Are there reasons for being an atheist that don’t easily reduce to “Religion is stupid”? Should there be?
Category: Religion
Belief Narratives
I’m always sort of fascinated by articles in which people talk about why they believe what they do, particularly in a religious context. I basically never find them persuasive (my own inclinations are Apathetic Agnostic– I don’t care if there’s a God or not), but when they’re done well, they’re really interesting reading, in sort… Continue reading Belief Narratives
Galactic Religion
As part of one of my intermittent attempts to be a better person, I’ve given up atheist-baiting for Lent. And let me tell you, it isn’t easy. I would be remiss in my blogging duties, though, if I didn’t point out Rob Knop’s recent posts about religion and science. The first is about being a… Continue reading Galactic Religion
The Definitive Statement on Marcus Ross
As usual, Scott Aaronson says it better than I did: [M]ost of the commentary strikes me as missing a key point: that to give a degree to a bozo like this, provided he indeed did the work, can only reflect credit on the scientific enterprise. Will Ross now hit the creationist lecture circuit, trumpeting his… Continue reading The Definitive Statement on Marcus Ross
Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis
I’m having the sort of morning where I feel like lobbing a grenade at somebody, and the predictable outrage over yesterday’s story about a creationist paleontologist is as good a target as any. The issue here is whether it’s appropriate for Marcus Ross to receive a Ph.D. for work in paleontology, given that he’s a… Continue reading Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis
Evolution Sunday
Kate passes along a link to a New Scientist article noting this today has been proclaimed Evolution Sunday 2007 by the Clergy Letter Project: On 11 February 2007 hundreds of congregations from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far… Continue reading Evolution Sunday
Elitism and Blaming the Victim
I’ve long been of the opinion that if sanity is ever restored to the relationship between politics and religion in America, it will owe a lot to people like Fred Clark. He writes passionately and persuasively about the many problems caused by the “Religious Right” from a Christian perspective, in religious language. His Left Behind… Continue reading Elitism and Blaming the Victim
The G-Word
Scott Aaronson talks sense about religion, in response to an emailer who stopped reading his quantum computing lectures because he made references to “God”: What I’m trying to say, Bill, is this: you can go ahead and indulge yourself. If some of the most brilliant unbelievers in history — Einstein, Erdös, Twain — could refer… Continue reading The G-Word
You Have to Be Bright to Be This Dim
Over at The Island of Doubt, James Hrynyshyn (pronounced, no doubt, just like it’s spelled) points to an article by Daniel Dennett in which he refuses to let a bad idea die: In July, 2003, I wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “The Bright Stuff”, where I drew attention to a… Continue reading You Have to Be Bright to Be This Dim
Deism’s Just Alright With Me
Over at Bora’s House of Round-the-Clock Blogging, we find the sensational headline Beaten by Biologists, Creationists Turn Their Sights On Physics. On seeing that, I headed over to the editorial in The American Prospect that it points to, expecting to be scandalized. When I got there, I found this: U.S. creationists have changed tactics. Though… Continue reading Deism’s Just Alright With Me