I've never been able to fully appreciate the kind of fear mongering religions are well known for, mostly because I was never influenced by their terrifying dogma. It's easy for many of us non-believers to scoff at the claims devils casually walk the earth, looking for souls to devour. But for millions of impressionable children, these kinds of messages often create fear and panic over the thought of being p ...

It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them The immortal words of Adlai Stevenson still carry with them the poignant reminder that there is more to life than merely fighting for what you believe; you also have to live by those principles, even when it seems impossibly hard to do so. You might recall a few months ago, cartoonist Molly Norris gained a great deal of media attention after de ...

The slander doesn't seem to want to go away. If we aren't being accused of dogmatically disbelieving, then we're being mean or belligerent, and every other imaginable insult, all because we don't share the notion a magical sky-man made the world. Now it looks as though organizations that were traditionally on our side have started taking potshots at us. Check out this article written by Dr. John Shook, who ...

I have to imagine the confusion is caused by the mistaken idea religion has anything to contribute to the conversation about our existence and our place in the Universe. They've been making the claim for so long it's considered "normal" to believe in God. They have it easy: they can make an infinite amount of baseless claims, and we're seen as the bad guys for calling them on their bullshit. So when a group ...

A few days ago I wrote an article about a crusty old religious white dude who claimed to know more about the Universe than Stephen Hawking, presumably because a dusty old book of myths told him so. Because Stephen had the "audacity" to postulate the Universe created itself, religious rubes have been tripping over one another trying to voice their objections to one of history's greatest minds smacking down t ...

I'll never grow tired of old, conservative gas-bags going on about how atheism is either dead, on it's way out, or, as this crusty old white dude said, “a joke". Because he's convinced only an invisible male patriarchal God is the proper explanation as to the existence of the Universe, columnist William Murchison believes the recent remarks of Stephen Hawking, claiming the Universe did not need a supernatur ...

I'm not a parent, so it's difficult for me to comprehend what it feels like to actually have to take care of one of these screaming whelps. As far as I can tell, they smell, they cry and jump around a lot, and when they get older, they get all "angsty" and totally hate your guts. I've been told, however, the experience is rewarding enough to put up with the mega hassle. One thing I do know for certain is yo ...

Behold, the amazement that is religious dogma: here we have a man who is trying to argue that the Earth is flat, and it rotates around the moon. He believes in these things unquestioningly because his religious tome proclaims it. Any evidence to the contrary must be denied, since according to him, "Anything not indicated in the Koran is false". To be this ignorant, you really have to be a believer. How else ...

Indeed, who wants an absolute moral authority? If you accept such an idea, then whatever that authority decides must therefore be moral, even if he condones slavery, murder, incest, rape and genocide. Do you not find it in the least bit ironic religious people who condemn us for not having a higher moral authority believe in one who so clearly violates our own basic moral compass? Do you put your trust in o ...

You get the impression sometimes there really are two Americas: one where the values of liberty, religious and ethnic diversity, the rule of law and a sense of fair play still reign supreme, and one where bigotry, homophobia, xenophobia, rigid religious dogmatism and "safety" rules the day. It's why you get places like Arizona where the government is hard at work trying to boot out every single illegal immi ...