Australia has become strikingly more godless over the past decade, with the latest census data showing the proportion of self-identified Christians dropping below 50 per cent for the first time and a soaring number of people describing themselves as “non-religious”.

Agnosticism and atheism are often categorized into one “nonreligious” group in research despite these being distinct belief systems. New research published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality finds that people do have distinct stereotypes that differentiate agnosticism and atheism from each other and from Christianity.

“Bill Maher: #Adulting,” the comedian’s latest special for HBO, pretty much wades through the same polluted waters he does on his late-night Friday show “Real Time” – trash talking Democrats while also condemning Republicans, picking on chubby people, insisting masks are useless during a pandemic and, this should come as no surprise to his loyal fans, finding a reason to be an agnostic. And of course making some jokes he’s made several times before

Many Indians have grown up hearing things like “Pati parmeshwar hota hai” (your husband is your god), so it is hardly a revelation to learn that men are more religious in countries with poor gender equality. A new sex-based global analysis seeks to understand how religiousness among men and low levels of gender equality are interlinked with each other.

Religiosity in Canada is at an all-time low, with recently released data from Statistics Canada showing only 68 per cent of Canadians say they have a religious affiliation.

One of the more important changes in recent American society has yet to get much attention. It’s something that is contributing to some of the best (or worst) political impulses in the country: The trend is the acceleration of America as a secular society.

As one of the most visible comets of the 20th century, Hale-Bopp would have been newsworthy anyway. Easily seen with the naked eye for 18 consecutive months, it was a constant celebrity in the media spotlight. Then on March 26, 1997, Hale-Bopp reached a new pinnacle of notoriety.

Atheists might be seen as less attractive romantic partners compared to their theist counterparts, at least among college students in the Southern United States, according to new research published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. ...

Everyone has their own definition of what it means to be a real Christian. Usually, people think of real Christians as the ones who agree with them, though this doesn’t solve anything. When I wrote Dragged Into the Light, a book about Christians who believe the world is full of monsters, including and especially Reptilians in the halls of power, it was better shorthand to call them a cult than it was to call them a sect.

People who grew up in a home with relatively little credible displays of faith are more likely to be atheists, according to new research published in ...

They are ex-missionaries and military pilots, yoga instructors and computer programmers, mothers, fathers, professors and political activists. Some left religion on a rocky, anguished path, stung by abuse or shunned by family. Others came to the realization slowly, after a lifetime of questions they couldn't shake.

rAmen.

Greg Epstein, unanimously elected by his fellow university chaplains, says: ‘I want to be a positive force’

The Puritan colonists who settled in New England in the 1630s had a nagging concern about the churches they were building: How would they ensure that the clergymen would be literate? Their answer was Harvard University, a school that was established to educate the ministry and adopted the motto “Truth for Christ and the Church.” It was named after a pastor, John Harvard, and it would be more than 70 years before the school had a president who was not a clergyman.

Britain is one of the most secular countries in the world. Belief in God has been declining, along with other indicators of religion, since polling began. In 1961, when a question about God was included in a survey by the National Opinion Polls, 91 per cent of Britons expressed belief. By 2018, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, that had fallen to 55 per cent of the population, with 26 per cent affirming that they’ve never believed.

In the eternal words of Freddie Mercury, someone whose life was cut tragically short: “Who wants to live forever?” Lots of people, it turns out. Or at least they want to live for a very long time (I doubt anyone would really want to live forever, which I discuss here).

Two new books explore what unbelievers actually believe.

In moral philosophy and mass culture alike, “nihilism” has a bad name. And little wonder. It is most often associated with meaninglessness, pessimism, and amoralism. At its heart, nihilism is a view of the world in which progress is not assured, a world without overarching meaning. Does that present a problem to the moral life?

I believe colonial revolutionary Thomas Paine was mistaken in believing himself a godly man. Most of what he wrote reads like pure atheism to me.

A new study reveals Australian teenagers do not relate to established ideas on religion and spirituality. Instead, they fall into six broad groups and show great tolerance for others' ideas. This-worldly, Indifferent, Spiritual but not religious, Seekers, Nominally religious, Religiously committed