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Teaching Children The Absurdity Of Religion In School The religiosity of America fascinates me. I am intrigued by the idea of millions of people in an advanced nation believing that they have a “relationship” with an imaginary friend and believing that this imaginary friend is answering their prayers.  In the United States, something like 76% of the population believes in God, and seventy percent of the population identifies as Christian.1  Three-quarters of the U.S. population believes that the Bible was at least inspired by God, and 28% (more than 89 million people) believe the st ..read more

Is the Middle East Drifting Away From Religion? There are religious institutions in the Middle East, which are very important to locals. These organizations also play an important role in running some states. However, data from several studies suggest that religious importance is declining more rapidly in some middle eastern countries than ever before. {tocify} $title={Table of Contents} Lebanon Based on data from interviews with more than 25,000 people, The Arab Barometer reports that Lebanon's rate of religious practices has declined by 43 percent at the individual level in the last ten yea ..read more

Creationism is a religious myth that reflects superstitions that emanate from our distant past dating back many millennia, and it is a continuing fundamentalist Christian menace to science education in America Fundamentalist advocates of biblical creationism continue to pursue their century-long battle in America against the fact of evolution.  Through their relentless efforts in state legislatures and boards of education, creationists have attempted to infuse the Genesis story into the public school science curriculum.  Their failure to accomplish this goal can be credited to deter ..read more

Afghanistan, a kingdom where the King comes and goes too often Background image by isafmedia - on https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10786901 Conflicts or wars in the heart of the troubled Afghan desert, crushed by internal dissension or foreign interests, have been a daily occurrence for decades. There are many examples of talks between world leaders to repair such a delicate security situation there. In fact, it is a matter of concern to what extent they are again to solve the problem and how much of it is a game of geopolitics! Afghanistan is a land where peop ..read more

Afghanistan, a kingdom where the King comes and goes too often Background image by isafmedia - on https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10786901 Conflicts or wars in the heart of the troubled Afghan desert, crushed by internal dissension or foreign interests, have been a daily occurrence for decades. There are many examples of talks between world leaders to repair such a delicate security situation there. In fact, it is a matter of concern to what extent they are again to solve the problem and how much of it is a game of geopolitics! Afghanistan is a land where peop ..read more

Medieval 2.0 And can you then impute a sinful deed To babes who on their mothers’ bosoms bleed? Was then more vice in fallen Lisbon found, Than Paris, where voluptuous joys abound? Was less debauchery to London known, Where opulence luxurious holds the throne? -  —Voltaire, “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” 1756 Photo by cottonbro from Pexels When Voltaire wrote of the devastation caused by the Great Lisbon Earthquake, it was still widely believed that, as part of god’s perfect plan for the universe, the innocent must occasionally suffer horrors. This was solid, main ..read more

The obvious and uninteresting answer is no. An atheist cannot have a religious experience as long as the terms “atheism” and “religious” retain their common meaning.  That is, so long as “atheism” designates the absence of belief in God, and the supernatural and “religious” refers to some reality that transcends the natural world, then it is not possible for an atheist to have a religious experience.  However, having laid out the blunt and uninteresting answer, the following considers the question from a different angle.  Specifically, I consider the possibility of atheistic r ..read more

Meaning and purpose without god Photo by Josh Willink from Pexels Is god the key to meaning and purpose in life? It seems that way if we trust mainstream opinions typically presented in the media and in bestselling books such as Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. Moreover, there is some scientific support for that viewpoint. Plenty of studies show that a deep sense of meaning and purpose correlates with strong religious belief, and religious fundamentalists use these studies to support their perspective. As a professor who researches the intersection of psycholog ..read more

Did Jesus Exist? It Doesn't Really Matter Photo by Magda Ehlers Some people question whether Jesus of Nazareth really existed. Skeptics note that the ancient evidence about Jesus is third-hand, sketchy, and biased.  We may summarize this criticism quickly: First, Paul, the oldest witness, never even met Jesus. Second, the gospels were compiled late. Third, Jesus remained unmentioned outside his cult for almost a century. Jesus, the skeptics say, is just a myth.  One wonders, however, myth or man, does it really matter? Rather than trying to prove a negative, we can argue som ..read more