Mid-Week Religion and Free Thought Report 9/4, part 2

Tags

ACE, atheology, british, christian, cosmos, debunking, dissent, england, evolution, faith, fundamentalist, groups, homeschool, human, immoral, iraq, ISIL, islamic, kids, lies, literacy, methodists, mortality, pope, propaganda, religion, school, science, UN

Send to Kindle

Study: Science and Religion Really Are Enemies After All

Are science and religion doomed to eternal “warfare,” or can they just get along? Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and atheists debate this subject endlessly (and often, angrily). [Read more]

Revelations from a Former ACE Insider

I was harassed by teachers and students daily – eventually attempting suicide shortly before my fourteenth birthday. This further branded me as an ungodly troublemaker, particularly as I was referred to a child psychologist. [Read more]

The Immorality of Immortality

On the face of it, immortality appears innocuous, a wish fulfilled, a dream of immense possibilities. However, the reality of living forever would likely be a forever nightmare. [Read more]

Barely Literate? How Christian Fundamentalist Homeschooling Hurts Kids

My interest in homeschooling was first sparked nearly 20 years ago, when I was a socially awkward adolescent with a chaotic family life. [Read more]

Compassionate with Others, Strict with the Self

Today was the first day for morning zazen (aka, “Wake the Heck Up! Morning Zazen”) for Great Tides Zenhere in Portland, ME. [Read more]

A Dialectic Atheology – Understanding the Past, Present and Future of Atheism

Is there a continuity between various strands of atheism, despite all of their differences? This important question – for atheists and those who study atheism – is difficult to answer. [Read more]

Christian Groups Put Their Case Strongly at UN Iraq Hearing

Christian groups and other faith were out in force to support a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution to urgently explore abuses of international law in Iraq committed by the Islamic State and associated terrorist groups. [Read more]

Debunking Some Skeptic Myths About Sexual Assault

This guest post was written by my friend HJ Hornbeck and discusses a talk on sexual assault given by social psychologist Carol Tavris at The Amazing Meeting (TAM) this past July. [Read more]

ISIL Beheading Videos: The Scariest Part Is How Well Their Propaganda Is Working

I haven’t watched the beheading videos of the journalists Steven Sotloff or James Foley – even a few seconds of Daniel Pearl was too much for me – but I know good propaganda when I see it, even for a second. [Read more]

Interview an Atheist at Church

I’ve been in enough churches over the years to know that very few Christians actually understand what drives and motivates atheists. [Read more]

Methodists in England ‘Like an Iceberg … Crumbling Into the Sea’

The comments of Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at Lancaster University, follow the publication of a report called “Statistics for Mission” by the Methodist Church that shows a dramatic collapse of membership — to about 200,000 in the U.K. — in the last decade. [Read more]

Religious Fight Over School Plaques

Another attack on religious freedom, this time on a North Texas school district where two plaques reference god and prayer. [Read more]

Faith vs. Moral Faith

Believers and nonbelievers alike have denounced the actions of ISIS terrorists, because by all reasonable moral standards their actions are utterly detestable. [Read more]

Pope Phones Mosul Priest, Supports and Assures Him He Will Not Be Forgotten

It was 11:10 in the morning of August 19 when Fr. Benham Benoka received a phone call from an unknown number. [Read more]

Lies, Damned Lies, and Incompetence

On the Advertising Standards Agency website today, an ‘informally resolved case’ is listed, related to Dewsbury Gospel Church trading as Branch Christian School. [Read more]

Let’s Agree to Disagree with Those Other People: The Stifling of Meaningful Dissent Online

A recent study from Pew that’s getting a lot of attention suggests that social media use is contributing to a dynamic in which people are afraid to express opinions that might dissent from what appears to be the majority consensus both on and offline. [Read more]

Evolution Now Officially Part of British Primary-School Curriculum

From the British Humanist Association comes an announcement about the advent of an evolution curriculum in British primary schools, so that evolution education, as of this year, begins at age 10 or 11. [Read more]

The Islamic State Is Nothing New

Decapitation is not a new jihadist terror method, and it is far from unique to the Islamic State. Indeed, I noted here over the weekend that it has recently been used by Islamic-supremacist elements of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army against the Islamic State. [Read more]

How Advanced Are We Earthlings? Here’s a Cosmic Yardstick

We humans like to think ourselves pretty advanced – and with no other technology-bearing beings to compare ourselves to, our back-patting doesn’t have to take context into account. [Read more]

If You Are Atheist, Share Why You Know What it Means to be “Fully Human”

Being an Atheist and allowing that Jesus was an actual person are not contradictory. The issue, at least in regards to academically speaking, is purely one for historians and theologians. [Read more]