"I think the idea that it is immoral not to believe in God is perhaps the most insidious one that parents encourage to take root in the minds of young children. It is what makes it so difficult for people to question the existence of God once they have acquired the ability to think and reason for themselves..." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

It's a very common theist standpoint, pairing off immorality with…

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Back in March I attended the exceptional annual Voltaire Lecture, hosted by the British Humanist Association. This particular talk - given by 'Canadian-born experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author' Steven Pinker (pictured left) and chaired by the wonderful…

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"Nothing that has happened in my life since [I learned of my mother's death], nothing I believe and nothing I know, can provide consolation. This is why I suspect that I am in some way predisposed not to believe in God, because God is the only thing that could have provided solace... If I had felt that there was an afterlife, believe me, I would have killed myself then and there to join her." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's…

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I have always been a humanist, really. But it’s only recently that I've made the effort to ‘get involved’ with humanism more actively.

At my secondary school I now run an ‘Asking Questions Club’ – “a space to discuss, with rationality, empiricism, and all-round critical thinking in mind”, reads the poster, “absolutely everyone welcome” – which has been going well.

More and more, I am also making the effort to attend lectures, talks,…

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Disclaimer: all quotes from the AHS Convention are para-phrasings, not direct.

I've just been, yesterday, to the National Federation for Atheist, Humanist, and Secular Student Societies' conference in Conway Hall, London. The AHS are a group wholly facilitated and supported by the - perhaps more familiar - British Humanist Association, and the day involved many high-profile…

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That time of year is fast approaching when people begin to celebrate their various holidays. And, this year as usual, the Christian supremacists are whining as loud as they possibly can.



This year I’m friends with an older man on Facebook; he puts up a status saying, and I quote:



“I DO NOT CARE IF THIS DOES OFFEND SOMEONE…THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE…I AM SICK AND TIRED OF EVERY YEAR WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES AROUND; THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TAKE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS BECAUSE IT…

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   I consider myself a Humanist. Atheism makes reference to what I lack belief in while Humanism makes reference to what I do believe. As a Humanist I believe in that which is beneficial to the quality of life of humans.

I’m somewhat new to Think Atheist and would like to know:

 

As an atheist, what are the things that you do believe in?

A middle aged man, undergoing psychoanalysis, returns to his therapist’s couch after a long holiday weekend where he visited his estranged mother for the first time in 20 years.

 

“How did your Thanksgiving dinner go?” The Therapist asked his patient.

 

“Well, I think I had one of those Freudian slips that you guys sometimes talk about.”

 

“What do you mean?” The Therapist asked.

 

“At one point during dinner I turned to my mother. I…

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Book Review of “Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars”

By Don Barbera

Sometimes, preaching to the choir is necessary to make it aware they may be singing in the wrong key, from the wrong hymnal and in the wrong church. Black atheist author Siviku…

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Check out the link at the bottom of this post to listen to the interview from Fresh Air today on NPR:



Humanism--the belief that ethics and morality can be vested in rationality, rather than a supernatural deity--might sound like a departure from faith communities and culture, but according to Greg Epstein, it doesn't have to be.



In his new book, Good Without God: What A Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, Greg Epstein responds to challenges against humanism that spring… Continue

From Not My God







In my search for interviewees for Not My God (the book itself, not just this blog), I went for a diverse crowd, including a diverse group of ages. Kids/teenagers are particularly valuable. Yes, they are the future, all right, but growing up in the information age provides them with an enormous cohort effect. I’ve mentioned that they are more fortunate than I was in that I was all alone as a… Continue