Steven Nadler: For the adherents of these codified superstitions, life is a state of “bondage,” coerced obedience in body and in mind. They live in a state of “deception” and are prevented (sometimes by force) from exercising free judgment. True worship has been replaced by flattery of God, the pursuit of knowledge by servitude to [...]
Two Split Continents
Richard Powers: Dr. Ressler refused to take part in my debates with the club creationist. Annie, even-tempered, devoid of suspicion, never knew these were anything but earnest exchanges of conviction. Do you believe that the earth was made in 4004 B.C.? Don’t be silly! That was some medieval bishop. The Bible doesn’t give the age. [...]
With A Dogged Persistence
Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore: … God was burying America in a ruinous war because He was ignored in America’s founding document. Only if God and Christ were placed in the Constitution could His favor he regained. As the historian Morton Borden has put it, “the Civil War, so it seemed to thousands of [...]
A Band Of Dupes and Impostors
Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore: … How shocking Jefferson’s vitriolic attacks on ministers of God, especially those who meddled in politics, seem to late-twentieth-century sensibility. Christ so no need for priests, Jefferson wrote. They were not necessary “for the salvation of souls.” He suggested to John Adams, his friend after they had left politics, [...]
The Route Of Its Citizens Toward Eternal Salvation
Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore: On the importance of distinguishing the skills of governors from their religious profession, [Roger] Williams was explicit: “We know the many excellent gifts wherewith it hath pleased God to furnish many, enabling them for publike service to their Counties both in peace and war (as all ages and experience [...]
We Hear With Little Sympathy
Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore: We hear with little sympathy the complaints about satirical abuse heaped upon many religious leaders who have ventured into the arena of political debate. To be sure, they have been lampooned. H. L. Mencken was not the first person to satirize religion and biblical literalism. Nor was Tom Paine, [...]
The Pain And Suffering Of Bigots
Over at The Washington Post‘s On Faith blog, Brad Hirschfield defends President Obama and his “wrestling” with the matter of equality for gay and lesbian couples. To do so, he unfortunately conflates two entirely different parts of the issue. To struggle respectfully and to evolve over time, that is how the most durable cultural shifts [...]
Five Years Ago Today In Dover
The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID [...]
Most Americans Reject Strict Creationism
Everyone seems to be echoing the fact that this new Gallup poll shows that 40% of Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. But that seems like a backwards reading of the numbers. If you look at the numbers, that 40% actually is the lowest percentage of Americans answering [...]
Agnosticism Is Not Skepticism
In the next few days I will finish reading Doubt: A History, by Jennifer Michael Hecht, but I’ve already skimmed some of its concluding chapter, featuring one paragraph which, frankly, perplexed me. According to common usage, the term agnosticism holds that we cannot reasonably make an assessment on the question of whether God exists. Why [...]