Is it possible for Atheists to celebrate Christmas?
Is Christmas the exclusive preserve for those that are religious, or is it something else, a time for all of us to pause mark a new year?
culture
Disinformation and ‘fake news’: The UK’s Interim Report is available
The UK parliament has a Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee that has just published an Interim Report on Fake News. I’ll get to that in a minute, but first let’s start with a bit of background by Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla)who wrote a great description of who they are and what they have been doing. Last Saturday … Read more
How many people actually believe in God?
Belief in God sounds like a simple question to address, and is one that you would expect is well understood. Simply conduct a poll, and if concerned about people being pressured by friends or relatives, then make it anonymous. That should yield a reasonable answer … right? There are of course polls like this that are run on a … Read more
Researchers find millennials are by far the least religious generation
San Diego University has issued a press release about the largest study ever conducted on changes in Americans’ religious involvement and what it tells us will truly frighten those that believe … SAN DIEGO, Calif. (May 27, 2015)– In what may be the largest study ever conducted on changes in Americans’ religious involvement, researchers led by … Read more
peace on earth: Is the world becoming a better place, or worse?
A rather common religious claim is that by default humans are violent and that without the moral guidance of a god, our natural instincts will lead to great darkness and evil … cue citations for Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc… and you are then advised either implicitly or even explicitly that this would be you if you do … Read more
How do you feel about “Them” and how do “they” view us? – will it ever change?
Our larger national culture is something that is actually composed of rather a lot of smaller micro-cultures and there are many different types of these micro-cultures within this larger national unit. As an example, this can manifest as distinct geographical variations (North vs South) where each is a distinctly different micro-culture even though in a larger more global context it can … Read more