I was confused yesterday by references to "New Atheism" in an essay I was reading, specifically that New Atheism is "thoroughly rejected by both Left and Right" and "is truly a dead letter in 2023". Oh really ( Read more... )

I find Ayaan Hirsi Ali's recent essay on her conversion to Christianity to be pure nonsense, and after reading it myself I'm not sure why it is being used as an exemplar for anything at all. But now two of my favorite columnists have written about it for the same reason --> that supposedly it is an exemplar of motivated spiritual reasoning. She's ( Read more... )

Here's what Judgment Day is,

when you die, you get to watch two films,

one, the replay of your own life,

two, the alternate version of the universe had you not lived,

and Heaven is whether you can see the positive difference you made,

and Hell is if you can't

"Society cannot successfully condemn conspiracy theorists while at the same time promoting and valuing theism, because theism is a conspiracy theory."-- adapted from a reader comment on a NYT article ( Read more... )

Diego Rivera was an atheist. His mural Dreams of a Sunday in the Alameda depicted Ignacio Ramírez holding a sign which read, "God does not exist". This work caused a furor, but Rivera refused to remove the inscription. The painting was not shown for nine years - until Rivera agreed to remove the inscription. He stated: "To affirm 'God does not ( Read more... )

I don’t want to have to explain how statements such as “everyone just respect everyone’s beliefs” obscures privileged theism and unequal political and social footing between varying theisms, and then theism itself versus atheism.

I've tagged entries with either or both: relationship anarchy, and relationship anarchism. I've decided that I will use the relationship anarchy tag when talking about my own relationship matrix, and the relationship anarchism tag when talking about my general relationship philosophy. Anarchy being the status topic, anarchism being the advocacy ( Read more... )

What does it mean to "freely exercise" one's religion? Perhaps it depends on the religion. But the US Constitution protects the free exercise of religion, among other rights ( Read more... )

Moving through all those triggers ( Read more... )

Often when I hear people talking about God or Jesus I replace these two words with "my imaginary friend". So as I left the Metro station yesterday evening, a beggar playing the role of a homeless person -- I never know whether they are truly homeless or not -- was saying to everybody, "God bless, God bless," as though this would pry cash from ( Read more... )