Honestly, this is a silly question. It would be more accurate to ask "can we still be a moral society despite religion's influence?" Let's remember for a moment the world is still made a more miserable place because of sectarian infighting. How many regions of the world are currently engaged in immoral acts of violence against one another specifically in the name of their religion? When the Catholic bishop ...

Oh religious people: you can never be sure if they love religion or secretly despise it. Why else would they resort to calling our free-thought movement "a religion" if not to criticize it? Obviously they recognize the fact that by definition, a religion is a creepy organization intent on pushing through their wacky agenda. While I agree this is a definite aspect of all religion, conflating our lack of beli ...

When trying to defend your religion, you've to pick your battles. In today's modern world, defending the Bible is a full time job. If you aren't busy arguing that the supposed genocide of the Canaanites or Hittites was justified because a bearded sky-deity told the Jews to do it, you're hopelessly defending things like homophobia and slavery. What else can you expect from a series of books written thousands ...

When your main weapon in the war of ideas is fairy-tale nonsense, I can see how some religionists might feel a little intimidated with reality. Unlike those 'heady' days in the past when any old idea passed muster so long as a man of the cloth gave it a thumbs up (like the 17th century edict that declared the beaver a fish), our modern understanding of the natural world has only served to further marginaliz ...

I hope there aren't any Canadians on the site foolish enough to think that abortion, gay marriage and the separation of Church and state are American issues. If only we were so lucky. Unfortunately, we have our fair share of crazies in positions of power. Take Stephen Woodworth: he's a conservative MP who is fighting to include legislation that would re-open the "debate" on abortion. Like his American count ...

Fighting the evils of religion doesn't get more visceral than this, people. The Lord's Resistance Army is a Christian extremist group lead by Joseph Kony, a man who claims to be a conduit for the Holy Spirit. While his organizations goals seem difficult to pinpoint (he seems to be literally a psychotic maniac), his demands often sound terrifyingly familiar to the enemies of theocracy. The list of atrocities ...

Despite living in a (supposedly) secular environment, many Americans are unwilling to identify themselves as Atheists for fear of losing their jobs, their loved ones, or the community bond they have worked so hard to forge. In some extremely isolated communities, potential non-believers may be completely unaware that millions of others don't subscribe to any religion. Often, this knowledge alone can make th ...

Imagine you get physically assaulted for speaking your mind, and when it was time for your attacker to face justice, he's sent merrily on his way by a Judge who shares his specific religious convictions. Would you not regard this as a gross miscarriage of justice? Well, that's exactly what happened to fellow non-believer Ernest Perce, who was assaulted last October during a parade. Representing the Pennsylv ...

It still amazes me the way we let experts on nonsense babble on about their specific deity and its role in the natural world. What does super-magical-man-you-can't-disprove have to do with evolution? The moderator made the mistake of claiming both Dawkins and the Archbishop knew for certain what the truth of the Universe was. Dawkins ended up admitting the limitations of his own understanding (and the obvio ...

I realize that when you're trying to make a billboard express an esoteric point, there will be occasions when you'll fail to make the point. Attempting to reach out to people feeling isolated by their unbelief is a challenge, no doubt about it. It's why I'm going to try and be nice to this billboard that has recently appeared in Orange County, which claims that: "Atheist make better lovers (after all, no on ...