Author: Adam Lee

This essay was previously published on AlterNet. The death of Christopher Hitchens in December sparked an outpouring of tributes. Most of them praised his best qualities: his ferocious courage, his seemingly effortless erudition, and his crusading defense of free speech and rationalism. Of course, he had his faults as well – most notably his support…

Here’s what’s in the news this week: • In these troubled economic terms, the Russian Orthodox church seems to be sensitive about their patriarch wearing a watch that costs 30,000 euros, which is why they tried to doctor a photo of him to hide the evidence. Unfortunately for them, they forgot to also edit out…

Recently, the Catholic writer and apologist Mark Shea fielded a question from a reader who was disturbed by pro-slavery Bible verses quoted on an atheist billboard in Pennsylvania. Here’s the letter, in part (HT: Friendly Atheist): One of my atheist/anti-Church friends posted a sign by American Atheists quoting Colossians 3:22 (Slaves, obey in everything those…

In the first of my posts summing up the Reason Rally, there was a commenter who said that gathering on the National Mall was “sink[ing] to the level of the religious”. At the time, I considered this too self-evidently absurd to merit refutation – but then I heard it again, in an NPR interview featuring…

In a previous thread, again buried in a huge pile of comments, there was one I wanted to highlight: Now you talk of pregnancy as a real life threatening thing to do like crazy acrobatic motorcycle tricks. Pregnancy is natural, women’s bodies are prepared for it. I’m bringing this remark to the forefront because it…

My Google news alert has been flooded with stories about the Reason Rally this week, and quite a few of them come from religious organizations expressing their own viewpoints about how they saw the Rally and what they thought it was intended to achieve. For reasons of political strategy, it’s worth knowing what our opponents…

My previous post on the term “mansplaining” was turning into a zombie thread, so I had to drive a stake through its heart. But there’s more that needs to be said on the topic, and today it comes in the form of this study covered by Scientific American. (HT: Justin Wolfers, via Michelle Goldberg on…

Read Part 2 here. I’ve talked about the weather, the crowds, the protesters and the speakers, and I wanted to end up with some overall impressions. One of the things about the Reason Rally that made me happiest was how young and diverse the crowd was. I’ve been to atheist conventions that were overwhelmingly populated…

Read Part 1 here. Before I deliver my recap of the speakers at the Reason Rally, I need to give a shout-out to the people who accompanied me for the weekend. On my first day in town, I met up with Rieux, who was a fearless scourge of trolls in Daylight Atheism’s early days on…

It’s Sunday morning, and I’m writing this on the train from Washington, D.C. back to New York. I’m exhausted, washed out, and my calves are two knots of pain from all the standing and walking I’ve been doing these past two days. But I feel like a live wire, buzzing with energy and happiness. I’m…