Easter: What Really Happened?

In “The Silver Bullet Question that Kills the Immortal Soul,” FI, April/May 2004, I argued that souls cannot be infused into humans in today’s world, because there is no point in human or prehuman history where a putative “first ensoulment” can be ethically justified.1 In that essay, The Silver Bullet Question was: “Who first had …

Spoiler alert: We’ll probably never really know what happened on Easter.

Even granting the possibility of miracles, once we grasp what the resurrection saga means and how it would have had to unfold, we can be certain that it never took place.

One man’s kindness started a strident fundamentalist on the road toward humanism.

Teaching an ever-changing population of young Muslim immigrant girls was sometimes an unsettling experience.

For one unbeliever, independence is more important than claiming the label of “atheist.”

I’m more than an ex-Catholic; I’m an ardent anti-Catholic. Holy Mother Church should be ashamed.

Creationist beliefs are dismayingly robust because they accord with intuitions about the world that have been with us for thirty millennia and because they are imposed through childhood indoctrination.

In the last analysis, faith is the last defense shielding the believer against introspection.

The International Academy of Human­ism, a program of the Council for Secular Humanism, was established to recognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs.

The Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases may prompt the Supreme Court to overextend the religious-liberty rights of corporate employers.

If family feelings—including religious beliefs—can mandate prolonged medical care for the dead, society suffers.

If every one of us who can do it comes out about our atheism to one person who doesn’t already know, it could change the world.

Liberalism and democracy are very different things. Failure to grasp that underlies America’s failed attempts to “export” “liberal democracy.”

If only more believers could recognize that their taboos apply to them, not to everyone.

Joseph Raymond Levee, a dedicated supporter of the Council for Secular Humanism and its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, died at the age of eighty-seven on February 1, 2014.

Letters in response to the February/March 2014 issue of FREE INQUIRY.

The data actually undermine claims that private, especially religious, schools deliver better education.

Lorraine Hansberry’s drama stressed both the humanity of humanism and the need for critical thinking.

The problem with Christian ethics is that its ideal of denying material needs ignores the imperative to find a balanced way to live in the natural world.

Looking for guidance in life? First, make sure you know who your friends are!

A review of Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, by Jennifer Michael Hecht.

A review of Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil, by Paul Bloom.

A review of The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools, by Christopher A. Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski.

A poem from the April/May 2014 issue of FREE INQUIRY.