Atheism

Secularism in the US is Larger, More Diverse and More Dynamic Than Ever, But You Wouldn't Know it From the Media

Chrissy Stroop — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 03:36:32 EST

“I’m done waiting for mainstream media to cover nonreligious people and secular issues fairly and accurately,” says Sarah Levin , a woman who wears a number of hats in the institutional secular world. “I’m done waiting for them to stop…

A Love Letter to #Exvangelicals and Those Deconstructing Their Toxic Faith

Andrew L. Seidel — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 03:27:34 EDT

I’m astounded by people who have the intellectual honesty, courage, and fortitude to examine their most deeply held beliefs. Not just examine, but challenge and reject beliefs that shape how their entire world is constructed—beliefs that they have been told…

As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday's Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues

Chrissy Stroop — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 02:06:12 EST

This week, amid Democratic victories in Georgia’s Senate runoffs and a Christian nationalist attempt to overturn former Vice President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election, the advocacy organization American Atheists released its State of the Secular States report…

Atheists Take Heart (and Office): New Poll Shows Major Support for Nonreligious Candidates

Jennifer Bardi — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 08:30:44 EST

According to the data, among pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ equality voters, a candidate’s religious identity is virtually immaterial. Atheists have a good chance to gain seats in the coming years.

Atheists of Color Transcend Opposition to Religion and White Atheist Privilege in Working for Social Justice

Sikivu Hutchinson — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 02:38:59 EST

I’m a black atheist who works in urban public schools of color that systematically funnel young people into juvenile jails and prisons. The school district I work in spends more on school police and paramilitary equipment than it does on…

I Always Knew Santa Was Make-Believe: A Retired Pastor on Losing Her Faith

Anne Grant — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 04:11:40 EST

I always knew Santa was make-believe. My parents taught me Jesus was the reason for the season, God’s free gift to all who believe in him. They never lied to me about anything, including Santa Claus. A few years ago…

Will a New Dawkins Foundation-Sponsored App Help Atheists Talk to Believers?

Alana Massey — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:56:38 EDT

The most outspoken non-believers have been antagonistic, bombastic, and sometimes profoundly embarrassing older white men.

How Not to Oppose the National Day of Prayer

Andrew Aghapour — Thu, 05 May 2016 11:40:29 EDT

Today is the National Day of Prayer in the United States, an annual day of observance that was formally established by Congress in 1952. The law that establishes a National Day of Prayer ( 36 U.S.C. § 119) falls under…

How Do Christians, Atheists Compare on Muslim Tolerance?

Darren Sherkat — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:36:40 EDT

Despite the clear animus of some high profile atheists, those who don’t believe in God are the most tolerant.

What's Wrong With Atheist Lent?

Vlad Chituc — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 11:43:28 EST

A few years ago, I gave up eggs and dairy for Lent. This wouldn’t have been a particularly weird thing to do were it not for the fact that I wasn’t raised Catholic—I was baptized in an Orthodox church—and also…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on "The Nones Are Alright"

Peter Laarman — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:00:56 EST

What does it mean that a quarter of all Americans “describe their religion as ’ nothing in particular’ ”? In her newest book, The Nones Are Alright: A New Generation of Seekers, Believers and Those in Between, Kaya Oakes ventures deep…

Gluten-Phobia, Sacred Volcanoes, Undercover Atheists: The Best Religion and Science Writing of 2015

Andrew Aghapour — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 06:00:25 EST

This year saw the launch of the Cubit: RD’s answer to the mainstream media’s coverage of the intersection of religion and science—those too-familiar stories in which religion and science are represented as either fundamentally at odds, or oddly conjoined. Over…

Praise the Lard This Holiday Season

Becky Garrison — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 09:59:55 EST

In the spirit of the annual evangelical Christian push to “Keep the Christ in Christmas,” the United Church of Bacon (UCB) placed a holiday themed billboard in Las Vegas, Nevada featuring two strips of bacon hiteheadearing a Santa hat and…

Festivus, Atheist Santa, and the Invention of Blasphemy

Anita Little — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 11:00:50 EST

A Q&A with S. Brent Plate

Teaching Plato in Palestine: Can Philosophy Save Us From Our Differences?

Jerome E. Copulsky — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 04:10:05 EDT

Imagine, for a moment, if, during the tense final hours of the recently concluded negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 world powers, Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif decided to set aside their remaining…

Ask the Dust: Unbelievers, Bunker-Dwellers, Anti-Natalists

The Editors — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 04:07:37 EDT

You have questions, big questions. Ask the Dust has answers. From the serious to the sacrilegious, no question is too high or too low! • • • • • • dust@religiondispatches.org • • • • • • Dear Dust, I…

New Atheism Produces Another Curiously Uncurious Science v. Religion Book

Michael Schulson — Fri, 29 May 2015 01:50:04 EDT

It takes chutzpah to argue that most living humans navigate reality incorrectly. But this particular form of chutzpah has become familiar.

Elephant Orphans and Ecological Spiritualities: An Earth Day Reflection

Jacob J. Erickson — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:00:11 EDT

It is a mild Kenyan day. With temperatures in the 70s, I smile with some Lutheran guilt because I know I am missing the worst of Minnesota’s frosty brunt of the so-called “polar vortex” (climate change in action). At this moment, instead of curling up with blankets…

Why Go to Church If You Don't Believe Anymore?

Angela Bonavoglia — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 06:36:28 EDT

A Good Friday post-mortem, as it were.

How Evangelical-Friendly Are Scientists? A Response

Jonathan Orbell — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 11:03:31 EDT

In a recent post from RD’s religion and science portal, The Cubit, Andrew Aghapour casts doubt on some conclusions drawn from the research of Rice University’s Elaine Howard Ecklund indicating that evangelicals are not as hostile to scientific inquiry as…

David Brooks' Rant on Emptiness of Secularism is Poppycock

Daniel C. Maguire — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 01:45:18 EST

New York Times columnist David Brooks is way behind the curve when it comes to post-theistic ethics and religion. In yesterday’s column, ” Building Better Secularists,” what he actually builds is a caricature of “secularists” which he then proceeds to…

As Long As There's Fear, We Aren't Ready for Atheism: A Conversation with Theologian and Ex-Priest Daniel Maguire

Alana Massey — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:58:22 EST

Professor Daniel C. Maguire’s latest book, Christianity Without God: Moving beyond the Dogmas and Retrieving the Epic Moral Narrative, is an ambitious project that functions as both a primer on the logical and ethical failures of theism and as a…

How to Become an Atheist in Twelve Short Months

Hollis Phelps — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 12:45:38 EST

Ryan Bell no longer believes in God, exactly. Bell is the former Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who last January made a resolution to live as an atheist, to live for a “ year without God.” More precisely, Bell decided to take…

'Good Wife' Alicia Florrick is an Atheist (and Drinks a Lot)

Lisa Webster — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 05:05:20 EDT

I wasn’t sure how far “The Good Wife“ ‘s Alicia Florrick had made it into cultural consciousness, but now that the NY Times’ Eric Asimov has done a serious bit of pop critique on that character’s preference for red wine (strong…

Maher vs. Aslan: Is Religion an All-Powerful Force or Mere Window Dressing?

Kate Blanchard — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 04:23:46 EDT

I have been following, with some glee, the verbal spankings that Bill Maher and other “New Atheists” have been getting from the likes of Ben Affleck and Reza Aslan. For years I have been not so much annoyed as dismayed…