Author: Adam Lee

As promised earlier, here’s a full wrap-up of my weekend attending Skepticon IV in Springfield, Missouri. I really have to give tons of credit to the organizers, who not only put together an amazing convention, they did it as a part-time volunteer effort and made it completely free! They’re rock stars, and I sincerely hope…

I was going to update my previous post, but this got long, so I’m spinning it off into a separate post. Read the other one first if you need more background. So, the Gelatogate story continues to unfold. The owner of the store has posted a longer apology, and it’s rapidly becoming the subject of…

I’m back! As you may know, I’ve spent the last three days in Springfield, Missouri, having a blast at Skepticon IV. The convention was a weekend of great talks that ran the gamut: atheism, skepticism, sex, politics, feminism, math, science. There was no overarching theme at all, and I think it was better for being…

In my previous post in this series, I quoted a shockingly anti-atheist letter written by Rev. John Buehrens, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. This letter repeated all the worst falsehoods and prejudices of fundamentalist proselytizers: failing to draw any distinction between peaceful activism and violent coercion, accusing all outspoken atheists of collective guilt…

As I mentioned earlier, I’ll be at Skepticon IV this weekend in Springfield, Missouri, and I’m eagerly looking forward to it. Given the sheer number of fantastic speakers, we’re at serious risk of overwhelming the laws of physics and collapsing the fabric of reality into a singularity of skeptical awesomeness. There’s going to be a…

On Tuesday night, I attended a debate at NYU’s Skirball Center that was part of the Intelligence Squared debate series, “Resolved: The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion“. Supporting the atheist side were Matthew Chapman and A.C. Grayling, while Dinesh D’Souza and David Wolpe were arguing on behalf of religion. You can read the…

In a previous post, I wrote about the Arab Spring’s effect on women and and whether it may actually be a setback for human rights. It so happens that in the letters section of the latest Columbia magazine, there was an exchange over this issue: In Egypt, which Khalidi holds up as a prime example…

The world population, by U.N. estimates, has just surpassed seven billion, and it’s growing even faster than demographers’ predictions. Nicholas Kristof has an insightful column (though I depart from him on one major point, as explained below) on what this means for humanity’s future. “Overpopulation” is a taboo word in some circles, not entirely without…

Here’s some miscellany to accompany your morning coffee: • 70 major U.S. corporations and civic organizations call for DOMA to be struck down in a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a federal legal challenge. • Help defend the First Amendment! The U.S. Forest Service is considering a request from FFRF to terminate a Catholic group’s no-cost lease…

In my previous post, I quoted the letter I wrote to John Buehrens, Unitarian Universalist minister, to ask if he stood behind the anti-atheist denunciations in his book A Chosen Faith. The same evening I sent it, I got a response. I regret to report that not only did Buehrens not express regret for his…