Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and ethologist and one of the most famous atheists in the world, announced just a few weeks ago that he is a cultural Christian: “I do think we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian.” He said this in an interview with Rachel Johnson for LBC Read more
A longtime critic of Islam and an outspoken atheist has become a Christian convert. “There are a number of reasons,” Ayaan Hirsi Ali said when she announced her new spiritual direction. She’s been a Muslim, a lapsed Muslim, an atheist and – now – a lapsed atheist. The vacuum left by the vanishing of a Read more
The Puritan colonists who settled in New England in the 1630s had a nagging concern about the churches they were building: How would they ensure that the clergymen would be literate? Their answer was Harvard University, a school that was established to educate the ministry and adopted the motto “Truth for Christ and the Church.” Read more
Forgiveness stands out among religious virtues because it one of the most difficult to put into practice, particularly in the terms that Christ put it: love your enemies; turn the other cheek; forgive those who have wronged you. It’s also one of the most unfashionable virtues going around, at least in the public discourse, as Read more
After assiduously avoiding religion during my teenage years, I accidentally attended a Roman Catholic service one afternoon about four years ago says Sophia Mitrokostas. I had missed my bus and ducked into a church to escape a downpour. An hour later, I emerged a convert to going to church, if not to God. Read more
When the monsignor reached out and tenderly held the little boy’s face, I lost it. And it only got worse. When Pope Francis called the reluctant Emanuele up to whisper his question about where his beloved father went after death, I was crying so obviously that the other customers in line at Starbucks looked up Read more
A child has asked Pope Francis if his atheist father is in heaven. Francis was visiting a parish on the outskirts of Rome when the child put the question to him. Francis routinely holds question-and-answer sessions with young people when he visits parishes. The child (whose name is Emanuele) was in tears when he asked Read more
On 14 March 2018, the “Catholics Online” Facebook page posted a photograph of Hawking meeting Pope Francis alongside a fabricated claim: “Before he died, Stiph [sic] Hawkins [sic] who did not believe in God requested to visit the Vatican. “Now l believe” was the only statement he made after the Holy Father blessed him.” Continue reading
A prominent atheist facing allegations, posted on BuzzFeed, of inappropriate behaviour towards women has backed out of a New Zealand tour. Physicist Lawrence Krauss was due to speak on a double-bill with Richard Dawkins at the Science in the Soul tour in May in Auckland and Christchurch, but the promoter has announced he would no Read more
An international study of people’s attitudes to atheists found in general they are perceived as “potentially morally depraved and dangerous”. It discovered people of all faith leanings, including non-believers have a shared distrust of atheists. Only respondents in New Zealand and Finland did not exhibit a clear bias against atheists. The study was conducted by Read more