Nemo was a little boy who was pretty friendly, pretty smart, a good enough eight-year-old for most purposes. What he wasn’t, particularly, was rich. That meant he never had a lot of new stuff, so Christmas and his birthday were big occasions for him. Read on…
I recently heard a talk by Gary Brill , who teaches psychology at Rutgers, discussing studies showing religious believers are happier than nonbelievers. Defining happiness can be elusive – a feeling that one is happy? Perhaps a more useful concept is well-being, or flourishing, which describes an entire life rather than just one emotion. Anyhow, Brill did discuss data showing religious believers report greater happiness, suffer fewer psychological disorders (unless you count religious belief itself), recover better from setbacks, cope … Read on…
Frequent commenter Lee recently pointed me to a blog essay by philosopher Michael Lynch, “Reasons for Reason.”
He says current American divisions are rooted in fundamental differences about what makes a belief believable. Lynch sees a problem of circularity in validating reason by using reason, with all beliefs thus ultimately premised on something arbitrary. Read on…
My Sabbath Ends Earlier Than Yours
My Sabbath ends earlier than yours.
Faith leaks from the seams; before sundown,
the seventh day has become the same
as the sixth. It is like falling out of love,
God’s glamour dissolves into the walls
of the house, the trees on the lawn, Read on…
Former Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum made an impassioned pitch in favor of rejecting the famous doctrine of the separation of church and state. He made his position clear on the ABC-TV program, This Week, on Sunday, February 26: “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,’’ Santorum noted. “The idea that the church should have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical of the objectives … Read on…
Dan Barker had religion, big-time. As a teenager he became a high-octane evangelical preacher, making his living performing at churches and writing Christian songs. After 19 years, he quit, having after a long struggle come to realize it was all hokum. His book, Losing Faith in Faith, explains. It’s axiomatic that religionists and atheists have difficulty understanding each other. Barker’s book is useful because he has inhabited both worlds, and understands better than most atheists the religious psychology he critiques. … Read on…
FRANK ZINDLER is Editor of American Atheists Press. A former university biology instructor, he is also a professional linguist with a specialty involving ancient languages. Zindler is the author of numerous articles and several books on Atheism and related history, including a special annotated edition of Part Three of The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. He is a member of several learned societies including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Science, Society of … Read on…