Several American science organisations explicitly accommodate religious sensibilities. These organisations have considered it necessary to calm the fears of American religionists that science, particularly evolutionary biology, undermines religion. ... In my view, that is a deplorable step. ... [More]

In this witty book, Terry Eagleton argues that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and their ilk are shockingly ill-informed about the Christian faith. ... The point of Eagleton's "Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate" is to defend the theory and practice of religion against its most ardent contemporary critics. ... [More]

The common religious belief in a "supreme being" is a psychological and social construction. Religion is made up, an invention given credibility simply because a lot of people agree with it. It is the product of primitive human societies which required a way to explain reality and create social rules. ... [More]

Quantum mechanics is remarkably weird: even though it is well understood mathematically and can produce accurate, ultra-precise predictions, nobody really knows what it means -- but quasi-religious interpretations are not warranted. ... [More]

The mischief-making of social conservatives on the State Board of Education has drawn the bipartisan attention of members of the Texas Legislature. What has drawn their attention is the demonstrated interest of those conservatives in ideology over education. ... [More]

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have compiled the first-ever review of the neurobiology of wisdom – once the sole province of religion and philosophy. ... [More]

The Texas Board of Education approved a science curriculum that opens the door for teachers and textbooks to raise doubts about evolution. Critics of evolution said they were thrilled with Friday's move. ... [More]

Tensions over how evolution is taught simmered Wednesday as the State Board of Education held the final hearing in the process of adopting new classroom science curriculum standards. Activists took advantage of the last opportunity to testify on the proposed standards, which would drop a 20-year-old rule that requires "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories to be taught. ... [More]

Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution. “I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. ... [More]

Richard Dawkins tells a crowd of 2,000 in Omaha, Nebraska that intelligent design promoters are "theocrats" who are losing their battle to try to get religion into schools, so they "are behaving like cornered ... animals." ... [More]

Once we had evolved the necessary brain architecture, we could "do" religion, brain scans indicate. The research shows that, to interpret a god's intentions and feelings, we rely mainly on the same recently evolved brain regions that divine the feelings and intentions of other people. ... [More]

A 2-year-old, it turns out, knows the difference between right and wrong. According to psychologist Judi Smetana, the sense of morality begins to develop early in humans. ... [More]

The New School For Social Research just concluded a conference on the Religious/Secular Divide in the United States. The Conference was held for two days, 3/5-6, to standing room only crowds at the Tishman Auditorium in New York City. ... [More]

His vast brow hangs over us all. His foamy white beard cascades down in the familiar Michelangelo Old Testament style. He speaks to mankind of ancient origins and end times. In this year of his double anniversary, are we in danger of turning Charles Darwin if not into God, at least into the founder of a secular religion? ... [More]

Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom believes that all religions throughout the world have a single, common basis in a single reality, a universal constant in every person's experience: the human brain. ... [More]

Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers. ... [More]

The Vatican sought Tuesday to show that it isn't opposed to science and evolutionary theory, hosting a conference on Charles Darwin and trying to debunk the idea that it embraces creationism or intelligent design. ... [More]

Religion might not be the only reason people buy into creationism and intelligent design, psychological experiments suggest. No matter what their religious beliefs, college-educated adults frequently agree with purpose-seeking yet false explanations of natural phenomena - finches diversified in order to survive, for instance. ... [More]

Almost half of adults in the east of England believe the theory of evolution makes God obsolete, and more than 80% disagree with creationism and intelligent design, which propose that humans were created by God in the past 10,000 years, and that life owes its complexity to divine intervention. ... [More]

When you come across the terms "Darwinism" or "Darwinists", take heed. When evolution is described as a "blind, random, undirected process", be warned. While genetic mutations may be random, natural selection is not. ... [More]