- A World in Shadow II
The Library • July 31, 2006
In the first post of this series, I wrote about some of the diseases that afflict human beings from without. In this post, I will shift focus and discuss two articles about disorders that afflict us from within. The first, from March, is titled A Hunt for Genes That Betrayed a Desert People, about inherited [...]
- Drink Deeply
The Garden • July 28, 2006
For most of human history, the range of experience open to most people was narrow and limited. Untold millions of people lived and died never traveling more than a few miles from their birthplaces and never meeting more than a few hundred other individuals from their own communities, their horizon largely limited to the handful [...]
- Watch This Space
The Rotunda • July 26, 2006
Offered for my readers' amusement, I recently came across the following humbly named site: The True Bible Code. As with all devotees of the Bible code, this site works by randomly stringing together letters from randomly chosen chapters of the Bible until they manage to come up with one pattern that spells something and that [...]
- New on Ebon Musings: Parting the Parthenon
The Foyer • July 25, 2006
A new essay, "Parting the Parthenon", has been posted on Ebon Musings. The essay is a semi-serious look at the reasons to disbelieve in the Greek gods, written as a response to Christians who claim atheists focus exclusively on debunking Christianity.
This is an open thread. Comments and feedback are welcome.
- Winning Hearts and Minds
The Garden • July 24, 2006
In the post Should Atheists Evangelize?, back in March, I argued for the conclusion that nonbelievers should, in fact, seek to spread the good news of atheism under certain circumstances. Since then, I have built on this foundation by proposing a plan for how best to achieve that. In previous posts of this series, I [...]
- Receding Waters
The Rotunda • July 22, 2006
Earlier this month, I wrote a post titled "The Roar of Many Waters", a frank recognition of the despair I sometimes feel in the face of an overwhelming tide of anti-rational and confrontational religion. But although I closed that post on a brighter note, I did not within it provide any concrete reasons for nonbelievers [...]
- We're Looking For a Few Good Skeptics
The Foyer • July 20, 2006
Attention please:
It is, once again, my honor and privilege to announce that the 40th Skeptics' Circle will appear at Daylight Atheism on August 3, two weeks from today. Send in your best skeptical blogging now, and you too can lay waste to superstition and credulity with the sharp edge of reason! Entries can be [...]
- Designing the Afterlife
The Loft • July 19, 2006
In his book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis puts a challenge to those who condemn the doctrine of Hell as immoral: "What are you asking God to do?"
The apparent reasoning behind this question is that even those who think the idea of Hell is monstrous would be unable to come up with a [...]
- Putting Humanity on a Pedestal
The Observatory • July 16, 2006
The history of the human species is, as Carl Sagan put it, a series of great demotions. Prior to the scientific age, humanity believed that we were the crowning glory of creation, and that all the universe existed merely to pay tribute to us. But the advances in understanding brought about by the dawning of [...]
- Little-Known Bible Verses III: Every Plant of the Garden
The Library • July 13, 2006
Discerning God's will is always a tricky business, but Billy Graham seems confident that he has it down pat. Witness one of his "My Answer" columns in which he declares that it is not God's will for anyone to smoke marijuana, even if they are a Christian and believe otherwise:
Q: A friend of mine gave [...]
- The Errors of Faith
The Rotunda • July 11, 2006
In midtown Manhattan yesterday, I happened to notice the following breathtakingly arrogant slogan on a church's bulletin board:
"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." —Thomas Russell
This quote is probably of ancient vintage (both Thomas Russells listed on Wikipedia lived during the 1700s), which explains, though it does not excuse, its [...]
- The 44th Carnival of the Godless
The Garden • July 9, 2006
It is a glorious summer day in the Garden here at Daylight Atheism, and the 44th Carnival of the Godless has convened and is in session. Caravans and covered wagons bearing infidels and freethinkers from around the world have arrived and are drawn up in a circle on the green lawn. The sun beats down [...]
- Initial Inspiration
The Loft • July 7, 2006
Most religions that exist today are of ancient origin, and their scriptures and creeds reflect the immoral beliefs of their times. However, social progress in the civilized world has led to widespread recognition of the immorality of those practices, and many churches today are in the awkward position of disavowing such evils while simultaneously maintaining [...]
- Theocracy Watch IV: Liberty Defiled
The Rotunda • July 4, 2006
The Fourth of July occurs during this week, the United States of America's Independence Day. On this day we remember the ideals America was born to uphold, the ideals that generations of patriots have fought and died for: liberty of speech, liberty of belief, and eternal freedom from every form of tyranny over the mind [...]
- Seeking the Hidden Switches
The Observatory • July 3, 2006
Two juxtaposed articles in the June/July issue of Scientific American Mind offer some intriguing insights into how theistic beliefs may have first developed in the human species. First, an article titled Preschool Determinists:
When cognitive scientists Laura E. Schulz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Jessica Sommerville of the University of Washington tested preschoolers, they [...]
- The Roar of Many Waters
The Garden • July 1, 2006
I have often described atheism as a positive and hopeful worldview, and I stand by that description. I truly do believe that humanity has the potential to inherit a future glorious beyond imagining - not an imaginary heaven, but a real and genuine utopia existing in this world, one built up by our hands and [...]
