Author: Robyn E. Blumner

Identitarian: A person or ideology that espouses that group identity is the most important thing about a person, and that justice and power must be viewed primarily on the basis of group identity rather than individual merit. (Source: Urban Dictionary) “The Affirmations of Humanism”: We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, …

What is Dubai and why should we care? Is it the murmurings of a nascent Arab Enlightenment where reason and science are valued, giving hope to its future? Or is it a gleaming, modern facade under which beats the heart of an Islamic theocracy run by a PR-savvy ruler? That was the question Richard Dawkins …

In 1989, most people had probably never heard of the Santeria Church. I certainly hadn’t. But there I was that year, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, helping to represent this Afro-Cuban religion against a Cuban exile community arrayed against it. Eventually the Santeria case landed in the U.S. Supreme …

On December 25, 2017, my husband and I were visiting Quito, Ecuador, after having spent the prior week exploring the Galapagos Islands. There wasn’t much to do that day. It was Christmas and everything was closed. Though atheists (of course!), we popped into a few churches in the historic downtown, hoping to see some pageantry …

At this point, we all know claims of religious freedom can work like magic words. Say “religious freedom,” and you can demand tax money for your school or social service program even if you proselytize and discriminate, and you can ignore inconvenient employment laws. Just say that your religion demands it, and even public health …

I’ve watched every episode of the three seasons of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (A&E). This deep dive into Scientology’s history, precepts, abuses, and the personal travails of its adherents is worth your time. It’s an object lesson in gullibility, groupthink, and “you’ve got to be kidding me” supplication. On the surface, Scientology is …

For religion, it started going south in 2007. That was the year when the United States began joining the rest of the world’s high-income countries in rejecting the whole god-worshipping enterprise. (And it was about damn time!) “From 1981 to 2007, the United States ranked as one of the world’s more religious countries, with religiosity …

“My motto for the rest of the year is leave no vacancy behind,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in late March. The Kentucky Republican was talking about filling vacant federal judgeships, of course. McConnell reconvened the U.S. Senate in May—while Washington, D.C., was still under shelter-at-home orders …

President Trump’s personal appearance at the so-called March for Life, the first by a sitting president, solidified what has been apparent since his inauguration: Trump sees eliminating all daylight between himself and the religious Right as his best path to retaining power. “Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House,” Trump …

It’s funny how a group of smart fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds using logic and cogent argument can one-up today’s U.S. Supreme Court. It happened in an Advanced Placement U.S. Government class at Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. According to the Washington Post, teacher Tessa Guarracino assigned the Bladensburg Cross case as a moot-court …

In the highly politicized vaccination wars raging in the United States right now, Ethan Lindenberger is a hero. In March, as a high school senior, the Ohio teen testified before Congress about how he defied his mother’s rabid anti-vaxxer views and started getting himself vaccinated. Lindenberger came to understand that his mother’s views were simply …

Blasphemy is the act of profaning the sacred. It is a crime as ancient as civilization itself. The gods apparently have always needed the protection of law to remain free from offense. I guess that makes them the beneficiaries of the first “safe spaces.” These days, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) fights blasphemy laws primarily …

That pithy subtitle comes from the website of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation (matildajoslyngage.org). It’s too good not to share. If Robert Green Ingersoll is the most remarkable American most people never heard of, Matilda Joslyn Gage is his female equivalent. Had you asked me just two years ago for a recitation of the most …

When the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan said in a famous law review article that state courts must “step into the breach,” he was urging defenders of individual rights to start litigating in state court, using state constitutions to continue expanding evolving concepts of liberty. Brennan’s call in “State Constitutions and the Protection …

There is a Congressional Fragrance Caucus. And a Congressional Fertilizer Caucus. (Do you think one was in response to the other?) There is a Congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus. (Get taken much?) There is even a Congressional Civility Caucus, which is not to be confused with either the Congressional Civility and Respect Caucus or the Congressional …

Trump is not feminism’s real enemy: that would be the misogyny at Christianity’s core.

“The paradox of identity liberalism is that it paralyzes the capacity to think and act in a way that would actually accomplish the things it professes to want.”

Karl Marx never wrote the phrase “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” He wrote, “[Religion] is the opium of the people.” Close enough. Marx saw religion as a fantasy that allowed people to balm their degraded lives.

“If organized, we could have a major influence on public policy (and not just among Democrats). Now, we are ignored.”

Obama went back on
a campaign promise to reform how billions of dollars in federal grants to faith-based organizations would
e administered.

“Bizarrely, a subset of progressives has bought into the idea that any criticism of the tenets of Islam is an attack on Muslim people.”

Gays and lesbians changed their social position by coming out; we unbelievers can accomplish the same by coming forward.