It’s true! The next time you meet an (American) free thinker ask them some questions. Chances are: They support Democrats, gun control, LGBT rights, elective abortion access, the science on climate change, stem cell research, and single payer healthcare. They do not support the Republican party, a tax exempt status for organized religion, home schooling, […]
free thought
Life is a Highway: Dreams of the Free Thinker
I’m not a fan of the practice whereby secularists and atheists refer to themselves as “free thinkers”. The common refrain from self-described free thinkers is that they are unencumbered by dogma and can simply follow the light of reason. “You’ve locked yourself up in your Christian beliefs!” they retort. “Set aside all your beliefs and follow the […]
The Myth of the Free Thought Parent
Some years ago while I was delivering a lecture on faith and reason at a secular university, I informed my audience that I had taught the Apostles’ Creed to my daughter, who was four or five at the time. I then noted that as a family we recited the creed every day during our family […]
The delusion of the non-creedal atheist
Many atheists like to present themselves as “free thinkers”, unencumbered by ideology, confession or creed, in contrast to their religionist neighbors. Consider, for example, the venerable organization American Atheists which was founded way back in 1963 to defend the civil liberties of atheists. Under the section of their website titled “Aims and Purposes” the organization defines “atheism” as […]
Atheism, free thought, and Bible burning
The other day I posted an interview with the apologist and philosopher Matthew Flannagan. The interview consisted of a forty-five minute conversation in which Matt developed a thoughtful and nuanced perspective on the nexus between biblical hermeneutics, metaethics, and normative ethics. The Atheist Missionary responded in the comment thread. While he declined to offer any […]
“That says it all for me!” Free thinkers who are the enemies of free thought
Time and again I have encountered the inexplicably dull lack of awareness that so-called “skeptical free thinkers” have about their own double standards. As a case in point consider this comment posted just today in the thread to my article “The kalam cosmological argument and libertarian free will“. The comment comes from blogger Jonathan MS Pearce […]
Materialist epiphanies, reductive delusions
I was only a few pages into John Allen Paulos’ book Irreligion: A mathematician explains why the arguments for God just don’t add up (New York: Hill and Wang, 2008) when I came across Paulos’ extraordinary description of his childhood conversion to “materialism”. He writes: “if there is an inborn disposition to materialism (in the sense […]
Debriefing The Darwin Fundamentalists
Well I must say, my article on “The Darwinian Fundamentalists” accomplished just what I expected (if not hoped) it would by illustrating that “free thinkers” have their taboo and verboten subjects as surely as do anybody else. Poor Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini found that out the hard way. (So, by the way, did Mr. Darwin himself.) In the […]
4. The Loftus Rauser Road Trip: Conversations on God (Part 1)
On June 3, 2013 while standing on a rainy sidewalk outside Renfrew Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, I met John Loftus for the first time. Folks are surprised to learn that prior to that day I had never spoke on the phone with John, much less met him in person, and yet we had written […]
‘Dawkins was Wrong.’ Come on, say it. Say it!
For those of you who, like me, were raised on a diet of “Happy Days” back in the seventies you will remember that the Fonz could not say “I was wrong”. Whenever he was expected to he would mumble and stutter and stumble over his admission, much to the delight of the viewing audience. I […]
