There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These are words which have two sets of connotations, one which is spiritual and one which is largely secular, whose different meanings often get used interchangeably. 



Take the soul. On the one hand there is a mystical connotation. It is something separate from the body, which may well survive…

--Ker Than, 2009

THE EYES OF VERTEBRATES



Why Intelligent Design?



On November 24, 2009--the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species--the theory that new species can arise from old ones through natural selection is still met with some resistance. (Related: …

by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY (NPR)

This is the first in a series of stories on losing faith.

Teresa MacBain has a secret, one she's terrified to reveal.

"I'm…

Hi everyone.

I am a grade 12 student in Red Deer Canada and i am unfortunate enough to be in a catholic high school. That means that taking religion class is mandatory for me. I currently have an assignment in which i have to respond to several quotes about religion vs science. It is my hope to put together a really well organized and logical argument from an atheist point of view. I have my own ideas, but i think it would be really cool to get some other perspectives, ideas, and…

http://gawker.com/5879888/yes-the-romneys-converted-mitts-dead-atheist-father+in+law-to-mormonism

There's no one quite as righteous as the one who believes himself to be part of the chosen people.

The Catholic Church's ongoing sex abuse scandal has lent itself to late-night jokes, investigative reports, disillusioned churchgoers, shameful clergy and lest we forget, an untold amount of shattered victims.

Though there were publicized prosecutions of priests as early as the 1960s, it wasn't until the Boston Globe's award-winning piece in 2002 highlighting the recent rash of…

A common tactic that I have seen religionists use is the claim that Atheism is Nihilistic. The basic premise is that living this life with no purpose just to have it end is a waste and that simply hoping for more gives meaning and purpose. I reject that argument and propose that living life for a deity, especially if one does not exist could be made into a cartoon and substituted for the definition of Nihilism. 

I ran across a quote today that got me thinking about this. "Isn't it…

I just picked up this quote from an article in the Advocate online magazine, and I feel like I really need to say a couple of things. But first, here's the quote:

Cross yourself and speak unto Jesus

And hope for the species that the people deceased

Are released from the pain and the suffering

Your faith is decreasing, the pages are creasing

In the only book you've been reading.

The idea is appealing, but somehow revealing

Of the fear that you're breeding.

And you're left needing...

You're only human.

A part of this species that does as it pleases.

If you do what they tell you then you will be…

For over a decade, starting in the early 1980′s, Satan himself invaded scores of sleepy little towns and communities across the United States.

He worked through secretive cults comprised of day-care workers, school officials and other seemingly ordinary citizens and via these trusted authority figures, he proceeded to ritualistically kidnap, abuse and violate dozens of children. His followers subjected them to molestation, animal sacrifices and repeated torture. For days, weeks on…

On September 19 2011, the Telegraph website published an article titled "Atheism is cool, says Archbishop Rowan Williams". In the article the Archbishop claims the apparent rise in atheism due to it's "cool" factor, and that refutations of authors such as Richard Dawkins don't get the attention they "deserve" because atheism is the latest fad, not…

"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way." - Bertrand…