In the last several years, many humanists who had never hated anyone before were taught to hate. They were taught to hate a particular man. And they were taught to hate this particular man by the man himself. It was as if the man looked humanists in the eyes and said, “I was chosen to […]
J. H. McKenna
J. H. McKenna (Ph.D.) has taught the history of religion since 1999 at the University of California, where he has won teaching awards. He has published in academic journals and the LA Times, Huffington Post, and Patheos. He created ‘UponReligion.com’ to feature his writing projects and the Youtube channel ‘Five Finger Fingerstyle Guitar' for his original guitar pieces. His spouse is a professor of Medieval Japanese theater at the University of California. Like her, he'd probably prefer to live in Tokyo again.
Posted inThe Secular
What is an atheist, really?
In ages past, an ‘atheist’ was the one unsure of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman pantheons. He doubted the fairies and the forest elves too. No matter the time period, the atheist’s theological suspicions were aroused. And time after time, time proved the atheist right. Suppose an ancient Egyptian doubted the existence of his […]
Posted inComedy
What kind of a boy was Ron DeSantis?
Florida Governor Ron “Dick” DeSantis was a boy once. Folk wisdom says the boy makes the man. Look at the boy, and you can cull the man he will be. Look at the man, you can cull the boy he once was. I don’t necessarily ascribe to such a view, but it can be intriguing […]
Posted inCulture
Secular bumper stickers in the Deep South?
Maybe he’s an unreliable narrator. I don’t know. But he is interesting. He’s a colorful acquaintance of mine from Louisiana who has long called himself The Bayou Prophet. He left religion years ago but he kept the moniker of his earlier pious days and uses it at his singer-songwriter gigs. He likes to keep an […]
Posted inEducation
What is irreligious illiteracy?
Every academic field laments ignorance of its area of study. And so teachers of religion decry religious illiteracy. But did anyone ever think to bemoan irreligious illiteracy? Worldwide, the history of irreligion, non-religion, skepticism, agnosticism, atheism is absent from all curricula—from kindergarten through the Ph.D. It’s likely that most people wend their way through years of […]
Posted inDeep Dive
Self-deception: I am both the deceiver and the deceived
Everyone feels they are in possession of truth—not all of the truth, but just enough of it to operate honestly during daily hours of wakefulness. We think we hold truthful positions on many mundane matters and certainly on all really important matters, like politics, religion, and morals. But we are surely wrong about some things, […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
The end of the world is not what you think
Every year of the calendar, for ages and ages, up to and including this year, religious people have believed the end of the world is coming soon. But the end never comes. I would evince a high degree of vanity to think the end of the world will occur in my life span. The whole […]
Posted inFiction
A fable about American cops
For a long time, the sheep (especially the black ones) and the lambs were vulnerable as prey. Wolves menaced them almost every day. Sometimes the wolves would ravage them for no other reason than hatred. And other times the wolves would invent trumped-up offenses by the sheep and lambs and attack them on flimsy causes. […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
21 reasons why God is unconvincing to atheists
1. God as an old white man in the sky is unconvincing. Depictions of God as a human-like (called ‘anthropo-morphism’ = in human form), both in physical shape and in emotional dispositions, have been considered incredible since ancient times. Rendering God as a male humanoid replete with human emotions, even the bad emotions like anger and envy and […]
Posted inEthics
Neither sin nor crime: A philosopher’s take on suicide
David Hume lived in Great Britain in the middle of the 18th century and is said to have been the greatest philosopher writing in the English language. Hume bears a lot of the credit for the resuscitation of ancient classical skepticism about religion. Although he had to be cautious, it is clear from his various […]