Posted inCurrent affairs Religion

Religious views have no place in fetal tissue debate

I don't believe in God. But I sure do believe in keeping God out of all social policy discussions, including the recent debates over fetal tissue research. And not only God -- all supernatural notions based on unsupported faith, no matter how sincerely held they may be.  Over on my Church of the Churchless blog I've been arguing that religion has no place in politics and policy-making since 2004. That year I wrote "Religious values have no place in politics."  Consider abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage—three issues that are commonly considered to comprise the core of “values-based” voting in…
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Posted inReligion Salem

Statesman Journal should stop publishing idiotic letters from Christian fanatics

There's many things that irritate me about Salem, Oregon's newspaper, the Statesman Journal.  For some, see "Maybe it's time for the Statesman Journal to die." In that post, though, I didn't mention how annoying the frequent letters to the editor from local Christian fundamentalists are.  I have no idea why they're published. Opinions should be based on facts. But by definition, Christianity is based on faith. There's zero factual evidence that the Christian god exists, or that Jesus was the son of this imaginary god. I can understand how people can have opinions based on misunderstood facts, such as the…
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Posted inReligion Science

A secular Easter thought: “spiritual” isn’t supernatural or religious

My wife and I had a pleasant Easter Sunday. We didn't celebrate it. Being non-religious, this was just another day for us. We simply lived it. I got several yard chores done. Spread bark and organic fertilizer. Laurel sprayed poison oak, then walked dogs at the Humane Society. Meaningful stuff. Pleasingly real.  Many other people spent part of their day worshipping a God, and Jesus, we don't believe in. A good share of those Christians consider that folks like us are missing out on the most important part of being human: believing in a divine other-worldly side to reality. Well,…
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Posted inReligion Salem Science

There’s a better message than the “Christmas story”

Before getting into the main part of this post, let's warm up with some compelling tweets today from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. I love them! QUESTION: ThIs year, what do all the world's Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday [Comment: Tyson failed to mention atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Daoists, and so many others who don't believe in the Christ part of Christmas. But he only had 140 characters to work with.] On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642Merry Christmas…
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