In the wake of a tragedy, we all want to comfort the bereaved. But to what extent should you make up stuff in attempting to do so?

Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who claims to have had a near-death experience while in a coma for a week. What he experienced apparently convinced him that there is heaven and an afterlife. He has (of course) written a book about it that has become a best-seller, since many people are desperate to believe that the end of their life will not be the end of their story and will seize on anything that promises them a sequel. [Read more…]

The Encinitas school district in California got a grant to teach children yoga. Seems harmless, right? Wrong. A group of parents is threatening to sue to stop the practice, arguing that yoga is derived from Hinduism and thus these classes are a violation of Establishment Clause prohibitions against public schools sponsoring religion. [Read more…]

It has become routine in the wake of some major tragedy for some religious idiot to say that it was punishment from god for something or other. The only question is who will enter that swamp first. This time Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association and Republican huckster Mike Huckabee who do the honors, saying that god did not prevent this unspeakable tragedy because of the fact that school-sponsored prayer and Bible readings and the Ten Commandments are no longer permitted in public school classrooms. [Read more…]

When I assert that modernity will undermine religion over time, I often get pushback from people who, while sharing my views about religion, think that I am hopelessly naïve and optimistic and that some religions are so deeply entrenched that they will never budge. [Read more…]

In a post yesterday, I said that science is clearly incompatible with religion. In the comments, Beth questioned that assertion, saying that some religions might be compatible. [Read more…]

The UK has released the results of its most recent census of England and Wales and it shows a sharp drop in the number of people who call themselves religious (from 72% in 2001 to 59% in 2011) and a corresponding rise in those who ticked the ‘no religion’ box, from 14% to 25%. [Read more…]