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Atheism

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January 2026

January 08, 2026

Faith that is Close to the Bone

Christian Wiman is a poet, essayist, memoirist, editor, and critic whose work has simultaneously challenged...

June 2025

June 25, 2025

The Most Important and Influential Literary Character

Some time ago I read the first few pages of Greg Epstein’s Good without God....

January 2025

January 20, 2025

The God of History is an Atheist: Thoughts on MLK Jr. Day

It is an ironic quirk of the calendar that January 20th--the consitutionally designated date for...

September 2024

September 08, 2024

What Does a Mature Faith Look Like?

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

February 2024

February 08, 2024

Doing Good for the Sake of Goodness

Last Monday's text in my sophomore Honors seminar, a course that spans literature, history, theology...

October 2023

October 31, 2023

What Atheists and Theists Can Agree On

If God is both all-good and all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the...

March 2023

March 14, 2023

There is a God, But I Do Not Believe In Him

Starting thise week I am the up front person in both of my team-taught courses...

February 2023

February 04, 2023

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

One of the matters I am paying close attention to this semester, as I prepare...

November 2022

November 25, 2022

Get Thee Behind Me, Santa!

Today is Black Friday, on my shortlist of candidates for the stupidest day of the...

September 2022

September 13, 2022

When Atheism Turns Evangelical

An evangelical Christian and an atheist got into an argument recently on this blog's Facebook...

April 2022

April 16, 2022

Taking Death for a Walk: A Holy Saturday Reflection

A thing about dying is that you can't consult anyone who has done it. Peter...

March 2022

March 15, 2022

The God Who is With Us and Forsakes Us

This week in my "Faith and Doubt" seminar we are encountering Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of...

February 2022

February 24, 2022

The Cruelest Thing a Person Can Say

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

January 2022

January 30, 2022

Decorating the Dungeon

I am currently rereading Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway for one of my team-taught...

October 2021

October 24, 2021

“The Heart Has its Reasons . . .”: Why I am Not an Atheist

In my ethics classes, we are currently in the middle of a unit called "Does...

September 2020

September 08, 2020

Living On the Edges of the Christian Circus Tent

Jeanne and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary in July—the gifts we gave each other are...

May 2020

May 14, 2020

Jesus and Karl Marx Have a Beer (and find that they have a lot in common)

I viewed Martin Doblmeier's documentary about Dorothy Day, "Revolution of the Heart," a few days...

March 2020

March 16, 2020

Managing Our Lives Without God

God would have us know that we must live as people who manage our lives...

October 2019

October 24, 2019

To My Atheist Friends: This is why I call myself “Christian”

Every once in a while--it seems like about once every six months or so--I post...

July 2019

July 16, 2019

The Bible is Not the Word of God. Unless . . .

Frequently, my conservative commenters suggest I will be immediately straightened out if I just “read...

March 2019

March 05, 2019

Partnering with God (even when one isn’t sure who or what God is)

A Jewish friend of mine told me a number of years ago that Judaism is...

February 2019

February 10, 2019

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

Several weeks into the new year, I am for the first time getting to teach...

November 2018

November 27, 2018

This is Why I am Not an Atheist

Despite my consistent self-description as a “person of faith,” I have been accused occasionally over...

November 02, 2018

Spreading the Good News of Atheism

Last week, my blog post about what atheists and persons of faith can agree on...

October 2018

October 18, 2018

Does a Christian Have to be Certain About Anything?

If we remembered that water takes its color from the vessel containing it, we would...

October 14, 2018

What People of Faith and Atheists Can Agree On

About half way through the 1989 film “Field of Dreams,” Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin...

June 2018

June 12, 2018

The God of History is an Atheist

Atheism is a purification Simone Weil Former President Obama loved to quote a hopeful statement from...

April 2018

April 17, 2018

The Best Story Ever

In the aftermath of Easter, Christians often enjoy retelling various stories about Jesus from the...

January 2018

January 30, 2018

Insufficient Evidence

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and...

November 2017

November 28, 2017

A Grownup Faith

If we’re grownups about faith, then why can’t we all get together and lament the...

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