Reading defenses of religion, I often encounter the complaint that the modern, secular world is caught up in moral relativism. What we need, however, are moral absolutes. We have to have a secure direction by which to orient our lives. Monotheistic religion is attractive to such moral absolutists, because conservative monotheism proclaims absolutes. It may … Moral absolutists

Some French politicians are indicating their displeasure with ultra-Islamic women’s coverings again. Nicolas Sarkozy just said that “The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.” From an Anglo-American liberal point of view, this can easily come across … The French way, or the Anglo-American way?

Fellow unbelievers: I don’t think we rip on hell often enough or stronly enough. The disgusting dogma of eternal punishment is still accepted doctrine for most “mainstream” denominations, and certainly for all the fundamentalist ones. Below is what I say back to two recent defenders of hell, Peter Kreeft, S.J. and Ronald Tacelli, S.J. It … The Hell You Say!

Found in Slavoj Zizek’s Violence, page 139: A couple of years ago a particular debate raged in Europe: should Christianity be mentioned as the key component of European Heritage in the preamble to the draft of the European constitution? A compromise was reached in which Christianity was listed along with Judaism, Islam, and the legacy … European legacy

This year, of course, is the 150th anniversary year of the publication of On the Origin of Species. While the commemorations of Darwin and his revolutionary book are numerous, nobody seems to have noticed that this is also an anniversary year of another book that was in its own way revolutionary. This year marks the … Eighty Years Old and Still Scandalous

Readers might be interested in checking out the imbroglio over on Victor Reppert’s Dangerous Idea blog. It started on May 30 when he linked to William Lane Craig’s argument that life without God is meaningless, and to my brief critique of Craig’s claim. This posting elicited 32 comments (as of this writing), many of which … BROUHAHA OVER ON DANGEROUS IDEA

This blog might have been relatively quiet lately. At least I expected it to be so when I wrote this and put in in the pipeline to be posted later. That’s because I seem to be doing most of the writing here, and when this appears, I’ll be in the middle of some travels. So … Evidence of absence

I often have occasion to complain about the nasty politics of the religious right in the United States. Still, to keep things in perspective, I should also be grateful it’s not an Islamic religious right, and that our political culture, as corrupt as it is, is at least not a Middle Eastern political culture. Here’s … Headscarf politics

I have not contributed any blog to the Secular Outpost for quite some time. And a decent respect for the opinions of humankind requires an explanation. The truth is that I have been very occupied with writing a book about the general theory of the constitutional rights of the American people. I am pleased to … The Constitutional Rights, Privileges, and Immunities of the American People