Kiosk

One of the most acclaimed poets and Latin scholars of the twentieth century, Housman's poetry and prose contain eloquent observations palatable to atheists.

Those who advocate displaying the decalogue in classrooms, courtrooms, and public parks assert that the Ten Commandments are a declaration of fundamental principles that are the cornerstones of a fair and just society. But a careful study of the Bible indicates that it isn't as simple as that; there are many questions that would need to be answered before it could be decided which version and which interpretation--if any--should be displayed.

The Bible portrays God's moral judgments and punishments in many instances as arbitrary and inconsistent, holding people accountable for rules they may not be aware of. The Bible's treatment of incest is only one example of the Scripture's inconsistent moral judgments. Gay Christians and every other demographic should eschew wasting time reconciling their ideas about morality to such an arbitrary and inconsistent standard.

This is a response to an article by Rabbi Gellman entitled, "Trying to Understand Angry Atheists: Why do nonbelievers seem to be threatened by the idea of God?" Parra contends that because clergy have a vested interest in invalidating affronts to their theology, Rabbi Gellman runs through every "tired assumption that every smug believer uses to convince himself that he is somehow morally superior to those who reject his faith."

"In a national survey, part of a broader project on multiculturalism and solidarity in American life, that we call the American Mosaic Project, we found that one group stood out from all others in terms of the level of rejection they received from the general public. That was atheists. And not by a small margin, either."

Strictly speaking "atheism" is a simple lack of theism, but those of us who assert the nonexistence of god generally have a lot more to say about what that means for our individual lives, the lives of our families, and for society as a whole.

Christians today denounce atrocities committed by their religious forebears during the Inquisition and Crusades. President Bush calls Islam a "religion of peace," despite the murder of American innocents on 9/11 in the name of Allah. Violence in the name of religion is often portrayed as the purview of psychopaths who twist the divine word of God to suit their own destructive purposes. But is religious violence a problem of people, or a problem of scripture?

In a recent column, Toronto Sun columnist Michael Coren labels Da Vinci Code "a disgrace," likening its criticism of the Church with the imprisonment, torture, and killing of Christians in countries where "there are concerted campaigns to eliminate followers of Jesus Christ." What Coren doesn't appreciate, however, is that Dan Brown's book taps into the widespread dismay with the early compromise of Christian ideals by the Church itself.

Although Dan Ferrisi was born into a 100% Roman Catholic family, he eventually came to deplore religion as a pernicious influence on the species. This is the story of his journey from Catholicism to atheism.

The judicial system establishes that a criminal theory can be shown true beyond a reasonable doubt without anyone witnessing the event. The credibility of a well-established theory is powerful enough to warrant the death sentence. Yet, there is a gear shift that occurs whenever detectives are compared to scientists. The very same people who agreed or disagreed with the prosecutor's hypothesis will say that no amount of evidence will convince them that evolution occurred.

In defending his transcendental philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson used reason, logic, and evidence when they served his purpose, but abandoned them when they conflicted with his cheery intuitions.

A Review of Facing Death: Epicurus and His Critics, by James Warren.

Both Hemingway and his character Frederic Henry were victimized by an inability to live up to the selfless ethic associated with Jesus.

A tongue-in-cheek look at the intelligent design movement and the logical consequences of the intelligent design theory.

The Kuzari Proof is a famous proof of the validity of Judaism and is commonly used in outreach programs to convince estranged Jews to return to the fold of observance. The author will demonstrate the logical flaws in this proof in hopes that it leads all parties to conduct discourse on a higher level of understanding.

By simply being reactive, nontheistic debaters have allowed religious organizations to set the agenda. The time to create a freethought debate circuit, where both sides have fair legal representation and adequate debate preparation, has finally arrived!

This is Bradley's rejoinder to Professor Antony Flew's reply to "An Open Letter to Professor Antony Flew," also by Bradley, which was published as the Secular Web's Current Feature for August. 2005.

It is one thing to examine the effects of a person's belief system on illness when there is a plausible connection between the belief, including prayer, and the body's systems, but another to seek to investigate an effect that lies outside the known laws of science.

At the very beginning of the twentieth century, discussions on Atheism had a popularity and vigour that would astound most of us today. By contrast, in England today, religion is hardly mentioned and the main concern with any religious talk seems to be not to upset people with what you say.

In his twilight years, unknown to his adoring public, the venerable Twain spewed relentless venom on his Maker.

Lori Lipman Brown Brown goes to Washington as the first Director/Lobbyist of the Secular Coalition for America, of which Internet Infidels is a founding member. As the nation's very first 501(c)4 lobbying organization for freethinkers, the Coalition works to increase the visibility and respectability of nontheistic viewpoints within the larger culture, and to protect and strengthen secular government as the best guarantee of freedom for all.

George Walker Bush relates that he relied on guidance from "a higher Father" as he came to the decision to invade Iraq. Now that it's apparent that the best case scenario for Operation Iraqi Freedom will be a moderate Islamic republic aligned with Iran, and the worst case scenario a metastasizing war between Sunnis and Shiites spreading throughout the Middle East, perhaps it's time to address some questions surrounding President Bush's initial decision to go to war.

A fictional tale about a village that worships a giraffe in a tree.

Although we can never prove or disprove the existence of God, science can tell us where God isn't. God isn't to be found in the creation of the Earth, nor in the evolution of life. Nor can God know the future; physics shows us why.

"Consider the crowd
who rose upon cue
to thwart the intent
of laws which forbid
praying in public
before football games..."

A brief overview of intelligent design, prompted by President Bush's recent endorsement of the theory.

The "Support the Boy Scouts" amendment recently passed the Senate 98-0 after a federal District Court had declared unconstitutional the government support for theists-only BSA that the bill redeclares to be the law. Its Constitution be damned, nontheists are not protected by that document even if everyone else is!

Whenever I critique the inherent, ubiquitous, and incessant relationship between Abrahamic monotheism and senseless violence, I inevitably receive defiant rejoinders not only from Christian rigorists but from misinformed moderates and secularists as well. Such people offer Hitler and Nazism as verification of humanity's purely secular propensity toward excessive bloodshed. But contrary to popular opinion, Adolf Hitler was not an atheist.

An open letter to Antony Flew criticizing his much publicized renunciation of atheism. He is confused about what sort of God he now believes in. The evidence on which he rests his case for abandoning naturalism is poorly researched. And his arguments for a nonnatural designer God are poorly reasoned.

Although the church's animosity toward the concept of moral relativism has achieved a great deal of press coverage, there has been reluctance by the media to state the obvious: the Catholic Church has engaged in moral relativism repeatedly throughout its history. Calls for moral absolutism will only slow the increasing sexual and social freedom of women, the recognition of equality for homosexuals, and the advancement of science. If history is any guide, the church will eventually be forced to reinvent itself once more and embrace modern moral judgments regarding these issues. At which point, no doubt, the church will pretend it never believed anything different, and insist that its current moral beliefs are absolute and represent the unchanging truth as given by god.