Author: Adam Lee

In my previous post, I wrote some thoughts on the power of storytelling and how atheists can use it to our benefit. In this post, I intend to apply those principles to tell a story: the story of atheism. Because gods are fundamentally human creations, this is also a story of humanity. It opens in…

Back in November, Greta Christina wrote about how to overcome religious influence in politics, specifically in relation to Prop 8 and gay rights. At the time, I left some thoughts in a comment, which I think is worth developing into a full post. I wrote back in 2006 about The Da Vinci Code, noting that…

The world’s attention has been riveted these past few days by Israel’s assault on Gaza, in an attempt to oust the Hamas-run government and put a stop to rocket attacks on southern Israel. Hundreds of Palestinians were reported killed in a wave of airstrikes, over a thousand wounded, and as of this writing, a ground…

Early on in Daylight Atheism’s tenure, I wrote several critical reviews of the CAP Alert site, but I later gave that up as providing insufficient sport. However, I’ve set my sights on a new and worthier target: the Christian apologist William Lane Craig and his weekly Q&A Archive from his Reasonable Faith website. I’ll begin…

Although past installments of “Do You Really Believe That?” have skewered absurd beliefs from other sects, I doubt any religion has doctrines as laughably ridiculous as Scientology’s beliefs about “space opera”. Today’s post will explore the most infamous of those. According to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Xenu was an alien overlord who, 75 million…

In last month’s post “Down to Earth“, I discussed Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of rich simplicity, what Buddhism calls the Middle Way. Rather than the vain pursuit of happiness through the acquisition of power or material possessions, the true source of contentment lies in the simple pleasures of life that are available to everyone, regardless of…

In the fireplace, the flames are burning down to embers, casting flickering patterns of light and shadow on the walls and the wreaths of holly and evergreen that hang there. Outside the windows, the last snowstorm of the year is flurrying down, burying the slumbering earth in a peaceful carpet of white. The falling snowflakes…

The testimonial is the favorite tool of pseudoscientists everywhere. Search the internet far and wide, and you’ll have trouble finding a cancer-curing scam machine, thermodynamically impossible engine-conversion kit, or obscure psychic website that doesn’t feature glowing testimonials from true believers. Eshu of Bridging Schisms gives many more examples, in his post “Testimonials and Research“, like…

In 1897, Robert Ingersoll wrote “What I Want for Christmas“. This short essay was a holiday wish list for humankind in the coming year, one that showcased both the great freethinker’s wit and his compassion. All well and good, but we can now look back at this piece from a century later and see how…

I’ve put up a new post on Dangerous Intersection, a review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This is an open thread. Comments and discussion are welcome.