Latest Articles
The Suicide of a Nation
November 14, 2024Well, the United States had a good run, but in a confused state and in unjustified despair—exacerbated by misinformation from various sources—the United States decided to end its life as a republic on November 5. The cause of death was ingestion of the lethal substance colloquially known as Donald Trump. Exaggeration? With Matt (“she looked …
To Each Their Own Reality
November 7, 2024As always, the opinions expressed here are mine alone. How to explain the election results? In part, perhaps these factors: some Democratic mistakes over the past few years; skilled Republican campaigning, playing on the fears of many Americans; and, perhaps most of all, the evident lack of consensus about what is “real.” In the first …
My Hopes for the Election
October 31, 2024Let me emphasize the “my” in the title for this column. I speak as an individual and the views expressed herein in no way represent the views of the Center for Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, or Free Inquiry magazine. The choice for president should be an easy one for anyone who cares about …
The Antiauthoritarian: Christopher Hitchens in Theory and Practice
October 25, 2024Hardly a week goes by that I don’t wish that Christopher Hitchens were still around to comment on current events. Not everyone, I realize, shares this sentiment. Hitchens, who died in 2011, loved intellectual combat, and when he fought, which he did often—in print, on television, and on the debate stage—he gave no quarter, pummeling …
Popular Articles
Have Christians Accepted the Scientific Conclusion That God Does Not Answer Intercessory Prayer?
Volume 39, No. 1December 2018 / January 2019
In 1982, a young cardiologist at the San Francisco General Medical Center named Randolph Byrd had a brilliant insight that would motivate several important investigations of prayer during the following two decades. He realized that the standard research paradigm known as the double-blind randomized clinical trial could be used to test the efficacy of intercessory …
Why I Am Pro-Abortion, Not Just Pro-Choice
Volume 36, No. 5August / September 2016
Why be pro-abortion? Because of all the genuine, unquestioned goods it makes possible.
The Importance of Being Blasphemous
Volume 35, No. 6October / November 2015
Looking back on the Satanic Verses affair from the time of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, it is clear that Western culture has hemorrhaged away its courage.
Popular Articles
Have Christians Accepted the Scientific Conclusion That God Does Not Answer Intercessory Prayer?
Volume 39, No. 1December 2018 / January 2019
In 1982, a young cardiologist at the San Francisco General Medical Center named Randolph Byrd had a brilliant insight that would motivate several important investigations of prayer during the following two decades. He realized that the standard research paradigm known as the double-blind randomized clinical trial could be used to test the efficacy of intercessory …
Why I Am Pro-Abortion, Not Just Pro-Choice
Volume 36, No. 5August / September 2016
Why be pro-abortion? Because of all the genuine, unquestioned goods it makes possible.
Looking Back
Drinking from a Fire Hose: What Was Your Pivot Point?
Volume 40, No. 6October / November 2020
In Free Inquiry’s February/March 2020 issue, I challenged readers to recount their “pivot-point” experiences—the exact moment when the scales fell from each reader’s eyes and he or she realized that his or her childhood religion was bankrupt. In asking that, I recognized that the average FI reader born prior to 1985 (trust me, most were …
Church Did It
Volume 40, No. 6October / November 2020
Lightning Didn’t Strike J. P. Chasse My pivot point came early! I was about twelve or thirteen, an altar boy, and quite rebellious. One morning in the early 1960s, I was serving at the convent across the street with our head priest. That morning, he got quite caught up in his sermon to the …
Faith Never Stuck
Volume 40, No. 6October / November 2020
Is This All There Is? Kathleen Corcoran I should have written this down years ago. Thanks for being the impetus! I was a Catholic school-child—a six-year-old first grader, I think—when I first thought, a bit like Peggy Lee, Is this all there is? I’m not sure what prompted that thought. I have a memory …
Drinking from a Fire Hose: What Was Your Pivot Point?
Volume 40, No. 6October / November 2020
In Free Inquiry’s February/March 2020 issue, I challenged readers to recount their “pivot-point” experiences—the exact moment when the scales fell from each reader’s eyes and he or she realized that his or her childhood religion was bankrupt. In asking that, I recognized that the average FI reader born prior to 1985 (trust me, most were …
Church Did It
Volume 40, No. 6October / November 2020
Lightning Didn’t Strike J. P. Chasse My pivot point came early! I was about twelve or thirteen, an altar boy, and quite rebellious. One morning in the early 1960s, I was serving at the convent across the street with our head priest. That morning, he got quite caught up in his sermon to the …