Reading Time: 3 minutes Strippers can be just as hard to herd as atheists. Atheist Day is important because it’s our chance to be herded for a common cause.
Secularism
Posted inComedy
The lazy atheist
Reading Time: 3 minutes Not doing something is usually easier than doing it. Not taking out the trash burns fewer calories than taking out the trash. Forgetting to run a marathon, neglecting to get a Ph.D. in physics, declining to write a novel—each of these non-doings is easier than doing any one of them. So it should be easy […]
Posted inSecularism
Is social media ‘church’ for atheists? I didn’t think so until now
Reading Time: 4 minutes Two weeks ago I had my Facebook account shut down for child pornography. Yup, you read that right. A couple weeks ago, I was lying on my couch on a Tuesday night, relaxing with a glass of wine and watching TV at about 10:30pm. Suddenly, a strange text message came in from a family member: […]
Posted inSecularism
The atheist movement is…dead?
Reading Time: 7 minutes As a frontline atheist activist, I’m fascinated whenever I see someone lament—or even celebrate—the notion that “the atheist movement is dead!” Often, it follows some flavor of scandal involving an atheist leader, commentator, or YouTuber. There’s a fall from grace (if you’ll pardon the expression), and critics eagerly handcuff the disgraced figure to the wide […]
Posted inResearch
The leading edge of social justice is secular
Reading Time: 5 minutes As Israeli soldiers and settlers continue to brutalize, humiliate, and kill Palestinians with impunity, there is one major human rights organization in Israel documenting and protesting these crimes: B’Tselem. Given that B’Tselem is a humanitarian organization dedicated to fighting for justice, human rights, and the alleviation of suffering, you might think it is a religious […]
Posted inCulture
Are you listening? What we talk about when we talk about podcasts
Reading Time: 3 minutes I’m a huge fan of mutual uplift. What’s the point of having a platform if it’s not being used to raise up others, too? Why should we reinforce a culture that loves putting individuals on unsustainable pedestals, when we can celebrate excellence in healthier ways? Many “nones” detest religious cults of personality, but we all […]
Posted inSecularism
Do you taboo? On the silence of nonreligion
Reading Time: 6 minutes I interviewed Barney Frank for Politico in 2013, on why it seemed to be harder to come out as an atheist than as gay. I’m a historian and a poet, not a journalist, but my writing on atheism leads editors to send me on such missions when something newsworthy happens on the theme. This subject […]
Posted inCulture
SatanCon 0: The truth laid bare
Reading Time: 3 minutes SatanCon 0 was a historic event. In my vocation, it is exceedingly rare to be a party to such an occasion. Inside the hotel grounds and convention, everything was entirely pleasant and jovial. Many of the attendees were reuniting with good friends they hadn’t seen in almost a decade. Others had been online friends for […]
Posted inRacial justice
Organizer without a prayer: A. Philip Randolph
Reading Time: 3 minutes The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 has become the most famous moment of the civil rights movement. Over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to listen to civil rights leaders such as future Congressman John Lewis and then-NAACP president Roy Wilkins. Everyone remembers the brilliance of Dr. Martin Luther King’s […]
Posted inSecularism
Atheism out of the ashes
Reading Time: 5 minutes Atheist and secular groups and individuals need to shift their emphasis to remain relevant in the MAGA era.