Author: Adam Lee

• Creationists lose a lawsuit seeking to keep evolution out of public schools on the spurious grounds that it’s “religious”. It’s worth noting that they’ve given up on demanding equal time for their own beliefs and are now just seeking to destroy science education. • This painfully appropriate headline says it all: Actual War on…

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter VII In the previous installment, I wrote that we were approaching the most infamous scene in Atlas Shrugged. The scene that ends this chapter, more than any other, lays bare what Rand thinks of people who don’t subscribe to her philosophy – and what she believes should happen to them…

I usually don’t think it’s worth beating up on the purveyors of popular evangelical feel-goodism, for the same reason I don’t get in boxing matches with life-size Jell-O sculptures. But I had to make an exception for this tweet from human tooth-whitening strip Joel Osteen: The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is…

This article originally appeared on AlterNet. In the past few years, Russia has become a dangerous place for dissent. Its ex-KGB president, Vladimir Putin, has accomplished what Republicans in America only dream of: he’s built an electoral majority by appealing to the most religious and conservative elements of society, including by courting the alliance of…

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter VII When someone pops up out of nowhere on a lonely road late at night to hand you a bar of gold, it probably wouldn’t be your first impulse to wonder how they determined how much gold to give you. But Hank Rearden is curious, and Ragnar Danneskjold has an…

Ever since Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot to death by a white police officer back in August, the people of Ferguson, Missouri have been on edge, waiting to see if they would get justice. On Monday night, the grand jury that had been weighing the case for weeks came to a decision:…

I’ve spent this past weekend at Skepticon 7, and I’m still recovering (especially from the Skeptiprom dance party on Saturday night). In the meantime, here are some links I picked up from the weekend’s talks: • My favorite talk of the convention was by Ben Blanchard, who spent a year working abroad with the Foundation…

Atlas Shrugged, part II, chapter VII Ragnar Danneskjold continues explaining his business plan: “I have been selling the cargoes I retrieved to some special customers of mine in this country, who pay me in gold. Also, I have been selling my cargoes to the smugglers and the black-market traders of the People’s States of Europe.…

This is part 8 of my “Think! Of God and Government” debate series with Christian author Andrew Murtagh. Read my latest post and Andrew’s reply. Hello Andrew, We’ll get into consciousness soon, but before we do, I have a few more things I want to say about the problem of evil. Let’s jump right into…

The last few weeks have offered atheists and progressives ample reason to feel discouraged. Down on Earth, anti-rational fundamentalism runs riot, and angry, reactionary conservatism seems stronger than ever. But in spite of all this, in spite of the many obstacles that encircle us and limit us, humanity is accomplishing great things among the stars.…