Author: Adam Lee

As reported by Against the New Taboo, the magazine Popular Science announced last month that they’re shutting off comments on new articles. Popular Science’s post cited research on “the nasty effect“, which found that hostile comments contribute to a polarized and dogmatic reaction from readers on both sides, impeding rather than advancing understanding. The way…

I’ve just gotten back from a vacation in Europe, where the news coverage of the ongoing American government shutdown vacillates between incredulous amusement and horror at the depths of dysfunction to which our country has sunk. (Then again, I was in Belgium, which still holds the world record for the longest span of time without…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from January 2011.] I was tipped off to this excellent essay by a reader (thanks, bbk, even if it was unintentional!) and since it got buried in the comments on the other thread, I wanted to call…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from March 2010.] Sam Harris is famous for the argument that religion, even moderate religion, does harm by teaching that faith is a virtue that should not be questioned, which encourages militant and violent strains of fundamentalism.…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from June 2008.] One of the most persistent misconceptions about atheism is that, if there is no supernatural soul and human beings are made merely of atoms and molecules, then our lives would be deprived of meaning.…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from October 2007.] I stepped out of my house today on a chilly fall afternoon. After an unseasonably late warm spell, as if summer had lingered this year past its appointed time, autumn had arrived at last.…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from December 2006.] When I was a child, I read and devoured C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books. I was too young then to understand most of the religious symbolism, and didn’t realize that Lewis had intended…

[Author’s Note: I’m reposting some old favorites while I’m away on vacation this week. This post was originally from June 2006.] Earlier tonight I received a highly amusing e-mail whose author seemed confident that I would cease to be an atheist if I performed a magical ritual of their devising. I don’t normally post feedback…

This week, the U.S. government shut down for the first time in 17 years, thanks to intransigent House Republicans who refused to pass a budget unless it included provisions to gut or delay the Affordable Care Act. Ironically, this is the same day that the new health insurance exchanges opened for business, since they’re funded…

I wish I didn’t have to write this post, but if I’m going to call attention to religious misbehavior, I can’t ignore it when it happens in our own community. So, here’s a sad story about Teresa MacBain, a former Methodist minister who dramatically outed herself as a nonbeliever on stage at an atheist convention.…