I’ll put up two posts today about the atheism of scientists. The first—this one—is old news, but I’ve separated it from one I’ll put up a bit later, which is a new survey of atheism among scientists in the UK. It’s been known for a long time that American scientists are far more likely to […]
In honor of my visit*—I’m flying into Charlotte today (see post above)—the mayor of that city has officially proclaimed a “Day of Reason.” Anthony Foxx, current mayor but nominated by President Obama to be the next Secretary of Transportation, issued the following decree: Read that thing! A more secular document you couldn’t find! There’s no reference […]
today would have been Christopher’s 64th birthday had he lived. As we all knew, nobody has emerged to replace him, for his combination of eloquence, erudition, independence, and effectiveness in debate cannot be matched. In his honor, I post this nice picture of the good Hitchens (a photo I hadn’t seen) sent by reader Grania:
After Tony Blair, I thought that government osculation of religious rumps would cease, but prime minister David Cameron, it seems is up to the same old tricks. According to Britain’s National Secular Society, he’s bending over backwards to praise Christianity: Prime Minister David Cameron held yet another reception at Downing Street for religious leaders this […]
Mississippi always ranks poorly among American states: close to the poorest in education, at the top in religiosity, and home of America’s most obese people. It’s also conservative and largely Republican. The combination of religiosity and conservatism has led to one of the stupidest things I’ve seen states do to circumvent the Constitutional First Amendment […]
I’m not really keen on atheist meetings—I think there are too many of them, and they often feature the same line-up of speakers. But TAM (“The Amazing Meeting”), sponsored by the James Randi foundation, is different: it’s a diverse event loosely centered on skepticism, and with a lot of entertainment and (something I dearly want […]
Starting last Sunday, National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S. has had a daily segment on “The Morning Edition” called “Losing Our Religion”. You can access all the archived segments here; each is about 8 minutes long and contains a transcript if you can read faster than you can listen. Here are the shows so […]
A short piece from Friday’s New York Times, “In a crisis, humanists seem absent,” deserves a read and a bit of thought. It’s basically a bit of hand-wringing about why humanists and secularists weren’t visible and providing consolation after the Newtown massacre. The question the article poses is this: why weren’t secularists able to fulfill […]
Several readers have sent me this (thanks!), so perhaps you’re all aware of it already. But if you’re not, do read Lawrence Krauss’s CNN Opinion piece on the pervasiveness of religion after the Newtown school massacre, “Why must the nation grieve with God?” I was appalled at the official faithfest that followed the killings, with […]
I’m not sure what the “War on Christmas” really is, nor do I bother myself much with the celebrations of a nonexistent Jebus. But what I do object to is using the excuse of the holiday to breach the American wall of church and state by putting religious symbols on public land. Nativity scenes crop […]
