Over at Pure Pedantry, Jake Young has recently posted two long, thoughtful, and civil entries in the New Atheism debate (he must have a thesis deadline, or something). The first follows John Dewey in arguing that a tight link between science and atheism is counterproductive, while the second collects and responds to criticism of the… Continue reading People for the Eating of Tasty Atheists
Category: Religion
Atheist Charity: The Final Chapter
A while back, I posted a call for non-religious charities, and donated $200 to two organizations recommended by readers. Having done that, I would be remiss in my duties as a blogger if I didn’t mention the ne plus ultra of atheist charities, the newly launched Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Ten of… Continue reading Atheist Charity: The Final Chapter
Clark on Sullivan on the “God Gap”
Fred Clark at Slacktivist is the best writer in blogdom on issues of politics and religion in America, bar none. So when he takes up Amy Sullivan’s Time article on the “God Gap”, you know it will be worth a read. He actually has two posts on the subject, the first making a good point… Continue reading Clark on Sullivan on the “God Gap”
Internet Laws and Framing
Despite efforts to avoid such foolishness, Kevin Beck inadvertently drew my attention to what people are calling “Blake’s Law,” which apparently briefly had its own Wikipedia page, but now appears to redirect to the Pharyngula page. Blogdom really needs a killfile. Anyway, the Internet “Law” in question is stated as: In any discussion of atheism… Continue reading Internet Laws and Framing
Atheist Charity Drive
Over at Framing Science, Matthew Nisbet notes a survey about poverty which finds, among other things, that atheists are less likely to take part in anti-poverty efforts. There are a number of good reasons to be skeptical of this survey, which I’ll mention at the end of this post, but Nisbet seems to take it… Continue reading Atheist Charity Drive
College Makes Students More Religious
According to Inside Higher Ed, that’s what sociologists found when analyzing data from a longitudinal study of more than 10,000 young Americans. Those who went to college were more likely to remain religious than those who didn’t attend college, with 76% of the non-college group reporting a decline in attending religious services, compared to only… Continue reading College Makes Students More Religious
Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Miriam Burstein points out the historical antecedents of the “Atheist Two-Step” discussed by Adam Kotsko and Brandon at Siris. This also ties in nicely with Fred Clark on sectarian atheists, as previously mentioned. Also, speaking of historical screeds by Protestant preachers, Jerry Fallwell is dead. I really don’t have anything to say about that, other… Continue reading Sectarian Atheists and Anti-Catholics
Inference and Illiteralism
Two good “fundamentalism is stupid” posts over the weekend. First up is Scott Aaronson on rules of inference: In the study of rationality, there’s a well-known party game: the one where everyone throws a number from 0 to 100 into a hat, and that player wins whose number was closest to two-thirds of the average… Continue reading Inference and Illiteralism
Atheists and Mormons
Believe it or not, yesterday’s post started as an honest question. I phrased it provocatively because this is, after all, the Internet, but I wasn’t just poking atheists with sticks. This actually started quite a while ago, during one of the previous rounds of squabbling over Dawkins and his ilk, when I started a sentence… Continue reading Atheists and Mormons
Positive Theism?
Are there reasons for being religious that don’t easily reduce to “God said so”? What are they?