Daylight Atheism » The Garden

Escaping Christian Patriarchy

Ebonmuse — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:39:18 +0000

Ophelia of Butterflies and Wheels has been writing some excellent posts lately about the abuse and oppression of women in Christian communities. One of them led me to an outstanding blog titled Love, Joy, Feminism. Its author, Libby Anne, grew up in an ... [visit site to read more]

How to Create (Not Find) the Meaning of Your Life

Ebonmuse — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:37:40 +0000

Guest post by Samantha Eliza Benten

A friend recently paraphrased a statement from The Nature of Existence (the documentary, I believe, though I haven't seen it) as follows: "People should spend more time thinking about the meaning of their own lives, than the meaning of life in general." This strikes a chord with a notion I've held since at least my senior year of high school. (That was when I came up with the BLT theory of the purpose of life, which is to say that a ... [visit site to read more]

Goodbye Religion? How Godlessness Is Increasing With Each New Generation

Ebonmuse — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:05:28 +0000

This essay was originally published on AlterNet.

Something strange is happening to American teenagers. If you believe popular wisdom, young people are apathetic, cynical and jaded; or, they're supposed to be conformists whose overriding desire is to fit in and be popular. But if you've been paying close attention over the past decade, you might have ... [visit site to read more]

New on AlterNet: Morality Doesn't Need Religion

Ebonmuse — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:29:47 +0000

My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, We Don't Need Religion to Have Morality. In it, I argue that morality is real, objective, and not dependent on theistic belief, and I explore the basis for this view and imagine what effect it could have on society if it were more widely adopted. To those who've read my essay on morality at Ebon ... [visit site to read more]

Walking Away from the Watchtower

Ebonmuse — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:26:20 +0000

Last week, I posted a link to my review of Millions Now Living Will Never Die, the Watchtower's 1920 apocalyptic misfire, on Facebook. It got a comment from Vanessa Sampson, an ex-Jehovah's Witness who said that her own discovery of the Watchtower's fallibility was a major factor in her ultimately deciding to leave that religion and become an atheist.

Vanessa gave me permission to use her ... [visit site to read more]

New on AlterNet: The Rise of Young Atheists

Ebonmuse — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:48:26 +0000

My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, Goodbye Religion? How Godlessness Is Increasing With Each New Generation. It surveys the demographic transformation that's been taking place in American society, with rates of godlessness steadily increasing in each generation since World War II, highlights the work of some outstanding young activists who are part of this ... [visit site to read more]

Atheists, Don't Be That Guy

Ebonmuse — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:46:50 +0000

When it comes to demolishing irrational beliefs, the atheist community has done a brilliant job. But when it comes to rooting out sexism in our own ranks, we have a long way left to go.

Witness the blowup that took place at a conference in Dublin last month, where Rebecca Watson of Skepchick gave a talk about the religious right's war on women... and then, that same night, was propositioned by a ... [visit site to read more]

There Are 10 Times as Many Atheists as Mormons: When Will Non-Believers Become a Political Force?

Ebonmuse — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:39:30 +0000

This essay was originally published on AlterNet.

The propagandists of the religious right shout it aloud as their battle cry: "America is a Christian nation!" And in the trivial sense that ours is a nation populated mostly by Christians, this is true. But in the sense that they mean it, that Christianity was intended to occupy a ... [visit site to read more]

To Win, We Just Have to Show Up

Ebonmuse — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:55:28 +0000

In the wake of marriage equality's victory in New York State last Friday, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler posted the following to Twitter:

Now, fully 1 in 9 Americans will live in a state with legalized same-sex marriage. Our mission field is getting more complicated.

On the surface, this is ... [visit site to read more]

Love Wins

Ebonmuse — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 02:38:32 +0000

And tomorrow is a brand new day.

Congratulations, New York!

EDIT: It seems appropriate to repost these photos, which I took in 2009 at a visit site to read more]

Grieving Without Religion

Ebonmuse — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:45:06 +0000

Recently, a long-time reader (thanks, Stacey!) sent me an e-mail with a link to this wrenching story, about a married couple chronicling the grief and anger they've been feeling since their daughter was stillborn in late 2009. By their own account, this tragedy happened in part because they put their trust in irrational thinking and home-birth woo [visit site to read more]

Atheists Are Not Fascists

Ebonmuse — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:41:02 +0000

This week, my first article on Alternet was published, which spurred several comments asking that we not forget about libertarian and conservative atheists. That's why it's so amusing that this same week, PZ Myers points out the curious ... [visit site to read more]