Author: Adam Lee

It may be the 21st century, but you wouldn’t know it from stories like this: Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue stepped up to a podium outside the state Capitol on Tuesday and led a solemn crowd of several hundred people in a prayer for rain on his drought-stricken state. “We’ve come together here simply for one…

The final day of The Secular Society and Its Enemies had three programs. The first, a panel titled “Secularism: The Next Generation”, was moderated by Derek Araujo and featured several young freethinkers: Matt LaClair, whom I discussed previously; Sarah Stone, a student freethought organizer from Indiana; Mark Antony Smith, a CFI intern from Arizona; Justin…

The second day of The Secular Society and Its Enemies was largely devoted to panel discussions. I mentioned yesterday that the conference site at the New York Academy of Sciences had some spectacular views of Ground Zero and lower Manhattan; here are a few of them I took that morning: Looking down on Ground Zero.…

I mentioned back in October that this weekend I’d be attending The Secular Society and Its Enemies, the 2007 conference of the Center for Inquiry. I didn’t get to post my report on the first day of the conference yesterday (since it finished rather late), so I’ll do that now. My report on today’s events…

A few days ago, I had an e-mail query from an atheist looking for advice. I answered him as best as I was able, but his was a question that I think could benefit from some additional perspectives. With my correspondent’s permission, I’m reprinting his query below. If you were in his situation, what would…

One year ago this month, I posted an essay titled “A Seriously Warped Moral Compass“. In it, I highlighted the disturbing tendency of religious beliefs to twist and distort a person’s conscience to the point where they accept terrible evils as just acts, and, conversely, elevate harmless actions to the height of wickedness and sin.…

Have you heard the shocking news? The world’s most notorious atheist has converted! No, it’s not Richard Dawkins. Or Sam Harris. Or Christopher Hitchens. Or Dan Barker. Or Michael Newdow. Or Julia Sweeney. No, this world-famous, notorious atheist convert is the philosopher Antony Flew. If you’re wondering, “Who?”, you’re probably not alone. Antony Flew is…

This is an open thread to address John’s comment regarding Christianity and the origins of the Enlightenment. Comments and replies are welcome.

One of the core beliefs of Judaism and Christianity is that God is omnipotent, able to do anything that is logically possible. But surprisingly, the Bible does not consistently support this idea. I’ve already written about the Tower of Babel, in which the Old Testament God appears to worry that humans will overmatch him if…

Back in September, the blogger Riverbend – the thoughtful, eloquent young Iraqi woman who authors the blog Baghdad Burning – left Iraq along with her family. After four years of writing from a first-hand perspective about the chaos and violence that the U.S. occupation has unleashed on her country, Riverbend and her family finally decided…