Author: Adam Lee

One of the more bizarre offshoots of fundamentalist Christianity that has been making headway in recent years is the “prosperity gospel”, also called the “Word of Faith” movement. Devotees of this theology believe that God, far from the dour, gloomy Puritan deity who expected people to deprive themselves in this life to be rewarded in…

One of the more important consequences of our society’s biblical illiteracy is that many people continue to believe in the Bible only because they think it is a far better book than it actually is. For example, consider this comment from Greta Christina’s Blog, in which an offended Christian denies that the New Testament says…

Lately, The Secret – a movie and its companion book produced by Rhonda Byrne – have been burning up the bestseller lists and have attracted endorsements from influential celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. Marketed in the self-help genre, it promises viewers the key to achieving all their life goals through the power of positive thinking.…

Welcome, friends, well-wishers and regular readers! I have something to tell you all about which I’m very excited. There’s an issue that I’ve been mulling over for some time, and tonight I intend to announce its resolution. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about carnivals. The Carnival of the Godless, founded in March 2005 by Brent Rasmussen…

I have been thinking lately about the Christian symbol of the crucifix. It is almost always seen in settings that attempt to create a mood of peace, calm and serenity: on the walls of churches, in the patients’ rooms in Catholic-run hospitals, in funeral parlors and cemeteries, to name a few. The ubiquity and familiarity…

I have written several times in the past about how religious superstition, when it is taken seriously, causes harm and suffering to real people by dissuading them from seeking the evidence-based treatments they need. But a new story from the March 31 edition of Newsday, Trying to change minds in the Congo, is one of…

There has been something of a spat lately in the atheist blogosphere, due to an announcement from Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard. Epstein and the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy are sponsoring an event to, in their own words, “take on… atheist ‘fundamentalists’” such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, and promote the value of…

The new generation of bold and outspoken atheists, including Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, are making waves in society with numerous media appearances, a welcome change of pace from the media’s previous policy of steadfast refusal to cover freethought and nonbelief. (Some things are slower to change than others – despite Time Newsweek‘s praiseworthy coverage…

(Author’s Note: The following review was solicited and is written in accordance with this site’s policy for such reviews.) Summary: Contains many interesting ideas, but the informed reader will find much to take issue with. Atheist Matthew Alper’s The God Part of the Brain seeks to explain the religiosity of humankind in terms of human…

Extraordinary Claims In the Popular Delusions series, I have explored just a few varieties of the vast number of nonsensical beliefs which afflict humanity. From the belief that astronomical bodies millions of light-years distant control our destiny here on Earth, to the belief that water remembers what substances were once dissolved in it, to the…