ALL ARTICLES
Fingernails
“A major battle the no-choice side has won is that of convincing a great many people, including many of those who support abortion rights, that abortion itself is tragic.”
This article is available for free to all.I Believe in Superman
“While we hardly know anything about Jesus before he was thirty, we have hundreds of hours of video-recorded testimony about Superman growing up in his hometown of Smallville, Kansas…”
This article is available for free to all.Liberal Naïveté
“. . . Despite all its successes, liberalism suffers from debilitating flaws that incline it to self-destruction.”
Are You Ready for a New Age of Surveillance?
“We have gone so far beyond George Orwell—yet this isn’t fiction.”
Understanding Public Choice Theory
“The gist of public choice theory is that so-called public servants . . . promote goals of their own even as they claim to be serving the public interest.”
States of Faith
“Legal challenges to the motto and Pledge produced court decisions calling the affirmations mere ‘ceremonial deism’ that have ‘lost through rote repletion any significant religious content.’”
Edwin Kagin, 1940–2014
Edwin Kagin, American Atheists’ national legal director and cofounder of Camp Quest, has died at the age of seventy-three.
Carl Sagan, Cosmos, and Abortion Rights
“Perhaps you didn’t know that [Carl] Sagan was also an important champion of abortion rights.”
Teaching the Gospel of Evolution
“A significant number of . . . students have been brought up to dismiss evolution and thus reject the main tenet of my discipline, biochemistry.”
Facing the Facts
A review of Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism, edited by C. M. Hays and C. B. Ansberry.
An Urgent Call for Population Limits
A review of Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, by Alan Weisman.
Gimme That Old-Time Atheism
A review of Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World, by Mitchell Stephens.
The Silver Bullet Question (Part 2)
In “The Silver Bullet Question that Kills the Immortal Soul,” FI, April/May 2004, I argued that souls cannot be infused into humans in today’s world, because there is no point in human or prehuman history where a putative “first ensoulment” can be ethically justified.1 In that essay, The Silver Bullet Question was: “Who first had …
This article is available for free to all.Betting on Jesus: The Vanishing of the Christ
Even granting the possibility of miracles, once we grasp what the resurrection saga means and how it would have had to unfold, we can be certain that it never took place.
Why I Am Not a Fundamentalist Christian
In the pages that follow, we present three more statements of nonbelief—and an explanation of a stance against “membership” in any “group.” The first articles in this series were published in the February/March 2014 FREE INQUIRY. There’s more to come in the June/July and the August/September issues.—The Editors My transition into the folds of Southern fundamentalist …
Why I Am Not a Muslim
Teaching an ever-changing population of young Muslim immigrant girls was sometimes an unsettling experience.
Why I Am Not a Member . . . of Anything
For one unbeliever, independence is more important than claiming the label of “atheist.”
Leaving Unholy Mother Church
I’m more than an ex-Catholic; I’m an ardent anti-Catholic. Holy Mother Church should be ashamed.
Why Is Creationism So Persistent?
Creationist beliefs are dismayingly robust because they accord with intuitions about the world that have been with us for thirty millennia and because they are imposed through childhood indoctrination.
Faith: A Disappearing Concept
In the last analysis, faith is the last defense shielding the believer against introspection.
New Laureates Elected to the Academy of Humanism
The International Academy of Humanism, a program of the Council for Secular Humanism, was established to recognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs.
To What Extent Should We Accommodate Religious Beliefs?
The Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases may prompt the Supreme Court to overextend the religious-liberty rights of corporate employers.
This article is available for free to all.Dead Is Dead
If family feelings—including religious beliefs—can mandate prolonged medical care for the dead, society suffers.
What Would Happen If We All Came Out?
If every one of us who can do it comes out about our atheism to one person who doesn’t already know, it could change the world.
This article is available for free to all.Is Democracy a Threat to Liberty?
Liberalism and democracy are very different things. Failure to grasp that underlies America’s failed attempts to “export” “liberal democracy.”
Share, Yes; Force, No
If only more believers could recognize that their taboos apply to them, not to everyone.
Joe Levee, Supporter and Former Board Member
Joseph Raymond Levee, a dedicated supporter of the Council for Secular Humanism and its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, died at the age of eighty-seven on February 1, 2014.
School Rankings and Vouchers: Connecting the Dots
The data actually undermine claims that private, especially religious, schools deliver better education.
Lorraine Hansberry: Writing in the Light of Reason
Lorraine Hansberry’s drama stressed both the humanity of humanism and the need for critical thinking.
What’s the Appeal of Christian Ethics?
The problem with Christian ethics is that its ideal of denying material needs ignores the imperative to find a balanced way to live in the natural world.
My Invisible Friends
Looking for guidance in life? First, make sure you know who your friends are!
This article is available for free to all.Less Secular Than It Seems
A review of Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, by Jennifer Michael Hecht.
This article is available for free to all.An Education on Education
A review of The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools, by Christopher A. Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski.
Why I Am Not An Open Atheist
Online-only bonus: I support the goals of the various “out” campaigns in the atheist/freethinker sphere. However, despite my strong commitment to humanistic atheism, I cannot participate.