One doesn’t have to believe in God to believe in goodness, according to an analysis published in PLOS ONE on Wednesday analyzing various values driving the morals of atheists and religious believers. This finding challenges many people’s belief in belief itself.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is dead. Whatever your thoughts on his impact, Limbaugh’s death should come as a surprise to right-wing preacher Lance Wallnau, who said back in October that his prayers had cured Limbaugh’s terminal lung disease.

It’s not often you read something like this. Apropos of nothing, the Guardian ran brief profiles of a handful of non-religious people talking about how they find meaning in their lives without God.

With the percentage of U.S. adults who do not identify with a religious group growing, we asked these people to explain, in their own words, why they left.

Thinking of sending your "thoughts and prayers" to those affected by tragedy or a natural disaster? Well, not everyone wants them. A new study shows that while Christians placed a positive value on receiving thoughts and prayers from strangers, nonreligous people did not.

Some jokes reveal truths. Remember the quip that “no Christian wants to go to heaven right now”? Obviously, the hidden truth is that most Christians secretly doubt church promises of paradise.

Atheism is defined as the lack of belief in the existence of a God or gods. Despite its history and cultural roots as a Christian nation there's little doubt that over the years the U.S. has become home to a growing number of non believers. Some of the most powerful and well known atheists in America include David Silverman (former President of the American Atheists group), author Philip Roth, and writer/neuroscientist Sam Harris (who has been dubbed as one of the "Four Horsemen of Atheism").

Why are we here? What is our purpose? Why are U.S. service members not allowed to grow beards? It is questions such as these, which tug at mankind’s innermost curiosities, that religions have endeavored to answer since the beginning of time. For some of those faiths, proper observance necessitates the growth of facial hair.

In the myth of Adam and Eve, one of the first privileges granted to Adam is that of naming all the animals in the Garden of Eden. With the ability to name things, Adam has the power to think about, and differentiate between, the other inhabitants. Naming is a potent ability as for Adam, the ability to designate gives him dominion. But sometimes naming and categorising can be problematic.

It’s become almost a trope at this point among people who study and write about American religion and politics – evangelicals punch way above their weight. Their voter turnout has stayed relatively steady despite their drop in population share. But, I was working through some data today and noticed something that I don’t think that I’ve seen reported on much – atheists are incredibly politically active – more so than any other religious group.

I’ll miss the Democratic presidential debates — especially watching Ron Reagan tell us he’s a “lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.” It may be my all-time favorite TV ad, delivered with a slight grin and perfect timing — very Reagan-like — by the son of the 40th U.S. president. He’s touting the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a 32,000-member organization of nonbelievers that fights for the separation of church and state.

Many religious people don’t like atheists, and in fact would apparently rate them alongside rapists on levels of trust, suggests a new Canadian study that claims to be one of the first psychological probes into anti-atheist prejudice. Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon conducted a series of studies that found a deep level of distrust toward those who don’t believe in God...

Three million digital copies of Dawkins’ best-selling “bible of atheism,” The God Delusion, have been downloaded in the kingdom, “one of twelve Muslim-majority states where the statute books prescribe the death penalty for apostacy,” according to an article in the new February/March edition of Free Inquiry, a periodical of the secular Center for Inquiry organization.

Richard Dawkins is considered one of the top British intellectuals of the 21st Century. He’s known for his opinions on atheism and his books on evolution. In his most recent book, Outgrowing God, he talks about his own experience with religion, and how science offers us a far more convincing and concrete view of the world we live in.

It’s the nature of human beings and their beliefs. And this assumed superiority is continuously reinforced by shaming proponents of any heterodoxy that emerges in groups of shared belief, like for example in conservative evangelical Protestant factions.

This is a man who grew into authenticity and is now reaping the reward. He brings to mind the advice of Polonius from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”: “This above all: to thine own self be true.” Polonius’ words encourage us to live honestly with ourselves. Similarly, Beltran shares a personal lesson with his friends, namely that we cannot lie to ourselves (or others) without negative consequences.

The article reported that an American Enterprise Institute survey of more than 2,500 Americans showed “little evidence of a … surge in religious interest” among millennials, even though many now are married with children and have mortgages. AEI’s survey reported that data suggested several key reasons...

Millennials have earned a reputation for reshaping industries and institutions — shaking up the workplace, transforming dating culture, and rethinking parenthood. They’ve also had a dramatic impact on American religious life. Four in ten millennials now say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the Pew Research Center. In fact, millennials (those between the ages of 23 and 38) are now almost as likely to say they have no religion as they are to identify as Christian. 1

Madalyn Murray O’Hair founded the American Atheists organization in the 1960s following the landmark Supreme court ruling that banned prayer in public schools — of which O’Hair pushed for herself. The mission of the American Atheists was in part inclusive, and O’Hair opened her arms to people of all kinds — including ex-cons. It would be this willingness and openness, though, that would lead to her grisly demise more than 30 years later.

When an American Airlines crew member asked Swati Runi Goyal to get her things and follow him to the front of the plane during her Oct. 30 flight from Florida to Nevada, she thought she was getting upgraded to first class.