Ask Jon 33: Scientific Method Rejection and Conspiratorialism

by | July 13, 2021

By Scott Douglas Jacobsen Jonathan Engel, J.D. is the President of the Secular Humanist Society of New York. Here we talk about conspiracy theories and the substantial denial of the scientific method in American society. *Interview conducted February 1, 2021.* Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, Canada has its own share of conspiracy theories, its own sources of spreading it.… Read more »

Jekyll and Hyde

by | July 13, 2021

By James Haught Exodus 12 says God killed thousands of Egyptian children at Passover, “and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a home where there was not one dead.” Genesis 19 says God burned residents of Sodom and Gomorrah alive, presumably including babies and children. Genesis 6–8 says God drowned… Read more »

Ask Professor Burge 22: Skin Tone, Racialism, and ‘Bible Banning’

by | July 12, 2021

By Scott Douglas Jacobsen Professor Ryan Burge‘s website states: “I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science as well as the Graduate Coordinator at Eastern Illinois University. I teach in a variety of areas, including American institutions, political behavior, and research methods. My research focuses largely on the intersection between religiosity and political behavior (especially in… Read more »

Watching Religion Die

by | July 11, 2021

By James Haught Religion is fading more quickly in the United States than in any other nation, according to a forthcoming research book. Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next, by University of Michigan scholar Ronald Inglehart, is to be released in January by Oxford University Press. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine… Read more »

America’s Ugly Flaw

by | July 9, 2021

By James Haught Sometimes it seems like we live in a huge loony bin where things make no sense. How could the world’s richest, strongest nation give its highest office to a crude, vulgar, shallow, petty, self-worshiping, obnoxious, racist schmuck? How can Donald Trump draw so much political support? Is it raw racism — widespread approval of… Read more »