NPR’s Morning Edition today featured a story about a belated Japanese apology for the mistreatment of American prisoners of war during World War II. But the apology was not from the Japanese government, nor was it from all of the many large Japanese corporations that had used American POWs as slave labor during the war.  Only the head of Mitsubishi Materials had the courage to expose his company to the “eternal shame” of admitting what his predecessors had done, and his representative…

In my last blog post, I noted the high level of prejudice against atheists and its basis in the assumption that atheists are more likely to behave immorally because they do not fear God.  I did not believe that assumption to be correct, and I have discovered a little more evidence against it since them.

First, the small groups of hunter-gatherers that I wrote about seldom worshiped gods or other divine beings that they saw as concerned about morality. …

Public prejudice toward atheists is still high, not only in the United States but in most of the countries in the world. Around half of Americans would refuse to vote for an atheist for public office, according to recent polls. Polls also show that the rejection of atheists is mainly due to the public assumption that people who are irreligious are also immoral, since they have no fear of punishment by God. But is God really the source of human morality? Certainly the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim…

Christian theologians see free will as the ability of the soul to choose freely between good and evil actions, as defined by God’s law. They argue that the choice of an evil action is a sin against God and justifies Divine punishment in Hell. To add mercy to their terrible image of God, they assert that Christ’s blood provides salvation from Hell for the sinful soul.  

My purpose In this…