I’ve been doing a lot of reading and re-reading of the case of Newdow v. Rio Linda Unified School District, the most recent Pledge of Allegiance case from the Ninth Circuit. It is easily the longest opinion I’ve ever read… Continue Reading
To conclude my series of unsolicited advice about how to navigate a wide universe of conversational disagreements, thinking specifically about skeptics engaged in dialogue with believers, I’m getting more practical and less theoretical, and more specific to my chosen target… Continue Reading
Next, I want to consider a few things that I’ll address in ways that a lawyer would. These are “issues about issues,” and they are often not explicitly discussed in a conversation (at least, not in an interesting one) but… Continue Reading
Just because you’re an atheist doesn’t give you the right to be arrogant, condescending, nasty, insulting, or mean. Indeed, I would far prefer that you were not those things if you represent a skeptical point of view. I would rather… Continue Reading
Continuing my series on tips for skeptics talking to faithful people, once you have a sense for why you are in the conversation, and why your counterpart is in the conversation, it’s very useful to take stock of your intelocutor.… Continue Reading
If you’re like me, you are a skeptic, who might find yourself embroiled in a conversation with a believer from time to time about matters of religion and faith. It may happen unexpectedly, intentionally, or through the efforts of your… Continue Reading
And here I was today beginning to question the limits of my intelligence. Not so fast. TL!
This doesn’t look quite like the movie about Hypatia of Alexandria that I would have made… …but then again, it’s impressive that a movie about Hypatia has been made at all. And that they had the very good sense to… Continue Reading
OPEN SCENE: Southaven, Mississippi. An AGNOSTIC and the MAYOR are debating. A: Hey, when I go to court, I notice that the seats in the gallery are church pews! Complete with crosses engraved in the side! That makes me feel… Continue Reading
My latest apologist interloquitor and I are starting to narrow down the issues somewhat in a dialogue aiming to tease out the real moral lessons of the Bible. We’ve agreed to cross-post our responses, and I’m concerned that stand-alone posts… Continue Reading