Christopher Hitchens often used circumcision as an example of the problems with religion. His description of the operation was clearly referencing the Jewish custom called a “bris” or “Brit milah”. This article looks at circumcision in a completely secular way. The medical procedure of circumcision is usually done shortly after birth but not only then. […]
Space: Why Spend the Money
Starting back in the 1960s, there have been those who say that we should not spend money on spaceflight until we fix problems here on earth. Frankly, I feel sorry for those who say we shouldn’t explore space. I think it is a basic human drive to be curious about the universe. But could we […]
Sagan’s Dragon
The comedian Dave Allen would tell this story. An atheist and the pope (why not) are having a heated discussion about the existence of God. The pope says “You are like a man who is totally blindfolded in a completely dark room looking for a black cat that is not there”. The atheist reply is […]
New Commandments?
There have been attempts to post the 10 Commandments on or near courtrooms. When atheists complain about this the response might be something like “which of the 10 commandments do you not like?” And it might not be said in that nice of a way. But as comedians such as George Carlin and Ricky Gervais […]
Foreign Language Class
I really didn’t like taking a foreign language class when I was in school. I saw automatic translators on Star Trek and figured our technology would catch up to that. I was not alone. There’s a story, perhaps not completely true, that goes something like this. In 1956 the computer people said we would have […]
Sex
For a long time I had “sex” as an intended subject but how to discuss it in the context of atheism? Then I was pointed to this article by Dean Van Drasek “Five Reasons Why Sex can be Better for Atheists”. He arrives at two conclusions. The first is that atheists are free from feeling […]
Is America the Greatest Country?
Is America the greatest country in the world? It is easy to give an affirmative answer. Any other answer would cost you votes if you are running for a political office. But I think the answer must be defensible and that’s what I’ll try to do here. First, I think this epoch in history is […]
Why Not Say I’m Agnostic?
Back on March 29, 2019 (http://kohlmiller.net/blogWP/?p=101 ), I wrote a blog post talking about the word “atheist” and why some people seem to work to avoid using it. In the March/April issue of the Humanist magazine, Nathan G. Alexander wrote about the history of the word “agnostic”. It was invented by T.H. Huxley as a […]
Questions
“Why do you always answer a question with another question?” “Do I do that?” “You mean you don’t even realize you are doing that?” “Does it bother you that much?” “Don’t you think it should bother me”? “I’m not sure. What do you think?” It can get really tedious when all of your questions only […]
Did Jesus Really Exist (and did he have a beard)?
Compare to Davy Crockett There are some discussions around the idea that maybe Jesus Christ never existed at all. Largely this is a discussion by atheists for atheists. If you are a Christian you believe there is a god based on faith so it is easy to believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed. One argument […]