Why I Don’t Believe in God…

…or How the Most Holy City in the World Can Expose the Holes in Your Faith

The most common question I get asked is “Why don’t you believe in God?” This is a deeply personal question, and like most atheists that are as vocal as I am, it is one I have considered at great length. I was raised by a loving, deeply Christian family. I attended Sunday School regularly in our sparse Lutheran church… Read on…

Famous Freethinkers- Adams, Douglas Noel

AMERICAN ATHEISTS: Mr. Adams, you have been described as a “radical Atheist.” Is this accurate? DOUGLAS ADAMS: I think I use the term radical rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “Atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘Agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean Atheist.”…I really do mean Atheist. I really do not believe that there is a god – in fact I am convinced that there is not a god (a … Read on…

Reader Content Survey Results

Our reader survey regarding preferred content drew relatively few responses, but those which we received had something to say. First, the basic genre question had some surprises. The folks that answered the survey had five choices in the basic Genre category. The genres and the number of votes each got are as follows: Read on…

In Defense of Group Selection

All my life I’ve been fascinated by unfamiliar lands and peoples; the mosaic of human cultures for me is the most fascinating subject in the universe. I have spent half my life abroad and almost all of it dealing in one way or another with what works in different cultural environments, and what happens when cultures collide. I’ve gotten to know my subject the way Mark Twain’s riverboat pilot got to know the Mississippi. Recently I have become involved with … Read on…

The War Against Secularism Rises

“They want to disown the traditions and heritage of the majority, including the Christian faith and the English language”. Surprisingly enough this quote does not come from the Bible-bashing deep south of America, but from the Local Government Secretary of the UK, Eric Pickles, following the visit of his colleague to show solidarity with the Vatican last week. Who lead this delegation? Baroness Warsi, a Muslim. The series of proclamations of faith and anger at the secular movement marks the … Read on…

Atheist to Baptist: We Need To Talk.

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Editor’s Introduction:  The Eloquent Atheist has decided to publish comments by Ronald Aronson, (who was interviewed by co-editor Marilyn Westfall about a month ago), which were made in response to a critique of “The New Atheists” by Baptist Center for Ethics Executive Director Robert Parham.  In his critique of the New Atheism, Parham labeled atheists in general as “God despisers” and the “faithless” who pluck sympathy from “the liberal media, a significant slice of the hedonistic entertainment culture and angry … Read on…

The “New Atheists”: Are They Saying Anything New?

From a presentation made by Marilyn Westfall at the Theatre of the Upper Arlington Library, Columbus, OH August 4, 2007. When I originally was asked to speak on this topic-“The New Atheists, Are They Saying Anything New?”-my memory went back to the time when I was a Catholic, which was at least nominally until about age 19. I recall how I wouldn’t dare to ask any priest or nun, “Are you saying anything new?” Such a question, if I were … Read on…

An Interview with Susan Sackett

Susan Sackett is best known as a production associate and writer for Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as the assistant to Gene Roddenberry, with whom she worked closely until his death in 1991. She has written or co-authored 10 books, several about Star Trek, such as Letters to Star Trek, The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Inside Trek. Her other books include You Can Be a Game Show Contestant and Win (and, indeed, … Read on…

Flew’s God

Editor’s note: The subject of this essay, Anthony Flew, is an 84-year old retired philosopher, living in Reading, England. He famously argued against C.S. Lewis’ Christian apologetics and later declared in The Presumption of Atheism that without evidence for God, atheism is the appropriate stance. He has lately indicated, however, that he is more inclined toward deism, and has even endorsed a petition for the teaching of Intelligent Design in the British science curriculum. On November 4, 2007, Flew was … Read on…

From Atheism to Ethics

Perhaps the greatest obstacle faced by atheism to becoming popular, or to becoming even palatable, is that most people associate it with amorality, even immorality.  That is because ethics and religion are so closely linked in people’s minds, despite the fact that there really is no reason to believe that religious people are more ethical than atheists. (Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great gives some compelling reasons in support of this idea.)   Why is atheism linked to the alleged … Read on…