I have had a strange week. Last Sunday my very first popular article was published: ‘New Atheists Must Become New Vegans: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the extra burden on moral leaders’. Until then my words had been constrained to my practically invisible blog, but Salon gave ...read more
Fearless leader and hopeful 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson has braved the terrifying wrath of America's atheist power structure (which is a whopping 3.1% of the population) to post a defiant Christmas message on facebook. No doubt risking his life to send his festive ...read more
There are plenty of things to dislike about Millennials, but they deserve a hell of a lot of credit for what they just might mean for the future of faith in this country -- or potentially the merciful lack of it. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, a full 25% of ...read more
There's a thesis that's popular with people who value reason over bronze age superstition, a formula known as the "Argument from Evil" whose aim is to call into question one of the central tenets of Christianity. It goes something like this: God cannot be both omnipotent and ...read more
In Afghanistan on Thursday, a woman was swarmed by a mob that proceeded to beat and stone her to death before setting her ablaze and dumping her in a river for the crime of hurting god's feelings. The 32-year-old woman, named Farkhunda, had allegedly burned copies of the Quran, ...read more
Three days after 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks shot and killed three University of North Carolina students, President Obama has finally weighed in on this act of terror. The White House released the following statement Friday afternoon, notable for what it does not say (via ...read more
On Tuesday morning, police say 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks shot and killed three University of North Carolina students at their condo complex in Chapel Hill. A police spokesman said the "preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor ...read more
On Thursday, potential presidential candidate and walking Cool Whip tub Mike Huckabee appeared on something called Life Today. Speaking with televangelist host James Robinson, Huckabee explained that the United States "cannot survive as a republic if we do not become -- once ...read more
“I think I’d rather tell the truth and say what I believe in and make people unhappy than sort of pretend to think something else to accommodate them and try to be liked. That’s just the way it goes and I don’t think I’m any great champion of anything, but if they’re going to ...read more
Not very long ago, it was customary for apologists of Islam to lob accusations of bigotry, racism, or Islamophobia at those who dared to criticize the religion or suggest that too many of its practitioners hold extremist views. Most of the time these charges were (and still are) ...read more
On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appeared on something called Life Today hosted by televangelist James Robinson. In his appearance, Cruz espoused the common but still nonsensical view held by millions of American Christians that god deserves the credit for seeing the United ...read more
If you've watched a lot of football, you've seen a fair number of postgame interviews where some sideline reporter asks an athlete who made a game-winning play mindless questions that every hairy-armed couch potato with blue cheese stains on his shirt by knows by heart. "What ...read more
Updates below It was not my intention to write more about the allegations of plagiarism swirling around atheist writer C.J. Werleman. This is partly because I didn't wish to pile on, and partly because I imagined that Werleman would admit wrongdoing and offer an earnest ...read more
The level of dishonesty to which some critics of Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and other atheists critical of Islam have stooped wouldn’t be so discouraging were it not for the eagerness with which the deceit is received and proliferated. There is no shortage of examples, especially ...read more
There's a weird trend that's been slinking its way through the social justice community, whereby so-called New Atheists are being denounced for supposedly failing to embrace liberal causes such as diversity and equality. Apparently, atheism has a "race problem," or maybe it ...read more
Let me preface by saying I like Chris Hayes and think All In is one of the best shows on cable news. Meanwhile, I usually find myself disagreeing with most of what Bill O'Reilly says on The O'Reilly Factor. But what happened on Monday night is yet another example of the ...read more
Imagine that you have been asked to join an organization founded by a man who claimed he was visited by angels sent by god and ascended into heaven on a winged horse before he married a six-year old girl. Not only would you not join this organization, you would be outraged at ...read more
Last month, several organizations teamed up to start Openly Secular -- a campaign meant to increase acceptance of secularists and freethinkers in society. One of those groups is the Richard Dawkins Foundation, and on Thursday, Dawkins took to twitter to give a boost to a simple ...read more
One of the most entertaining pieces ever written about theism is H.L. Mencken's very brief Memorial Service, in which he sardonically wondered where the "grave-yard of dead gods" can be found before proceeding to list dozens of gods that people used to, but no longer believe in. ...read more
Founded by the secular Center For Inquiry in 2009, Blasphemy Day is observed every September 30 in order to promote the idea that religion should be subjected to same kinds of analysis and critique that other beliefs are. While it's generally acceptable to engage in rhetorical ...read more
The nonprofit (and nonprophet) group American Atheists will hold its annual convention in Memphis, Tennessee next year during Easter weekend, and you know what that means: Commence hilarious, barely-restrained freakout by the locals, including a seemingly incredulous WMC Action ...read more
The Pew Forum has released a doozy of a poll about religion in public life in the United States showing that white evangelical Christians possess grossly overdeveloped feelings of victimhood. Given that the voting bloc evangelicals comprise is one of the most heavily pandered to ...read more
Quite possibly, the last minority group in the United States that it's socially acceptable to bash openly with abandon is the secular crowd. This would include atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and other Americans who either don't believe in a god, or those who do, but think ...read more
Last week, an anonymous sergeant in the U.S. Air Force made the news for omitting the words "So help God" from his Oath of Enlistment when he tried to reenlist at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. The Air Force proceeded to freak out, and insisted that the sergeant must say "So ...read more
On Tuesday, actor? -- yeah, let's go with actor -- Kevin Sorbo told End Times pastor Rick Wiles on the latter's radio show that atheists are angry and filled with hatred. Wiles, you may remember, is the guy who said an Ebola outbreak in the United States could give the country a ...read more
Dear Atheists In Congress: I know you're in there. We all do. Not that I needed confirmation, but the American Humanist Association says 24 of you have privately revealed to the organization that you don't believe in god. And surely the number of you in Congress is higher ...read more
Biologist Richard Dawkins sent twitter into a tizzy on Wednesday in response to a woman’s hypothetical dilemma about whether to abort a fetus with Down syndrome. In typical Dawkins fashion, he gave a straightforward reply: Let's state the obvious for a moment: twitter is not ...read more
Watchers of The View on Wednesday were treated to quite the caterwauling session when the ladies discussed public prayer after a group of women in Georgia were told to stop praying inside a private shopping mall. As expected, self-loathing atheist S.E. Cupp stole the show by ...read more
Conservative S.E. Cupp of CNN makes for one terrible atheist. In 2009, she gave an interview on C-SPAN that would befuddle the finest team of doctors the field of psychoanalysis could offer. During one exchange, she claimed she'd never want an atheist president because such a ...read more
In 2006, U.S. naval chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt was convicted for wearing his uniform to a White House protest against the navy's emphasis on non-denominational prayers in ceremonial settings. He was subsequently discharged the following year for ignoring the policy. Then in ...read more
If you need any more evidence that atheists are pretty much the last demographic that it's socially acceptable to view with suspicion on national level, look no further this Pew poll released Monday. Gauging Americans' attitudes toward unnamed potential presidential candidates, ...read more
The argument between atheists and fundamentalists is, in my opinion, one of the most pointless exercises ever. Intellectually, atheism is a far more defensible ideology than any form of fundamentalist religions, but it is still fundamentalism and often devoid of nuance. ...read more
A five-minute debate between Andrew Brown and Daniel Dennett. Both are atheists but Dennett was one of the infamous 'new atheists', who, along with the other 'three horsemen' Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris, has made atheism fashionable in the recent years. Brown is a lot more ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: Not long after I moved out to L.A. at the beginning of this year, my mother sent a care package after me in the form of a large box containing a bunch of my stuff from back east. Since I had come to California with basically nothing -- two weeks' worth of ...read more
By Ben Cohen: I'm beginning to feel that the ongoing war between atheists and religion is one big scheme to create controversy, sell books and get on television. While there is an important debate to be had, the constant screeching is becoming boring and I find myself switching ...read more
Atheists being dicks to the religious, this time in the U.K. I cannot understand an entire belief built on putting down others. It sucks when Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others do it and its lame when Atheists do it. I guess this means they're in the big leagues now: as ...read more
I mean, come on. These display wars are silly but why is it the new breed of atheists feel like they need to spit in the face of everyone else? I don't like conservative Christians pushing their God as the only God and hellfire and brimstone to those who disagree - nor do I like ...read more
Man 1: The American Atheists conference is coming up!Man 2: Really? I don't believe you. .... And for this kind of comedy this website is free folks. ...read more
Look, it's the world folks like Mike Huckabee and Pat Robertson wish for! After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency. Since the Burkes were young, scandal-free and solvent, they had no trouble with ...read more
So here's a startling observation: religion is contentious. That's why they pay me the big bucks, folks. Well, considering the kind of conversation that gets started up every time I derisively link to one of the new "militant atheists" (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and now ...read more
This is a good question I haven't seen answered in a sensible way. God. ...read more
So now people are comparing atheists to suffragettes? Hmm. Women were denied the vote. They couldn't vote. That's why they became radicals and demanded their vote. They were systematically denied their rights by the law. Ditto for blacks and other minorities. This is not the ...read more
E.J. Dionne hits the nail right on the head. Yes, you are an atheist. Yes, the religious right has too much power. So, why do you have to be such an ass about it? The new atheists -- the best known are writers Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins -- insist, as Harris puts it, that ...read more
I keep wondering how anyone can read the things that Sam Harris writes and not just see another version of Dobson, Falwell, or Mullah Omar? It's fire and brimstone invective, in which the Chosen People are the ones who share Harris' ideology of non theism and anyone who doesn't ...read more
From a post by someone explaining why he isn't a "friendly" atheist. Fundamentalism cannot exist if we eliminate all religion, and to expect it to go away while moderate religiosity remains is a foolish endeavor indeed. Doesn't this sort of eliminationist rhetoric sound just ...read more
Once again atheist folks are demonstrating their superiority by belittling the people who believe in religion. Why is this necessary? What purpose does it serve? It just annoys and doesn't enlighten anyone. Everyone rightly bemoans the "my God is better than your God" logic of ...read more
