This book helps to give an inside-out look at the protestant Christian culture in the United States, and it will hopefully encourage others as they deal with the difficult questions in their own journeys toward truth.

    The Club, which is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, bills itself as an after-school program of "Bible study." But Stewart soon discovered that the Club's real mission is to convert children to fundamentalist Christianity and encourage them to proselytize to their "unchurched" peers, all the while promoting the natural but false impression among the children that its activities are endorsed by the school. Astonished to discover that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed this -- and other forms of religious activity in public schools -- legal, Stewart set off on an investigative journey to dozens of cities and towns across the nation to document the impact. In this book she demonstrates that there is more religion in America's public schools today than there has been for the past 100 years. The movement driving this agenda is stealthy. It is aggressive. It has our children in its sights. And its ultimate aim is to destroy the system of public education as we know it.

    It ventures into territory that has never been examined. You will be surprised at how much religion has influenced your sexuality, who you marry, the pleasure you get or don't get from sex, and what you can do about it.

    Some even claim that Christianity was responsible for the development of science. In a sweeping historical survey that begins with ancient Greek science and proceeds through the Renaissance and Enlightenment to contemporary advances in physics and cosmology, Stenger makes a convincing case that not only is this conclusion false, but Christianity actually held back the progress of science for one thousand years. It is significant, he notes, that the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century occurred only after the revolts against established ecclesiastic authorities in the Renaissance and Reformation opened up new avenues of thought. The author goes on to detail how religion and science are fundamentally incompatible in several areas: the origin of the universe and its physical parameters, the origin of complexity, holism versus reductionism, the nature of mind and consciousness, and the source of morality. In the end, Stenger is most troubled by the negative influence that organized religion often exerts on politics and society. He points out antiscientific attitudes embedded in popular religion that are being used to suppress scientific results on issues of global importance, such as overpopulation and environmental degradation. When religion fosters disrespect for science, it threatens the generations of humanity that will follow ours.

    It investigates how the stories of Dionysus could have evolved into that of Jesus, how rituals of the Dionysian mysteries are now found in Christianity, and the evolution of the Greek conception of the afterlife into the current Christian conception of Heaven and Hell.This book utilizes many of the ideas put forth in Drake’s first book The Invention of Religion throughout its investigation. It also looks into whether the Bible really had a divine source or was invented by humans and contains two appendices charting the age of the world according to the bible and the stories contained in each of the synoptic gospels.

    Yet we still see almost none of them openly serving in elected office, while Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and many others continue to loudly proclaim the myth of America as a Christian nation.In Nonbeliever Nation, leading secular advocate David Niose explores what this new force in politics means for the unchallenged dominance of the Religious Right. Hitting on all the hot-button issues that divide the country – from gay marriage to education policy to contentious church-state battles – he shows how this movement is gaining traction, and fighting for its rights. Now, Secular Americans—a group comprised not just of atheists and agnostics, but lapsed Catholics, secular Jews, and millions of others who have walked away from religion—are mobilizing and forming groups all over the country (even atheist clubs in Bible-belt high schools) to challenge the exaltation of religion in American politics and public life.This is a timely and important look at how growing numbers of nonbelievers, disenchanted at how far America has wandered from its secular roots, are emerging to fight for equality and rational public policy.

    He was expected to go to mosque regularly and recite passages in Arabic from the Quran, without being told what they meant. Alom spent his teenage years juggling two utterly different worlds: a chaotic, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic family life on a council estate, and that of a student at a privileged private school set amongst the idyllic green playing fields of Dulwich.In a charming blend of memoir, philosophy, and science, Alom explores the questions about faith and the afterlife that we all ponder. Through a series of loose ‘lessons’, he tells his own compelling story, drawing on the theories of some of history’s greatest thinkers and interrogating the fallacies that have impeded humanity for centuries. Alom recounts how his education and formative experiences led him to question how to live without being tied to what his parents, priests, or teachers told him to believe, and offers insights so that others may do the same.

    Bakunin is arguably the father of modern Anarchist thought and has influenced every anarchist thinker since. This collection will familiarize the reader with Bakunin and his revolutionary thought.

    Bitter arguments erupt over whether the United States is or should be a Christian nation. Sound familiar? These contentious issues are not just recent developments but were also the topics of fierce debate in the late eighteenth century. Like President Obama today, President Thomas Jefferson had to contend with accusations that his religious convictions were questionable. Against complaints that the writers of the Constitution did not invoke God, John Adams replied, "It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods." This book covers these and other related issues from the two-centuries-long debate over religion and secularism in America. Taking an unabashedly atheistic point of view, the father-and-son authors argue that everyone-from evangelical Christian to ardent atheist-needs a secular America and separation of church and state. They examine the decidedly unchristian roots of the Fourth of July, the important difference between "tolerance" and "toleration," the misleading confusions related to the difference between "public" and "governmental," the value of secular schooling, the erroneous contention that atheism is equivalent to immorality and therefore dangerous, and a host of other contemporary and historical topics. With a list of key dates related to the history of secular America, notes, bibliography, and glossary, In Freedom We Trust offers important facts and arguments for secular humanists and anyone with an interest in freedom of conscience.

    Children molded by a high-control religious experience are cursed with toxic residue-ghosts-that make it a challenge, crazy at times, to walk away unscarred, as adults. This book is a sequel to Growing Up in Mama's Club, a memoir about the author's sixteen-year experience growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. Ghosts not only chronicles Mr. Kelly's unlikely adulthood but the improbable lives of his wife of forty-eight years and a sister who paid dearly for her dysfunctional childhood.

    The most diverse validation of atheism ever written, it deconstructs every major criticism of atheism and defense of religion through logical, philosophical, historical, cultural, moral and scientific means. This builds towards a more strident approach towards asserting atheism, with five key justifications outlined for why god does not exist. This expansive work employs the philosophy of Epicurus, David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche, the science of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, plus the logic of Bertrand Russell, the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, and the contemporized insights of New Atheism advocates such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. It features original concluding insights with prominent atheists such as scientists Vic Stenger and Michael Shermer, plus philosophers Peter Singer and Michel Onfray. There are also unprecedented views of atheism by notable believers, including the 21st century's leading Christian philosopher, Professor Richard Swinburne, while journalist Peter Hitchens unveils why his late brother Christopher's arguments for atheism were "unoriginal, trivial and often ill-informed." The all-encompassing How to Prove god Does Not Exist is the complete armory of arguments that every atheist should know.

    Bostom expands upon his two previous groundbreaking compendia, The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, with this collection of his own recent essays on Sharia - Islamic law. The book elucidates, unapologetically, Sharia's defining Islamic religious principles and the consequences of its application across space and time, focusing upon contemporary illustrations.A wealth of unambiguous evidence is marshaled, distilled, and analyzed, including: objective, erudite studies of Sharia by leading scholars of Islam; the acknowledgment of Sharia's global "resurgence," even by contemporary academic apologists for Islam; an abundance of recent polling data from Muslim nations and Muslim immigrant communities in the West confirming the ongoing, widespread adherence to Sharia's tenets; the plaintive warnings and admonitions of contemporary Muslim intellectuals - freethinkers and believers, alike - about the incompatibility of Sharia with modern, Western-derived conceptions of universal human rights; and the overt promulgation by authoritative, mainstream international and North American Islamic religious and political organizations of traditional, Sharia-based Muslim legal systems as an integrated whole (i.e., extending well beyond mere "family-law aspects" of Sharia). Johannes J. G. Jansen, Professor for Contemporary Islamic Thought Emeritus at Utrecht University, says this book "will prove sobering to even staunch optimists."

    In this growing segment of “nones” are many young Atheists who have faced prejudice in their high schools and communities for standing up for their constitutional right of freedom from religion.You’ll hear some of their stories in this book, whether they’re protesting their school’s public prayers at football games and graduations or sitting out the “under God” portion of the Pledge of Allegiance. These atheist students know their rights and have fought for them, sometimes at tremendous personal cost. Their examples serve as inspiration for all the young atheists out there who live in communities where school often feels no different from church and teachers are no different from preachers.This handbook is a resource for parents, teachers, friends, and young atheists themselves. Hemant Mehta, “The Friendly Atheist” blogger at patheos.com, discusses how to deal with teachers and administrators who promote faith in public schools, handle the peer pressure and ostracism that may come with being an outspoken atheist, and create successful student groups that encourage conversation over conversion.What people are saying about this book:“A paean to young atheist heroes, sung and unsung, combined with a common-sense guide to organizing in your local area, The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide is the perfect handbook for an atheist teenager looking for direction, resilience, and pride.”-- Zach Weinersmith, creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal“The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide will inform and inspire the secular and the religious alike. As young people today are increasingly identifying openly as nonbelievers and challenging longstanding societal assumptions about religion and secularity, Hemant Mehta provides valuable insight into this important phenomenon.”-- David Niose, author of Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans“Is bigotry toward atheists the last socially acceptable form of religious prejudice? In his stimulating exploration of youth and atheism, Mehta documents numerous instances of hostility and institutional bias high school-aged students have encountered when they embraced conscience over conformity. The conclusion is clear: When freethinkers seek to express their beliefs or exercise their “rights” in the same way as members of religious majorities, they are often stymied, if not by law, then by prejudice and social convention. Mehta offers a persuasive call to action, and his book should be of interest to all those who want to keep the public sphere open to all forms of belief and nonbelief.”-- Katherine Stewart, author of The Good News Club“A quiet revolution has begun in America’s high schools: godless students are coming out of the closet and standing up for their rights. Since 2010, the number of Secular Student Alliance groups at high schools has grown fivefold. Mr. Mehta brings you their stories and helps you understand the unassuming courage and patriotism of these extraordinary students, teachers, and administrators.”-- August E. Brunsman IV, executive director of the Secular Student Alliance“The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide is a true-to-life picture of what it’s like to be a young atheist in our society, and a call to action—not just for students, but for parents, teachers, administrators, and freethinkers at large. We’re standing on the edge of an unprecedented opportunity for secularism in this country, and Hemant points the way to get out there and make it happen.”-- Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus Organizing, Secular Student Alliance

    It addresses virtually every claim and argument put forward by Ehrman in his book, and demonstrates not only the faultiness and inadequacy of those arguments, but the degree to which the author has been guilty of a range of fallacy, special pleading, and clear a priori bias against the very concept of mythicism and those who promote it. In "Did Jesus Exist?" historicism has demonstrated the bankruptcy of its case for an historical Jesus, while in "The End of an Illusion" Earl Doherty has both exposed the failings of Bart Ehrman's book and further developed the case for the non-existence of any traditional founder of Christianity.

    With “Songs of the Deconverted” Etchison adds to that phalanx with a fiction entry. The five short stories in “Songs of the Deconverted,” chronicle the story of Andy’s deconversion from Christianity, and how it changes his approach to life. Each of the five stories can stand alone, but together they create a character arch that provides a broad perspective on this burgeoning topic. The stories are sometimes brutal, and focus on raw experiences that shape a man’s psyche, especially that of a man whose entire worldview has been turned upside-down.Praise for “Songs of the Deconverted”:- The Ascent. “Love, love, love it. It gave me goosebumps and teary eyes.” –Savah- Toil. "With issues of faith and doubt draping the background, and a Pink Floyd fueled shark hunt propelling us along, Jim Etchison's Toil treats us to a visceral and terse examination of the Wounded Animal lurking in the heart of men." - Benjamin Boyce at benartboy.wordpress.com- Façades. “The attention to authenticity allow for the wilder elements of the story to really shine. … [This] will stick with you, promise.” –Naj"Etchison is profound without preaching. His examples from nature are perfectly placed and juxtaposed with the human story. Here's the thing with moral fiction, and let there be no doubt that what he's writing is moral fiction of a high order - it's easy to differentiate the contrived from the observed. Etchison observes without contrivance." – Stephen “Esses” BrownThe Afterward is by Marlene Winell, PhD, author of Leaving the Fold. She is based in Berkeley, CA where she is busy consulting, training, writing, speaking, and film-making. Find out more at: marlenewinell.net, and journeyfree.org.

    Fueled by dangerous amounts of caffeine and spontaneous headbanging, this critique is equal parts genius, hilarious, and sociopathic rage. Spawned from the drunken ramblings originally posted on the forums at TheThinkingAtheist.com Feel free to visit to see the rough draft that inspired the book.

    He takes the reader from his childhood as an Orthodox Jew in Philadelphia, where he stopped fasting on Yom Kippur to test God’s existence, to his adult life in the heart of the Bible Belt, where he became a legendary figure within America’s secular activist community and remains one of its most beloved leaders. Never one to shy from controversy, Silverman relates many of his high-profile battles with the Religious Right, including his decision to run for governor of South Carolina to challenge the state’s constitutional provision that prohibited atheists from holding public office. Candidate Without a Prayer offers an intimate portrait of a central player in today’s increasingly heated culture wars.

    Cameron Webb’s brief but biting assault on the wide spectrum of religiosity that dominates 21st century America, from the hateful and anti-intellectual dogma of the Christian Right to the whitewashed progressivism of religious moderates. It is also a fascinating and humbling journey into the heart of the universe's most mind-numbing wonders.Drawing on recent insights from cosmology and evolution, Despicable Meme paints a vivid portrait of a cosmos unlike anything ever imagined by the provincial, human-centered faiths of the past – a universe of countless worlds spread across unfathomable distances and times, and where, on at least one of those worlds, the slow march of time would combine with the purposeless mechanisms of chemistry and physics to create a being capable of believing that he alone is the reason for it all.With piercing intelligence and candor, Despicable Meme exposes the folly of that conceit and dispenses with the widespread but utterly improbable notion of a personal creator. But it saves its harshest criticism for the vapid accommodationism of religious liberals, those who unknowingly or uncaringly give cover to the misogynistic, racist, homophobic paranoia of the fanatics by refusing to condemn, or quietly tolerating, the outlandish and immoral doctrines that lie festering at the center of their own “moderate” faiths.Despicable Meme is not only a blistering condemnation of radical fundamentalism, it is an impassioned appeal to the rest of us to once and for all abandon the superstitions of the religion we were raised in and embrace the beauty of an endlessly wondrous, but godless, universe.Show less

    In an age of human rights, blasphemy is understood as a failure to respect persons, as insult, defamation, or "advocacy of religious hatred." The criminalisation of this personal blasphemy has been advanced at the United Nations and upheld by the European Court of Human Rights, which has asserted a universal "right to respect for religious feelings."The Future of Blasphemy turns respect on its head. Respect demands that we grant each other equal standing in the moral community, not that we never offend. Politically, respect for citizens requires a public discourse that is open to all viewpoints. Going beyond the question of free speech versus religion, The Future of Blasphemy defends an ethical model of blasphemy. Controversies surrounding sacrilege are contests over what counts as sacred, disagreements about what has central, inviolable, and incommensurable value. In such public contestation of the sacred, each of usâ€"secular and religious alikeâ€"has equal right to speak on its behalf.