The highly regarded Pew Research Center has released its latest analysis of the religious beliefs of Americans and consequently acquired its usual major media headlines. The Washington Post version led: “nones — nonreligious Americans — increasing in U.S.” National Public…
Ryan Burge is a data analyst who synthesizes information about religion and politics in the United States. He publishes his findings and observations regularly on Substack. Last week, he wrote an article titled “How Weird Is the Religious Composition of…
The most extraordinary letter received here in 2021 (or perhaps in the last five years) was a response to an email of mine on colleges’ appointing atheist chaplains. The letter (edited to protect the writer) went as follows: The appointment…
Headlines earlier this summer pointed to gains among mainline Protestants in numbers not seen for decades. Findings released by the Public Religion Research Institute in July indicate that people who identified with the Protestant groups most notably known for theological…
Note to reader: I submitted this article to Richard Dawkins prior to publication. His response: “I read it. Hated it.” You are duly warned. ***** “Would you like some coffee?” my host asked. “If you’re having some, yes, thank you.”…
Bracketing Easter and Passover, the Washington Post headline was meant to shock: “Religious membership in U.S. falls below 50%, poll finds,” the lowest since 1937, citing a just-published Gallup poll and media release with a similar title. But Gallup also…
It turns out the New Atheists were wrong. During the mid-2000s, American middle- and upper-brow conversation experienced what I once called “the most sustained attack on monotheistic religion since Attila the Hun.” Within a single period of less than ten…
The Bible is replete with stories of people who suffer chastisements for placing strange Gods before the true God. But for Pope Francis, who this last week participated in a “multi-faith” prayer event, the chastisement of coronavirus could lift if…
University of Oxford developmental psychologist Dr. Olivera Petrovich has spent years researching a single question: Are children predisposed to belief in a transcendent being? This research, much deserving of greater exposure, intrigued me, since I have engaged atheism’s most prominent…