Author: Adam Lee

Beware! You could lose your job for reposting or passing on the following image: This altered image, which looks to me like a perfectly reasonable and important warning to children, got a man fired from his job – specifically, Hugh Dallas, an official for the Scottish Football Association, who was fired this week after forwarding…

I’m pleased to announce the first-ever holiday edition of How to Think Critically. If you’re planning to do your Christmas shopping soon, this post might just save you some money! The mental phenomenon called “anchoring and adjustment” was first described in the 1970s by the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. When we’re trying to…

From the Win section of Failblog, this was too good not to share.

By way of The Panda’s Thumb, I came across this story that just had to be shared. Regular readers of this site are probably familiar with the arch-creationist William Dembski, one of the founders of the intelligent-design movement. When I last wrote about him, I mentioned that he, like other creationists who insist their work…

Earlier this year, I took a tour of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and wrote about the experience. But on that same trip, I also had a chance to see a more hopeful sight, a monument to human reason rather than to false dogma: Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, now restored and turned into…

Over the past several months, I’ve been writing a lengthy new essay for Ebon Musings. I’ve finally put the finishing touches on it, and I’m quite proud of the result: go check out “The Origins of Orthodoxy“. This essay covers a topic I’ve been interested in for a long time: the origins of the Christian…

Since I wrote recently about the evil mullahs of the Middle East who ferociously resist the slightest spark of progress, I think it’s worth pointing out – in the name of fairness – that destructive, theocratic insanity can be found in every religion. Christopher Hitchens has written an excellent column this week in Slate to…

I was reading this outstanding essay by Alom Shaha, an atheist and ex-Muslim of Bangladeshi descent, who describes what it’s like to come out as a nonbeliever in a tightly-knit, intensely religious community. But as he makes clear, the social and cultural pressure on people in his situation isn’t just a matter of happenstance; it…

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Foundation Beyond Belief and encouraged atheists to join, and I’m happy that some people took me up on that invitation. Well, the end of 2010 is almost here, and it’s fair for FBB members and potential members to look for a year-end recap of the group’s achievements. What…

The invasion of Iraq was cheered by right-wing Christians as a way to bring democracy to a people oppressed by tyranny. And, on paper at least, it achieved that goal. But in reality, Iraq as a nation hardly exists anymore. The anarchy of the invasion unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodshed, and the fragile stability…