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…]
An excellent animation that tells, in a remarkably accurate and understandable way, the story of how we got where we are today and what we should do about it. (Thanks to reader Tim.) [Read more…]
Sunday was the first day that people in the state of Washington could get married following the successful passage of the same-sex ballot measure. Matt Stopera spent the day at Seattle city hall taking photographs of the long line of people who had turned up, accompanied by their friends and families, to get married. [Read more…]
The Atlantic‘s Robert Wright says what I have been thinking too, that if there is one entity that can survive a drop over the ‘fiscal cliff’ because its existing bloat will cushion the fall, it is the defense budget. He argues that the money it will lose will not harm America’s national security in the least. [Read more…]
The words faith and belief obviously have a natural home in religious discussions. Should scientists avoid using such words, as in statements like ‘”I believe in the theory of evolution” or “I have faith in the law of gravity”, since that seems to put them on a par with “I have faith/believe in god” and enables religionists to claim that scientific theories are similar to religious beliefs? In a recent comments section, a recurring suggestion came up that in order to avoid this misapprehension, we should avoid use of the words belief and faith altogether in scientific discussions. [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…]
In a comment to an earlier post, commenter sailor1031 raised a point that has also been bugging me but which I had done nothing about, and that is the use of the word ‘entitlements’ to cover Social Security and Medicare. [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…]
Activists in the Democratic party are gearing up to counter disturbing signs that a bad budget deal is in the works, trading small rises in the marginal tax rates for the top 2% (smaller than the already small raises envisaged) in return for reductions in Social Security and Medicare. [Read more…]