Religion
Why are so many evangelicals so un-Christian?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Even conservative American evangelicals are becoming increasingly aware—and alarmed—that so many of their fellow brethren continue to model decidedly un-Christian behavior while devotedly embracing the aggressive, heretical cruelties of their beloved but former president, Don
Think Americans could never be like the Taliban or ISIS? Think again.
Reading Time: 4 minutes You think the Afghan Taliban are bad? They’re relative sweethearts compared to their domestic arch-nemesis, the ruthless Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State in Korasan Province, or IS-K for short. But make no mistake, ISIS and their ilk are both truly evil. As thes
Conservatives’ devotion to ancient texts assures extra abortions, gun murders
Reading Time: 4 minutes American conservatives have a problem with documents, specifically the Bible and the U.S. Constitution. It’s an interpretive problem because conservatives believe those docs are sacred or sacrosanct, which neither is (due to the fact that a god doesn’t appear to exist to sanc
The Catholic Justices driving the Supreme Court’s Roe reversal
Reading Time: 5 minutes I grew up Catholic, so I know something about the ancient faith’s hammerlock absolutism, especially regarding anything even remotely sexual. That’s why I immediately thought of sexuality when I learned along with everyone else this week about the “leaked draft opinion” of U.S
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
Saudi state executes apostates. Is U.S. immune to such religious brutality?
Reading Time: 6 minutes I can confirm firsthand from past decades I spent living and working in Saudi Arabia that the desert kingdom’s citizens are—as most Americans are—generally warm, generous, and kindly folks. Extraordinarily so, in fact. But the Saudi government and presumably most citizens als
Faith and sexuality collide in Finland
Reading Time: 5 minutes Two court cases about faith and sexuality have been dubiously characterized as “shocking” and “a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for freedom of speech throughout the Western world,” according to human rights lawyer Paul Coleman of the conservative, religion-promoting Alliance Defend
New research says: Most Americans love God but ignore his impotence
Reading Time: 4 minutes (Writer’s note: If you’d like to receive emailed links to each of my columns when posted, please sign up here.) A recent Pew Research Center survey on U.S. attitudes toward the so-called “problem of evil” (and implied divine impotence) brightly underscores how the perpetuatin
Atheism is inherently reasonable. That’s why believers don’t ‘get’ it
Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m a nonevangelical nontheist. That’s because I totally accept the fact it’s virtually impossible to convince adult true believers that the divinities they worship, for all intents and purposes, simply can’t be confirmed to exist. With that view, it seems silly trying to con
How a critical thinking deficit aids fascism…and religion
Reading Time: 5 minutes Why do so many Americans embrace such outlandish and patently false ideas these days? Partly because they were never taught critical-thinking skills.