Being better off without religion: A Dial-an-Atheist follow-up

In this month’s Dial-an-Atheist call-in show, Rachel and I talked about living without the yoke of religious dogma. We were able to get through a couple broad points—deriving humanistic values from the realization that this life is all you have, and unchaining one’s exploration of the world from the tether of an all-consuming narrative—but [...]

What’s for Dinner

levitating apples

I am a human, and I am an omnivore. I eat both plants and animals. Recently, some of the other FFW bloggers and I were discussing the ethics of eating animals, so I thought I would tackle this in one of my increasingly rare blog posts. Let me start by saying that I am [...]

The Evolution of Religions -Jared Diamond

Pulitzer prize winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and “Collapse” speaks about the evolution of religion and the evolutionary forces that shape religions and cause some to prevail and others to wane.

What Inspires Me.

At the prompting of Andy D., I decided to post my piece from our What Inspires You? meeting.  Andy did a great job editing all of the wonderful presentations we had that night.  The video of this meeting is currently available as our newest Enlightenment Show episode———————>
This was a challenge and a pleasure to write, [...]

Twitter is not a good medium for debate

I was on Twitter the other day, as I am more and more, and a former colleague of mine, Jon Swerens, responded to a tweet I made about how Katharine Hepburn was an atheist. I linked to the page where I read it, and she was quoted as saying, “I’m an atheist, and that’s it. [...]

Facts, Values and a Place for the Profound: A conversation with Sam Harris

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5866556893566833643
This is from The Science Network (TSN) and was a prelude before the Beyond Belief: Candles in the Dark conference.  I am glad they added economics and  psychology sections to the usual science and religion topics.  Bookmark the site and take your time with the lectures.  Enjoy.

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More like “guidelines”, really.

I found myself rereading a part of Richard Dawkins’ rather succinct book The God Delusion today; specifically, the chapter entitled The ‘Good’ Book and the Moral Zeitgeist, pages 263 and 264.  Dawkins briefly mentions a common list of “New Ten Commandments” he searched for on the internet.  He then goes on to add some personal [...]

Are you as moral as god?

Oh my gosh! This video is awesome. What a great way to use the power of new media to get your message across in a non-threatening and humorous manner. Thank Dawkins we aren’t all this moral. Hat tip to Pharyngula.

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Robert M. Price article mentioned on the Enlightenment Show about moral trends

During The Enlightenment Show round table interview with John W. Loftus and Dr. Robert M. Price, John pointed out the following article that I included below which Robert wrote last year. We were talking about the lack of “family values” of Jesus and the bible. (I will have the shows posted in [...]

The Affirmations of Secular Humanism – A Series

During the question and answer period following John Loftus’ presentation last month, an astute believer in attendance noted that it’s much easier to critique or tear down than to create or build up. His particular point was that if you eliminate the Bible, what are you offering in its place as a literary work [...]