“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” – Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
You’ve probably heard of the term “Separation of Church and State”. What does it mean? For many it means exactly what it says: Let each and every religious person (or community) go about their own [...]

“England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” – George Bernard Shaw
Religion deserves a dictionary of its own, and indeed there are already quite a few. However, they typically use a very serious approach. How about something lighter, but one that still carries the correct meaning of things?
So here it comes – [...]

“In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of “respect”.” – Salman Rushdie
“Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.” – Heinrich Heine
You may [...]

Circular logic of one kind or another is common in many religions. Christianity teaches us to believe in God because the Bible tells us to, and that the Bible must be correct because God wrote it. Not allowing to question and doubt is also some sort of circular defense mechanism of religions: Questioning means you’re [...]

“’Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’” – ‘Through the Looking-Glass’, Lewis Carroll
I had an argument recently with someone over the Internet. It had to do with the origins of the Hebrew names for God, as [...]

In the movie “Annie Hall”, Woody Allen plays the character Alvy Singer. In one scene he is standing in line near a guy who is pontificating about the media. The screenplay goes like this:
Man: It’s the influence of television. Yeah, now Marshall McLuhan deals with it in terms of it being a-a high, uh, high [...]

“Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them.” – Samuel Palmer
How do we know God wants us to refrain from stealing from others? How can we be so sure the Almighty is against adultery? After all, it’s kind of difficult to pinpoint any individual meeting with him (her? them?) recently. Yet, millions of people seem [...]

An interview with Emunah Alon, the wife of Israeli right-wing parliament member Benny Alon, took place in March 2003 on the IDF radio channel. The interviewer asked her about certain rumors, saying that Yigal Amir had discussed Rabin’s murder with her husband before performing the act. Mrs. Alon explained how that specific discussion was about [...]

“I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” – John Locke
In 2003, Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal was put in jail for nine years. The judge recommended that el-Faisal, from Stratford in east London (UK), should serve at least half of the sentence and then be deported. Abdullah el-Faisal had attended [...]

New York, NY — Is religion a virus that infects otherwise healthy individuals? That is a question raised by a provocative new book entitled, The God Virus. It is by noted psychologist and student of religion, Dr. Darrel Ray.
In a cogent and highly readable analysis, Dr. Ray traces the contagion course of religion as it [...]