Culture

A collection of 292 posts

Christianity's Decline

Nigel Farage: 'Everything that Western civilization was built on was Judeo-Christian culture'

Nigel Farage, one of the architects of Brexit, and continued xenophobe-in-chief in UK politics, has again been caught stoking the embers of cultural discontent. As recently reported at OnlySky, the 2021 UK census results have shown that Christianity is now a minority belief and that immigration has shifted demographics in

Brexit

UK economy crisis: Living standards now in freefall

You know things are bad when acronyms are queuing up to give you bad news. In quick succession, we have had expert organizations warning of our imminent economic and cost-of-living woes. First, at the end of September, the ONS (the Office for National Statistics) announced that GDP grew only 0.

Elon Musk

How the Twitter Blue Check debacle went from hilarious to horrifying

Who knew that if, as the newfound CEO of a huge social media company, you got rid of half of your staff, including most of your content moderation team, and many of your team leaders and experts then walked, you would be left with a hot mess? People, including corporations

Economics

In taxes we Truss—six weeks of chaos in UK politics

At the moment, six weeks seems an eternity in UK politics. Six weeks is how long Liz Truss has been at the helm. And what a squall it is that is battering her boat, poorly equipped for such high seas after years of maintenance cutbacks. Fun fact: I have perishables

News Brief

What we can learn from the Kerch Bridge explosion

When it was built in 2018, the Kerch Bridge was the pride of Russian imperialism, much to the chagrin of the Ukrainians. The construction spans the Kerch Strait that separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, connecting mainland Russia to the illegally annexed region of Crimea. Crimea is

News Brief

Will Putin go nuclear?

Vladimir Putin has a well-earned reputation for saber-rattling that in the end amounts to nothing. But when the saber is the most destructive weapon known to humanity—nuclear weapons some seven hundred times more powerful than those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—it is dangerous to be dismissive. When the

capitalism

Patagonia company owner gives it away to Planet Earth in perpetuity

The owner of outdoor clothing and equipment company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is giving the entire company away to support the environment and fight climate change devastation, something that many in the humanist community interested in helping our planet, will laud. Yvon Chouinard, a self-described "existential dirtbag" who dislikes

editor's pick

The Kharkiv offensive: A turning point in the war

Quite often, nothing really happens in wars where there are deadly stalemates for weeks on end. And then, everything happens all at once. This last week, everything has been happening all at once in the Russia-Ukraine War. To understand what has taken place and how a lightning counteroffensive was planned

News Brief

Queen Elizabeth II dies at Balmoral

The Queen of England, head of state for the UK and 14 countries in the Commonwealth, has passed away at the age of 96 at her home at her Scottish estate of Balmoral. She achieved the status of Britain's longest reigning monarch. Over recent weeks, the Queen'

editor's pick

The 2,500 days of Mikhail Gorbachev

On March 10, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to the premiership of the Soviet Union. By the time he resigned in December 1991, roughly 2,500 days later, the geopolitical map of the world had been redrawn, including a reunified Germany and a wave of democracy in Eastern Europe. The Soviets’ longest

News Brief

The insidious move to digital games and PlayStation's possible £5bn fine

When I first heard that you could get a digital version of the PS4 and now the PS5, I immediately suspected some nefarious profiteering shenanigans in the death of physical-copy games. Now a consumer champion in the UK is taking Sony to court for overcharging PlayStation gamers for six years.

capitalism

When scarcity is contrived for capitalist ends

In a capitalist system, a business is judged to be successful if it is profitable. To maximize profits, producers often restrict production rather than ensure the maximum utilization of resources. The strategy of restricting production to increase profits is known as artificial scarcity. It uses the forces of the capitalist

editor's pick

The end of 'trump,' or how to wreck a perfectly good word

An article co-written by Jonathan MS Pearce and Bert Bigelow Fifty years ago, I was an avid bridge player, and a member of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). I never made it to Life Master, but I accumulated enough Master Points to qualify for lesser titles like Junior Master.

Deconversion

The core reason homosexuality and Christian belief are incompatible

In 2021, an Ipsos poll of participants from 27 countries found that 80% of people recorded themselves as heterosexual, with 3% gay, 4% bisexual, 1% asexual, 1% other (non-binary, trans, fluid etc.), and 11% didn't know or wouldn't say. In the whole scheme of things, that&

hypocrisy

What Jordan Peterson got right, and what he got horribly wrong

Jordan Peterson is one of the world's foremost dividers of opinion. And recently he quit Twitter, much to the sadness of his 2.7 million followers, after a foray into the world of sporting swimwear and beauty. Or beauty in swimwear. Or, for him, not beauty in swimwear.

archaeology

Does a newly-discovered Hebrew tablet prove the Bible is older than initially believed?

Christians and Jews have been excited as of late due to an archaeological discovery that has caused quite a stir. A tablet, which contains the words of an ancient Hebrew curse has been found in Israel that pre-dates the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls, whose oldest fragments and

atheism

Evolution of an atheist

Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, had some advice for those who were undecided about the existence of God. In what has become known as “Pascal’s Wager,” he argued that, given a choice between believing or not believing in God, the wise decision is to believe

Bart Ehrman

Analyzing Ehrman and Licona's 7-hour Resurrection debate

Recently, there was a seven-hour debate between Mike Licona (Christian) and Bart Ehrman (Agnostic), on the subject of “Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen?” that had been well-anticipated by people in certain corners of the internet. The Resurrection of Jesus has been a topic of much discussion here at

Disinformation

When Russian propaganda goes hilariously wrong

Russian propaganda is no laughing matter. It's keeping almost an entire nation under its spell, inoculated from the truth with a constant provision of carefully curated narrative disinformation. The vast majority of Russian citizens appear to be unwittingly sucked in. Whether there are those who have seeds of

Putin

Where to now, Putin? Because there is no way you can win.

Over the last few months, I've been keeping close tabs on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and sharing my analysis both editorially and in conversation on my YouTube channel. This is, after all, what appears to be the most public war in history, with as many armchair generals as there

Caleb Lack

When therapists push religion

Leaving religion can be a very challenging undertaking, particularly in the US, and especially in communities outside of large urban centers, where unbelief is rarely the norm. Given the often daunting psychological challenges that can accompany the task of deconverting, psychiatric help can be very important. But despite what one

Putin

Even I knew more than the Russian intelligence services: Assessing Putin's plans

Who knows what's in the mind of a narcissistic conspiracy theorist military dictator? In the case of Vladimir Putin, we actually can get a decent idea of what he originally wanted and how they have had to necessarily change. When Putin amassed his troops on the Russian and

Culture

Are you happy? Because THEY certainly seem to be

Happiness is the elixir of life, the Holy Grail of humanity. Arguably, the meaning of life. For the nonreligious (well everybody, really), this life down here is the only one we get to have. So let's try to make the most of it. For many, that's

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Is the Russia-Ukraine conflict quite so clear-cut?

A defining characteristic of the human mind is the drive to oversimplify complex problems. We don't do nuance and complexity well. Our media map is saturated with easily digestible narratives of good and evil, like the global "War on Terror." Or Ukraine right now. While I

Brexit

Understanding the contradictions of the EU through the misunderstanding of Brexiteers

A lot of people don't really understand the EU, which was always going to make a referendum on the UK's membership, like Brexit, something of a problem. Opposition to the EU can come in broadly two different forms. First, you have the small-government advocates who are