- Year's End, And a Preview
The Foyer • December 31, 2006
As the final hours of 2006 draw to a close, it's a fitting time to look back on the passing year and sum it all up. Without a doubt, 2006 has been an eventful year for nonbelievers: the downfall of Ted Haggard, the conviction of Kent Hovind, the spectacular defeat of the Republican party in [...]
- Setting the Record Straight
The Rotunda • December 31, 2006
Allow me to be absolutely clear about this:
I am an atheist. That means I do not believe in any gods. I am not just an "aYahwehist", lacking belief only in the god of the ancient Hebrews, or an "anAllahist", lacking belief only in the god of the Muslims. The set of gods in which I [...]
- All Days Are Holy
The Garden • December 30, 2006
The word "holiday" comes directly from the phrase "holy day". This designation, in turn, is based on the curious notion that a particular event happening on a certain date forever afterward gives that date some special sacredness or magical quality. The day of Halloween, for example, was once believed to be a time when barriers [...]
- Return of the Carnival of the Liberals
The Foyer • December 28, 2006
On January 3, the Carnival of the Liberals will be returning to Daylight Atheism for its 29th edition. There's still plenty of time and plenty of space for submissions, so get writing and send in the very best of your unapologetically liberal thought! All topics are welcome, but I'll look with special favor on entries [...]
- True Colors
The Rotunda • December 28, 2006
The holidays are traditionally a time for reconciliation, but the Anglican church isn't taking the lesson of their own religion to heart. As reported in Beliefnet and elsewhere, it is now official: the 77-million-member church is in the process of breaking apart over the issue of how to treat gay congregants.
Last week, two large, [...]
- Popular Delusions V: Santa Claus
The Observatory • December 27, 2006
I write the Popular Delusions series to critically investigate widely believed pseudosciences and superstitions. And while the topic of my latest entry in this series may seem odd, I think it fits - for after all, are there not tens of millions around the globe who are taught to believe in Santa Claus or other [...]
- Please Excuse Our Mess
The Foyer • December 26, 2006
Daylight Atheism was down for about two hours earlier today due to a coding error I made, so my apologies for that. Nothing was lost or damaged, and the site should now be restored to full functionality.
The good news is that the reason I've been revising code is to handle the steadily increased traffic this [...]
- A Freethinkers' Yule Sermon
The Garden • December 25, 2006
Throughout the Western world, the end-of-the-year holidays are a time for celebrating and making merry. Our most time-honored traditions encourage us to come together at this time in commemoration and gratitude for the blessings that life has to offer and the good fortune we have enjoyed during the year.
But even as we are encouraged [...]
- The War on Christmas: Here We Go Again
The Rotunda • December 23, 2006
In a post earlier this week, I wrote about how retailers and advertisers play on the sentiments associated with the holiday season as a way to make money, and how the religious right is actually, unbelievably, accelerating this trend by demanding the commercialization of their most sacred symbols. However, I failed to note at that [...]
- The Reason for the Season
The Library • December 20, 2006
As the solstice holiday draws near, the annual complaints by the religious right about the alleged "War on Christmas" are ramping up in volume, as usual. Every store greeter who says "Season's Greetings" is bitterly denounced; every municipality that erects a "holiday tree" is reviled with a level of shrillness that used to be reserved [...]
- The Gospel of Consumerism
The Rotunda • December 18, 2006
In the United States, the day after Thanksgiving is often called Black Friday, both because of the chaos it engenders and because it is the day when many businesses are "in the black", in other words able to show a net profit, for the first time of the year. Both reasons are because Black Friday [...]
- Sex and Consequence
The Rotunda • December 16, 2006
The spectacular public downfall of Ted Haggard last month continues to reverberate through the media. And now, an aftershock: Paul Barnes, founder of the 2,100-member evangelical Grace Chapel in Colorado, has resigned after admitting he had engaged in homosexual sex acts. (Predictably, Barnes' former church wasted no time in trying to erase his existence from [...]
- A Christmas Carol
The Library • December 14, 2006
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it [...]
- My Ways Are Not Your Ways
The Loft • December 12, 2006
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
—Isaiah 55:8-9
One of the apologist replies frequently raised against atheist arguments such as the argument from evil, [...]
- Holy Water, Frail Hope
The Observatory • December 10, 2006
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Shivering under a tattered blanket, a young woman tries to sleep at the foot of the mist-shrouded Entoto Mountain, north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
..."I decided to come to Entoto to seek a cure from the holy water after a doctor told me that I am HIV-positive," Abebech Alemu, 35, [...]
- Season of Light
The Garden • December 8, 2006
As the end of 2006 draws within sight, the annual holiday season is upon us. This year, I have noticed an interesting pattern in these familiar rituals. It is striking how many of the holidays that fall around this time of year involve the ceremonial kindling of light as an element of the celebration.
Chief among [...]
- Theocracy Watch VIII: Religious Tests
The Rotunda • December 6, 2006
Meet Keith Ellison:
Ellison is one of the new Democratic representatives elected in the November midterms, the winner of an open seat in Minnesota's 5th District. Representative-elect Ellison is also a Muslim, the first member of that religion ever to be elected to the United States Congress. As such, when he takes his oath of office, [...]
- The Theodicy of Narnia
The Library • December 4, 2006
When I was a child, I read and devoured C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books. I was too young then to understand most of the religious symbolism, and didn't realize that Lewis had intended the series as a Christian allegory until the end of the very last Narnia book, The Last Battle, which makes the [...]
- Theocracy Watch VII: Season's Warning
The Rotunda • December 2, 2006
With the Democratic victories in the recent midterm elections, I am hopeful that I will have to write considerably fewer Theocracy Watch posts in the near future. This is not to say that the Democrats do not also pander to religion, which they do, but only that they usually show less interest than Republicans in [...]
