The matter of installing the new Ring Doorbell that afternoon had not gone as expected by a long stretch.  Repeated attempts to download the very last element of its software had seen that step arrested at 90% of completion, and the technical support person from Ring was, to that point, unable to get the darn thing to go any further.  Finally, she acknowledged the impasse, ordered a new unit, and dispatched it to my location, a process which would likely take the proverbial two-to-three…

The title of this piece has to be among the most common of retorts, offered by believers when someone like us – atheists, agnostics, freethinkers – looks at God’s Plan™ and wonders at the rationality of such a “plan.”  One can generally expect a chorus of “God’s Ways are not our ways,” as well (just so you know), even as we get the same stuff from the bible:



“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

-- Isaiah…

Back in May of this year, I wrote a blog entitled: “The Lie of Ceremonial Deism,” wherein I demonstrated that this apparently accepted phenomenon was entirely Christian in its origins.  All the while, the average citizen takes “In God We Trust” on our currency and “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance as everyday things and without any untoward connotation, accepting both these and other current issues…

The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail.

-- Gustaf Lindborg



The above is a wonderfully succinct expression of the kind of pragmatism I prefer to have in my life and which I wish that more people could embrace.  When I interact with the world, there is a natural desire to be effective in my actions, to achieve what I desire and enjoy the fruits of that accomplishment.  If any of that is going to happen, though, my actions must conform to the laws of physics…

It’s finally happened.  The smoking gun has been discovered in unique, utterly new evidence, the data has been verified, all the tests confirm it … THERE IS A GOD.  Now what?  For me, beyond a shrug and a bit of bemusement, little or no change.



Oh, but aren’t you excited or thrilled?  You see, we were right all along!  Wassamatta, eating too much crow?  Those sour grapes turning in your stomach?



Nope, don’t like grapes and crow isn’t on my…

The biggest problem religion faces in hawking its wares is that its primary product – “god” – is unavailable for examination, mostly because it doesn’t exist.  Yet religions continue to insist with zealous ferocity that their god is out there and that it must be acknowledged, worshiped, and obeyed.  As a primary result of this, the game of religion necessarily becomes a shell game, which has its deity hidden behind mysteries and obtuse dogma and holy books which require interpretation for…

I wrote the following a LONG time ago, long before Atheist Universe or Atheist Nexus or even before there were websites and browsers to read them with.  It was originally posted on Jim Maxey's Event Horizon BBS, back in the early 90s, and I thought that, considering the overturning of Roe v Wade, it would be appropriate to put it up here once again [with slight modifications] and remind people just how specious and poorly thought-out the reasons that evangelicals and other abortion…

Scripture says — Jill and I have talked about this in different contexts, in other contexts: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”  So many crushed spirits.



So, tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them, to give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel right now.



As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?  When in God’s name will we do what we…

Ceremonial deism is a legal term used in the United States to designate governmental religious references and practices deemed to be mere ritual and non-religious through long customary usage.

-- Wikipedia



Again, referring to Wikipedia, the term, “ceremonial deism” was first coined in 1962, by the then-dean of the Yale Law School, Eugene Rostrow, and subsequently used by the Supreme Court in…

There is a school of thought which says that atheism offers no comfort to those who hurt, who mourn the unfairness of life, the proverbial “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and cling to religion on the chance that the next life will be a marked improvement on this one.  I submit that this is a mistaken concept, that there can be comfort in the absence of a deity and indeed, a demonstrably better existence in the one life we have.  The four points listed below give some expression to…

With great power comes great responsibility.  With all power comes all responsibility.

-- Brian Keith Dalton



Most of us have heard the first half of the above quote.  It was spoken by “Uncle Ben Parker” to his nephew, Peter Parker, as wisdom and warning, though Ben never had any idea what powers had recently been inadvertently bestowed upon the teen in his care.  The second half of that quote, though, seems to have shown up in multiple places, and Brian doesn’t give it…

Is god good?



If we’re going to ask that question, the first thing that has to be established is: whose “good” are we using as a standard?  If human good is to be the benchmark, then the task is relatively easy.  Whatever good god recognizes, however, will introduce a degree of vagary which may be insuperable.



Regardless of which deity is supervising this reality, he/she/it cannot be said to be good by human standards in the slightest measure, and one need look no…

It’s been over a year since the November, 2020 election, and not quite a year from the infamy of the January 6^th insurrection.  Joe Biden has assumed the presidency, taken the reins, and begun to guide our nation out of the 10-point cluster-fuck which was the four years of the Trump administration.  Perhaps his two biggest and most positive accomplishments have been the organization and deployment of the COVID-19 vaccines, which now has roughly 73% of US citizens with at least one…

Brian Tyler Cohen has been producing political commentary on YouTube for the past couple of years.  Generally, his traditional format has been to start with a video clip of some event, whether a speech in the House or Senate or an incident in the field, then comment on that event or incident.  Such videos will usually see him in a neatly tailored suit and tie and likely reading his script from a teleprompter.



Then there are those rare times when Brian is speaking both off the cuff…

When you get to be my age (70 years, 11 months), you begin to wonder how well or even if you’ll be remembered after the physiology quits working, and you’re no longer around to remind others of your existence.  That is a thought that I have intermittently pondered over the past couple of years.  My family situation frankly isn’t that reliable.  I have one brother and two sisters, none of whom have I heard from in the last 10 years, plus a daughter with whom I might exchange greetings and…

There has been an ongoing argument regarding the words, “atheism” and “agnosticism,” practically since the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the term, back in 1869.  What further complicates the contretemps is the fact that the object at the center of the belief or argument – “god” – continues to be without any form of objective demonstration or proof.  The conflation of the two terms on the part of some people only muddies the waters further.  Granted that I am no Huxley nor Hume.  To…

Yet another reprint of a blog I first wrote back in 2017 for Atheist Nexus.  I could be accused of being excessively optimistic and wearing my Pollyanna suit on this one, but I think it has something to say.  Hope you enjoy.





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Back in college, I was invited to participate in a production of Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, which was being put on by the drama department of Notre Dame College.  It was a nice diversion…

Something which does not exist cannot help us, but chronic dependence on something which fails to exist does active harm to all of us.

-- Loren C. Miller, Jr., It's Time to Lose the Naïveté



When I first wrote the above back in August of 2010, my thoughts were on the waste of time and money and resources invested in religion and the worship of a god that fails to evince…

The early days of Christianity were not especially pleasant for its participants, apparently.  The Roman authorities were not pleased that Christians were touting a new god that was alleged to override those they had invented, and the Jews who didn’t recognize this alleged Messiah weren’t having any that this new cult was selling, either.  It was Rome, though, that got particularly exercised over this emerging religion, though.  Consequences ranging from forced participation in gladiatorial…

The following is an old blog from Atheist Nexus, around October of 2015.  I think the topic material is still very relevant to the here and now, though.



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How many times have we heard it?  “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.”  To this day, while the intent if not the meaning of that phrase is at least vaguely understood, there should be another way to express it.  I suspect that a goodly number of the people on this planet have…