Religion

Scotland has repealed its centuries-old law against blasphemy, but the road to getting to the repeal has been rather bumpy and twisted. We celebrated the news that a repeal of the law had been proposed, but it soon became apparent that the bill that would quash the blasphemy law was problematic in itself. The Hate …

If prayer has any effect on the real world, surely the most likely to benefit from its power would be the men who lead congregations of believers in prayer every Sunday. In a new study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Religion and Health, researchers in Poland assessed the efficacy of …

While science thrives on asking questions and challenging dogmas, this is kryptonite to religion; and the more fundamentalist and oppressive the religion, the more it is threatened by free inquiry. The Center for Inquiry’s Secular Rescue program exists to help those secular writers and activists who find themselves in peril because of their dissent. Matthew Cravatta, director …

It is no surprise that a Supreme Court dominated by religious conservatives has produced yet another ruling that privileges religion over all else, as is the case with their recent decision striking down California’s pandemic restrictions on in-person worship services. But as CFI Legal Director Nick Little points out, the privileging of religion is only …

The Biden administration has re-established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which, on its face, is not exactly thrilling news to the nonreligious community. But at the very least, it is being headed once again by its director under President Obama, Melissa Rogers, who worked very well with secular organizations such as …

The insurrectionists at the Capitol were fueled by a variety of lies, chiefly the false claim that President Trump had won the 2020 election. But the rioters were also largely unified—and believed themselves morally justified—under the banner of another falsehood: the myth that the United States is a Christian nation. “To me, God and country …

Over the New Year holiday, the Center for Inquiry learned of the plight of Australian ex-Muslim activist Zara Kay, founder of the organization Faithless Hijabi. She was arrested in Tanzania and held in police custody for thirty-two hours without charge. There she was interrogated about her work to help women who are leaving Islam and …

As an ideology that seeks political and cultural dominance for a particularly conservative brand of Christianity, Christian nationalism is an obvious threat to secularism, true religious equality, and the rights of the nonreligious. But it’s also a threat to public health and science in general. A new study by sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry …

In many parts of the Muslim word, it is prohibitively difficult to access books written in the local language that explain and celebrate science—especially in places where scientific concepts such as evolution are perceived by religious extremists as threats to their authority. The Translations Project is working to break down barriers and open minds by producing free …

Mubarak Bala, president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested in April for unspecified crimes, during a year of aggressive invocation of Nigeria’s blasphemy law. The fact that a judge has now decreed that Bala must be released—eight months after being detained without charge—is what passes for good news in 2020. We’ll take it. The …

A cofounder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, Rep. Jamie Raskin has been a passionate advocate for the rights of nonbelievers around the world. Earlier this week, after delivering a stirring speech on the floor of the House, Raskin pushed through a resolution calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws. “Everyone must …

Around the end of the twentieth century, the U.S. was one of the world’s most religious countries, but around 2007 something shifted, and since then America has become the eleventh least religious country. What happened? In the latest issue of Free Inquiry, Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry and the Richard Dawkins …