Evolution Made Us All

February 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s Sunday! Gather round all ye atheists to join in singing a god-free hymn about the maker of all things bright and beautiful: Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo. Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Comedy, Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Evolution, Evolution, Hilarious, Parody, Parody, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Satire, Satire, Secularism, Videos Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

Just How Much Control Over Their Children’s Thought Are Parents Entitled To?

January 31, 2011 By 18 Comments

In reply to yesterday’s open philosophical question whether a Swedish law banning any school, even private ones, from indoctrinating students by teaching their religious tenets as truths (with the ulterior motive of undermining Islamic schools’ abilities to radicalize their students), Mary Young makes a rigorous and eloquent case against such bans well worth highlighting (and [...]

Filed Under: 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Racism, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tagged With: , , , , , 18 Comments

Is Facebook For Networking Or Isn’t It?

January 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

Last year, the week of Easter, atheists all over Facebook changed our pictures to the “scarlet A”, signifying our willingness to stand out and stand up in solidarity with other atheists. “‘A’ Week” was a major event for me since I got the idea of mass-friending people with the A avatars without even realizing there [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Culture and Technology, Culture and Technology, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: , , , 3 Comments

Daily Hilarity: Bill Maher On The Founding Fathers Vs. The Tea Party

January 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Bill Maher, Bill Maher, Comedy, Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Hilarious, Political Satire, Political Satire, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Satire, Satire, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Leave a Comment

The Separability Of Metaethics From Questions Of Theism

January 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

Earlier today, I argued that atheists cannot duck metaethics challenges from theists (or anyone else) and that we should not respond to such challenges with the knee jerk response that we are being bigotedly assumed to be incapable of moral behavior.  I wrote: it is not mere prejudice for theists to demand atheists give an [...]

Filed Under: Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 2 Comments

Is It A Waste Of Time For Atheists To Care About Spirituality?

January 7, 2011 By 9 Comments

Badger3K objects to my suggestion that rationalists should “take back” spirituality from the peddlers of woo and faith: Spirituality has always been associated with religion, superstition, and woo (including the new age bs). There has never been anything to “take back” – it was always their word to begin with. If you feel awe, say [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism Tagged With: , , , , , , 9 Comments

On Defending True Spirituality And Taking The Word Back From Spiritually Bankrupt Fundamentalism

January 6, 2011 By 5 Comments

So Chris Mooney’s article in Playboy about the spirituality of scientists has sparked some interesting debate in the atheist blogosphere. His new post on the subject explicitly interprets his aims and themes in the piece as essentially saying what I interpreted them to be—to defend the idea that you can have completely sufficient spirituality without [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Spinoza, Spinoza Tagged With: , , 5 Comments

Who Cares About Atheists?

January 5, 2011 By 5 Comments

There are a lot of anti-atheistic responses to us that get indignant that we try to organize, have community, and make ourselves known as a public presence.  A lot of people reflexively and unfairly respond to all of this by feeling it as inherently threatening and inherently rude and intolerant.  The most upsetting part of [...]

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Scientists’ Spiritualities As Alternative Models Of Religiosity

January 5, 2011 By 3 Comments

In my last post, I made clear that I am by no means an “accommodationist” who wants to let religious claims to hegemony over ethics, metaphysics, or epistemology go unchallenged as part of a deal whereby it agrees to either cooperate with or, minimally, not interfere with science education and science-based public policy.  In a [...]

Filed Under: Astronomy, Astronomy, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Biology, Biology, Cosmology, Cosmology, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Science, Science, Secularism Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Against Accommodationism: Religion Has NO Rightful Claim To An Unencroachable “Magisterium” Of Its Own

January 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

Chris Mooney is an accommodationist.  In the conflict between science and faith, he is the sort of atheistic science defender who wants to minimize all appearance (and existence) of conflict between religious and scientific ideas because he thinks that vital public policy on matters like climate change hinges on scientists’ abilities to garner trust, cooperation, [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 1 Comment