[Third post in a series on communication. Start at the top.] There’s a natural and adaptive human tendency to cling to the familiar, to distrust difference. That worked well for millennia to keep us safe, but now it’s an unhelpful relic that fuels groundless fears and keeps Fox News and Nancy Grace on the air. Most of us are surrounded by friends who think like us, who reinforce our choices and our sense of self, who nod and smile and... Read more
[ Part 2 of a series on communication. Back to Part 1. ] I’ve never seen a kid so completely engaged in the world, so committed to life and happy for the chance at it, as my youngest, Delaney (now 13). She has always been way ahead of the curve in intelligence, maturity, and creativity. And, for seven years, beginning in her first week of life, she sucked on the tips of the two middle fingers of her right hand. Never wanted... Read more
About five years ago, several things happened in a short time that got me thinking and writing about communication: Someone named Charlotte Allen published an op-ed in the LA Times about just how dreadfully sick she is of atheists. A Facebook friend asked me what I consider to be the “negatives of church.” A good question that I answered. Another Facebooker asked why I am “so against God.” I said it was an unanswerably silly question. He rephrased, and I answered.... Read more
Guest post by Ali Berman – It’s not the first thing I say as I reach out to shake hands with someone new. “Hi. My name is Ali Berman and I’m an atheist.” After all, my atheism isn’t the most interesting thing about me. I’m an author. I work at a fantastic nonprofit teaching kids about human rights, animal protection, and environmental ethics. I like books, movies, rock climbing, traveling, and volunteering. There are plenty of things to talk about... Read more
The false notion that only the religious (or even less credibly, only Christians) respond compassionately to human need is not going away any time soon. Someone somewhere can be counted on to ring that bell after every high-profile tragedy — Dinesh D’Souza after the Virginia Tech shooting, Joe Klein after the 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes — and now a Patheos Catholic blogger out of the apparent blue. In response, I’m reposting an article I wrote for the Washington Post online last... Read more
After 20 years as a parent, I’ve learned that the phrase “I’m not a parent myself, but…” is a clear signal that I should not just take the next few words with a grain of salt, but bludgeon them with Lot’s wife. Many atheist non-parents over the years have said to me, with great confidence, “I’m not a parent myself, but atheists should definitely raise their children as atheists. Just tell them that God is pretend and be done with it!” The alternative, I’m... Read more
Prayer, as traditionally packaged and sold, is one of the least tenable religious ideas of all. But everyone, including me and probably you, engages in something very similar. Let's call it "the receiverless prayer." Read more
I’m working on a few posts about In Faith and In Doubt, my book about relationships between religious and nonreligious partners. But first, I’d like to introduce the other book on mixed-belief relationships that’s well worth reading: Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family by Susan Katz Miller. You heard me right: I’ve found exactly one other that I can recommend wholeheartedly. Most of the rest of the oeuvre can fall off the shelf as far as I’m... Read more
Guest post by Rebecca Hensler – So much has been said regarding Sam Harris’ recent statements that it is hard to imagine anyone having something new to contribute. What has been missing from these conversations is the same as what was missing from Harris’ original comments about gender imbalance among (as he put it) “active atheists”: any mention of the network of secular support that has grown within the atheist community, serving not only “the sort of people who go... Read more
One of the best attempts I’ve seen to turn the vague mumble “Yeahsure, there are different kinds of atheists” into something useful is the work of Christopher Silver and Thomas Coleman at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. Silver and Coleman created a study to drill down into religious disbelief in America, to get beyond both the cartoon of the angry atheist and the vague mush of the “Nones” to a better understanding of the true variety of nonbelievers. They started... Read more
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