Author: John Richards
Secular World – November 2020
In this Issue: SW has a new editor – Angelos Sofocleous AAI is now Platinum rated by GuideStar A God not worthy of Worship by Erin Louis Review of Michael Shermer’s book Heavens on Earth Music – the heart of Worship by Evangelical Lilith Jesus from Outer Space, a new book by Richard Carrier The Evil God Challenge part two by Stephen Law Worship Music by Richard Lawrence Be on Con...
The Sad Departure of the Amazing Randi
The world lost The Amazing James Randi on October 20, 2020, aged 92. It may seem odd to eulogize a professional deceiver, but magicians deceive overtly: we know they are performing tricks for entertainment, and James Randi was one of the best. His understanding of the art of illusion turned into a lifelong mission to reveal those who were personally benefiting by falsely claiming to possess miracu...
Sudan Sweeps Away Discriminatory Laws
Photo Credit: BBC You may remember the case of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, a pregnant Sudanese woman who was sentenced to be hanged after she married a Christian man in 2014. She managed to flee Sudan back then, but the apostasy law – targeting those deemed to have abandoned Islam – has remained on the statute books until now. Sudan has been an international pariah for three decades wh...
The Anti-theism International Convention April 2020
Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Ian McEwan, Stephen Law and Alex O’Connor are some of the famous atheists who have given their support to this event. It’s the daily work of AAI Publications Director, John Richards, to organize a weekend of activities for atheists on April 4th and 5th. His company, Anti-Theism International, has invested thousands of pounds staging the first-ever, tw...
Irreducible and Specified Complexity
Things fester on the internet. Propositions that were refuted long ago don’t go away; there’s always someone who hasn’t been brought up to speed yet, paddling the same old canoe that has already been sunk many times over. Irreducible Complexity and Specified Complexity are terms used by the proponents of Intelligent Design to support their proposition that there is a creator deity. There’s a backs...
The AAI Interviews: Ariane Sherine
John Richards interviews Ariane Sherine.
Stoning gay people to be legalized in Brunei
From April 3, 2019, those found guilty of same-sex relations, adultery, sodomy, rape, and blasphemy in the Sultanate of Brunei, will be whipped and stoned to death. Robbers will have their hands or feet cut off. These new punishments are proposed by Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei. What could be behind this return to an ancient barbaric standard of punishment? No prizes for guessing it’s th...
The AAI Interviews: Dr Lauryn Oates
John Richards interviews Dr Lauryn Oates. Lauryn is a Human Rights activist turned Education Organizer for the Taliban conflict zone of Afghanistan.
The AAI Interviews: Aron Ra
John Richards interviews atheist, author, anti-creationist, and pro-science activist, Aron Ra.
Christ’s missing witnesses
Being a witness is an easy position to explain—it means someone who can stand in front of us and tell us what they saw, in a ‘witness box’ if necessary. We shouldn’t have any confusion understanding the word ‘witness’ but, due to Christian equivocation, there are difficulties. The word, ‘witness’ confers a sort of credibility, a flavor of evidence. Consequently, many Christians apply it to sources...
Why the First Cause is a Lost Cause
Every effect we have observed in nature has a cause. We have extrapolated from that incomplete data set the idea that it’s reasonable to assume that EVERY effect must have a cause and we’ve named this the Law of Causation. Of course, we haven’t observed all of the causes of all of the effects that have ever happened, so we are making an inductive argument. Inductions are not absolutely certain but...
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