Author: Adam Lee

Last week, Alex Knapp and I got into a friendly debate on Twitter about whether it’s fair to stereotype conservative and fundamentalist religion as representative of religion generally. I wanted to flesh out some of my arguments there with additional data. I wish it were true that the religious left and the religious right were…

In the Times this week, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox rabbis are enforcing gender apartheid by sending their own women and girls to flood the Wailing Wall plaza, so that women who actually want to pray there can’t get in: “They’re trying to change the religion and politics in Israel — they should do that in the Knesset…

Atlas Shrugged, p.46-47 I’ve got one more point to make about Hank Rearden, and then we’ll move on to the next scene. Hank’s brother, Philip, asks him to donate money to a charity he’s working for, an group called “Friends of Global Progress”: Rearden had never been able to keep track of the many organizations…

When I wrote last month about France enacting same-sex marriage, it wasn’t even on my radar that two more U.S. states were about to do the same. But now, Rhode Island (which previously had civil unions) has graduated to full marriage equality, becoming the tenth state to do so, and Delaware followed right after. With…

Last month, the official inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar concluded. In a tragic irony, the jury delivered its verdict on the very date that would have been her fifth wedding anniversary. In my last post, I pessimistically predicted that the final report would take the anti-choice position that abortion should be forbidden until…

• A Christian fundamentalist couple that believes in faith healing has now killed two of their children by refusing to seek medical care for them. This likely violates the terms of their probation, agreed to in 2011 after the death of their first child, in which they agreed to obtain medical care for any of…

It’s Friday night and I’m feeling pretty good, so let’s toast the weekend with another of my favorites, the Canadian indie-rock band Metric. I like their older albums too, but the two most recent are far and away the best, so here’s one from each. From Fantasies (2009): From Synthetica (2012): And don’t forget, I’m…

Atlas Shrugged, p.38-48 After a long day at the mills, Hank Rearden returns home to his family. And holy cow, but the ensuing scene is an appalling glimpse into Ayn Rand’s mind. She manages something truly remarkable: she writes so as to portray Rearden as thoroughly rude, thoughtless, and self-absorbed, while at the same time…

Well, as you’ve probably noticed, the blog is back to using Disqus. This wasn’t my decision, and I’m not happy about it. Disqus offers no advantages over the built-in WordPress commenting system, as far as I’m concerned. Plus, because it’s based on active scripting, it’s inherently slower and less accessible, and its moderation capabilities are…

It’s that time again: the time of the year where we come together to support the Secular Student Alliance, one of the most important groups helping to foster community among young atheists and to energize, connect and train the next generation of secular activists. The SSA helps organize, represent and defend clubs for atheist and…