It goes without saying that time will tell, but this is encouraging to some degree: Recent news: Is religion in Japan in irreversible decline? Among U.S. Latinos, Catholicism Continues to Decline but Is Still the Largest Faith From 2019/20: In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace Giving Up…
“To escape the Bayesian trap, we must be willing to experiment.” The freedom to change one’s mind based on new ideas or information is freedom, anything else is what? Dogma and/or religion? also see: Julia Galef on Bayes’ Rule
Religion is dumb, but not all religious people are dumb, but perhaps some have damaged brains. It’s not like some atheists don’t have a problem with cognitive flexibility, but theists put themselves in a different worldview with opaque walled borders that are hard to escape and penetrate. According to Dr.…
New stupidity based on old stupidity, QAnon is dumb. EXTENDED VERSION The Ancient Heresy That Helps Us Understand QAnon Skeptic magazine issue on QAnon
Not that numbers matter, but its nice to see a rise in the number of people willing to claim they are atheists or non-theists. The decline in church attendance is also encouraging. How many atheists are there? Gallup poll on religion: here Pew on religion: here In 2013, the accuracy…
Hallelujah! What great news, but it isn’t necessarily new news as the death of gods and religion has been happening for decades, or centuries. Of course a long time ago religions did not exist at all, until one day someone decided they knew better, or in reality knew nothing at…
worth a listen: SCIENCE SALON # 82– Michael Shermer with Phil Zuckerman — What it Means to be Moral: Why Religion is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life Also see: A Pathway to Objective Morality Why the Case for Scientific Humanism is Rational
James A. Haught [This article was first published in 1990. For that reason, neither the ongoing carnage in the middle east nor terrorist attacks in the past 25+ years are mentioned.] Ronald Reagan often called religion the world’s mightiest force for good, “the bedrock of moral order.” George Bush said…
While I like some of what Richard Carrier has written, I have to say I am a little disturbed by his attempts to use Bayes Theorem with history. R. Joseph Hoffmann has a nice synopsis of the issues with Carrier’s logic, or the lack of it, here.
For the first time, atheists and other nonreligious persons are explicitly named as a class protected by the law. President Barack Obama has signed into law the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act. The new law protects atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers around the world from religious persecution. Congress passed the…
