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"If there is a special Hell for atheists and other nonbelievers, I shall never fear for my comfort. I am in good company in my disbelief."

In the rural backwaters and isolated tribal hamlets of countries like India, missionaries routinely peddle the fruits of generosity--food and medicine--as "inducements" for conversion to Christianity. When these allurements fail, more-aggressive means may be employed, not barring fraud and intimidation. As we shall see below, in India at least, "harvesting" souls has become an end that justifies almost any means.

Michael Corey claimed in a recent debate that the Koran predicted the expanding universe. But did it? Only if you employ a liberal reading of the original text. Carrier uses the same interpretive methods on the poetry of Lucretius to show that Epicurus was a far more amazing prophet of modern science than Mohammed. Yet if Mohammed really had a pipeline to God, surely he would have done better than a mere mortal who used nothing more than human reason and observation.

Despite his repudiation of atheism, Shaw may have died an unwitting atheist. Though he called himself a mystic, his credentials were suspect.

Considering humankind's technological developments, war now has the potential to totally destroy life on our planet. Historically, Christianity has had three broad attitudes on war: pacifism, the just-war, and the crusade. Does present-day Christianity provide a viable system of guidelines for war and peace?

One of America's most important writers, Stephen Crane had by the age of thirteen rejected the Christian beliefs of his devout parents. In his repudiation of cultural illusions and pretensions, he was a forerunner of Modernism. In his poetry and fiction, he depicts a god-abandoned universe.

Separation of church and state is being undermined by those who see an advantage to promoting their own religious agenda. Emboldened by the favorable political climate in the current administration, and energized by the upcoming election, they seem to be intensifying their attacks; one egregious example is that of the Catholic Church. Unless stopped, they will succeed in changing the very foundation of this country, bringing to an end the religious liberty we now take for granted.

This is a powerful and penetrating chronicle of the author's experiences in an abusive, fundamentalist Christian home. Using scripture from both the Old and New Testament as an indictment of the biblical God, Archer demonstrates at the same time that Christian dogma can be harmful to children, to families, and to society as a whole.

The Transitional Administrative Law of Iraq carries a grave flaw. It has no provision for a separation between religion and government. Given the instability of postwar Iraq, the loophole in the charter must be sealed. If not, Iraq will have a door ajar for theocracy.

A critique on the underlying themes and methodology of Mel Gibson's hit film The Passion of The Christ.

Substantial evidence in the Koran and the Bible lends credibility to Allah's contention that he and Yahweh are the same god. A dispassionate examination of the evidence was conducted by an evidence technician and a forensic profiler affiliated with the International Institute for the Investigation of Fraudulent Deities.

How can we know that Christianity, and particularly the alleged Resurrection, are true if Craig and other Christian apologists cannot show that they are true? For anyone to ask us to accept such on faith would be like a vacuum-cleaner salesman demonstrating his product in your living room: when the machine fails to suck up any dust, he asks you not to think ill of the vacuum; it's just that he, the salesman, can't get straight how to operate it properly--but he tells you that you ought to buy it anyway!

Is God smiling on you? It is evident by how prosperous you have been in the world. According to some believers, God grants material rewards to the faithful. No material rewards? Then that's your own fault.

"We should separate God from civic life in every way. 'Individual liberty is the essential characteristic of free government,' writes Constitutional historian Melvin Urofsky. Allow religious beliefs to take precedence over democratic liberties and we're finished. Freedom of speech, Freedom of the Press, Right to Assemble, Habeas Corpus, Due Process--forget it. History, Thomas Jefferson reminds us, 'furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.'"

Kuchar suggests that the war on terrorism might be defined as "the opposition to organized, faith-based and indiscriminate violence." He goes on to suggest, however, that the war on terrorism is, itself, "an international, faith-based campaign of practically indiscriminate violence," and is thus, itself, terroristic, fostered by "blinkered administrations" who promote "patriotic allegiance to comforting slogans."

A Review of The Science of Good and Evil : Why People Cheat, Share, Gossip, and Follow the Golden Rule by Michael Shermer, in which Shermer presents what he describes as "a new theory of provisional ethics."

In newspaper editorials and letters, new-fashioned theocrats try to subvert the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by adducing pious remarks of the first U. S. Presidents. The comments are supposed to demonstrate that the first presidents sanctioned sponsorship of religious interests. On the contrary, these presidents left considerable evidence that they favored a strict separation of church and state.

"Denying Evolution is about a cultural war that is currently being fought between conservative and progressive worldviews, but this book is not apologetic. It describes the limitations of science as a philosophy and a human endeavor, yet continually stresses that science is a process that has contributed to the quality of life that our society enjoys today. Denying Evolution is an honest, insightful critique about science, its limitations, and the perpetrators of the creation-evolution debate. The book clearly outlines the strategies and motivation of those who seek to destroy science."

Are you willing to change your mind in response to new evidence even when your most deeply-held convictions are at stake? If you're Jewish, would you stop celebrating Passover if you were presented with convincing evidence that there was no Exodus? Instead of giving it up entirely, of course, you could reinvent the traditional Haggadah and convert it into an instrument of education. In a spirit of openness and evidentialism, Voron presents a Passover Haggadah for secular Jews--as well as a wealth of evidence, which should also be of interest to Christians, that the Exodus never happened.

In recent years skeptics have often applied Richard Dawkins' "memes" idea to religion. This does go some of the way towards providing a naturalistic explanation for religion but I think it over-emphasizes the importance of belief at the expense of narrative. Religions, I suggest, mostly begin with narrative; belief arises later and is, in a sense, a secondary development. It is probably our Christian heritage that leads us to attach undue importance to the role of belief. Narrative depends largely on language, and there are important similarities between religions and language in the way in which they are acquired. This way of looking at religion suggests an explanation for its seeming ubiquity in human culture and also for its persistence in our modern society.

Plugaru argues that most versions of the Cosmological Argument are useless as a proof of the existence of God.

The role of religion in promoting social change moves front-and-center on Martin Luther King Day. But how useful can religion really be?

At the core of Christian dogma is the faith-based belief that God exists. This faith-based belief and the foundation on which it stands constitute a cornerstone of the religion. This essay discusses the implications of belief in God, looks at whether this belief is logical or illogical, and analyzes how that determination affects Christian dogma and Christians who believe and obey it.

Have you ever wondered what it is that trees, holly, and mistletoe have to do with the birth of Jesus or the Jewish Festival of Lights? This brief synopsis on the origins of Christmas customs will shed light on some of the more obscure references.

John Dill came to the Internet Infidels Discussion Forum a theist, deconverted, and now considers himself an atheist. As a former theist, he has some pointers for all atheists regarding "proving the negative."

There are probably few of us who have never heard the saying, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone"--the words attributed to Jesus in the story told in John 8:1-11 of the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned to death for her crime. This is often taken to show that Jesus possessed great measures of wisdom and kindness. Plugaru believes, however, that this story demonstrates nothing of the kind.

Some believe that if life must end, life is meaningless; that death means that from your perspective, ultimately, there is no perspective; that if your life is as if it never had been, then death erases the meaning of your life. The solution to this supposed dilemma is personal immortality after our physical death. Hart demonstrates that the concept of personal immortality creates its own dilemmas, dilemmas which actually deprive life of meaning.

Secularists may soon have to fight a two-front war against Bible-thumping Christians on the right and self-styled promoters of Eastern Religions on the left. Denver's "Peacefulness Ordinance," Initiative 101, would require the city to help ensure public safety by increasing "peacefulness" through the use of techniques typically associated with Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu religions.

One of the major reasons that I'm not a Christian is that I don't consider myself an evil and worthless wretch who has no ability to change himself or the world around him. I am not a Christian because I believe in hope and humanity.

The Atlantis worm suddenly appeared on the computers--some of which were not even connected to the Internet--of a carefully-selected group of individuals of interest to the agency, a pop-up window hawking an all-expense paid trip to the Atlantis Resort on Dead Man's Cay. The agency's top secret report describes the astonishing events which transpired for those who accepted the invitation. (Editor's note: Fiction. 11,000+ words.)