Michael W. Jones | October 31, 2007
There is almost endless debate about the worth of a god in the process of teaching ethics. One side of that discussion argues that without an almighty god, and the twin concepts of heaven and hell to use as reward and punishment, all people would instantly succumb to every temptation to rape, murder, pillage, and [...]
Marilyn Westfall | October 30, 2007
Roy Speckhardt is the Executive Director for the American Humanist Association, the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the United States. He is also a board member of the Humanist Institute, and an advisory board member of both the Secular Student Alliance and The Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program. Previously, he served as [...]
Michael W. Jones | October 29, 2007
We have had a few comments over the last few days from Jonathan Blake regarding the Mormon series that we ran recently, in four parts. More than anything else, that series was a light-hearted reminiscence about a non-Mormon growing up in Mormon territory. It is probably the most even-handed, friendly, and good-natured handling of the [...]
Ray Succre | October 26, 2007
Hallelujah
latest Earth and strong selves,
grafted with sportive grace,
to birth or bury all, except who,
with sputtered wills, still
move themselves to and fro.
This furious world, frail and forward,
by which our minds and hands pervert from hells,
continuing a religious legacy of reaching utmost,
has tamely sat and turned us longstanding,
over such perilous, mass deaths,
each abyss of our deities,
every molten [...]
Marilyn Westfall | October 25, 2007
Herb Silverman is a native of Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Syracuse University and has been a Professor of Mathematics at the College of Charleston since 1976. He has published over 100 research papers in mathematics journals, and is also the recipient of the Distinguished Research Award.
In the 1990s, after learning that [...]
Ray Succre | October 24, 2007
The diffident nova is affronted.
In a lens, because in spite I focus,
and against my living crutch, I, as a planet,
perch the matter of spoiled bodies a distance
from my own, who’s lethal activity is viewed
through the scope, as is mine.
For grubs I give gods, and the birth of time.
I am untethered from imminence or evanescence,
each but [...]
Carlton Coon | October 23, 2007
Think of religion as a collection of viruses, specialists in modifying a host’s behavior in specific ways, that somehow got into our ancestors during the long period of human biological evolution. As they settled in and adjusted to their environment, they developed various degrees of symbiosis with the host and each other.
The host evolved both [...]
Landon Elswick | October 22, 2007
Preacher Man slithers to town.
Gonna solve problems that
we never had – before.
Gonna tell us ‘bout sins that
we never did – before.
He’s packin’ the pews and
we’re payin’ big dues
to hear his raunchy sermons.
Descriptions so good and scenes so hot
he leaves us dying to try it.
He grins real big at sumptuous sin
but tells us not to taste [...]
Marilyn Westfall | October 21, 2007
Ellen Johnson has been an activist for American Atheists (AA) since 1978. In addition to having served on the AA Board of Directors, she was also the New Jersey representative for ten years. Currently, she is the President of AA. She considers herself “one of the fortunate few who grew up in an Atheist [...]
Marilyn Westfall | October 19, 2007
Springtime, the final week of
March, but shivering at the garden
gate, its hinges frozen shut, I push
open the heavy planks and fresh snow
tumbles from pickets, lands softer
than birds on the white backyard.
Where summer roses climbed,
now stretches a trellis of gray
and cracked cedar, each
crotch in its diamond pattern
glassy with ice, as is the
crisscrossed wooden niche,
