Nonreligious Blogs

There are a lot of premises, conclusions, and full syllogisms dotted in amongst the text of this piece, so I have italicised all of them, so they stand out a bit from my text.   Deduction We know that if a deductive argument is valid, that true premises lead to a true conclusion: P → [Read More...]

January 31: “The Master’s Handiwork” (Of Feigned Humility) Part 31/365: An atheist reviews a Christian devotional. (If you are new to this page, here’s a little background.) Dear Karen, We made it – a full month of devotions from everybody’s favorite, Jesus Daily! I guess there’s no more fitting way to end the month than [Read More...]

Tucker should have done his homework first.

Getting free means being able to claim our pain and give it the fair assessment it deserves.

  About a week ago, an acquaintance of mine on Facebook—himself formerly active in several prominent Charismatic Christian circles—made a post that presented some highly suggestive evidence that a popular Christian minister and “prophet” within the Charismatic community, Shawn Bolz, is, for lack of a better word, a fraud. Now, to many of those in the skeptic [Read More...]

When it comes to my personal life philosophy, I tend to start by going straight to nihilism. Right down to the dregs, and then I ask myself, “Why can’t I stay here?” And I think that’s somewhat an important question to ask, for me. Not for everyone, but for me. Let’s start out with a [Read More...]

Blinky & Sal: cartoons for getting lost in the woods. PART I HERE. Come back on Monday for Spider Baby part III. Subscribe here and/or follow on Facebook. Never miss an episode!

Why I Am Proud to Be an American During Trump’s Inauguration Today, I am very proud of my country. Here me out. No one was more anti-Trump than me during the election season. Yet, as I sit and watch the inauguration, I am in awe of our tradition of a smooth transition of power. Our [Read More...]

A Catholic apologist agrees with me that I had good reasons to leave Calvinism, but claims I didn't have good reasons to leave Christianity.

Embed from Getty Images A decade ago a paper titled ‘God is Watching You’ by Shariff & Norenzayan (2007) received a lot of attention after it reported an experimental study showing that people subconsciously primed with religious concepts, regardless of their stated level of religiosity, behaved more generously. (The study reported a similar increase when secular ‘moral’ institutions were primed but this [Read More...]

Let's revisit the famous Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham debate. What were Ken Ham's points, and how well did he do?

Nonbelievers don't receive the same level of respect from hospital and nursing home clergy as believers from faith traditions.

Rand skips over what could've been a genuine and realistic obstacle for her hero to face.

This may explain why Trump tried to warn Special Counsel Robert Mueller against looking into his finances a couple nights ago in a New York Times interview. After initially refusing to turn over documents on their dealings with Trump, Deutsche Bank has agreed to do so. Among the many mysteries surrounding Donald Trump’s finances as [Read More...]

A guest post from comedian and actor, Jay Mohr, talking directly to atheists, after his appearance on Dogma Debate. You may recognize him from one of his many movies, televised comedy specials, Saturday Night Live, his tenure as a sports talk radio host, or as the original host of Last Comic Standing on NBC. But [Read More...]

The Hotline at RfR exists to put hands and feet, or in this case, eyes and ears, to our mission statement: To offer hope, healing, and support to those struggling with issues of doubt and nonbelief. In the two years of its existence, the Hotline has handled hundreds of calls, fielded by dozens of trained volunteers. The Chatline, added last year, opened up a new avenue of communication. It is our joy and pleasure to announce an expansion of this project.

By now you should understand that folklorists are practically obsessed with variation. But when we call something a variant, it has a specific meaning.

We’re back in fighting mode at the Freedom From Religion Foundation after the celebrations last week.

I reconnected with my mom in her hospital room on October 16th and was with her when she died on October 21st. Watching my mother rapidly die, and the way in which that death came about was one of they most painful experiences of my life. I'm still struggling with both not being surprised because it was something I saw coming, and being shocked because it was the result of so many choices she made that a healthy person would have avoided.

Comedian (and atheist) Ricky Gervais loves responding to religious people on Twitter, and he shared some of his favorite moments with Seth Meyers.

I’ve gotten into more than my fair share of interchanges with people on the internet arguing over whether or not faith is a matter of personal volition. Can you simply choose to believe in God or Jesus if you don’t already? And do people who leave the faith of their youth do so by choice? Or [Read More...]

As I read deeper in a trove of literature on unbelief and freethought from the past several centuries, it is interesting to see little things given as reasons for rejecting Christianity and God. Here’s a sampling paraphrased from multiple authors from a hundred years ago and more: If God ‘reveals’ vital information to only a [Read More...]

Why don’t they teach this in high school?!? Or even college, for that matter. That’s the reaction that my wife and I had after attending Columbus Rationality meetings. This subgroup of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, an affiliate of the American Humanist Association, hosts a wide variety of events devoted to advancing rational thinking [Read More...]

My year with the Humanist Service Corps has ended. I’ve been home from Ghana for two weeks. The return home has been a bit tougher than I anticipated. I haven’t seen my wife and 9 year old son in a year and seeing them has been as amazing as I anticipated. I missed them more [Read More...]

I’m going to see Romeo and Juliet tonight on Boston Commons. The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company puts on a play for a few weeks. If you’re in Boston during this time of year it’s worth going to. There are seats you can reserve ($75 ). Otherwise, you’re on the lawn with the rest of us plebs. [Read More...]

It is time that non-religious views are treated equally with religious views in schools.

Phoebe agrees to suggest that Decimus shorten Julia's mourning time, and Marcus suggests that Phoebe place certain limits on who Julia can associate with. In theory, Marcus stands up for Julia, but in practice, he's just as interested in putting limits on her as Decimus and Phoebe---just different limits.Click through to read more!

False hope is a danger, yet false doom can be deadly. Mobile testing by the Owen Lab may save the lives of countless covertly aware vegetative patients.

Hi friends, A quick note to let you know I’m taking a hiatus from Natural Wonderers, as I’ve begun writing a new book and need to focus my very-limited-even-on-the-best-days mental energy on that. In the meantime, consider finding me on Twitter or Facebook, checking out my column at the PBS NewsHour, or tracking me down at Brown Paper Press — a boutique publishing [Read More...]

Another day, another horrific gun attack in America, this time on members of Congress who were conducting an early morning practice in Alexandria, Virginia for an upcoming Congressional baseball game. The injured will be in the thoughts of the persons behind this blog but there (obviously) will be no praying here. There have been prayers [Read More...]

by Lori Alexander from The Transformed Wife – Too Many Angry Wives Editor’s note: You have to go check out the insane graphic Lori made for this post. The woman it actually looks insane or demon-possessed more than angry. Being angry does not always mean yelling, screaming, tormenting others, or lashing out, no matter what [Read More...]

You may have heard the name Austin Petersen before, but if you haven’t you’re probably going to soon. He’s a libertarian activist who has identified himself as an atheist – and he recently announced he’s running for Senate as a Republican. Petersen is probably most well known for being the runner-up for the Libertarian Party’s [Read More...]

Episode 22 of Recovering from Religion podcast, hosted by Emily Karp and Scott Smith is out, and I make a cameo! The podcast begins with a long interview with Adam Wadi, a closeted ex-Muslim who has written the book Atheism For Muslims: A Guide to Questioning Islam, Religion and God for a Better Future. His interview is very [Read More...]

Who is that staring back at me? I sometimes wonder what would happen if I met the religious me from over 10 years ago, would I recognise her? And would we be friends? The funny thing is, yes I think we would be friends. The religious me would befriend the nonreligious me, thinking that she [Read More...]

Trump’s new communications director once suggested the Earth is 5,500 years old while comparing climate change theory to flat earth theory. NBC reports: Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, is a Wall Street hedge fund manager and a top Republican fundraiser who’s known as “The Mooch.” However, before becoming Trump’s new communications director, Scaramucci, [Read More...]

I’m embarrassed for my country that a playlist like this is even necessary. But Answers In Genesis and their Noah’s Ark Park, as well as many other anti-science apologists in every level of our national government prove that, yes, we really do have to point out and explain things that are this impossibly silly and [Read More...]

Editor’s Note: This is Matthew’s second Rational Doubt post since he recently joined The Clergy Project. The first time, he discussed his experiences giving up fundamentalism. This time, he approaches an aspect of leaving religion that is a huge issue among fundamentalists, clergy or not. As you will see, being clergy – especially one with [Read More...]

I saw the symbol for vagina on the back of a car the other day. I also saw one on a business card, a necklace, a church bulletin, and even a Bible. Vaginas are everywhere! People in America must really love female sexuality. Of course I’m talking about the fish symbol. The vulva-shaped ichthys or “Jesus [Read More...]

Today we've got a progressive Christian who's here to give us the real skinny about just what's wrong and just what has to happen to fix everything. I'll spoiler this thing now by telling y'all that he's wrong, just in a different direction than we normally see.

  Before I critique Jon’s talk (you can watch it here), I should mention that I’ve been a fan of his for years; it’s why I asked him to serve on the advisory board of my former journal The Evolutionary Review: Art, Science, Culture, which he was kind enough to do. And I’ve cited his scholarship on ‘the sacred’ in [Read More...]

A showdown between a billionaire property developer and an ordinary Mexican-American? Yep, it’s as scathing and relevant as it sounds.

What I’ve discovered about Gleb Tsipursky and my personal interactions with him have left me feeling more than uneasy.

Netflix has an ambitious project in the works in the form of Bright. Starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, the newest trailer for the Netflix original movie creates an intriguing and supernatural modern world where humans mix and mingle with a variety of magical beings including orcs, elves, and fairies. Before we continue any further [Read More...]

This is the third in a series of posts examining David Bentley Hart’s book “The Experience of God”. You can find the other parts here. Aeons ago, I started writing a chapter by chapter review/analysis of David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God. I did the introduction and Chapter 1, and then stopped the series in despair: the [Read More...]

Being agnostic about atheism or theism is more than simply saying "I don't know." It's saying "There are some things in the Universe we cannot and never will know."

Anyone remember the Jewish Defense League? Not to be confused with the Anti-Defamation League, the JDL was founded by Meir Kahane, a New York Orthodox rabbi who went on to become a Knesset member in 1984. His party was later outlawed by Israel for advocating the kinds of things that modern Israeli right-wingers only talk [Read More...]

I woke up in the morning, showered, had breakfast with my boyfriend, we will shortly be leaving for our morning walk. The weather is fantastic out there. And today is Eid, but that fact feels entirely irrelevant to me. Of course, I did post the obligatory Eid Mubarak status on Facebook and I do sincerely [Read More...]

I wasn’t intending on spreading my hairy, fabulous, cross-dressing ass all across the internet. I simply saw a lot of toxic transphobia on my social media feeds, and I wanted an effective way to get rid of it without merely unfriending people.

Is Humanism about reason or about emotion? It might seem that reason is all we need, but as scientists such as Antonio Damasio have demonstrated, without feelings, we are unable to make choices. Reason guides us toward our goals, but to have goals and values, we need preferences, which come from emotions. So, is it [Read More...]

Plans Expected to Eliminate Public Funding for Arts, Humanities Cuts are coming and they are drastic. According to reports, there’s an expected reduction of federal spending by $10.5 trillion dollars over the next 10 years in the incoming administration’s proposed budget. Although it’s unclear whether the first draft will include initial cuts to Social Security and Medicare, [Read More...]

To retain any hope of making it up the other side, the driver had to throw the bus down the hill at high speed and half blind.

Joe Hinman has (allegedly) posted a second argument for the “existence of God”: http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2017/07/bowen-hinman-debate-existence-of-god-my.html Although Hinman believes that the claim “God exists” is NOT literally true (but is only “metaphorically true”, whatever that means), he has included the phrase “existence of God” in the title of this latest post, implying that his second argument is [Read More...]

Inside Out, The People’s Art Project: A Global Art Project Transforming Messages of Personal Identity in Works of Art Let’s talk plaque psoriasis. If you don’t suffer from this devastating immune skin disease, you need to know that it raises scales of inflamed skin in unpredictable parts of the body with incessant irritability. An illness [Read More...]

Back in the early days of teaching, I attended two weekend introductory language courses at the city technical college – one was in Australian sign language and culture, the other was Japanese 101. These days I can only sign ‘thank you’ and ‘lion’ [makes big curly mane shape around head] and follow along a little [Read More...]

I was talking to my son last night about what I should write about. He asked me if I wrote about this matter or that thing and in each instance I said yes. Then he asked, “What about all that sh** I got when I was coming out to other family? Ya know, they all just [Read More...]

Tonight I’ll be doing a team debate in Springfield, MO. The resolution is “A Faith Commitment Is Necessary For The Pursuit Of Happiness.” My teammate will be a local, Cora Hanf and, surprise, we’ll be taking the negative. On the affirmative will be two locals, Reverend Sean McCormick and Pastor David VanBebber. The event takes [Read More...]