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In the April/May 2013 issue, FREE INQUIRY invited readers to submit autobiographical essays describing the life-stance odysseys that had led them to their present positions of secular humanism or atheism.

I had a fairly normal childhood. Most weeks I attended Sunday school, sorting through crayon nubs to color pictures of farm animals, children, and disciples all clustered around Jesus with looks of adoration.

I was fifteen years old (I am now eighty-nine) when I discarded the myth that there exists somewhere an entity that created the universe and, by the way, also the human species.

Since, by derivation, atheism means “without God” and agnosticism “without knowledge (of God),” there is really no difference in meaning between the two terms—so why not choose the one that has the less dogmatic tone?

I am no longer a Catholic because it defies reason. And while I feel so very lucky to have escaped, I’m angry that it took me several decades.

What changed my mind about Islam? I’d like to think that my mind changed me.

Becoming an atheist doesn’t happen overnight. For me, it’s been a lifelong process.

At age eighteen, I attended an all-boys Catholic high school wearing a gold cross attached to a necklace.

Surely, I could make anything happen just by willing it into existence. Except that it didn’t work that way.

I liberated myself from theistic paradigms and found myself immune to emotional appeals to believe in what, I was sure, was never true.

Some amazing things about the New Testament often escape notice.

Today, adherents of even the wackiest beliefs try to conjure at least a veneer of rational justification and evidential support.

This article describes two well-documented historical examples in which the danger of invasive religion was properly perceived and understood, and efforts to stop the invasion were instituted.

Let’s look back at The Nine Demands of Liberalism and reflect on the differences between what freethinkers wanted circa 1870 and what many in our movement want today.

Too little attention has been paid to a practice that results in actual, destructive interruptions in schooling.

Two main ethical concerns are advanced against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.

The number one thing I want to say today is this: social justice issues are atheist stuff.

Even if we all fully embraced the ideal of secular government, and even if this nudged us all in the direction of liberty and social pluralism, there would remain much scope for political disagreements.

I’ve decided that there is no such thing as sophisticated theology.

Letters in response to the December 2013/January 2014 issue of FREE INQUIRY.

On December 3, 2013, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers reported on two interesting lawsuits.

There are three things that we humans seem to really want to believe in: the existence of God, the soul, and free will.

Too many had a naïve idealism that left them not only susceptible to, but defenseless against, evangelism.

In this article, we will explore some hypotheses about the origin and attributes of an entity whose importance to earthlings ranges from contemplation every waking hour to absolutely zero impact.

A review of Beyond the God Particle, by Leon Lederman and Christopher Hill.

A review of An Imperfect Book: What the Book of Mormon Tells Us about Itself, by Earl M. Wunderli.

It isn’t surprising that the secular movement in America has been characterized by historical discontinuities that, in a number of respects, resemble the amnesia that held back feminism for so long.

My engagement in both the tough world of professional philosophy and the even-tougher world of literary fiction has afforded me an ideal vantage point for viewing the many subtle ways in which gender biases undermine women.

Can currently existing religion be disentangled from the misogyny of its texts, its traditions, and its practices?

Sometimes I am asked how I can combine utter skepticism on religious topics with a conservative political stance, as if the two were somehow inconsistent. Here is an answer.

We are all humanists, but I believe there’s a very good chance those on each side of the progressive/libertarian divide view their counterparts as a little less pure and perfect in their humanistic expression.

The irreconcilable differences between libertarians and secular humanists arise in their viewpoints about government’s role in public life.

We consider stories of miracles from other cultures to be fantasies, but when it comes to the Bible, even sensible people lose their critical faculties.

I believe that the strongest objective evidence for greater attitudinal acceptance of death may be found in increasing cremation rates.

Although faith cannot be rationally justified, this doesn’t prevent theologians from trying their best to make faith seem not only reasonable but a good thing.

Have you ever noticed how fundamentally boring God is? I think that’s a slightly neglected subhead under atheism and secular humanism.

So often, ideologues display an intensity of conviction, and an unscrupulousness in acting upon it, against which good, fair, perhaps liberal-minded people seem helpless.

While people could be rational most of the time, they often don’t choose to be. This is especially true when it comes to religious faith.

Did Putin say anything outrageous? Not in the least. What he said was almost platitudinous.