What does social justice look like from the perspective of a secular humanist? In this interview, I consider this question with writer and humanist activist Sincere Kirabo. Mr. Kirabo is the former social justice coordinator at the American Humanist Association and the lead organizer for the 2018 Secular Social Justice Conference. He continues to work […]
humanism
A Review of The Moral Arc Part 2: Reason as Rhetoric
For Part 1 of this review click here. Imagine that you’re over at your friend Mike’s house for dinner when he pulls out a Monopoly box and invites you to a game. “But before we get started,” he says, “the rules are that I get $500 every time I pass go and you don’t get […]
A Review of The Moral Arc Part 1: Abortion
Michael Shermer. The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom. New York: Henry Holt, 2015. 543 pp. As I read it, Michael Shermer’s 2015 book The Moral Arc is a sweeping 500 page apologetic for two theses: the optimism thesis (the world is getting better); and the secular thesis (that improvement […]
What are Human Rights Based On? A Response to Andy Bannister
A couple weeks ago “Unbelievable” featured a debate/dialogue on human rights between Christian apologist Andy Bannister and humanist/atheist Peter Tatchell. The show begins with a short video from Andy and so in providing my critical response that is where I’ll begin as well: Andy is an articulate and engaging speaker. But I disagree with his […]
Evangelical and Atheist Communities: Closer than you might think
Over the years I’ve had the privilege of visiting several atheist/humanist/skeptic communities, most recently the three groups I visited in Arizona. And over that time, I’ve noticed some striking similarities between (evangelical) Christians and the atheists, groups that you might otherwise think are the evangelicals’ polar opposites. Let’s note some similarities. We can start here: […]
Stephen Law’s Evil God Challenge. In Under Four Minutes. With Animation. And my response.
Respected atheist philosopher Stephen Law may be best known for his Evil God Challenge. I would explain it to you but Stephen just produced this excellent animated video (starring a reasonable facsimile of the man himself) which unpacks the argument in under four minutes: While the evil God argument is one of the most intriguing recent developments […]
How the British Humanist Association Promotes Propaganda
This is my second critique of the British Humanist Association video “How do we know what is true?” In my first article on the topic I pointed out how the video tacitly endorses scientism and thereby undermines the value claims upon which humanism is predicated. It is now time to turn to the deeper and […]
How the British Humanist Association undermines Humanism
The Atheist Missionary tweeted me a link to a short video produced by the British Humanist Association (BHA) with the comment: “A short informative video on humanism for your seminary students”. Here it is. It’s only two minutes so give it a go before you continue with the article… I had two initial reactions. I will […]
A Conversation with Atheist/Humanist Blogger Sincere Kirabo
I recently participated in an enjoyable dialogue with atheist and humanist blogger Sincere Kirabo. The conversation was just posted at his blog, “Notes from an Apostate” and you can read it here.
Humanism, Christianity, and Human Dignity
Yesterday my friend Andy Bannister tweeted the following: If tweets are meant to be stimuli for further reflection, this one certainly qualifies. At first I thought Andy was saying Christianity is the only worldview that can provide an adequate account of value and dignity. But that can’t be right since Judaism shares with Christianity an appeal […]
The Humanist Chaplain: A Response to the Bart Campolo / Friendly Atheist Interview
You may recall that back in 2014 Tony Campolo’s son Bart made news because he was serving as a humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California. This is news first because Tony is evangelical royalty: a prolific Christian author, public speaker, and preacher. It’s doubly news because his son Bart (who is now in his […]
The day Billy went undercover as a skeptic: The briefing
“Okay Billy, first thing is to start calling yourself a skeptic. Tell people you doubt everything and that you only believe based on reason and evidence.” “Doubt everything? Dad, isn’t that a bit silly? Nobody doubts everything.” “Just do it son. And make sure you say you don’t believe in god or gods. (And be […]
Squeezing David Hume’s big toe (and other ironic ways to honor the naive skeptical tradition)
As you probably know, the idea of “tradition” has not received great press in the modern age. In particular the appeal to a grand tradition as the legitimation (or partial legitimation) for a specific knowledge discourse is categorically rejected as naive and question-begging. Undoubtedly one of the most pivotal quotes expressing this skepticism comes from […]
Can we freely dispense with free will?
Last week I made the claim that “Naturalism is inconsistent with free will.” The most surprising response came from The Atheist Missionary who replied: “Absolutely. I no more had the free choice to type this sentence than I did to take my next unconscious breath.” It would seem then that The Atheist Missionary is a […]
