Australia’s Daily Telegraph ran a story “Christ-miss for atheist celebs” on Christmas eve which features a gallery of celebrities who are atheists (but not celebrities because of their atheism), such as Keanu Reaves, Angelina Jolie, Rachel Griffiths, Richard Branson, Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, Katherine Hepburn, Jodie Foster, Marlon Brando, Ricky Gervais, John Malkovich, and Bjork. … Celebrity atheists gallery

The year-end issue of The Economist has three articles of interest regarding religion. One article, “The battle of the books,” describes how Christianity and Islam are competing to distribute their holy books and convert followers, and how their respective demographics have changed dramatically since 1900. In 1900, Islam had about 200 million followers concentrated in … The Economist on Mormons, the Bible vs. the Koran, and New Age

OK, so the Problem of Evil is one of the oldest and most prominent reasons to be skeptical about a benign God. I don’t emphasize it, since it says nothing about supernatural powers with an obnoxious streak, but I guess for people enculturated within a conventional monotheism it should raise a question or two. But … The Problem of Niggling Inconveniences

I just read The Cube and the Cathedral, by conservative Catholic theologian George Weigel. Silly book. Normally I don’t care much for grandiose theological pontifications on history and civilizations etc., but since this book seems to have made a name for itself as an example of Islamophobia and American conservative-style Europe-bashing, I thought I’d take … Cubes and Cathedrals

The paperback edition of Science and Nonbelief is out! I don’t expect it will be overflowing the shelves of small bookstores, but it’s there (and very cheap) on amazon.com at least. $12.89 makes Science and Nonbelief my most introductory, most accessible, and most affordable book on science and religion. Click and get one, or give … Science and Nonbelief paperback available!

I just read avery good article by Andrew F. March, “Reading Tariq Ramadan: Political Liberalism, Islam, and ‘Overlapping Consensus’”. It’s the best short piece I’ve run into that addresses what political demands can be made of conservative Islam if it is to be accommodated in an Anglo-American style liberal multicultural system. Here are March’s basic … Political Responses to Islam

Looking at survey data sociologists present about religion and secularity, I find the gender differences that show up to be rather striking. Among skeptics of religion, men invariably outnumber women. A typical statistic might have that in a given population of people identifying themselves as religious nonbelievers, 60% are men and 40% women. Interpreting such … Why is skepticism primarily a male thing?

I just got my copy of the greatly revised and updated edition of John Beversluis’s C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion. I am proud to say that I played a (modest) role in encouraging John to bring out this terrific revision. Actually, it is so extensively rewritten that it is practically a whole … New edition of Beversluis on C.S. Lewis

I’ve just received my author copies of the paperback edition of Science and Nonbelief. This means that it will be available for sale very soon. Since it’s a paperback and therefore reasonably cheap, and since I wrote it in as nontechnical a manner as possible, I’ll be interested to see how it does.

I just finished reading through The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief,edited by Tom Flynn. OK, it’s about 900 pages, but it consists of short articles, many which are quite interesting, so it goes fast. One gripe I have, though, is that the final revisions to the proof of my contribution seems to have been overlooked. As … The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief