- Theocracy Watch II: Judicial Tyranny Edition
The Rotunda • March 31, 2006
The forces of theocracy are on the march, and Daylight Atheism is keeping a close eye on them. First, an article from the March 3 Legal Times, Alabama Judge Declares War on U.S. Supreme Court:
Sitting calmly in his impeccably neat office at Alabama's Justice Building, state Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker does not look like [...]
- On Free Will II: Overthrowing Dualism
The Library • March 30, 2006
For most of human history, philosophers have believed that only the possession of an immaterial soul could confer free will on human beings. (There have been exceptions: the ancient Greek Stoics, for example.) This idea has fallen somewhat out of favor, but there are many theists who still hold to it. They are willing to [...]
- New on Ebon Musings: Into the Clear Air
The Foyer • March 30, 2006
A new essay, "Into the Clear Air", has been posted on Ebon Musings. The article details the four common stages of deconversion and offers help and guidance to people in the process of losing their religion.
This is an open thread. Comments and feedback are welcome.
- Who Are the Moral Ones?
The Rotunda • March 29, 2006
(Note: The next post in the free will series will appear tomorrow.)
Much mention has been made lately of a recent Pew Research Center study showing that two-thirds of American Christians condone the use of torture. When asked whether the use of torture against terrorism suspects was justified to gain important information, about 15% of white [...]
- On Free Will I: Executive Summary
The Library • March 28, 2006
Over the ages, the question of whether we have free will has engaged, confronted, and puzzled philosophers probably more than any other issue, and untold numbers of papers, conferences, books and debates have been expended on tackling it. It is no surprise that so much philosophical ink has been spilled on this question, because it [...]
- Kicking the Crutches Away
The Loft • March 26, 2006
In a previous post, I defended the conclusion that atheists should, under certain circumstances, evangelize on behalf of atheism. I recently read a story that bears on this conclusion, thanks to a recent edition of the Grand Rounds medical blog carnival - a beautiful and moving post titled "The rites of passage", about a badly [...]
- An Oft-Asked Question
The Observatory • March 24, 2006
Turn on the TV, turn to the back pages of a newspaper, or peruse the best-seller lists, and you're almost certain to come across one of those angels in human form, the psychics. Every day they display their powers to the wonder of believers and the astonishment of skeptics, presciently predicting startling information such as, [...]
- March Announcements Redux
The Foyer • March 24, 2006
• Daylight Atheism will be hosting the Philosophers' Carnival on April 24, in one month. Send in your best philosophy blogging now!
• This blog has been attacked by those most vile of creatures, comment spammers. Thankfully, the built-in spam filters seem to have kept them out so far, but if any spam comments do make [...]
- We've Got Work to Do
The Rotunda • March 23, 2006
My post yesterday, "The Quiet Revolution", discussed some of the positive ways in which atheists are organizing and making inroads into society. But as much as I hate to follow up good news with bad, I feel I would be doing my readers a disservice if I played down the magnitude of what we atheists [...]
- The Quiet Revolution
The Garden • March 22, 2006
In a previous post in the Garden, "An Inspiring Story", I discussed two ways in which atheism might make inroads into society:
It is not inconceivable that atheists are nearing a critical mass, one which when reached will inspire us to organize en masse. If such a thing were to happen, I have no doubt that [...]
- Should Atheists Evangelize?
The Garden • March 20, 2006
It is a perennial question, among atheists, of whether we should evangelize in favor of atheism the way the religious do. It is not hard to see why this question has been so hotly debated, since there are good arguments on both sides.
Since atheism is a positive worldview, there would seem to be a reason [...]
- A Visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral
The Loft • March 18, 2006
It was in late December of last year that I visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City for the first time. It was a cold, wet evening, alternating between rain and flurries of snow, and a friend and I had gone downtown to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. But the cathedral was [...]
- The Devil Cannot Abide Mockery
The Rotunda • March 16, 2006
The recent fiasco over the cartoons of Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper shows that free speech is still very much under threat. Though this basic human right has long been guaranteed in the Western world, this controversy should remind us that there is still a large section of humanity among whom free speech is [...]
- How Big is the Library of Babel?
The Library • March 14, 2006
One of my favorite short-story authors is the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges. Many of his stories deal with mind-expanding themes, including "Blue Tigers", about a handful of stones that do not obey the rules of mathematics, "The Book of Sand", about a book with an infinite number of pages, and "The Aleph", a point [...]
- A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep
The Rotunda • March 12, 2006
The United States of America is populated overwhelmingly by Christians. Poll after poll shows that between 75% and 85% of American citizens identify with some denomination of Christianity, and though this percentage has declined somewhat in recent years, it is still a great majority. It would be correct to say that the U.S. is, in [...]
- Damned If You Do
The Loft • March 10, 2006
Has anyone else ever noticed that, as far as theists are concerned, atheists just can't win? Every single thing we do, or don't do, is interpreted by believers in such a way as to give aid and comfort to their beliefs. Consider:
When theists commit evil or criminal acts, it just goes to show that we're [...]
- March Site Announcements
The Foyer • March 9, 2006
Daylight Atheism is now officially entering its second month of operation, and so far I couldn't be happier with the way things have been going. In my first post, I wrote that I planned to update this site twice per week to begin with. You can all see for yourselves how that worked out - [...]
- That Monstrous Regiment
The Rotunda • March 8, 2006
(Note: This post was written for Blog Against Sexism Day.)
One of the greatest enemies of the feminist movement is and has always been religion. Regardless of when or how this tendency originated, the monotheistic tradition that gave rise to Judaism, Christianity and Islam has historically stood in vehement opposition to the simple and obvious truth [...]
- Pulling Back the Curtain
The Observatory • March 7, 2006
The previous post in the Observatory, "On Presuppositions", discussed a few of the many ways in which bias has been shown to affect our decisions. When we expect or believe something to be true, we very often act as if it is true, and disregard contradictory evidence.
Given these undeniable facts, what hope is left for [...]
- Walled Gardens
The Rotunda • March 6, 2006
Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars has drawn my attention to a story I've been meaning to post about for some time: Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza and a wealthy far-right Catholic, is financing the construction of a new town in Florida to be named Ave Maria.
Controversy has ensued because [...]
- Theocracy Watch
The Rotunda • March 4, 2006
There has been considerable buzz in the blogosphere lately about a bill pending in Missouri that would supposedly make Christianity the "state's official religion".
When I first heard this news, suitably apocalyptic thoughts occurred to me, as I'm sure they did to many of you. Declaring an official state religion is the essence of theocracy, and [...]
- Book Review: Darwin's Dangerous Idea
The Library • March 3, 2006
Daniel Dennett is one of my favorite philosophers. Few write with his clarity or liveliness, and the topics to which he turns his attention - evolution, religion, free will, the human mind - fall squarely within my area of interest. His explanations are often brilliantly clever, and his conclusions are ones I can usually agree [...]
- The Cathedral and the Garden
The Garden • March 1, 2006
One of the most fundamental differences between atheism and religion is that a religion is, by definition, a group of followers, while atheism is a collection of individuals. Each religion is built on some body of myths and rules that was compiled long ago and is now set in stone, inviolate. Membership in that religion [...]
