Category: Living Without Religion
To Be or Not to Be
As everyone knows, human life—and, in most cases, life of any kind—begins when a single egg is fertilized by a single sperm, thus setting in motion a process of gestation and growth that leads in time to the emergence of what we know as life in some form or other. Until that instant, that particular …
Grave Considerations
The afterlife is comforting but a myth; those who know the truth learn to make do with less ambitious consolations.
What’s Wrong with Preaching to the Choir?
In secular groups, activities derided as “preaching to the choir” actually serve valuable purposes.
Sympathy for the Devil-Believers
“‘How can you be moral without God?’ my companion asked me in all earnestness. I’ve often thought I should’ve answered, ‘You know, you’re right,’ and stabbed his hand with my fork.”
When We Die
The delights of this life are not perfect and far from perfectly distributed; but since they’re all the heaven we get, let’s appreciate them deeply.
Mass Shootings and Theodicy
We will not easily recover from the tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut. These tragedies successively became the worst mass shootings in American history. My sympathies go out to the survivors, and I urge support for them, especially from the secular humanist community. When any tragedy occurs by the hand of a human person, …
Atheism: The Last Closet
On May 13, 2012, Mother’s Day, I happened to glance at a paid obituary in the Redlands (California) Daily Facts for Mary Russo McCormick, born in 1934 and died on May 6, 2012. She had penned it herself. It read, in part, “Mary did not have a courageous battle with anything and did not pass …
Why I Am Not a Jehovah’s Witness
I was genetically designed to be a Jehovah’s Witness. I say that because, unlike so many others, I did not join the religion at the behest of a smiling face knocking at my door one morning but rather because my parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses. And they were both Jehovah’s Witnesses because their parents were Witnesses. …
Is There a Place for Environmentalism in Humanism?
There is no escaping the accusation anymore: humanism, we hear over and over, can’t help the environmental movement. Sure, humanists can say that they love the environment, want to “go green,” and treasure their animal friends. Humanists can even script such devotion into their declarations and manifestos. Yet environmentalists frequently doubt that humanism can form …
Why Most People Believe in the Supernatural
In September 2005, Rita, a huge Category 5 hurricane, was bearing down on Texas’s Gulf shores. The desperately frightened Texas governor ordered over a million people to make their exodus inland. After issuing historically dire warnings to these anxious citizens, the good governor told them to “say a prayer for Texas.” One of our oldest …
Decomposing Humanism
Meet the latest critics of the New Atheists: the old humanists. It is not enough, they say, to take a stand against religionwe must stand up something in its place. Humanists are right to think that there is more to life than denying God but wrong to think that they are the ones to provide …
Diplomats and Rabble-Rousers
As so-called New Atheists grow in numbers and prominence, led by such outspoken nonbelievers as Richard Dawkins, we have to expect some squalling from religious groups that are feeling the unaccustomed sting of criticism. That much is unsurprising, but criticism of the New Atheists has come from some unexpected quarters as well. Julian Baggini, a …
The Regrettable Return of ‘Nonsectarianism’
Endorsement [of religion] sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying messa ge to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community. —Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) At the close of his second term, during a special …
Caveat Emptor: The atheist as consumer advocate
Atheists agree on one point and one point only: there is no God. So-called new atheists can be said to agree on two points: (1) There is no God; and (2) We need to do a better job of getting this message into the mainstream. So far, the most popular approach, one advocated by Richard …
This Is It: Confessions of a Skeptic
The whole thing is unbelievable. You know what I mean—God. So why on Earth when I got cancer at age fifty did I quietly slip back into believing it? I developed a hunger for “somethi ng more,” a palpable conviction that the material universe isn’t all there is. I wanted to believe that there was …
Atheist Bus Ads Turn Heads in Canada and Worldwide
The atheist ad campaign on public-transit buses in Canada was launched to raise much-needed discussion. It may have accomplished that goal even before the first ad-bearing bus left its depot on February 15, 2009. The campaign’s slogan was: “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” After over $45,000 was raised by …
Humanism, Meaning, and Wonder
Let passion fill your sails, but let reason be your rudder,” Sherwin Wine wrote. With its rudder and sails working synergistically, this essay will explore an understanding of human meanings in the context of a naturalistic worldview. Human meanings, understood in a humanist framework, provide alternatives to supernatural narratives on one side and a sense …
I Want (Not) to Believe
Notwithstanding the online music video “Iraq: The Musical,” we may be a very long way from “Iraq On Ice.” A very long way, considering that even theatrical endeavors like movies with the theme “Iraq: You Were Right When You Said It Was a Bad Idea” do not seem to be working. An “I told you …
Reassuringly Rational: An Atheist Response to Fear
Like a particularly persistent bluebottle fly, one question has been buzzing round my head these last few weeks: why do atheists and theists seem incapable of communicating with one another? Time and again, we rationalists believe that our position has been expressed clearly and cannot possibly be misunderstood, yet, time and again, we find that …
Why No One Ever Dies
Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing is certain—This Life flies; One thing is certain and the rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. — The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayam of Naishapur My father and mother had been married for over fifty years, and when her life …
The Silver Bullet Question that Kills the Immortal Soul
Humans have believed for thousands of years in the immortality of a personal soul. People in preliterate societies and those in societies with highly articulate philosophers have cherished and defended the idea. Skeptics down the centuries have been a decided minority, with little that could serve as an effective counterargument until the sudden explosion of …