While we now know the shooter was a South Korean who had any possible number of motives (depression, jealousy, rage, etc.), here’s a small compilation of what was said in the past 24 hours by some of our favorite public intellectuals: Political commentator Debbie Schlussel assumed the killer was a Muslim: Why am I speculating that the “Asian” gunman is a Pakistani Muslim? Because law enforcement and the media strangely won’t tell us more specifically who the gunman is. Why?… Read more
Woo! The book is finally out today! Everyone celebrate! You owe it to yourself to drink to the book’s release. … Helen at the eBay Atheist blog has a very favorable review of I Sold My Soul on eBay up at the site! Go read it! 🙂 And to make it even easier on you, Helen’s main points are in bold. You have no excuse now. … TXatheist, a frequent commenter on this site, also has a review up… on… Read more
After yesterday’s horrible Virginia Tech Massacre, one issue relevant to this blog is how these types of tragedies impact your religious/non-religious views. Many people gain or lose faith in the wake of disasters (personal or public). Similarly, their outlook on life changes entirely. One example: Sam Harris began writing The End of Faith on September 12, 2001. Have your views ever changed based on these sorts of incidents? How do you respond to them? (Thanks to Richard for suggesting the… Read more
I’m jumping in on this bandwagon late, but I’ve only now had a chance to read through a few of the articles on the “Science Framing” issue. The background: Chris Mooney (author of The Republican War on Science) and Matthew Nisbet (a professor at American University) wrote an article that was published in the journal Science last week. You can read it by going here and clicking on the “full text” link on the left hand sidebar. The article essentially… Read more
Because it publishes stuff like this op-ed piece on the recent surge in atheism, by Don Feder. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has become the first member of Congress to announce that he doesn’t believe in God. He’s probably just looking for a book deal. Of course he is. And so is Keith Ellison, the first Muslim man in Congress. In fact, everyone who claims to not be a Christian is doing it just for the attention. Or maybe it’s the… Read more
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article on Atheism in Europe last week: Passive indifference to faith has left Europe’s churches mostly empty. But debate over religion is more intense and strident than it has been in many decades. Religion is re-emerging as a big issue in part because of anxiety over Europe’s growing and restive Muslim populations and a fear that faith is reasserting itself in politics and public policy. That is all adding up to a growing… Read more
My alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago, has an article in the weekly campus newspaper promoting the book and the Barbara’s Bookstore event! Like most articles written about the book and the eBay auction, there are some points I would correct, but overall, it’s nice to feel supported by the school paper. And it would be great to see students from UIC at the bookstore tomorrow night. I went to the campus last week to meet the paper’s… Read more
The new Carnival of the Godless is at Neural Gourmet. Go check it out! The next CotG is at Klaas Acts in two weeks. Submit your entries here! [tags]atheist, atheism, Carnival of the Godless, Klaas Acts, Neural Gourmet[/tags] Read more
Harvard University’s radio station did a nice story on the upcoming New Humanism conference. The reporter, Alyce de Carteret, spoke to Greg Epstein, the Harvard Humanist Chaplain; Amanda Shapiro, president of the Harvard Secular Society; and myself. You can download the piece here (MP3). (Guess which one of us did the interview by phone?) [tags]atheist, atheism, New Humanism, Harvard University, Alyce de Carteret, Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain, Amanda Shapiro, Harvard Secular Society, Hemant Mehta[/tags] Read more
While we’re talking about new blogs, here’s one by Professor Stephen D. Solomon of New York University. Solomon went to Georgetown University for law school and has a new book coming out late next month: Ellery’s Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer is about Ellery Schempp. If the name isn’t familiar to you, here’s a brief description of who Ellery is: On November 26, 1956, Ellery Schempp protested mandatory Bible reading and… Read more
