- Strange and Curious Sects: Koreshanity
The Library • March 30, 2009
Cyrus Reed Teed, a.k.a. the Prophet Koresh. Public-domain image from Wikipedia.
It seems that every religion has at least one signature bizarre belief: whether it be that the messiah is an American soldier who will return from across the ocean bringing marvelous cargo, or that human beings are possessed by the ghosts of murdered aliens, or [...]
- Poetry Sunday: Leaves
The Foyer • March 29, 2009
Today's Poetry Sunday features the American poet Sara Teasdale. Like other female writers of the nineteenth century, she lived a quiet and reclusive life, yet was acclaimed in the wider world for compositions showing far greater skill and beauty than her seemingly limited perspective should have allowed. Unlike her predecessors, however, she lived to see [...]
- How to Think Critically: Memory & Confabulation
The Observatory • March 28, 2009
The reliability of eyewitness accounts is one of the bedrock beliefs of our society. In ancient cultures - and in some modern cultures that still follow ancient laws - some crimes could only be proven by eyewitness testimonies. One of the most infamous examples was Pakistan's Hudood Ordinances, which mandated that allegations of rape could [...]
- The Moral High Ground
The Loft • March 27, 2009
It's common for fundamentalist Christians to think of themselves as the moral guardians of our culture, a bulwark against the rampant sex and violence in the mass media. But this self-flattering caricature runs up against inconvenient reality: there is plenty of evidence which shows that Christians as a whole are every bit as drawn to [...]
- Barack Obama and Church-State Separation
The Rotunda • March 25, 2009
Although the first hundred days of President Barack Obama's term haven't ended yet, this seems like a good time to examine his record in office so far and see how it's lived up to his own campaign pledges and to freethinkers' expectations. These past few months have been a roller-coaster ride - from the exhilaration [...]
- Catholicism Kills
The Rotunda • March 23, 2009
In January, I wrote about how the Vatican had decided to lift the excommunication of Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson. After a worldwide avalanche of criticism, the church backtracked somewhat on this decision: Williamson is still welcomed back, although he's been ordered to recant his views, which to my knowledge he has not done.
But last week [...]
- The 113th Carnival of the Godless
The Garden • March 22, 2009
Welcome, new visitors and regular readers, to the 113th edition of the Carnival of the Godless here at Daylight Atheism! I last hosted this gathering of the godless all the way back in July 2006, for its 44th edition, and nearly three years later, we're still going strong. In fact, the carnival has grown considerably [...]
- Holier-Than-Thouism
The Garden • March 21, 2009
My recent post encouraging readers to join the atheists' group on Kiva stirred some controversy in a comment thread on Reddit. One commenter, whose sentiments were echoed by several others, writes:
You should give because you believe in something - not just to prove a point and rig this like it's some kind of game.
With respect, [...]
- A World in Shadow VI
The Library • March 20, 2009
In 2006 and 2007, I wrote several entries in a series called A World in Shadow, bolstering the atheist's argument from evil by describing particularly shocking or egregious instances of natural and moral evils. However, I haven't written any new entries for this series in some time.
To be honest, I stopped writing these posts because [...]
- Evolutionary Algorithms
The Observatory • March 18, 2009
One of the bedrock claims of creationism is that mutation can never create new information, that random changes can only make complex systems worse and never improve them. Although there are many examples of information-increasing mutations in the natural world that prove this claim false, there's an even more potent and understandable counterexample, one that [...]
- New Post on Dangerous Intersection
The Foyer • March 17, 2009
I've put up a new post on Dangerous Intersection, "A 24-hour news network lineup I’d like to see".
This is an open thread.
- Book Review: The Atheist's Way
The Library • March 16, 2009
(Editor's Note: This review was solicited and is written in accordance with this site's policy for such reviews.)
Summary: A worthy effort, but at best a shallow draught from a spring that can sustain much deeper drinking.
I've often said that atheism, to succeed as a movement, needs to do more than just criticize belief in gods: [...]
- Atheists, Do Some Good: Join Kiva
The Garden • March 15, 2009
An accusation that's often leveled against atheists is that we lack charitable impulses, that faith-based organizations do the hard work of caring for the needy and atheism only promotes selfishness. This is a hateful slur, and to counter it, I've discussed outstanding acts of charity by individual atheists in the past. Evidence like this shows [...]
- The 2008 ARIS: Atheist State of the Nation
The Garden • March 13, 2009
As you've surely heard by now, the landmark 2008 American Religious Identification Survey has just been released. The ARIS is an enormous study that questioned over 50,000 respondents to assemble a broad picture of religious belief and disbelief in the United States, building on previous surveys from 1990 and 2001.
The 2001 results showed that nonbelievers [...]
- Paul's Resurrection Creed
The Library • March 11, 2009
In the book of First Corinthians, there's a passage that's frequently cited by Christian apologists:
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
And [...]
- Rebutting Reasonable Faith: Free Will and Evil
The Library • March 9, 2009
A correspondent to William Lane Craig's Reasonable Faith column writes in with a very good question, one that atheists have often raised:
An acquaintance of mine recently asked me why it is necessary that we be able to choose evil for us to have free will, while it is not necessary that God be able to [...]
- New on Ebon Musings: Dating the Good News
The Foyer • March 8, 2009
I've uploaded a new essay to Ebon Musings, "Dating the Good News". This essay attempts to fix a date of composition for the New Testament's four canonical gospels based on documentary evidence, both positive and negative, and draws some conclusions on what this date tells us about the evolution of early Christianity.
This is an open [...]
- Elizabeth Dole's Campaign Manager: We Regret Nothing
The Rotunda • March 7, 2009
Regular readers of Daylight Atheism may recall how this site became involved in the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina last October. Trailing in the polls and running low on money, Republican senator Elizabeth Dole quoted Daylight Atheism in anti-atheist smear ads in a last-ditch attack aimed at her Democratic challenger Kay Hagan. Thankfully, Dole's [...]
- Noble Africa
The Observatory • March 6, 2009
To those who are following the continuing genocide in Darfur, every day brings grim headlines:
Fighting has prompted thousands of people in the southern part of Sudan's Darfur region to seek security and shelter at a refugee camp in the northern part of the war-torn area, according to the United Nations.
...An estimated 300,000 people in the [...]
- The 99 Percent Solution
The Loft • March 4, 2009
One of the more tiresome parts of being an atheist is having to deal with preachers who drag out the old apologetic cliches and convince themselves that they're being clever. Just so is this piece from one Rev. Eric Strachan:
[I] like to ask every atheist, "What percentage of the total knowledge that one could possibly [...]
- Atheists, Show Some Respect!
The Garden • March 2, 2009
(This essay was originally published in issue #1 of the AHS newsletter, Secular Future.)
As the New Atheist movement grows in size and influence, we've been assailed by pundits and theologians who say we ought to be more respectful - that we need to choose our words carefully and afford religious believers the courtesy they are [...]
- Atheist Action Items
The Rotunda • March 1, 2009
If we're going to create a world more friendly to reason, we need to raise our voices and speak out for the atheist viewpoint. This week, there are several ways in which you can help:
• Two Texas state legislators have been courageously fighting back against creationism by proposing legislation to increase oversight and disclosure of [...]
