Tom Flynn

No place for religion in public policy

Too few voices argue that since the capacity for personhood does not exist until the infant brain begins some internal wiring well after birth, the only justifications for imagining that abortion is murder flow solely from personal metaphysics or religious doctrine.

By Tom Flynn | March 1, 2011; 09:45 AM ET | Comments (16)

Freedom: secularism's gift to the world

Across the Christian and Muslim worlds, almost every concept we associate with freedom arose in reaction to Abrahamic religion

By Tom Flynn | February 15, 2011; 01:43 PM ET | Comments (15)

Sadly, Catholic hospitals have a right to be medieval

If we are serious about our commitment to free exercise, then (sigh) the right of Catholic hospitals to restrict doctors from performing common and legal medical practices must be upheld. At the same time, the gulf between Catholic hospital care and any meaningful definition of full-service hospital care should be recognized.

By Tom Flynn | January 25, 2011; 02:34 PM ET | Comments (15)

If Jesus isn't your savior, Christmas shouldn't be your holiday

It's no more "normal" for non-Christians to celebrate Christmas than it is for non-Muslims to observe Ramadan or non-Hindus to keep Diwali. Devout or otherwise, I think all non-Christians should take advantage of this annual opportunity to heighten our visibility by opting out of the Christians' birthday celebration more openly.

By Tom Flynn | December 20, 2010; 01:45 PM ET | Comments (105)

Marriage: Yes it's on the rocks, and good riddance

The current flurry of survey data suggesting that mainstream Americans are giving up on marriage fills me with hope.

By Tom Flynn | December 7, 2010; 11:25 AM ET | Comments (15)

Blessings, maybe; blessor, no

The notion that America has been specially singled out by God has a long history. As an atheist, I find it difficult to take it very seriously. After all, if there is no God, then it's not very likely that He has blessed America.

By Tom Flynn | November 29, 2010; 01:28 PM ET | Comments (4)

Voters, look into your hearts

As a secularist, I believe that democracy is healthier when most voters aren't voting their religious convictions.

By Tom Flynn | November 1, 2010; 01:59 PM ET | Comments (5)

Let's rally for reason and secularism

Public life would benefit greatly from re-instituting a few "religion-free zones."

By Tom Flynn | October 25, 2010; 04:49 PM ET | Comments (18)

Why religion is the problem

Religion is the greatest obstacle gay-rights activists confront because scripture uniformly condemns homosexuality. But it already seems inevitable that the zeitgeist will shift.

By Tom Flynn | October 12, 2010; 05:10 PM ET | Comments (21)

Atheists: know thy enemy

Research suggests that conversions from religion to atheism are disproportionately likely to be largely cognitive in nature, while conversions from atheism to religion tend to be more emotional. In addition, as adherents of an often-unpopular worldview, atheists and agnostics are frequently challenged to defend their position.

By Tom Flynn | September 28, 2010; 05:42 PM ET | Comments (16)

Healing? It's more urgent to understand the problem

9/11 was a faith-based initiative. Well-meaning bromides that try to separate this attack from Islam as the terrorists understood it make the events of that terrible September day incomprehensible.

By Tom Flynn | September 7, 2010; 05:04 PM ET | Comments (4)

Save energy, self-discover at home

What's actually going on when people enthuse about achieving transformational faith or having a spiritual experience? They're actually reconfiguring their view of themselves.

By Tom Flynn | August 9, 2010; 03:38 PM ET | Comments (6)

Christ without Christianity; religion without spirit

As an atheist, I sometimes have difficulty persuading exceptionally broad-minded people that I am both non-religious and non-spiritual too!

By Tom Flynn | August 2, 2010; 02:54 PM ET | Comments (16)

Balancing rights and prudence

It's time to acknowledge that the understanding of Islam that made Ground Zero into Ground Zero lies within, not outside, the spectrum of Islam as it is understood and practiced around the world.

By Tom Flynn | July 20, 2010; 04:09 PM ET | Comments (18)

All religions equally wrong, but not in same ways

As a secular humanist, I hold that all religions are human creations. Though I view them therefore as all equally wrong, they are anything but equal in the abundant diversity of concepts each has developed.

By Tom Flynn | July 6, 2010; 12:35 PM ET | Comments (13)

Faith not a reliable 'eco-friend'

Bringing religion to bear on environmental issues is above all an exercise in irrelevance. The environment's best hope may lay in most of us deciding that it's too important to leave it up to faith.

By Tom Flynn | June 1, 2010; 03:13 PM ET | Comments (14)

Immigration charitable, but unsustainable

Allowing large-scale immigration is out of the question for reasons that have nothing to do with race or culture. Of course, recognizing this requires us to rethink a couple of traditional verities. One is Christianity's historic call to welcome the stranger at all times and places (a call Christians have a very uneven record of heeding, by the way).

By Tom Flynn | May 25, 2010; 10:16 AM ET | Comments (6)

Nothing fails like the National Day of Prayer

when I read that U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb had ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, I felt like someone had turned the clock back to the days when most Americans understood that separation of church and state meant, well, the separation of church and state.

By Tom Flynn | April 26, 2010; 02:00 PM ET | Comments (3)

Posts By Category

Posts By Date

Archive: Tom Flynn