and the argument from locality. In the last few months, I've come to realize that there's ... Read More

Summary: The Roman Catholic equivalent of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel". A luminous, extraordinary account of one woman who devoted her life to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, saw the organization from the inside out, and decided to walk away after twenty years of service as a faithful and ... Read More

I don't think I've ever written this sentence before, but here goes: There's been so much good news on the pro-choice front lately, it's hard to keep up! Since my last post, developments have come so rapidly that they demand a follow-up. First, an update on the Komen story. As you've probably ... Read More

As NPR recently reported, there's a high price to pay for being a black atheist in America. African Americans who come out of the closet as nonreligious may be cut off by their own families, may be labeled a "race traitor" or an "apostate", or accused of lacking morals or having "holes in their ... Read More

The story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son on Mount Moriah is one of the formative myths of Western monotheism. And most theists of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions look up to Abraham as a model of faith, believing that his willingness to kill his own child in obedience to God's ... Read More

As I've often mentioned, religion has a set of cognitive tricks - unconscious ideas, prejudices and habits of thought it tries to instill in believers - which shield their minds against contrary argument and make it less likely that they'll leave the faith. One example is the selective wall I've ... Read More

Some days, I hate writing about atheism. I want to tell you why. Two weeks ago, I was watching a PBS show called Inside Nature's Giants, about a team of biologists dissecting a sperm whale that died after beaching itself on a British coast (this involved heavy machinery and a chain saw, if you ... Read More

It's been a while since I last did one of these, but I want to start making it a regular feature. This thread is for you to tell us about something cool and interesting you've come across lately, something that makes you happy and that you think more people should know about. This week, I'd like to ... Read More

When it comes to reproductive health in America, progress often seems like a one-step-forward-two-steps-back kind of situation. But let's start with some rare good news: in January, the Obama administration announced that most employers would have to cover birth control in their employee health ... Read More

I've had a busy last few months, and I confess I've fallen behind on my book reviews. (If you're not familiar with these posts from the old site, I sometimes get free advance copies of books from authors and publicists to read and review. I don't accept any payment or other compensation for this ... Read More

We've been discussing Islam a lot on this blog in the past few days, and much to my amusement, I've seen two different commenters promoting diametrically opposite distortions of my position. One says that I'm a left-wing Israel-hater who has a soft spot for Muslim violence, the other that I'm a ... Read More

For those who are interested, here's my schedule for the next few months. I've got a few SSA speaking events, a conference or two, and one big announcement! • On February 24, I'll be speaking at the University of North Dakota, courtesy of FUND, the Freethinkers of the University of North Dakota ... Read More

In 2009, the Roman Catholic church convened an "apostolic visitation" - a sort of modern-day auto-da-fe - a rare step taken when the Vatican feels that a church-affiliated institution has gone seriously astray. The church officials in charge of the investigation conducted interviews at almost 400 ... Read More