There’s sex-positive, though, and then there’s…pornography. Restoring Christian Sexuality, (definitely NSFW, by the way, so don’t follow that link just now) contains a defense of pornography from a Christian perspective as well as explicit images of men and women engaged in sexual activity.

I hate preaching to the converted. If you were Buddhists, I’d bash Buddhism. But you’re skeptics, so I have to bash skepticism. I’m a science journalist. I don’t celebrate science, I criticize it, because science needs critics more than cheerleaders. I point out gaps between scientific hype and reality. That keeps me busy, because, as you know, most peer-reviewed scientific claims are wrong.

What is hell? Is it a literal place of torture and torment? Is it separation from a god? Is it annihilation? Is there anything real behind the threats? Which religion's hell should we avoid? What is this concept doing to people?

The moral argument for god’s existence is one of the most common arguments apologists will use in debates with atheists. It also tends to be one of the most misunderstood arguments, which I think contributes to its persistence in sticking around despite having been debunked a long time ago.

Youngstown City Schools did not answer questions about why they are using Adnan Oktar’s materials in science class, but they probably weren’t aiming to promote Harun Yahya Islam. Most creationists in America are Christian, and the majority of the religious materials that the Youngstown is using are Christian.

The minister in charge of Tooting Bec Methodist Church asked me a theological question of such directness that there was simply no room for equivocation. “Would you believe in God,” he asked, “if at this very moment Jesus were to walk through that door?”

Is buying a lottery ticket irrational? Is any gambling rational? What makes one bet fair while another is a sucker's bet?

Sean Carroll's lecture from the 2nd mini-series (Is "God" Explanatory) from the "Philosophy of Cosmology" project. A University of Oxford and Cambridge Collaboration.

Dan Dennett talks about how religions in many cases offers an "goldenplated excuse to stop thinking" and that people have got to stop playing the "faith card" in debates. I think he puts it brilliantly.

Craig would remain a Christian even if he found that all his arguments fail and that some atheistic arguments succeed. And why? Because he has a strong inner feeling (which he interprets as the ‘Holy Spirit’) that it is true. (Of course, Craig must ignore all the others who have a strong inner feeling that other gods exist, which they interpret to be something like ‘the self-authenticating witness’ of those gods.)

Biblical numerology, gammatria, Bible codes and other attempts to identify mystical patterns and messages in ancient texts and in the fabric of reality...are we actually finding something real, or just what we're looking for?

When it comes to legal cases, the courts are reluctant to get involved in whether a person’s religious beliefs are sincere or not and usually take sincerity as a given because making judgments about whether a person’s religious beliefs are genuine gets them involved all manner of messy theological issues that they would much rather avoid.

“Would you willingly lie to your children?” asks Rabbi Adam Chalom, Ph.D. “Would you say this is what happened when you know this is not what happened? There’s an ethical question there.” The lie Rabbi Chalom is referring to is the continued maintenance of the popular belief that the Jewish foundation narrative detailed in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) chronicles actual historical events...

Recently, Charisma magazine, a major media outlet for evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, published an open call to genocide. The article in question, titled "Why I Am Absolutely Islamaphobic" [sic] and written by Gary Cass, begins with the premise that "every true follower of Mohammed" wants to "subjugate and murder" non-Muslims, and therefore it's impossible for Christians to live together peacefully with them.

A new Pew Research Center study released last week that examines the relationship between religion and everyday activities brought out a number of eye-catching headlines, including “Highly Religious Volunteer More, Lie Less, and Claim to Be Happier” from the Houston Chronicle and “Strongly Religious People are Happier than Non-Religious” by the Christian Daily.

Secular and non-religious are synonyms. Insofar as we know what it means to be religious we also know what it means to be non-religious. Secular can describe individuals or institutions. A secular individual can have, or a secular institution can represent, opinions that range anywhere between being pro-religion and anti-religion.

Bill Nye—who taught a generation of kids the wonders of science with the help of a bow-tie and a catchy soundtrack—is taking a somewhat different tone with the politicians debating climate policy. His message: "Quit ya bitchin'; let's get to work."

The Vatican has put a stop to the work of international auditors just months after they were hired to review the city-state’s bookkeeping — a move said to have surprised Pope Francis’ handpicked financial czar, Cardinal George Pell.

A creationist who regularly trolls the SGU Facebook page recently posted this video, which is a great opportunity to meet my creationist debunking quota. Like all creationist propaganda, the video does not make any serious or legitimate scientific points. The purpose is just to provide a plausible screen for denying one of the most solid scientific facts every established – that life on Earth is the product of organic evolution.

While poking around outside said base in Gilman Hot Springs, California and other Scientology properties, Theroux and his crew attracted the attention of Scientologists, who alongside hired “journalists” and private investigators, started showing up where he was making his Scientology reenactments to turn their cameras on him. That was all according to plan, Theroux told me this weekend in an interview. “My dream was that they’d come after me,” he said.