How Viral Ideas Hook Us

Did you know that Temple Baptist Church was built on land that sold for 57 cents, the amount saved by a little girl that had been turned away from her Sunday school? Did you hear about the guy who died in his sleep, killed by...

IV. The Born Again Experience.

I prayed harder and just then I felt like everything I was saying was being sucked into a vacuum. When I stood up, I felt like thin air; I had to brace myself. I felt this energy, it was a kind of an ecstasy."...

I Know Because I Know

On a warm afternoon in June, two men have appointments with a psychiatrist. The first has been dragged to the office by his wife, much to his irritation. He is a biologist who suffers from schizophrenia, and the wife insists that his meds are...

George Tiller--physician, abortion provider, Lutheran, husband, father, grandfather-- was shot and killed Sunday in the lobby of his church. He was killed after years of harassment and threats, bombing of his clinic, even being shot in both arms. And yet he continued doing what he did because he believed it...

Why God has a Human Mind

Jesus was a human, fathered by a god and born to a virgin. He died for three days and was resurrected. His death was a sacrifice, an offering or propitiation. It brings favor for humans. He lives now in a realm where other supernatural...

My father died in a climbing accident when he was 59 and I was in my mid thirties. In one of our last deep conversations before his 300 meter misstep, he expressed his abiding hope that I would "get right with God." Dad was the son of Italian immigrants, all...

For years atheists, agnostics, and other freethinkers have been saying that you don't need a god to be good. Recently, they even tried to say it on the side of an Indiana bus. More and more, they are finding ways to show it.

Kiva.org is a...

Evangelism in the halls of the Pentagon. Personalized Bible studies for foreign diplomats. Passion of the Christ advertisers next to plates in the Air Force Academy mess hall. Officers Christian Fellowship buses from military bases to revival meetings. A Southern Baptist fundamentalist at the head of the Chaplain Corps....

The circles I run in include a fair number of recovering fundies -- people who were raised on the notion that morality comes from Jesus. In fact, the former Calvinists among us were taught that anyone who is not "washed in the blood" is utterly depraved. For real. A...

"you fucking piece of shit jew and your stinking jew woman and inbred jew childrun and jew-lover traiter daughterinlaw deserve to torture die you filth jew liberil america hating jesus hating basterd Lord willing none of us will have to wait long america is too good for dirty jew scum...

This week the Supreme Court declined to review a Texas murder case in which a juror brought a Bible into the sentencing process -- showing that the Bible recommends death for anyone who kills another person with an iron rod (Numbers 35:16).

Let me say for the record that...

This week, Barack Obama is expected to sign into law the GIVE Act, which aims to increase volunteering. It gives young people a way to pay for education with public service. Some right wingers have been squawking because the plan excludes religious activities like church attendance and outreach from...

Evangelicals across the political spectrum, from Pat Robertson to Jim Wallis, seek to shape our government and life-ways by appealing to the authority of the Christian Bible. It is virtually impossible to understand American politics without understanding the book that drives their priorities. Given that three quarters of Americans are...

When Cory Doctorow at Boingboing recently posted a video of deadpanned quotes from fundamentalists, one moderate person of faith lamented that it seems lately like open season on Christians.

Is it?

Across the web, in bookstores, and recently the theater, criticism of religion broadly and Christianity specifically...

Are more social ills associated with religion or a lack thereof?

If you're honest, your answer to this question probably maps to your belief status. After all, most of us like to think we're on the side of the elves, not the orcs-- that we and our kind are making...

Sometimes I get letters from former Christians -- the evangelical/fundamentalist type -- who are also parents. "What do I say to my kids?" they ask. "I raised them to believe that without the blood of Jesus they are evil sinners. What a horrible thing for them to think! I feel...

My brother, David, is gay. You can't tell by how he walks or talks or dresses. You wouldn't know who he loves and why unless you know him. The only clue, maybe, is that he happens to be nicer than the rest of my mother's offspring, including me. Several years...

Every once in a while someone comes along who makes us see ourselves in a new way. Through their behavior, they hold up a mirror to our own impulses. For many of us, Barack Obama, through his words and actions, calls to the surface yearnings and energy we thought had...

Barack Obama's campaign wasn't a campaign to get elected. Yes, that was front and center in most of our minds and, I'm sure, his for the last year plus. But he said from the beginning that the end goal of this campaign was to create a movement for change. That...

What did Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin have in common besides their February 12, 1809 birthday? Both men transcended the self-centered thinking so characteristic of our kind, allowing them to see the unity of life in a new way. By self-centered, I don't mean selfish. I mean our incredible...