Reading Time: 8 minutes In 2008, a Macedonian court found a bear guilty of damaging beehives. Since it had no owner and belonged to a protected species, the state was made to pay the fine instead. Legal history abounds with stories of animal trials, especially in the Middle Ages and early Enlightenment, when both secular and Ecclesiastical variants played […]
secularism
Posted inSecularism
The poisoned church: When pastors use their pulpits to spread disinformation
Reading Time: 4 minutes As we see the world becoming victim to the effects of misinformation and disinformation of authoritarian political agents, it is worth remembering that this is also happening closer to home in our local churches. I was reading an article in Atlantic magazine last night about an Evangelical church in Brighton, Michigan (a state in which […]
Posted inReligion
Will American religion one day mirror Norwegian godlessness? We should be so lucky
Reading Time: 4 minutes Norwegian godlessness today just might resemble American religion tomorrow. I was thinking this as I read an essay in TheHumanist.com decrying America’s nouveau-traditional National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 3 featuring President Joe Biden’s keynote call for unity. The United States, with its quasi-sacred religious freedom and church-state-separation ethos, does not have an officially designated national […]
Posted inSecularism
Secular Week of Action: Doing good feels better than doing nothing
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I figured out I was an atheist, I thought that was the end of it. That’s it, I don’t believe in gods. Good enough. I liked the books, the memes, and the freedom of not pretending to believe in things that aren’t real. Religion was just a minor irritant. A fly that got trapped […]
Posted inSecularism
SCOTUS and the city of Boston’s forced flag attack
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Supreme Court just ruled that the city of Boston must allow religious flags to be flown on flagpoles at city government buildings. The ruling is based on the premise that the city had created a “limited public forum” by allowing the flags of other nations or private organizations to be flown on the flagpoles, […]
Posted inParenting & Family
For which it stands
Reading Time: 8 minutes My son, now 5 years old, was chosen to lead his school in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As an atheist and a parent, I have mixed feelings about this—especially when he asked me what “under God” means. Why I let him do it despite my misgivings, and how to use the Pledge as a teaching moment in secular parenting philosophy.
Posted inPhilosophy
Tolerating the hypocrites: religious exemptions and the problem of belief
Reading Time: 3 minutes Americans are skeptical of religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination rules. According to a recent Pew survey, two-thirds of Americans suspect that those who claim a religious exemption are “just using religion as an excuse to avoid the vaccine.” But let’s be cautious in judging other people. It is difficult to judge the sincerity of our own beliefs. […]
Posted inHistory
Secular profile: George Holyoake
Reading Time: 7 minutes When I was a boy first studying history outside American textbooks, the United Kingdom was at first an image of pomp and period drama, not so alien to the lovers of high end film and television but exotic and mystic to her North American descendants in its antiquity. As I became more experienced in the […]
Posted inSecularism
As religion falls away, how will we support Generation Z?
Reading Time: 3 minutes A new study from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) shows that Generation Z (born 1997-2012) tends to be less religious and more secular than older generations, and therefore less likely to engage in behaviors such as saying grace or attending church. The authors at AEI note that this demographic shift represents a significant change in […]
Posted inSecularism
Secularism on trial: the public/private belief distinction
Reading Time: 3 minutes A lesson about secularism was revealed in Senator Lindsey Graham’s strange interrogation of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Senator reminded us of the importance of the distinction between private belief and public impartiality. When we say that justice is blind, we mean that public officials ought to aspire to impartiality and learn to […]