News items from the past week include the situation among women in Saudi Arabia, how suffering provides reason to reject theism, the common religious factors among women who kill their children, how church attendance correlates with an unwillingness to compromise on political issues, and more.

Same-Sex Marriage, Religion, and Ideology
Marriage in America is fundamentally a civil affair - marriages are defined and regulated by the states, not by individual churches and religious denominations. Given the religious diversity of America, there's no other reasonable option. So why do religious groups object to expanding civil marriage to gay couples? Because they simply don't realize, understand, or accept that marriage is civil.

Obedience vs. Individualism: Origin of Hatred in Politics
One of the factors which made the Nazi takeover of Germany possible was the willingness of Germans to obey their leaders unquestioningly and their refusal to dissent in large numbers. Too many Germans put truth and justice in an inferior position to the alleged needs of the group. It's dangerous to simply accept whatever you are told by your leaders.

Freedom and Liberty in Democracy
What does it mean to be 'free' in a liberal democracy? At the very least, it must mean that people are able to form opinions and pursue goals relating to the direction of their life with a minimum of interference from the state. If people are prevented from developing their own ideas about what constitutes a good and moral life, they simply become tools of the state.

Women in Saudi Arabia
Conflicting Opinions

Mothers Who Kill Children
Why is religion common among them?

Church Attendance & Political Compromise
Incompatible? Perhaps

Questioning Alien Abductions
Why do people believe?

Suffering and God
Human Experience an Argument for Atheism

Evangelical Hatred of Islam
Is it influencing America?

 

Book Reviews:

1) Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris, by Ian Kershaw
The importance of Adolf Hitler for the history of the 20th century is undeniable. People see him as the personification of evil rather than as a human being, though, and this creates a problem because it allows us to treat him as separate from the rest of humanity, as a 'thing' or force which cannot be explained in human terms. This is just an excuse, however, to avoid the fact that as a human being who can be discussed in human terms, Adolf Hitler is closer to us than we would like to admit.

2) Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem
Some of America's most rancorous debates are over the separation of church and state. Should the government have the authority to pick certain religions and/or religious beliefs for favoritism, endorsement, or promotion? Should the government remain strictly neutral between religions and between religion and non-religion, not taking sides in any religious disputes?

3) Historical Atlas of the Holy Lands
The history of the Bible takes place in a region known as the Fertile Crescent, an area in the Middle East where the land's fertility was high enough to allow for the development of some of humanity's earliest sedentary civilizations. Because of the religious significance of the cities and places, it's also known as the Holy Land to many believers around the world.