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The Catholic Church has banned performing exorcisms during Mass. Will this come back to bite them?

Tyson Prince's rant

A man died and was taken to his place of eternal tormet by the devil...

The Bush Administration's idea to support faith-based charities with state funds is loaded with problems.

We know from the first-century Jewish historian Josephus that three main sects dominated first-century Palestine: the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes. Green asks the question "from which did Jesus emerge?" and takes us on a fascinating tour of the evidence.

Our opponents discovered our plot to introduce queer values via Teletubbies, teens stopped listening to our backward-masked Satanic rock music, and Alan Greenspan thwarted our attempt to control the world's money supply. What's an evil atheist to do?

Does the seemingly inescapable use of imperfect metaphors in the explanation of concepts within evolutionary theory mean more than a simple inadequacy of human language? Or, as the author purports, could it mean that hidden within the non-intelligent, non-purposeful, and unconscious workings of natural selection lies a cosmic Gepetto tinkering with his toys? Just in time for Darwin Day, Secular Web editors thought, why not make our readers rowdy with this little gem.

The following article demonstrates how countries throughout the world can, and are being devastated, by religious conflict. The religious revivalism currently sweeping South Asia has ambitions of political and cultural reform, opening the door to all brands of extremism. Hindu supremacists have become a powerful force in India and pose a serious danger to all opposing worldviews. This weeks feature offers Secular Web readers an opportunity to learn more about this important subject.

Though God continues to be pushed further and further back through space and time, some theists believe that The Theory of Everything (TOE) has allowed a few more options to be posited. There now may be at least 10 dimensions to keep us busy in this never-ending game of mystical hide and seek!

A response to the Agnostic Baptist Minister's advice that nonbelievers should consider avoiding religious debate to avoid razing the everyday hope provided to simple people with simple faith and because such debate is ineffective and counterproductive.

Culture-Jamming Theistic Memes Effectively…but Respectfully Anonymous Two concepts few would ever find themselves combining into one are “Baptist minister” and “agnostic” – unless of course one is describing a debate of some kind. Keep them separate and they make sense, bring them together into one person and the dissonance begins. And yet, an agnostic Baptist […]

Don't touch it, it's pure evil!

One day in August, Mr. Finley decided to answer an ad in the paper and to become a psychic. When you guess whether someone is married or single, has children, or is ill, you've got a fifty-fifty chance -- so what have you got to lose? No special powers are needed to be a psychic: just reason, probability, and luck.

The existence of both hell and God's love and mercy cannot easily be justified, and neither can the appropriateness of substitutive sacrifice. In wanting to hide or soften the repugnant ideas of hell and human sacrifice, the theologian resorts to "double-talk".

Consider that Chachapoya never had access to the Judeo laws and morals as handed down by Moses. They had never heard of Vishnu, Brahma, or Maheshawara (Hindu), nor did the angel Moroni bestow revelations to anyone in their culture as far as we know. How, then, did they manage to manage for so long?

David Cortesi offers up the results of his research into whether or not Fydor Dostoevsky, in his brilliant novel The Brothers Karamazov, actually wrote the words: "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." Cortesi challenges the widely-propagated myth further by questioning the relevancy of attributing such a statement to the author regardless if it is, indeed, an accurate description of the belief espoused by one of the fictional characters in his novel.

Dr. Massimo Pigliucci challenges creationism on all fronts, including the latest brand of intelligent design theory. Referring specifically to the work of William Dembski and Michael Behe, the author highlights the fatal flaws in the ID arguments and renders a crushing blow to the pseudoscience that underlies creationist claims.

Do the theological faculties of Germany's state universities serve only the church, or do they also serve the broader needs of a pluralistic culture? This is the central question in the debate surrounding biblical scholar and George-August University faculty member Gerd Luedemann who, after announcing his nonbelief publicly last year, was then denied his academic rights in his teaching position. This second letter, provided to us by an interested third party, responds to the Dean of George-August and defends Luedemann against the charge that he is unfit to prepare students for ordination in the Lutheran Church.

We are being drowned today in biblical ignorance, religious illiteracy and historical stupidity by the religious and political right in this country. In no other place is this so visible as in the prostitution of the "Ten Commandments." There is no need to ever fear aliens from outer space moving in with us. They would take one look at Congress and know, without a doubt, that we had not evolved past a Neanderthal mentality. They would give their space ships full throttle and head for home and sanity.

We rail against supernatural faiths, not just for their palpable falsity, but for their sanctified cruelties, their crippled imaginations, and their all-too-common suspicion of human efforts to better our lives.

There's a bunch of stuff going on in your brain about which you know nothing. In times of need or at some critical moment, sudden knowledge and inspiration often seem to come from the spark of the divine. Kirkland explores the question, "from where comes inspiration?"

Exploration of the "myth" of the Columbine Martyr, along with apology.

1 Corinthians 15 is a biblical chapter often referred to in discussing the Resurrection of Jesus. David Friedman explores the literalist claim of a physical resurrection by presenting evidence that shows the authors of Corinthians, and the witnesses to the resurrection, were referring solely to a spiritual rebirth, not a physical one.

When Cupid's arrow strikes, is it mere molecules in motion or have we finally found our soul mate? Carrier explores nature's greatest mystery -- amore! -- as well as the notion of physical beauty, impulse, biology, and Hollywood's obsession with sex.

Providing evidence from US, Canada and Britain, Auda Burrumgee proposes a radical new political science theory that offers insight into campaign considerations and the election process while simultaneously lifting the mask off of the voting public, and showing just what makes us tick.

Most people don't care what other people believe, so long as it doesn't affect them--so long as it's "no skin off my nose!" But what about those times when other people's beliefs ARE affecting you and you don't even know it? Times when other people use their religious beliefs to decide what medical services will be available to you?  Times when your nose is being skinned and you don't even know it!

Dr. Steven Weinberg is one of the true, authentic, Renaissance men of our time. He has been called the "Einstein" of our day.

Some pandering presidential candidates would do well to reacquaint themselves with basic civics. In a society which values freedom of religion the last thing we need is intentional blurring of the lines between church and state.

As we celebrate Independence Day across America it is worth publishing once again an accurate history of the philosophy of government that underlies the US Constitution. In The Unchristian Roots of the Fourth of July, Michael Buckner sets the record straight.

In this first column titled "Rationally Speaking", Massimo Pigliucci addresses the allure of pseudoscience. If you insist in thinking that all you need to do is to explain things just a little bit better and people will see the light, you are committing what is knows as the "rationalistic fallacy."