- The Desert III
The Loft • September 30, 2007
(Author's Note: "The Desert" is a work of short fiction in several parts. If you haven't already done so, now would be a good time to go back and read the previous chapters so that you know what's going on.)
III: The Traditionalist
I plodded on through the desert. The heat was mind-blasting in its intensity, and [...]
- The Desert II
The Loft • September 28, 2007
(Author's Note: "The Desert" is a work of short fiction in several parts. If you haven't already done so, now would be a good time to go back and read the previous chapter so that you know what's going on.)
II: The Penitent
The instant I crossed the boundary, the heat of the desert rose up to [...]
- The Desert
The Loft • September 27, 2007
(Author's Note: In the last post of 2006, I mentioned possible plans to write a serialized work of fiction on this site. This new series is not that work, which still lies in the future. However, it's something different from what I normally write here, and I thought it was an interesting opportunity to try [...]
- Open Thread and Revised Comment Policy
The Foyer • September 26, 2007
I've updated Daylight Atheism's comment policy. I felt the old one was too vague, and I wanted to be clear in enumerating the types of comments I consider abusive. If you're a regular visitor, you probably have no need to read this, but it's there just in case.
I'd also like to announce that Daylight Atheism [...]
- Do You Really Believe That? (III)
The Observatory • September 26, 2007
The Ten Plagues
The third installment of "Do You Really Believe That?" will examine another famous story of the Old Testament, the ten plagues of Egypt. As the Book of Exodus tells it, the Israelite prophet Moses was chosen by God to set his people free from their long slavery in Egypt. But when the hard-hearted [...]
- The Religious Right Hates America
The Rotunda • September 25, 2007
Via Talking Points Memo, I've come across a story I still find almost unbelievable. It happened at the "Values Voter" debate for Republican presidential candidates that took place last week in Fort Lauderdale.
This event was skipped by the major candidates, Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney, which left seven minor candidates [...]
- Golden Atheists
The Garden • September 24, 2007
The popular aphorism "there are no atheists in foxholes" implies that people can only be atheists in times of comfort and security, and that if the end of life is in view, they will inevitably cry out to God to save them. I wish everyone who uses this thoughtless and insulting slur could meet Claire [...]
- Poetry Sunday: Selections from "Sunday Morning"
The Foyer • September 23, 2007
For the fourth installment of Daylight Atheism's Poetry Sunday, I'm presenting selections from the poem "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens. In this work, Stevens' nameless narrator finds happiness and comfort in a humanist philosophy, expressing the view that the only good we can expect to receive is from our fellow human beings, and that this [...]
- Theocracy Watch XII: The Army of God
The Rotunda • September 22, 2007
The topic of today's installment of Theocracy Watch is a lengthy one, and I don't know if I can do full justice to it, but I will try. I've written in the past about how Christian fundamentalists disturbingly portray themselves and their mission in the language of war and violence, but this is a far [...]
- Opting Out
The Loft • September 20, 2007
Humans are communal creatures, and we have been ever since we roamed the African savannas. Our greatest evolutionary advantage is our intelligence, but even the world's greatest genius would probably find that to be little help if forced to survive in total isolation. Intelligence is inherently a social adaptation; it works best among groups that [...]
- The Pretense of Superiority
The Rotunda • September 18, 2007
Religion has always been used to sanctify inequality here on Earth, in the present no less than in the past. By teaching their followers that they are God's chosen rulers, religious authorities can accustom the flock to obedience and ascend to positions of power without the consent of the majority. The fundamentally oligarchic and anti-democratic [...]
- Clearing the Ground
The Garden • September 16, 2007
A recent comment by Sastra on EvolutionBlog made me laugh:
When atheists make their arguments against fundamentalist forms of God, the moderate believers both approve and disapprove. They agree with what they say, they can't stand the extremists either, but of course there's no reason for atheism as a reaction! Those people may be in the [...]
- Francis Collins on Atheism
The Observatory • September 14, 2007
The Point of Inquiry podcast recently aired a very interesting interview between D.J. Grothe and Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the Human Genome Project and a devout evangelical Christian. In the interview, Collins discusses the intersection of science and religious faith, whether belief in God is a scientific hypothesis, and the attacks on religion [...]
- Unravelled Threads
The Library • September 12, 2007
One of the hallmarks of a well-tested scientific theory is that it is supported by numerous, independent lines of evidence. We have the greatest confidence that a theory is true when results from completely different fields of science, which have no obvious reason to agree, all converge in support of the same conclusion, like threads [...]
- Eternal Moments
The Loft • September 10, 2007
Without an eternal soul our existence is truly meaningless in the long run which is all that matters. Eventually your effect on others, nations and the world subsides, even if you are Alexander the Great. The earth will cease to exist, the universe will eventually cease to support any life. It will be as if [...]
- On Incorruptibility
The Observatory • September 8, 2007
One of the stranger supposed miracles in the Christian catalog is the miracle of incorruptibility. More common in Catholicism (I have yet to come across any Protestant examples), this term refers to a saint or holy person whose body miraculously refuses to decompose after death, instead remaining intact and even lifelike.
This apologist site lists some [...]
- Scientology to Stand Trial?
The Rotunda • September 6, 2007
Some welcome news out of Brussels:
A Belgian prosecutor on Tuesday recommended that the U.S.-based Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, following a 10-year investigation that concluded the group should be labeled a criminal organization.
Although I take a dim view of the principle, held by many European countries, that speech and belief can [...]
- New Capsule Reviews
The Foyer • September 5, 2007
Following a reader's suggestion, I'm going to start adding brief reviews on the books read page for books where I don't feel a full-length review is necessary. I plan on going back and adding reviews for older books as I find the time.
- The Moving Light of Time
The Library • September 4, 2007
"In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time — for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays."
—C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
In the above excerpt, C.S. Lewis expresses a very [...]
- Atheists at 25%
The Garden • September 2, 2007
Atheist Revolution recently picked up on a stunning poll result described in The Nation:
...a more recent and more nuanced Financial Times/Harris poll of Europeans and Americans that allowed respondents to declare agnosticism as well as atheism: 18 percent of the more than 2,000 American respondents chose one or the other, while 73 percent affirmed belief [...]
