- Popular Delusions: Out-of-Body Experiences
The Observatory • June 29, 2009
Most religious people believe in the soul, an ethereal locus of consciousness that separates from the body upon physical death and travels elsewhere to receive its reward. To people who hold this belief, it's a natural next step to guess that the soul or spirit could sometimes leave a person's body while they're still alive [...]
- The Case for a Creator: Beating a Dead Haeckel
The Observatory • June 27, 2009
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3
Ernst Haeckel died a hundred and fifty almost a hundred years ago [fixed - thanks, Alex!], but the creationists won't let him rest in peace. In this section, Wells again exhumes these old bones and takes a few kicks at them, and imagines that by doing so he's brought [...]
- The God of Shadow and Vapor
The Loft • June 26, 2009
In April, I wrote a piece chastising Madeline Bunting for her willful invocation of the Courtier's Reply, in which she attacks atheists for criticizing the beliefs actually held and practiced by billions of people, rather than the beliefs of a tiny minority of theologians and pundits like herself.
But let it not be said that [...]
- Moving Beyond Awe
The Garden • June 24, 2009
The nineteenth-century German theologian Rudolf Otto, in his book The Idea of the Holy, popularized the term "numinous", an adjective describing the sense of mystery and wonder that purportedly stems from the presence of a deity. According to Otto, the sense of the numinous had two main characteristics: the mysterium tremendum, the sense of fear [...]
- Stalin the Divine Savior
The Library • June 22, 2009
Via Making My Way (a great atheist blog, although its author doesn't update often enough!), this amazing historical fact.
I wrote in "Red Crimes" about how communism, demonized by religious apologists as an atheistic ideology, was more in the nature of a political system: willing to work with anyone who supported its goals and to persecute [...]
- Poetry Sunday: Evening Without Angels
The Foyer • June 21, 2009
In a comment on April's Poetry Sunday, Eric suggested another post featuring Wallace Stevens. I wanted to reprint Wilfred Owen's poem last month in honor of Memorial Day, but I'm always open to requests.
Today's post, like my previous selection from Stevens, highlights the poet's naturalistic, humanist views. According to Alan D. Perlis' book Wallace [...]
- Winner of the 2009 3QD Science Prize
The Foyer • June 21, 2009
I'm thrilled to announce that 3 Quarks Daily has officially chosen the winners of their 2009 Science Prize, and their first-place award, the Top Quark, has gone to Daylight Atheism!
Here's what 3QD's celebrity judge, Professor Steven Pinker, had to say:
Daylight Atheism’s Bands of Iron is my top pick. He starts with an something that attracts [...]
- The Case for a Creator: Small Twigs
The Observatory • June 20, 2009
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3
Jonathan Wells' second "icon" is Darwin's tree of life, which he says is a "dismal failure" [p.43] as an illustration of the fossil record.
With a lead-in like that, you'd expect a typical creationist jeremiad against transitional fossils. In fact, that's not what we get. The focus of Wells' complaint [...]
- A Brief Saturday Morning Thought
The Rotunda • June 20, 2009
Shorter John Ensign: Gay marriage is going to take away my sacred, God-given right to cheat on my wife.
- This Is Why There Is War in the Mideast
The Rotunda • June 18, 2009
The Jewish magazine Moment ran an article in its latest issue asking rabbis from a variety of Jewish sects how Israel can promote peace with its Arab neighbors (HT: Pharyngula). Most of the rabbis express fairly bland, liberal views about the importance of peace and tolerance, which are fine in themselves, although few of them [...]
- A Dialogue with Quixote, Part VI
The Library • June 16, 2009
To my friend Ebonmuse,
Offered with genuine respect to the readership and commentators of DA,
The presumption of atheism, the hiddenness of God, the Problem of Evil, the Euthyphro dilemma, epistemic warrant, Pascal's wager, NOMA, Hume's critique of the miraculous, the Kalam cosmological argument...
I'm near concluding that I've interacted with far more atheists — [...]
- Eric Hovind, Racist
The Rotunda • June 15, 2009
Daylight Atheism readers undoubtedly remember Kent Hovind, a bottom-feeder creationist with a degree from a diploma mill and a phony $250,000 offer for anyone who could offer "proof of evolution". You probably also remember that Hovind is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence for federal tax evasion. But what you might not know is that [...]
- The Case for a Creator: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
The Observatory • June 14, 2009
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3
Having established Jonathan Wells' bona fides, let's get down to business. The first of his "icons" is the Miller-Urey experiment, a landmark study proving that the chemical building blocks of life could emerge relatively easily under conditions similar to those of the early Earth.
This is not, strictly speaking, an [...]
- Finalist in the 3QD Science Prize
The Foyer • June 13, 2009
This post is purely to brag: the editors of the blog 3 Quarks Daily have selected the seven finalists for their 2009 Science Prize, and Daylight Atheism is among them!
My post "Bands of Iron" is one of the seven that will be sent to 3QD's celebrity judge, Steven Pinker, who will pick the ultimate [...]
- Science Needs Good PR
The Observatory • June 12, 2009
My recent post on Project Steve brought several comments arguing that it's pointless to take a survey of scientists, like this one from Freidenker:
Frankly, I have no idea whatsoever how many scientists accept or reject evolution, and furthermore - it doesn't matter: even if all scientists all over the world rejected evolution, the evidence for [...]
- Green Fields
The Garden • June 10, 2009
[Author's Note: This piece is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, who passed away last week. The last time I saw her, several months before she died, she told me that she was not a "god-fearing" person. Freethought evidently runs deeper in my family than I had guessed, and in this small way, as [...]
- Fundamentalism Is Alive and Well: A Reply to John Shelby Spong
The Loft • June 8, 2009
I recently finished reading two books by the Anglican bishop John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism and Why Christianity Must Change or Die. Spong is infamous for his near-total rejection of the tenets of Christianity, despite being a member of the clergy, and these books witness to that: he doesn't believe in miracles [...]
- The Case for a Creator: Meet Jonathan Wells
The Observatory • June 6, 2009
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3
Strobel's first interviewee is Jonathan Wells, author of the polemic Icons of Evolution. Icons attacks evolutionary theory by seeking to discredit what are, allegedly, its best-known supporting lines of evidence - its "icons" - such as the Miller-Urey experiment, Archaeopteryx, and the Cambrian Explosion.
We'll get to that soon, but [...]
- Mystery Does Not Equal God
The Loft • June 4, 2009
By Sarah Braasch
When I was about seven years old I almost died. It wasn't the only time I almost died, but it was one of my most colorful near death experiences. I had acquired some sort of flu bug or food poisoning or I don't know what, but my mother, in her either infinite ignorance [...]
- Introducing a New Guest Author
The Foyer • June 3, 2009
Tomorrow, a new guest author will be making her debut on Daylight Atheism. I'm particularly proud of being able to feature her work here, and once I've introduced her, I hope you'll see why.
I first heard of Sarah Braasch through the Freedom from Religion Foundation, where she worked as a legal intern, after coming across [...]
- The Murder of Dr. George Tiller
The Rotunda • June 2, 2009
If you've been following the news, you already know that Dr. George Tiller, one of only a handful of doctors left in the United States who perform late-term abortions, was murdered this week. A suspect, Scott Roeder, is already in custody.
Since the election of Barack Obama, there's been a noticeable upsurge in right-wing terrorism. [...]
- Vote for Daylight Atheism for the 3QD 2009 Science Prize
The Foyer • June 1, 2009
I'm no PZ Myers, but I've always wanted to try my hand at stuffing a ballot box, and now I have an opportunity. The science and culture blog 3 Quarks Daily has officially begun the voting for its 2009 Science Prize, and I'm pleased to announce that two posts from Daylight Atheism are in the [...]
- A Dialogue with Quixote, Part V
The Library • June 1, 2009
Hello Quixote,
In reference to your list of reasons why people become atheists or theists, I have to disagree. I don't think most of those are the initial reasons why people choose one or the other. Many of them are common causes that are frequently taken up by people on one side or the other, or [...]
