Original

I was first amused by this extremely funny exorcism film clip many years ago. When I came to search for it again much later, the only copy I could find was this one, and unfortunately somebody has added laughter. This makes it seem ungenuine. However, the laughter was definitely not there in the original, and …

Jeremiah Camara and Steve Hill recently spoke at the Secular Summit convention in Washington DC to promote Camara’s new film, Contradiction, which explores the black community’s relationship with religion and nonbelief. They spoke with Johnny Monsaratt  about these same issues in the following interview. RDF: I understand you grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.  What was …

Religious freedom claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were already walking an irrational line. Now with the Supreme Court’s decision to side with Hobby Lobby, extreme claims are coming out of the woodwork. The Supreme Court opened up a huge can of worms, so how can we fight against the progress now being erased? …

See http://ancestorstrail.org.uk/ for more info Richard Dawkins’ 2004 popular science book, The Ancestor’s Tale, was loosely modelled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Instead of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury, Dawkins’ protagonists are living species, journeying back through evolutionary time. In real time, individual species diverged and speciated, but in the backwards time of The Ancestor’s Tale, separate species start the journey …

By Mark Kolsen   If god is a delusion, then why is religion such a widespread, long standing human practice?  RDF Trustee Andy Thomson’s book Why We Believe in God(s) demonstrates that religious belief is almost a natural result of our brain’s hard-wired faculties.  In fact, his list and explanation of contributing psychological mechanisms make …

Jaclyn Glenn is an increasingly popular YouTube presence who has made videos on everything from vegetarianism to atheism to feminism. She also has popular Twitter and Facebook pages along with her website, where she sells secular T-shirts. She spoke with Johnny Monsarrat for this interview. RDF: You’ve got 180,000 subscribers on YouTube, and most of …

By J. D. Brucker   We are born into this world without any knowledge of the past, present, and future. Our abilities are small in number, but our potential is vast. We have the ability to solve complex issues, come together during times of crisis, and develop complicated models that help us understand the origin …

Beyond an Absence of Faith, edited by Jonathan Pearce and Tristan Vick, brings us the stories of 16 people who came to reject the faith of their upbringing. Most of the writers are American and former Christians, though some are former Muslims. They tell us of their journeys from strong religious faith to atheism, and …

Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation,The Moral Landscape, Free Will, and Lying. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. He is also a cofounder and the CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society.  He was kind enough …

We would love your feedback this week on the new website! Give us your ideas on how the website can best grow the secular movement, advocate for science in schools and the public debate, and make a real difference.     Results: Winner and Winning Response:  Stephen of Wimbledon “Supporting science in schools needs to …

Raul Martinez is a Mexican humanist, children’s author, and comedian who is a board member of the American Humanist Association. From his home in Nevada, he’s been a long-time activist for Las Vegas Atheists, and in 2011 became one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Nevada for the right of …

Debbie Goddard is outreach director at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, N.Y. Goddard is also the Director of African Americans for Humanism, a program of the Council for Secular Humanism. She spoke with Johnny Monsarrat for this interview. RDF: The Center for Inquiry seems to be giant! You have 20 branches in the …