By Stephen Prothero For decades secular Americans have been painfully aware of an odd American phenomenon: secularists and unbelievers tend to know a great deal more about religion in general, Christianity in particular, and the contents of the Bible, than most of our neighbors who profess a faith. In Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t, author, professor of religion, and commentator Stephen Prothero tries to explain this phenomenon. A believer himself, Prothero acknowledges that Americans […]

By Ken Ham I hadn’t noticed this particular bit of creationist schlock until somebody posted a page of it on Facebook. I just couldn’t resist, and bought myself a used copy, purely for its entertainment value. Dinosaurs of Eden, is an attempt to assure young people that science has it all wrong. It was written by Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and its subsidiary, the Creation Museum. The book is short and illustrated in order to appeal to […]

By Sam Harris The latest from Sam Harris is Free Will, a title that is self-explanatory. From his perspective as a neuroscientist, Harris examines the latest evidence regarding free will, and considers some of its social and political implications. This book is quite short, serving mostly as an introduction to a complex question that still needs a great deal of work. Harris’ key point is based on empirical tests. These show that the decisions we make moment by moment are […]

By Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow Perhaps you are one of the lucky few who is naturally gifted with mathematical genius or at least has advanced training in the field. No? Me either. I think I understand that our reliance on energies such as light to observe the universe around us places limits on what we can know about the sub-atomic realm, yet it often seems to me that physicists take a little too much pleasure in emphasizing the mysteriousness […]