The latest New York Times Best Sellers List has a welcome addition in the Hardcover Nonfiction category: Greg Epstein’s Good Without God. I love that it’s a few spots ahead of #34 🙂 Congratulations to Greg, whose book is now going into its fourth printing. Whether you like his form of Humanism or whether you find it touchy-feely, too “religious,” or weak, it’s always a good thing when our general beliefs get a wider audience. Read more
You have to read this article. It’s by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. No, really. Read it. It’s all about how religion oppresses women. Sometimes, the Scripture says it directly. And sometimes, it’s the religiously-inspired culture. Kristof also says that if religion is the problem, religion can be the solution, but that requires a fundamental shift in the mindset of the followers of several major faiths. That’s not likely to happen. I think ridding these cultures of the… Read more
Well, since the earlier story about a high school atheist group was a bit of a downer, this one should cheer you up. Susan Caldwell is a North High School senior; she says she had “wanted to attend some sort of atheist youth group for a couple of years.” She is disturbed, she says, by the discrimination people who do not hold traditional Christian beliefs receive at the hands of their peers “in this culture.” Her North High School classmate… Read more
The Secular Student Alliance has nearly 200 affiliates at colleges across the country and beyond. But we don’t have a lot of groups at high schools. When I hear stories like this one, it makes me think our staff should be making starting high school atheist groups a priority. (Update: The SSA does have material available for high school educators about non-religious students.) Skyler Curtis wanted to start a “Fellowship of Atheist Athletes” group at Rising Sun High School in… Read more
For all of you who are also math fans, I wrote a review of Flatland: The Movie and it’s now up at the website for Skeptical Inquirer. As in the book, there are subtle questions in this movie that any skeptic would appreciate: Why are the priests (those with hundreds or thousands of sides) trying to repress any information about the third dimension? Can mathematical/scientific truth trump accepted dogma? Is the truth accessible only to the elite, or can it… Read more
by Jesse Galef – Back in October, WIRED magazine had an excellent article on the anti-vaccine movement featuring Dr. Offit. Though many people call him a vaccine advocate, Offit says he sees himself as a science advocate. And the science is pretty conclusive: there is no good evidence that autism is linked to vaccines. Commenting on why anti-vaccine advocate Barbara Loe Fisher upsets him, he said “She lies.” Fisher is now trying to sue Offit for defamation (libel). My friend… Read more
Kristian at Apatheism had an idea I think is great: I made a new year’s resolution to read at least one book, from cover to cover, that goes fundamentally against everything I believe in. For me that would be a book from a religious perspective to life, universe and everything, or a conservative, right wing viewpoint… It’s good advice. As he writes, this isn’t about shifting to the other side. It’s about getting an idea of what “the other side”… Read more
I’ve written a couple posts about a possible atheist “Unity” convention. Today, the leaders of several national non-theistic organizations got together for an annual meeting to discuss strategy, future plans, and bounce ideas off each other. The Unity Convention was one of the agenda items. First, the bad news, then the good. Here’s where we’re at: There are some very important reasons not to go forward with this idea. Money is a big one. For example: How would we raise… Read more
by Jesse Galef – Image from (afp) via TimesOnline Even though I recognize some thorny issues with secularism, it’s good to remember what can happen without it. Last week, the Malaysian High Court ruled that a Catholic newspaper was allowed to use the word “Allah” to refer to God in their local-language publications. The church argued that it was the only appropriate translation of the word. This might seem trivial, but it was actually very controversial and had been banned… Read more
by Jesse Galef – To religious individuals, do God’s actions define good, or does God follow an objective “goodness”? That’s the question raised by Socrates in Euthyphro, and it keeps popping up. For atheists, the question is meaningless – we don’t believe in God, so any practical definition of ‘good’ is secular. Obviously, many people disagree. Commenter Nathan describes this worldview nicely: It’s only demonstrably evil if you define “evil” and then demonstrate that Yahweh’s actions meet your definition. Not… Read more
