WHY WE FIGHT A Review of Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, Norton (2007), 253 pp. Reviewed by Keith M. Parsons Soon after the U.S. entered the Second World War, the War Department commissioned prominent director Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) to do a propaganda film … Review of Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming

Back in the days of the European Enlightenment, sentiments like Denis Diderot’s “Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest” rang true. Hotheaded and dangerously violent, yes, but I can sympathize. Get rid of the bloodsucking ruling class and their ideological enablers. You can see … Is secularism morally irrelevant? (Or worse?)

I threw a party last night to welcome a new colleague to our physics department, and later in the night, I found myself talking about science and religion with him. (Not entirely uncommon when you get some food and wine into a bunch of science-types.) If I understood correctly (keep in mind the wine), he … Progress? What progress?

I expect that everyone who gets involved in science and religion debates from a skeptical point of view occasionally asks themselves what the point of all this effort is. After all, religion is one of those areas in life where it’s notoriously difficult to either say something really new or to change anyone’s mind. To … So, what’s the point?

The Brunei Times has a review of my critique of Muslim attitudes toward science, An Illusion of Harmony. The review is interesting. Not because it has any substance; it consists largely of invective. But it’s an interesting example of what those of us who want to be critical of Islam face. Even when you avoid … An Illusion of Harmony review

Ted Rall, the cartoonist and opinion writer, has an interesting piece out called “Onward Christian Panderers.” It’s mostly complaints about politicans sucking up to the Christian Right—nothing unfamiliar, though well-expressed. It’s worth mentioning, however, that while Rall might not be a great fan of organized religon, he is a theist. We should notice how many, … Ted Rall on pandering to the religious

PZ Myers reports on his experiences at the Freedom From Religion Convention, including a lengthy description of Christopher Hitchens’s talk, where Hitchens apparently goes of the deep end and gives full rein to his revenge fantasies against Muslims. Great. With Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, we get two prominent and articulate spokespeople for godlessness who … Hitchens, apparently, is bleeding insane

There’s an interesting interview with political scientist Mitchell Cohen in the leftist magazine Dissent. One of Cohen’s virtues is that he refrains from discussing the “New Atheists” in terms of the media stereotype of the angry atheist. He also displays a critical attitude toward political Islam that is refreshing in leftish circles. Heh, he even … Mitchell Cohen on “The New Atheism”

The Centre for Inquiry Ontario has made a video of the talk I gave on “Science and Religion in Islam” on October 3 at Ryerson University in Toronto, plus the Q & A, and Q & A’s after I gave a similar talk in other institutions. It’s pretty dark and the slides are not very … Video for Ontario talks on science and Islam

Sam Harris and Salman Rushdie have an important op-ed in the LA Times, “Ayaan Hirsi Ali: abandoned to fanatics.” In fact, I’d add this: Ayaan Hirsi Ali gets a lot of accusations that her critique of Islam is not sophisticated enough, that she oversimplifies things, or that her tactics do not really help the Muslim … Freedom to criticize