Every December in the US, we get to read news about conflicts over religious displays in public spaces. Some local governments negotiate the conflict by disallowing all religious displays on public grounds. After all, that just invites lawsuits. But that kind of decision itself can come under fire, particularly if the decision was in response … December fracas

Just for fun, excerpts from two conservative Muslim fatwas (scholarly/legal opinions) about atheists. Why an atheist being a good person does not make sense: Whoever denies the Creator or refuses to worship Him, or joins others in worship with Him, deserves the most severe punishment, because for a man to deny his Creator, or refuse … Fatwas about atheists

Our School of Science and Math has a tradition of holding a pot luck lunch in one of the larger biology teaching labs every “reading day” in the middle of finals week. It’s a decent social event, and all faculty and staff are invited. I used to go most of the time, though after dropping … Etiquette

Muslim countries are notorious for their limited conception of human rights. But conservative Christian Uganda is now about to put in a very Old Testament approach to homosexuality into law, possibly including a death penalty. Humans rights agreements are no barrier. In a interview with the Guardian, James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of state for … Christians against human rights

It is well known, especially to those of us who live in California, that quantum mechanics proves that we live in a fundamentally spiritual reality. This, however, is weak tea. Quantum mechanics—the most fundamental description of physical reality we have—can give us an even better focused glimpse of the fundamental Cause behind physical existence. We … A quantum mechanical proof of the existence of the Christian God

A Pew Forum survey provides a very mixed picture of the US religious landscape. As with most human populations, Americans are besotted with supernatural beliefs. But the current picture is also one that would make a conventional monotheist uncomfortable. Increasing numbers of Americans hold a mishmash of spiritual beliefs. More and more, a hybrid, almost … New Age America

I’m used to nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, particularly among religious and conservative circles. Nationalists like the “Turks carrying forth the banner of Islam” bit; the religious like to think of the Empire as a time when Islam was properly dominant. The funny thing is, I run into praise for the Ottoman Empire’s … The millet system

There is something vaguely stupid about religion. This doesn’t mean that it is irrational to be religious—I suspect that sometimes it can be rational to adopt even grossly stupid, fundamentalist beliefs. Nonetheless, from asserting the literal truth of ancient myths to driveling about how liberally interpreted myths still lead us to deep and ineffable truths … Homo stupidus

Gregory Paul’s paper “The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions” is available online. Among its conclusions: all hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state that is highly resistant to conversion to nontheism are unverified. Instead popular religion is in the main a superficial psychological response … Religion and social dysfunction

I’ve been playing around with this analogy, but one of Keith Parsons’s latest comments made me want to think out loud about it. Could someone defending a privileged social and legal position for religion make an analogy between atheism and nudism, and justify a limited regime of tolerance of nonbelief, excluding it from the common … Is atheism like nudism?