Author Archives: Bradlaugh

Placing Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins has a new book out this week, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist.  Naturally he’s been out talking about it, and commentators have been talking about him. Glancing through this stuff, I am struck as … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Unknown Unknowns

Looking up something about postwar British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, I came across the following gem. Attlee, in old age, is being interviewed by a biographer, Kenneth Harris. Harris: Would you say you are an agnostic? Attlee: I don’t know.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

On the fifth day of Christmas . . .

. . . My true love gave to me a book on pop metaphysics. Yes, I read Jim Holt’s Why Does the World Exist? over the weekend.  It’s light stuff: A journalist ─ though a more-than-usually intelligent one ─ talks to … Continue reading

Posted in philosophy | Comments Off on On the fifth day of Christmas . . .

What Is It Like To Be A Theist?

For those who like this kind of thing ─ I confess to a mild and occasional weakness for it myself ─ here is atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel (What Is It Like To Be A Bat, The View From Nowhere) reviewing a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Relentless Ruffians, Fell Attorneys, And . . .

Reading Susan Jacoby’s long grumble about the dearth of women in the “secularist movement” (why does it have to be a movement?) my eye was caught by this: Atheists to this day are constantly accused of being shrill, but in … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A Little Bit of Heaven

I did publish some reviews and columns during my absence, but probably the only such item that is much of a “fit” for Secular Right was my contribution to a symposium published in the June issue of The American Spectator. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Left Smugness and Vocal Fry

[I apologize for the long hiatus in posting.  I have been preoccupied with other issues.] I’ve been trying to figure out what I found so annoying about this gathering of atheists. A couple of things I can identify right away. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

The Islamification of Buffalo

One of the best special-interest bloggers is Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch.  She knows her territory well and comes up with some amazing stories.  The importation of refugees — a high proportion of them fraudulent (90 percent according to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Loaves and Fishes

[Cross-posted at The Corner] From the November issue of Episcopal Journal, a monthly “produced by and for members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and  abroad.” Front page lead headline, on the Occupy Wall Street protests: Season of … Continue reading

Posted in politics, Religion | 3 Comments

If You Don’t Martyr Me, I’ll Kill Ya

At The Corner, our National Review group blog, David French offers a cute thought experiment:  What if present-day Christianity were as addled with terrorist impulses as present-day Islam? It isn’t, of course, but terrorism is not completely alien to Christianity.  … Continue reading

Posted in Church & State, history, Religion | 2 Comments