Posts Tagged ‘Atheism’

‘Nones’ and spiritual seekers represent opportunity

Monday, February 26th, 2024
Monsignor Tomáš Halík

Monsignor Tomáš Halík, a prominent Czech theologian, has emphasised the importance of taking seriously those who report having no religious affiliation (‘nones’) and spiritual seekers. Halik recently visited Sydney and addressed various Catholic audiences, including educators, parish leaders and youth. He stressed that ‘nones’ and spiritual seekers are a growing demographic in Australia and other Read more

Māori atheism on the rise: the legacy of colonisation is driving a decline in traditional Christian beliefs

Monday, December 4th, 2023

Religious beliefs among Māori have shifted significantly over the past two decades. The number of Māori identifying as having “no religion” in the census between 2006 and 2018 increased from 36.5% to 53.5%. Māori affiliation with Christianity has fallen from 46.2% to 29.9%. Are Māori simply rejecting Christianity? Or are they rejecting all supernatural phenomena, Read more

Richard Dawkins has abandoned science to justify his transphobia

Thursday, August 10th, 2023
Transphobia

For decades, the renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins urged his readers to use science and reason to counter religious misinformation. Dawkins is abandoning both to spread anti-transgender rhetoric embraced by religious conservatives. During a recent episode of his podcast “The Poetry of Reality,” Dawkins spoke with author Helen Joyce about the “influence of Read more

LA’s Atheist Street Pirates go national

Thursday, May 4th, 2023
religious signs

It started as a small group of atheists tracking and removing religious signs from public streets in Los Angeles. Now, this network spans more than a handful of states, with volunteers documenting and taking down illegally placed religious material on utility poles and overpasses across the country. Known as the Atheist Street Pirates, the group Read more

Britney Spears no longer believes in God: “I’m an atheist, y’all”

Thursday, September 8th, 2022

Britney Spears said in an Instagram audio story yesterday that she now considers herself an atheist. Her explanation, however, feeds right into flawed stereotypes Christians often have about why people stop believing in God. Most atheists have a story about why they stopped believing in God. Perhaps something caused them to begin questioning their faith. Read more

It takes more faith to be atheist than Christian

Monday, November 30th, 2020

When asked by an interviewer why some people in the UK regard religious people as being “a little bit odd and weird singer Sir Cliff Richard responded: “I know and I don’t understand why because you have to have even more faith than any Christian on this planet [or] any Jew on this planet…to be Read more

Churchs without God fizzling out

Friday, August 9th, 2019

Meetings meant to be just like Church services—but without God received enthusiastic media coverage when they were growing so rapidly in their early years. The growth of these secular congregations hasn’t kept up the pace in the USA. After a promising start, attendance declined, and nearly half the chapters have fizzled out. Read more

Vatican hosts atheism conference

Thursday, May 30th, 2019

Understanding atheism and its diversity were among the aims for a major conference on unbelief held at the Vatican this week. The two-day conference, co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the University of Kent, began by launching the global “Understanding Unbelief” programme, presenting results from its research. The multidisciplinary research programme is led Read more

Vatican to host atheism and secularism international conference

Monday, February 25th, 2019

The Vatican’s second-ever international conference examining the rise of atheism and secularism will be held in late May. The first conference was held in 1969 during St Pope Paul VI’s leadership. This year the Vatican is joining forces with a University of Kent research initiative to host the “Cultures of Unbelief” conference. Scholars from a Read more

Stephen Colbert: why he returned to Catholicism

Monday, November 19th, 2018

Late night USA television host Stephen Colbert is open about his faith but revealed in an interview that he became “convicted of [his] atheism” before returning to Catholicism. The CBS star told Father James Martin on his Catholic talk show “Faith in Focus” last Thursday night that there was a time in his life he turned Read more