It's a couple of days old now, but it's rare that I find an op-ed piece that I can so wholeheartedly agree with, so I urge everyone to look at Matthew Parris's comment in The Times.I realize that the whole Muslim-outrage-over-cartoon situation is more complicated than a matter of free speech versus fanaticism. Still, the whole "we must always respect religious beliefs" bit bothers me. My interest in free speech is largely academic, in the sense that I want everything, certainly including … [Read more...]

Recently, Free Inquiry magazine had a very interesting "symposium in print" on the question, Secularism -- Will it Survive? The affirmative answers seemed more like pious hopes to me, I have to say. And the thought I have given the question since has led me in an increasingly negative direction. I think secularism is moribund. Politically, it has been losing too many battles. Intellectually, it has become harder to defend without sounding like someone reciting outdated platitudes.I am most … [Read more...]

The cartoon crisis keeps growing, with Muslim protests and threats (and minor acts) of violence worldwide. (See the cartoons.)Ordinary Muslims are, by and large, playing to stereotypes -- behaving like easily insulted fanatics. Muslim intellectuals writing in British newspapers are also doing their usual thing -- blaming it all on Western racism and exclusion, saying that there are legitimate material grievances behind the protests, and saying the cartoons were nothing but provocations … [Read more...]

Take a look at this poem by Nazim Hikmet, On Living. It loses something in being translated from the original Turkish, but there's enough of an echo here of what is one of my favorite poems that I have to recommend it. And it's a very secular view of life, just to make it relevant to this blog, but I almost hesitate to say so -- it's not like whether I enjoy something has a whole lot to do with whether I wholeheartedly agree with it... … [Read more...]

I was following a conversation elsewhere about how some Christians insist that everyone really knows that their God is real, it's just that due to sin, they suppress this knowledge. Everyone is exposed to the illumination of the Holy Spirit, it's just that those of us who remain skeptical prefer darkness.Muslims, interestingly, do the same sort of thing, perhaps even more often. It tends to be based on their belief that the created nature (fitra) of every human is such that they are naturally … [Read more...]

An interesting article came to my attention this morning. Frank Furedi's The Curious Rise of Anti-religious Hysteria, argues that British and American cultural elites are in a panic about religion and are tempted to develop vapid appeals to morality in their politics. Furedi's not religious himself; he does not write as a religiously-inspired moralist. The essay's overblown, I think, but worth thinking about. Especially because Furedi finds a negative sort of elitism behind anti-religious … [Read more...]

I have to say, it's interesting to notice the small, usually Christian advertisements just above on this blog. Right now one of them says, "God Wants You To Be Rich: Earn $7,000 Over & Over Again. Christian Home Business. Be Blessed."A bad joke, but perhaps also a hopeful sign for secularists. It's very attractive to think of religion as an all-encompassing point of view and way of life. But in the modern world, trying to do Christian music, Christian psychology, Christian finance and all in … [Read more...]

I was trying out the Center for Inquiry's new podcast, Point of Inquiry. Pretty decent programs, actually. Well worth listening to.One thing, however, rubbed me the wrong way. They used this by now infamous "according to blah blah poll, 16% of Americans are nonreligious" statement, with the implication that this 16% were nonbelievers, almost-humanists, whatever. No. That poll is pretty well known, and it doesn't show this at all. Most of these 16% have strong supernatural beliefs, either … [Read more...]