Mystic Politics

Should Atheists Slam Religion or Show Respect?

‘As the atheist movement expands, we need to consider whether non-belief will gain more traction if prominent atheists are more respectful of religion.’

Religion & Brain: Belief Decreases With Analytical Thinking

‘Researchers say the findings have potentially significant implications for understanding the cognitive underpinnings of religion.’

The persistence of superstition in an irreligious Britain

‘The decline in religious belief in the UK is matched by increasing faith in life after death – something incompatible with materialism’

Behind the Right’s Phony War on the Nonexistent Religion of Secularism

‘One of the most robust and effective conspiracy theories on the right, the notion that “secularism” – or, just as often, “Secular Humanism” – is a religion is meant to be taken entirely literally: right wingers genuinely believe it refers to an actually existing religious practice.’

Has Physics Made Philosophy and Religion Obsolete?

‘From Aristotle’s prime mover to the Catholic Church’s first cause, we’re always driven to the idea of something eternal. I think Steven Weinberg said it best when he said that science doesn’t make it impossible to believe in God, it just makes it possible to not believe in God.’

Science vs. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam on Finding God

‘God might exist, but the Abrahamic religions are an obstacle. Quantum physics will lead us to find the fundamental mechanisms of the universe.’

Modern Metaphysics: Does science make belief in God obsolete?

‘The predominance of scientists among those preaching the new gospel of atheism might lead to the assumption that science has somehow rendered religious belief unintelligible.’

Atheism Rising, But God Is Not Dead Yet: 10 Ways Religion Is Changing Around the World

‘For most of the 20th century, smart people assumed — with smug certainty and probably more wishful thinking than they’d be willing to admit — that humanity’s long obsession with religion is finally winding down. God is dead — done in at last by the forces of enlightenment and reason. Humanity is now free to chart a new course, without worrying about the Big Bad He-God In the Sky. But, as the last 30 years have rather brutally demonstrated to American progressives (religious and otherwise), those reports of the death of religion turned out to be greatly exaggerated.’

Richard Dawkins to atheist rally: Show contempt for faith

‘About 20,000 atheists gathered within shouting distance of the Washington Monument on Saturday for a Reason Rally hell-bent on damning religion and mocking beliefs.’

Religion vs Science: The God Hypothesis

‘We can consider the existence of god to be a scientific hypothesis and look for the empirical evidence that would follow. Many of the attributes associated with the Judaic-Christian-Islamic God have specific consequences that can be tested empirically. Such a God is supposed to play a central role in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. As a result, evidence for him should be readily detectable by scientific means.’