Blog
Why Religion Feels Universal, A Secular Take
As an atheist, I’ve always found religion fascinating. I don’t believe in it, but I see it as a powerful and lasting part of human culture. Almost every society, no matter how isolated, has created so...
Are Liberal Churches Allies?
There are a few reasons why I, an American nonbeliever, started attending a Korean church. For one, I’m currently doing a degree in anthropology and have that mindset. Cultural anthropologists will im...
Frida Kahlo: A Woman Beyond Belief
“ourselves – variety of the one incapable of escaping to the two – to the three – to the usual – to return to the one. Yet not the sum (sometimes called God – sometimes f...
PATCA – Where Culture Meets Purpose in Melbourne: the Heartbeat of Global Unity
Imagine a gathering where ancient traditions pulse with modern energy, where justice, humanism, and celebration dance hand in hand. Welcome to PATCA—the Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia—a...
Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar: Sentenced to 30 Months for a T-Shirt
On 3 September, Moroccan feminist and human rights defender Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined for blasphemy. Her crime was nothing more than wearing a T-shirt th...
Is God an Order or a Disorder or Both?
In his influential book, God Delusion (2006), the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins declared the belief in God as a “delusion”, echoing what Sigmund Freud did in his early 20th century milestone ...
Love Jihad, Forced Conversion, and the Kerala Tragedy
Introduction: The Kerala Suicide and the ‘Love Jihad’ Debate The recent suicide of a young woman in Kerala, allegedly linked to forced conversion to Islam, has reignited the contentious de...
Visual Representation of Prophets
Visual representation of prophets is a contentious topic that varies widely among different religious traditions. Recently in Turkey, a number of cartoonists and staff from a famous cartoon magazine L...
A society in complete intellectual decline.
We will never know what Paisios, who is celebrated as a saint today, and crowds of sheep and goats flock to his tomb, really said and did not say. And even if he did say a tenth of what he supposedly ...
Crosses, Crescents, and Gunfire: The Role of Religion in Contemporary Wars
“Religions don’t cause wars, people do.” This well meaning phrase is often repeated in progressive and humanist circles. But when we look at today’s global conflicts (from Gaza to Ukraine, thro...
Who Educates Atheists? The Pedagogical Loneliness of Free Thought in the Digital Age
Growing up without religion is not synonymous with intellectual freedom. In many societies (including, of course, Germany) those who are not raised within a religious tradition do not necessarily gain...
The OU Essay Controversy: When Academic Standards Collide With Performative Outrage
A Christian student at the University of Oklahoma has filed a complaint alleging religious discrimination — after turning in a biblically-based opinion piece that failed to meet even the basic expecta...