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For the past sixteen years, the U.S. government’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy has barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces, while also prohibiting military officials from initiating inquiries into service members’ sexual orientation when they are abiding by the rules. Top military leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and …

Pedophilia among Catholic priests—and the stonewalling of same among church prelates—is back in the headlines. Now the allegations come not just from North America or Ireland but from across the first world. And now the pope himself is under scrutiny for his possible role (back in his salad days as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) in derailing …

Last year, we published a syndicated column on the development of robots and raised the question of whether robots could be conscious and, if so, whether they would have rights. The topic is evidently a sensitive one with some Christians because it seems to threaten the unique status of human beings. We will here review …

All through elementary school, I recited the mandatory New York State school prayer, every day. I can still remember my relief at its mysterious elimination. No one told us that the Supreme Court had invalidated the prayer (in Engel v. Vitale, in 1962); our teachers simply expunged it from our morning routine. I had always hated …

In an effort to distinguish his administration from the rhetoric of global tyranny characteristic of his predecessor’s, President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that America’s foreign policy is not bent on imposing American values and culture on the world. Instead, he says that the goal of American foreign policy is to defend universal values—values that …

A year ago, I published an essay in Free Inquiry in which I affirmed that porn is generally a healthy art form (yes, art form) that hurts no one and possibly even benefits society by providing safe outlets for the otherwise-frustrated sexual energy of the populace.* A letter from a female reader accused me of …

In February, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a report showing that although American youth have lost the church-going habits of their parents, they retain strong religious beliefs. In other words, they believe in God but don’t belong to a church—a pattern long associated with European society. Meanwhile in Europe, we’ve learned …

Like the Terminator, they keep coming back, and they’re hard to stop. Like Dracula, they want our blood—er, taxes. “They” are the folks who have been campaigning for more than forty years to have all of us pay for faith-based private schools with our federal and/or state taxes through the mechanisms of tax-funded school vouchers …

As so-called New Atheists grow in numbers and prominence, led by such outspoken nonbelievers as Richard Dawkins, we have to expect some squalling from religious groups that are feeling the unaccustomed sting of criticism. That much is unsurprising, but criticism of the New Atheists has come from some unexpected quarters as well. Julian Baggini, a …

The rise of the so-called New Atheism has brought forth numerous critics and criticisms. Some critics believe that religionists who hold negative religious ideas are not influenced by their “sacred” texts. Rather, they use or misuse religious texts only after they have embraced some insidious agenda. This view is incredibly biased in favor of faith. …

A few years ago, I was invited to a conference at The Hague by Professor Hans Jansen, the great Arabist. After listening to grim papers all day long, Jansen and I headed for the nearest bar. I was to give my talk the next day, and I asked him what I should talk about. He …

As a moderate socioeconomic conservative and an atheist, I often find myself misunderstood by people of many diverse viewpoints. When I mention that I’m an atheist, that I’ve become convinced after years of contemplation that the whole notion of God is a diseased and dangerous concept, many people automatically assume that I must be a …

An obscure New England farmer and teacher until his first book of verse, A Boy’s Will, was published in 1913, Robert Frost (1874–1963) died an international celebrity. He garnered four Pulitzer Prizes and was awarded forty-four honorary degrees. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Mending Wall,” “Birches,” “The Road Not Taken,” and other anthology …

The Council for Secular Humanism is pleased to announce—and to publish–the winning entrants in its Free Expression Cartoon Contest. As part of its contribution to the Center for Inquiry’s Campaign for Free Expression, the Council for Secular Humanism invited professional and amateur artists to submit their sharpest, cleverest, and most ingenious creations touching on that …

The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright (New York: Little, Brown, & Co., 2009, ISBN 978-0-3167-3491-2) 576 pp. Cloth $22.99. . . . There is a special way of being afraid No trick dispels. Religion used to try, That vast moth-eaten musical brocade Created to pretend we never die And specious stuff that says no …

The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, ISBN 978-0-307-26918-8) 406 pp. Cloth $27.95. Karen Armstrong vigorously advocates silence as the best means for understanding God. And in The Case for God, she uses more than three hundred pages of chatty text to prove her point. The title of Armstrong’s …

God and His Demons, by Michael Parenti (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-61614-177-6) 281 pp. Cloth $25.00. Michael Parenti is a Yale-educated political scientist whose works have been translated into almost twenty languages. His résumé bristles with awards and, during his early teaching career, prestigious grants. He is the author of more than twenty …

Free Will though everything sooner or later changes to everything else— randomness generally first affects conditions in their own locale —I can choose my god—then choose a better god but cannot even with the intensity of the best intentions choose better than I can—can choose whatever distractions seduce vulnerability to concentration on another chaos and …

Among twentieth-century humanists, none stands higher than the American John Dewey, professor of philosophy at Columbia University during the first half of the century. Dewey taught the world what a sound naturalism, humanism, secularism, and atheism should look like. In his pragmatist philosophy, these four isms not only cooperated but mutually supported each other. Subtract …

The old saying that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” has especial significance at the present time. Freedom from oppression was such a controlling purpose in the foundation of the American Republic, and the idea of freedom is so intimately connected with the very idea of democratic institutions, that it might seem as if …

Metaphysics is commonly regarded as an esoteric discipline, but in John Dewey’s hands it became directly pertinent to common life. I use metaphysics to refer to the systematic attempt to distinguish the most noteworthy characteristics of reality and to demonstrate the pertinence of such traits to human conduct and ideals. A metaphysics is developed in …

In our time, John Dewey might be called a “religious humanist,” although if he were able he might object. I am a secular humanist. Dewey’s philosophy informs many of my most significant interactions, but I do not explore in them, as Dewey did, what it means to be religious. Naturalistic philosophy and the sciences support …

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Dewey, we should recall that he was a deeply spiritual person, both personally and professionally. Dewey’s spirituality was not defined by organized religion. It was instead a part of his commitment to a philosophically informed version of naturalism. Dewey was an ardent opponent of …

The 150th anniversary of John Dewey’s birth is an auspicious opportunity to celebrate the life and work of one of America’s leading, perhaps foremost, philosophers. His influence on public affairs beyond the academy surely qualifies him for that distinction. In addition, he was the most influential intellectual voice of liberalism, broadly construed, for a good …

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, permitting unlimited corporate spending on election campaigns, cast a devastating blow against democracy. By a 5 – 4 vote, the high court’s conservative majority abandoned longstanding legal precedents dating back over a century, to 1907, and culminating in the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002. It …

A Plea for Unity Tom Flynn’s review of Greg Epstein’s book Good Without God (FI, February/March 2010) illustrates the problem (or perhaps futility) of attempting to place those who reject supernaturalism into neat categories . By emphasizing the differences between “religious humanism” and “secular humanism,” Flynn seems to push Epstein into one corner (that of …

Free Inquiry: Isn’t the New Atheism just the same old atheism? Victor J. Stenger: Yes and no. The New Atheism is more popular now, and I think it takes a harder line. It says that we shouldn’t be treating religion with kid gloves or avoid offending moderate Christians merely because we need their support for …

Council Fights Appeal of Its Florida Court Victory The twists and turns continue in the Council for Secular Humanism’s case challenging the use of Florida taxpayer dollars for faith-based substance-abuse transitional housing programs in Florida state prisons. The Council won an important victory on December 15, 2009, when the Florida First District Court of Appeal …

Secular humanists often assert that they offer something more than critiquing religion, that they have a “positive outlook” and offer affirmative alternatives to religion. When I encounter statements of this sort, I admit I am sometimes puzzled—particularly when what follows these words is some recitation of vague principles to which religious individuals can subscribe as …

In January 2010, I was a guest on the excellent national radio show hosted by the devout Christian Hugh Hewitt. The people of Port-au-Prince had just been buried in rubble, and his first question to me was rightly about the calamity that had overtaken an already miserable Haiti. I informed him that the former presidential …

When you think of hunger strikes, two images likely come to mind. In 1980, seven Northern Irish Republican prisoners launched a hunger strike in Belfast’s Maze prison. They were protesting the revocation of their prisoner-of-war status by the British government. This initial hunger strike led to a series of others, during which Bobbie Sands became …

In this issue, I turn my space over to a guest columnist, Dr. Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, who teaches ethics at the University of Lodz, in Poland. The column below first appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza, one of Poland’s leading newspapers. Dr. de Lazari-Radek, who also did the English translation, tells me that the article received an …

Schools Under Surveillance: Cultures of Control in Public Education (Rutgers University Press) is a new book that should be of interest to at least some public school students and their parents. Its publication performs a ne eded public service. In this anthology, editors Torin Monahan and Rodolfo Torres and other academics around the nation ask: …

Leo Igwe is the executive director of both the Center for Inquiry in Nigeria and the Nigerian Humanist Movement. It would be difficult to find a humanist activist with greater courage, determination, and persistence anywhere in the world. On more than one occasion, Igwe has been physically attacked by religious extremists. He has been pursued …

Sainthood for Pius 12? (Gasp!) Tone-deaf, arrogant, Orwellian, Kafkaesque—the Holy See (the Vatican) is hell-bent on conferring sainthood on World War II-era Pope Pius 12 (née Eugenio Pacelli), known for his timidity regarding the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and other “Untermenschen.” Pius’s canonization, though an internal church matter, would be a grave …

As he performed the autopsy, Edward Curtis removed Abraham Lincoln’s brain. “We proceeded to remove the entire brain, when, as I was lifting the latter from the cavity of the skull, suddenly the bullet dropped out through my fingers and fell, breaking the solemn silence of the room with its clatter, into an empty basin …

What is naturalism? As a worldview distinct from any form of “supernaturalism,” “naturalism” is the belief that nature is (probably) all there is, and nothing supernatural exists. Of course, the word naturalism can be used in other ways. In the art world, it means one thing; as a special term in epistemology, it means something …

In September 2007, a jury in Utah found Warren Jeffs, a Mormon-fundamentalist religious leader, guilty of being an accomplice to child rape. The trial was a bit of a sideshow—and for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), which has desperately been trying to jettison the facets of its doctrine that are …

The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, by Nicholas Wade (New York: Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59420-228-5) 310 pp. Cloth $29.95. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI told his followers and other Christians, “While we are on the path towards full communion, we are called to offer a shared witness against the ever more complex …

Creation, directed by Jon Amiel. 2010. Screenplay by John Collee based on the biography by Randal Keynes. 108 minutes. The image most people have of Charles Darwin is that of an old man with a long white beard sitting in a chair, perhaps lost in contemplation about the common ancestry between apes and humans. That’s …