Introduction
I expected to be frustrated when I searched Amazon.com’s Books department on the keyword afterlife. I wasn’t disappointed. (Or should I say that I was disappointed?)
On the Origin of Afterlife Beliefs by Means of Memetic Selection
Modern evolutionary approaches permit far richer naturalistic explanations of the phenomenon of belief in an afterlife than the conjectures of a century and more ago.
Problems with Heaven
Traditional ideas about Heaven are conceptually incoherent, and that’s just the beginning of their problems.
Michael L. Martin, Philosopher and Author, 1932–2015
Michael L. Martin, an American analytic philosopher and one of the most formidable academic champions of atheism, passed away unexpectedly at the age of eighty-three in Boston on May 27.
You Are Not Even Worth Despising
Avijit Roy’s widow addresses her husband’s killers and challenges the government of Bangladesh for its inaction.
Bangladesh: A Backgrounder
Everything you need to know about the religious crucible that is Bangladesh.
Theology of the Odd Body: The Castrati, the Church, and the Transgender Moment
Current Catholic teaching that a person’s birth sex should never be altered or blurred is contrary to the church’s centuries-long acceptance of castrated male singers.
Secular Humanism’s Second Wave: How Scholarship Undermines Religion
Numerous religious scholars reject literal understandings of Christianity, often in terms average churchgoers would find disturbing to their faith. Secular humanists should do more to make their conclusions more widely known.
Good Without God—But Better Without God?
We can make the world a better place, but whether we do so depends on us—that’s both the promise and the challenge of humanism.
Where Have All the Anti-altruists Gone?
Science settled the question whether altruism is real, and most of us never noticed.
Why Raif Badawi Matters
I am an atheist and very public about it; if I had been living in the Middle East and caught by the government or an Islamic militia, I could be in Badawi’s position.
Skepticism and Emotional Responses to Terrible Ideas
Having an open mind doesn’t—and mustn’t—mean willingness to engage in dispassionate debate over reprehensible ideas.
Application for the Position of Biblical Evangelist*
A scrap from the dawn of the New Testament. Um, not really.
Letters
Letters in response to Free Inquiry volume 35, issue 4.
Krauthammer’s Wolf Howl, God’s Bankers, Potiphar’s Wife
Two new books probe the Vatican’s most sensitive mysteries—the church’s finances and clergy sex abuse.
The Madness of King Charles
One day England will be ruled by a man who endorses pseudoscience, bullies scientists out of research positions, and has a far-too cozy relationship with Gulf-state royalty. Be very afraid.
Imprisonment and Religiosity
Religiosity seems to correlate with criminal conduct . . . until you examine the data more scrupulously.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar unlocked the secrets of dwarf stars and black holes, but never needed the belief in God.
Why I Am an Atheist Jew
Looking back on a life in which there’s never really been room for God . . . or need.
They Burned with Strange Lusts
A doorway conversion conversation goes other than as planned.
Faulty Vision
A review of Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander, M.D.
God Makes Us Eat Them
A review of Animal Liberation and Atheism: Dismantling the Procrustean Bed, by Kim Socha.
Call It Terrorism
A review of Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism, by David S. Cohen and Krysten Connon.
A Fall from Grace
A review of No Longer on Pedestals, by Carol A. Kuhnert.
Anne Nicol Gaylor, Feminist, Activist, and Freethinker, 1926–2015
Anne Nicol Gaylor, the principal founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), died at the age of eighty-eight in Wisconsin on June 14.
One Last
A poem from the August/September 2015 issue of Free Inquiry.