Older writings on secularism & other topics

State Department to open an office of "religious engagement"?, Salon, 18 August 2013

Beyond free speech: Blasphemy and equality, Psychology Today, 17 October 2012

A theory of ethical blasphemy, The Revealer, 11 October 2012

A spiritual defense of blasphemy,, The Revealer, 8 October 2012

Cognitive bias and the blame for Benghazi, Huffington Post, 3 October 2012

Blasphemy, religious hatred, and the United Nations, Huffington Post, 26 September 2012

Een wettelijk wapen tegen minderheden [A legal weapon against minorities], Volkskrant, 15 September 2012

Equality for impieties, The Revealer, 14 September 2012

The trouble with "religious hatred," The Revealer, 4 September 2012

A human right to blaspheme? The Revealer, 30 August 2012

The globalization of blasphemy, The Revealer, 18 July 2012

An open letter to CEO Jeff Smisek re: United Airlines' blasphemous safety video, Religion Dispatches, 28 June 2012

How blasphemy got personal, The Revealer, 25 June 2012

Indian Idol, Skeptical Inquirer online, 25 June 2012

Calvin's Geneva? The new international discourse of blasphemy, The Revealer, 12 June 2012

Whose blasphemy? 'Religious freedom' for atheists, Religion Dispatches, 24 May 2012

A deviant plot: Resisting gay rights at the UN, Islamic states mangle psychiatric consensus, English, Skeptical Inquirer online, 16 March 2012

Lang leve de blasfemie, Trouw, 14 January 2012

The Skeptical Canon, part 2, Skeptical Inquirer online, 14 September 2011

United Nations affirms human right to blaspheme, Religion Dispatches, 11 August 2011

There is no religious freedom, Religion Dispatches, 27 July 2011

Against religious freedom (with Colin Koproske), Dissent, Summer 2011

Egypt needs science powered by people, not big projects, Science and Development Network, 21 July 2011

Het ware geluid van Iran [The true sound of Iran], Trouw, 25 September 2010

Decomposing humanism, Free Inquiry, September-October 2010

Muzzled musicians, meet your match [interview], Wall Street Journal, 19 August 2010

The heresies of Christopher Hitchens, Religion Dispatches, 29 June 2010

Satire is religion, Religion Dispatches, 12 May 2010

Famous atheist philosopher passes away, again, Religion Dispatches, 23 April 2010

The sound of freedom, Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith," 2 March 2010

The importance of what it feels like: A review of 36 Arguments for the existence of God: A work of fiction, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Free Inquiry, February/March 2010

Exiled in New York, Trouw, 2 February 2010

The Left's Blind Spot [interview], De Groene Amsterdammer, 17 February 2010

Who's afraid of Shari'a? Dissent, 3 February 2010

The decline of the decline of Arabic science, Skeptical Inquirer online, 21 January 2010

The death of a secularist, Religion Dispatches, 4 January 2010

Sharia-compliant science, Skeptical Inquirer online, 2 December 2009

Putting God out of the ethics business, Psychology Today, 2 November 2009

Decomposing humanism: Why replace religion? Religion Dispatches, 29 October 2009

The secularist case against "Atheism 3.0", The Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith," 26 October 2009

Notes from the Harmonious Society: Dissident science in China, part II, Skeptical Inquirer online, 26 October 2009

The accidental exorcist, in 50 Voices of Disbelief, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)

On the Taliban's hit list: An exiled Pakistani singer's plea to save music, Religion Dispatches, 23 August 2009

Rage against the regime: Voices from the Iranian underground music scene, Religion Dispatches, 9 July 2009

Ahmadinejad aside, anti-racism conference was deeply flawed, Religion Dispatches, 21 April 2009

Wat was aan de hand? [What was going on here?], Trouw, 18 April 2009

Religious persecution wolf in anti-defamation in sheep's clothing, Religion Dispatches, 30 March 2009

The European Court of Human Rights and the interpretation of 'advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence', written report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council Tenth Session on behalf of the Center for Inquiry, March 2009

Vegetarian meat: Could technology save animal and satisy meat eaters? (with Patrick Hopkins), Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, January 2009

Carniculture, What will change everything? EDGE, 1 January 2009

Reasons, in John Brockman, ed., What Have You Changed Your Mind About? (Harper Perennial: January 2009)

Whose democracy? Free Inquiry (October-November 2008)

Sensitive words, Trouw, 3 December 2008

One damned thing after another (review of A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor), Free Inquiry (August-September 2008)

Is there a clash of civilizations? The failure of the United Nations' response, position paper of the Center for Inquiry released at the United Nations Human Rights Council, 17 September 2008

Islam and human rights: Defending universality at the United Nations (with Colin Koproske), position paper of the Center for Inquiry-International, released at the United Nations Human Rights Council, 17 September 2008

Evolution education and the science-religion conflict: Dispatches from a philosophical correspondent, in Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin, eds., Secularism and Science in the 21 st Century (Hartford, CT: Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, 2008): 51-67

Religion and the secular conscience, The Washington Post/Newsweek "On Faith", June 2008

Values voter's trap, USA Today, 28 April 2008

Science and the candidates (with Sheril R. Kirshenbaum, et al.), Science, 11 April 2008

The civilizations of dialogue, Muslim World Today, 23 February 2007

An American secularist in Bangladesh, The Daily Star (Dhaka), 17 March 2006

Believing in doubt, New York Times (op-ed), 3 February 2006