Author: Adam Lee

Penn Jillette is a larger-than-life figure in every way, including but hardly limited to his imposing physical stature. He’s of course best known as one of the world’s most famous living magicians, and on stage with his partner Teller, he has the cheerful swagger of a carnival barker, revealing how some tricks are done and…

My latest article has been posted on AlterNet, Conservatives Want America to be a “Christian Nation” — Here’s What That Would Actually Look Like. In it, I analyze the “Christian nation” rhetoric of the American religious right, illuminating the historical reality they’d love to forget – that their ideological predecessors fiercely criticized the Constitution for…

My inaugural post on Big Think drew a wide range of opinions from commenters. (New site, new community! It takes some getting used to on both sides.) But this comment in particular struck me: As a born again agnostic, I don’t have a problem with your having this take on reality, but must you sound…

Welcome, all, to the new Daylight Atheism! I’m pleased to be officially joining Big Think as a blogger-in-residence. Whether you’ve just come across this site or are a long-time reader from my previous home, I hope you’ll stick around and become a return visitor. To those who aren’t familiar with my views, I’d like to…

You’ve probably heard religious apologists assert that if God didn’t exist, the world would be an unjust place where some people were never rewarded or punished as their behavior deserved. (They usually hold back from explicitly stating the conclusion, “Therefore, God must exist, because it would make us very sad if he didn’t,” probably out…

I wasn’t familiar with Wole Soyinka, the first African author ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, until I got a Google alert for his name the other day. You can probably guess why – it turns out he’s an atheist, as I learned from this article in the Nigerian Tribune grousing about it:…

The last thread about Penn Jillette’s book sparked some debate, so I’d like to revisit the topic. This is what Penn says is his view of the legitimate powers of government: If I had a gun, and I knew a murder was happening… I would use that gun to stop that murder. I might be…

The other day, I got this action alert from FFRF that I thought was worth passing along: As you may know, on August 1st, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor, and Department of Health and Human Services jointly announced new guidelines for access to preventative care. The new regulations greatly expand access to…

Recently, I got an e-mail from the Foundation Beyond Belief, which is working with USAID to raise awareness of the continuing drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The toll in lives is already appalling, including over 29,000 deaths from starvation and outbreaks of measles and cholera, and hundreds more dying every day. The…

I’m inordinately pleased by this. 🙂 Earlier this summer, I threw in for a fundraising contest for Camp Quest, pitting a team of us lowlier bloggers against the Dark Overlord himself. The over $30,000 we collectively raised was reward enough for me, but I just received a completely unexpected thank-you gift in the mail: a…