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…]
There is never any shortage of people telling atheists how sensitive the feelings of religious people are and that we need to be careful about what we say to them. The reasoning behind these pleas is based on the belief that if we tell such people directly that science contradicts religion, they will retreat to religion and reject science. [Read more…]
What with the hustle and bustle of this time of year, I had completely forgotten that the world is due to end on December 21 as the Mayans predicted. [Read more…]
Via Machines Like Us, I learned of a new survey that Gallup released last week that found that the number of Americans who self-identify as ‘nonreligious’ is an astounding 31%. This is much larger than what a Pew survey three months ago reported of 20% for self-identified ‘nones’ and that caused such consternation in religious circles. [Read more…]
One of the Republicans being touted as a candidate for the Republican national ticket in 2016 is Florida senator Marco Rubio. Hence I was interested to read that his religious background was not simply Catholic as I had assumed but that he has been quite the religious chameleon. [Read more…]
After being ridiculed for dancing around evasively in response to a question on the age of the Earth, in a new interview, the senator from Florida and prospective candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination decided he had better revise his answer, and tried to hitch himself to Barack Obama’s similar answer. [Read more…]