I'm a lifelong atheist and a molecular biologist with a passion for science and a passionate opposition to its enemies.
British government lawyers are arguing in favor of enforcing a ban to prevent religious symbols in the workplace, defending the law in a human rights case brought by four British Christians against it. All four are claiming discrimination and the limitation of their freedom of speech, but not every claim is equivalent. Two of the claimants are Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, a British Airways employee and an NHS nurse, respectively, disciplined for refusing to remove or hide visible crucifixes… Read more
By now, most of you are undoubtedly aware of the death of Sun Myung Moon, founder and namesake of the “Moonies” religion, more properly named the Unification Church. I, like possibly many of you, had remained largely ignorant of the actual beliefs and practices of the Moonies. I mostly knew of them thanks to their famous mass weddings. The Moonies believe that the only way to get to Heaven is through the creation of “sinless marriage,” which can only happen… Read more
One day, the Dutch construction millionaire Johan Huibers had a dream. In his dream his beloved Holland was flooded again. Again? Yes, again. Because Huibers is a Creationist, and thus his dream flood would be the second time the Netherlands was entirely underwater, the first being the Biblical flood. A normal person would wake up from such a dream, grumble about yesterday’s chili giving them a tough night, and move on. You’ve probably gathered by now that Mr. Huibers is… Read more
Being a newly minted resident of the United Kingdom, I’ve learned that much can surprise you in this gloriously beautiful country with utterly filthy weather. One thing that might catch an American atheist off-guard is how the UK, a country far more secular than the US, maintains official ties with religion that are unthinkable in a country with the First Amendment. One of these ties is the existence of state-funded faith schools. Historically these were Christian schools that agreed to… Read more
We interrupt our regularly scheduled ranting about religion to bring you this awesome (and, according to physicists in the comments thread, accurate) song: The lyrics are below, in case you’d like to sing along: A quark can never exist by itself in isolation Something very odd happens when you try to sepparate them The energy it takes, to break up those two best friends is just enough to create two more to join back up with them A photon has… Read more
