Rethinking our Relationship with the Cosmos

Last updated on: December 21, 2015 at 11:51 am By Guest Contributor

By Fr. Carl Chudy – Coalescing around Climate Change During our Thanksgiving weekend, our dialogue team traveled to the chilly, damp air of Coatbridge, Scotland, not far from Edinburgh. There we gathered at Conforti Institute of the Xaverian Missionaries, our dialogue center which hosts and trains many groups on the important commitments of interfaith and intercultural dialogue. On that weekend, just prior to the commencement of the COP21 in Paris, some members of the Scottish Humanist Association, Interfaith Scotland and... Read more

Because the Bible Tells Me So

Last updated on: January 12, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Stephanie Savage

As a Jewish-agnostic Unitarian, I was a gefilte fish out of water when we moved to Birmingham, Alabama when I was 10. But there was nothing that made me feel more out of place than when I was forced to pray every day before lunchtime. It was illegal at the time, though the Alabama state legislature soon took care of that. Praying was unconstitutional nonetheless, you may say. You would be right, yet Alabama passed a statute that authorized... Read more

Riding the Hippocampus Hobby-Horse with Santa and the Coca-Cola Polar Bears

Last updated on: January 12, 2016 at 4:52 pm By Stephanie Savage

It was some time before I realized that my coma-dream was a form of near-death experience (NDE). In fact, it wasn’t until I began researching my Skeptical Inquirer article, “Covert Cognition, My So-Called Near-Death Experience.“ The original premise of the piece was that I didn’t have an NDE because I was an atheist who had a completely secular upbringing. But as I learned about NDEs, I began to realize that my coma-dream had many parallels with the classic elements... Read more

The Passion of the Frost

Last updated on: December 5, 2015 at 9:42 am By Dale McGowan

Frosty the Snowman and Jesus the Christ are the same guy. Read more

Why “Prayer Shaming” Is a Red Herring

Last updated on: December 4, 2015 at 12:41 pm By Galen Broaddus

It was surprising enough to see politicians called out for prayerful inaction. Then the outrage over "prayer shaming" happened. Read more

Myth-Taken by Santa

Last updated on: January 12, 2016 at 4:53 pm By Stephanie Savage

“Santa is a fake!” I said to my mother, scandalized. I thought about it for a moment, then continued, “And all those Santas, in all those malls, they’re all fake too!” It’s a memory that my mother and I both share. I, because my outrage at this massive fraud imprinted the scene in my young brain; my mom, because it was so damn cute. I was only four, but already a skeptic in the making. As a self-identified hippie, she... Read more

Riding the Backwards Bike: A Christian at Skepticon

Last updated on: December 1, 2015 at 4:21 pm By Galen Broaddus

Once Sandlin rewired his brain for the backwards bike, he couldn't ride a regular one. There's a lesson in that for religious belief. By Galen Broaddus. Read more