The Satanic Temple

(Photo Josh Reynolds/Washington Post) You may have heard about this effort to introduce a private after-school program for “Satanic Temple” in public schools.  As reported in The Washington Post among many other places, it is a program offered in reaction to after-school Christian clubs.  Their serious goal is to provide an atheist alternative.  Their not-so-serious […]

Read more...

Atheist Passivity

Ultimate Reality When we hear the assertion “God does not exist,” we know this is intended to be equivalent to saying “there is no God.”  But “God does not exist” is an interesting formulation of the thought.  It is incoherent, read literally, because it seems to be saying that there is a God, but then that the God just […]

Read more...

Review: God—The Failed Hypothesis, by Victor Stenger

This book is exasperating, because Stenger sets up a meta-analysis that games the entire discussion.  Having built for himself the restrictive form in which his reasoning is to be poured, he ends up with exactly the structure he set out to build.  The trouble is that it defies reason, not to mention, in many instances, […]

Read more...

Review: God is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens

The late Christopher Hitchens worked the last years of his life as a professional atheist, going from debate to debate to catechize devotees of his brand of fiery, witty godlessness. Hitchens’ belief about the God he denied There’s a curious element to Hitchens’ debate appearances and to his writings on the subject of atheism as […]

Read more...

Review: The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is certainly incendiary, and it’s not just because he makes free use of acerbic anti-Christian language.  It’s also because he would advocate prior restraint on free speech (chapter 1); considers religious teaching to children to be child abuse (chapter 9); and lays violence at the feet of religion while excusing the bridle-high materialist […]

Read more...