Author: Adam Lee

I recently finished Daniel Radosh’s Rapture Ready!, a book exploring Christian pop culture and some of its stranger manifestations, from theme parks like Florida’s Holy Land Experience to the Ultimate Christian Wrestling pro circuit (no joke). But one event that he paid special attention to was Cornerstone, a Woodstock-like Christian music festival held each year…

In honor of the season, and of all the frigid weather we’ve been having here in the Northeast, here’s the first Photo Sunday of the new year. Stay warm! Snow on pine needles, New York City, New York, December 2009. Photo by the author. Camera details: Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS. Click for larger version.

Scarcely two days into 2010, we’ve gotten a stark reminder of how free speech is still threatened by religious fanatics: Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the image of Mohammed depicted to the right, was attacked at home Friday night by a murderous, ax-wielding religious fanatic. Fortunately, neither Westergaard nor his 5-year-old granddaughter, who…

As we ring in the new year, here’s some news to give you a sense of optimism for 2010. This holiday season, we can add another piece of evidence to the growing pile which indicates that atheists are becoming more numerous and more successful: This Christmas season, 78% of Americans identify with some form of…

In question #86 of his Reasonable Faith column, William Lane Craig addresses a question from a Christian who’s troubled by one of the most wicked doctrines of that theology, the dogma of Hell. Craig’s correspondent wonders whether the saved will feel compassion for the damned, but also worries that it would be a violation of…

Since last September’s Los Angeles readers’ meetup went so well, I think it’s time to repeat the experiment! Next month, I’ll be in St. Louis, Missouri over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, January 16th and 17th. Are there any readers in the area who would be interested in meeting up? If so, leave a…

(Editor’s Note: Thanks to DA reader Alan Waldron for suggesting this post!) I’ve written about famous atheist composers before, but not all the great nonbelieving musicians belong to the past. Some are still living, working, and performing – like the subjects of today’s post on the contributions of freethinkers. The band Pearl Jam was founded…

Johnson County, Iowa, December 21, 2006. Photo credit: Peter Nothnagle. Click for larger version.

Dave Schmeltzer’s book Not the Religious Type has many examples of what he calls “napkin stories” (i.e., short enough to write on a napkin), brief anecdotes from people who claim to have experienced miraculous events in their lives when they trusted in God. Here’s a typical one: I found out that my aunt and uncle’s…

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 7 In chapter 3, I chastised Jonathan Wells, a trained biologist, for making deceptive arguments whose answers he unquestionably already knows. I have to send a similar criticism Guillermo Gonzalez’s way, because in this chapter, he makes an argument that any beginner student in astronomy would be able to…