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In this post I just want to jot down some thoughts about a knotty issue. I probably will not make much progress in untangling all its strands but hopefully will stimulate a discussion that straightens things out at least a bit. Is political secularism inherently neutral or antagonistic to religiosity? There are a couple of [...]
Archive for the ‘Political Secularism’ Category
On The Conflict Over The Meaning And Cultural Influence of Political Secularism
March 22nd, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats 
Tags: Political Philosophy, Political Pluralism 
9 Comments »Why Atheists Should Not Give Up Challenging Theism And Theists
February 25th, 2011 Daniel Fincke GreenGeekGirl advises the atheist community (and she has a nice defense of the existence of an atheist community against those who do not believe one exists) that we should no longer bother arguing with theists, since this is supposedly futile, but should rather accept we have it pretty good in America and focus on protecting [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats 15 Comments »The Religious Conservative's False Choice: "Big Brother" Or "Heavenly Father"
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In an e-mail to me, Caroline proposes thought provoking reasons for non-believers to encourage (or at least to not actively discourage) religious beliefs: It would also be nice if people would carry out actions in good conscience of just being decent human beings rather than in fear of reprisal in the afterlife, but as there [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Duty, Duty, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, George W. Bush, George W. Bush, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology, Sociology, Theocrats, Theocrats, Torture, Torture, Virtues, Virtues, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Political Philosophy, Social Contract, Victor Frankl 4 Comments »Christopher Hitchens Rebuts The Atheist Atrocities Charge
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Convincing? Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Videos Tags: Fascism, Marxism 2 Comments »Why, As A Skeptic, Focus So Much On Religion?
February 22nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Matt Dillahunty explains why he focuses his skeptical energies so much on religion: Your Thoughts?
Defending The Apparent Truth Of Evolution's Mindlessness
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last Christmas Eve, I argued that the belief that God “guided evolution” was not a rationally respectable way to reconcile science with faith but rather it was essentially an effective denial of the theory of natural selection, in its scientifically explanatory sense. Part of the revolutionary character of the discovery of evolution by natural selection [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Biology, Biology, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Science, Secularism Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Eugenie Scott, Huston Smith, Jerry Coyne, National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), National Center for Science Education (NCSE) 4 Comments »How Would Apostates, Adulterers, And Thieves Fare In A Democratic Egypt?
February 18th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Razib Kahn has a most disturbing chart: Kahn explains the above: On the x-axis you see the proportion who accept that adulterers should be stoned. On the y-axis you see the responses to amputation and apostasy. The red points are the proportion who agree with the death penalty for apostates, and the navy points those [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Law, Law, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs 3 Comments »Just How Much Control Over Their Children’s Thought Are Parents Entitled To?
January 31st, 2011 Daniel Fincke In reply to yesterday’s open philosophical question whether a Swedish law banning any school, even private ones, from indoctrinating students by teaching their religious tenets as truths (with the ulterior motive of undermining Islamic schools’ abilities to radicalize their students), Mary Young makes a rigorous and eloquent case against such bans well worth highlighting (and [...]
Posted in 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Racism, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Dogma, Dogmatism, Homeschooling, Indoctrination, Islamophobia, Parents' Rights 21 Comments »Daily Hilarity: Bill Maher On The Founding Fathers Vs. The Tea Party
January 15th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Bill Maher, Bill Maher, Comedy, Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Hilarious, Political Satire, Political Satire, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Satire, Satire, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State No Comments »Who Cares About Atheists?
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are a lot of anti-atheistic responses to us that get indignant that we try to organize, have community, and make ourselves known as a public presence. A lot of people reflexively and unfairly respond to all of this by feeling it as inherently threatening and inherently rude and intolerant. The most upsetting part of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism, Skepticism, Uncategorized Tags: Richard Wade 9 Comments »Against Accommodationism: Religion Has NO Rightful Claim To An Unencroachable “Magisterium” Of Its Own
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Chris Mooney is an accommodationist. In the conflict between science and faith, he is the sort of atheistic science defender who wants to minimize all appearance (and existence) of conflict between religious and scientific ideas because he thinks that vital public policy on matters like climate change hinges on scientists’ abilities to garner trust, cooperation, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 2 Comments »How Christian Beliefs And Values Are No More Creditable With America’s Founding Than Islamic Ones
December 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Gary Bauer displays a hilarious sense of grievance in his article “If Christians Were Treated Like Muslims”. I want to take a few posts to fully dissect all of its self-absorbed, phony, distorted victimhood. The first three sentences merited a full post themselves, so here we go. Bauer starts out with the following falsehood: Few [...]
Posted in Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Islam, Koran, Koran, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: American History, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Gary Bauer, Gary Bauer, Intolerance, Persecution Complex, Tolerance 2 Comments »Richard Dawkins’s Case Against The Pope
September 19th, 2010 Daniel Fincke This brilliant, efficient, and so very importantly true speech needs to go viral, do your part to make it happen. Your Thoughts?
Roman Catholic Adoption Agency In Britain Not Allowed To Refuse To Place Kids With Gays
August 22nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Great news: LONDON (RNS) A Roman Catholic adoption agency has lost its fight for the right to continue its policy of refusing to place children with same-sex couples based on religious principles. The agency, Catholic Care, saw its battle to limit its adoption services to heterosexual-only parents collapse in a ruling Thursday (August 19) by [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Gay Adoption No Comments »Chomsky: America Has Consistently Opposed Secular Arab Nationalism In Favor Of Religious Fundamentalists
August 22nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke If, or to the extent that, this analysis is correct, it’s blood boiling: before 1967, the relationships were not very different from relationships among other powers. There was sympathy and support for Israel, which has many, many sources, including the Christian Zionism, which is a very powerful force that precedes and is numerically far stronger [...]
True Religion?
August 17th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Many a religious person defending her own religious beliefs will argue that a given politically, morally, or intellectually unflattering interpretation of her faith is simply not a true representation of her faith. While the question of who has the right or the adequate means to decisively determine with any rational clarity which competing interpretation of any [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, History, Judaism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Science, Science, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Literalism, Philosophy of Science, Primitivism, Ronald Dworkin 12 Comments »Dying British Church Prone To Whining
August 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Johann Hari does a little pre-mortem dancing on the foreseeable grave of British Christianity: And now congregation, put your hands together and give thanks, for I come bearing Good News. Britain is now the most irreligious country on earth. This island has shed superstition faster and more completely than anywhere else. Some 63 percent of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Johann Hari No Comments »George Washington’s Letter To Touro Synagogue
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The first president of our secular republic writes: To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island. Gentlemen, While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in [...]
A Dictatorship Of Relativism?
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke BBC Radio 4 analyzes the pope’s catchphrase, “a dictatorship of relativism”, used for describing the secular West. Here’s the program description: The idea that no one has a monopoly on the truth seems to be fixed in the modern Western psyche. But it’s an idea that is under attack. Pope Benedict claims that we are [...]
Posted in Authority, Authority, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, Ethics, Ethics, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Ann Widdecombe, Europe, Leslie Green, Marcello Pera, Moral Aboslutism, Moral Relativism, Rowan Williams, Ruzwan Mohammed, Simon Blackburn, Stephen Wang, United Kingdom No Comments »If I Could Read Only One Atheist Blogger, It Would Be…
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke …Richard Wade of Friendly Atheist, whose ”Ask Richard” column turns one fantastic year old today. It is a column by a retired therapist who gives atheists advice about atheistic parenting, the effects of one’s religious past on one’s present life and the way to go forward constructively in the future as an atheist, and, probably most [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Friendly Atheist, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Psychology, Psychology, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology Tags: Ask Richard, Atheist Family Relationships, Richard Wade 7 Comments »If Atheists Acted Like Politically Conservative Christians
July 1st, 2010 Daniel Fincke So well done: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Political Satire, Political Satire, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Same Sex Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Bill O'Reilly, DarkMatter2525, Door To Door Evangelism, In God We Trust On Money, Prayer In Schools, Religious Billboards, Richard Dawkins No Comments »New Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard Affirms Her Non-Belief, Will Not Patronize Believers
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I love what she has to say and do not know why anyone, religious or irreligious, would prefer a faith panderer to this, even if the faithful politician was at least somewhat sincere: She says does not go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance. “I am not going to pretend a faith I [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Julia Gillard No Comments »Penn Jillette Again On The Difference Between Muslims And Christians In Taking Criticism
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I already highlighted Penn Jillette’s Vanity Fair interview in which he praised Christians for being better at taking criticism than Muslims, but this quote from his new Las Vegas Weekly interview, which I found via Boing Boing and Reddit, conveys his feelings as much as his thoughts, and those feelings are both depressing on the one [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Bullshit, Las Vegas Weekly, Penn and Teller, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Penn Jillette, Scientology 2 Comments »
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