Keith Parsons's Blog

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Here is the abstract for Stringer’s new paper published on The Secular Web:

Many people hold on to supernatural beliefs because they feel that certain psychological needs could not be met without them--in particular, they feel that they would not be able to have any hope without such beliefs. However, nonbelief need not be the "recipe for despair" that it is often assumed to be; in fact, not only can it leave ample room for hope, but it can help people hope in a realistic, psychologically healthy way when it comes to important things in life. Because nonbelievers can hope for most of the things that people generally hope for, dispelling the myth that nonbelief is a recipe for despair can go a long way toward making nonbelief psychologically acceptable to those who might otherwise resist it.

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Here is a link to Hemant Mehta’s post at Friendly Atheist.

Location: Sheldonian Theatre

Friday, February 15th, 7:30



Professor Dawkins and philosopher Stephen Law
discuss the major issues of import to humanists and atheists at a time
when opposition to rationalist thought appears to be on the rise.



Other Oxford THINK week events here. Tickets on sale though the above sold out. I am also chairing the Wednesday 13th event "Do you fear death, or dying?" 7pm.

A reader recently asked me this question.

I was raised Catholic and even as a child I just couldn't believe that if there was a God who created the universe and, by extension, us, that He wouldn't expect us to use our brain to reason and learn was was real and unreal.  My major concern, I guess, is that so very many educated, intelligent, and respected people claim to believe.  Why do they believe when I don't?? What am I missing?  Or perhaps, what are they missing?  I'm reasonable intelligent but I just cannot reach the same conclusions as believers seem to reach.

I think this is a great question. Atheists throughout history have tried to explain religious belief by appealing to wish fulfillment, the influence of family and culture, the (alleged) irrationality or ignorance of theists, and so forth.

In my opinion, the best explanation comes from the cognitive science of religion: humans evolved a Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device (HADD). Most humans seem to be hard-wired to believe that agents explain various facts; this tendency seems to include all sorts of invisible agents, including God, gods, ghosts, and so forth. The advance of science has systematically reduced the need to invoke invisible agents, by providing naturalistic explanations for things previously explained by invisible agents.

ETA: Fixed a typo in an earlier version that referred to a “Hyperactive,” as opposed to a “Hypersensitive,” Agency Detection Device.

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While I am blogging about the Internet Infidels, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that I.I. is always interested in publishing new essays on The Secular Web. Our “Call for Papers” page lists essays and book reviews we would especially like to publish, but if you are interested in writing on another topic, please let me know.

I just rejoined the Internet Infidels Board of Directors for the first time in 8-10 years. We are looking for a couple of more people to join the Board. If you are interested, please respond to the post and I will contact you off-line.

"The Rev. Tony Flannery, 66, who was suspended by the Vatican last year, said he was told by the Vatican that he would be allowed to return to ministry only if he agreed to write, sign and publish a statement agreeing, among other things, that women should never be ordained as priests and that he would adhere to church orthodoxy on matters like contraception and homosexuality."



Here is the NY Times article.

Yes, there really is a Flat Earth Society. They even have a website.