Jeff Dellinger

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Today is International Blasphemy Rights Day and, as Free Inquiry editor Ronald Lindsay wrote last week, the necessity of its observance has not faded in the fifteen years since it debuted. When the Center for Inquiry (CFI) launched BRD in …

Ahoy-hoy! Welcome to your Friday Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Free Inquiry editor Ronald Lindsay reminds us that this Monday (September 30) is International Blasphemy Rights Day, and laments that, even in Western nations, it’s still dangerous in many ways to question or criticize religion. Sure, in most …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Yesterday afternoon, House Representatives from the Stop Project 2025 Task Force hosted a hearing on Capitol Hill where ordinary citizens described how Project 2025’s proposed policies have—or would—directly impact them. CFI is one of the organizations supporting the Stop …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. The October/November issue of Free Inquiry features a cover story by Enrico Gnaulati on the secular ethics of love and why they’re essential to lasting, healthy marriages and relationships. Other free-to-read highlights include Robert Allen’s “My Children, the Atheists,” …

Happy Friday! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Free Inquiry editor Ronald Lindsay debuts a new, web-exclusive column he’s calling “Unprayerful Reflections.” The first edition takes on the mistaken idea that Christianity is the foundation of democracy. To the contrary, Christianity has been considered perfectly …

Ahoy-hoy! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s regular roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. In a new essay for Free Inquiry titled “Tiresome Haloes,” Peter Jeppsen reflects on the propagandistic origins of classic devotional art (and music). Adrian Goldsworthy observed a universal truism about the implications these commissioned paintings contained in his …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. CFI’s Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is best known for providing science educators with free resources and materials to help them teach evolution in elementary and middle school classes. But TIES also hosts a series of free online …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. We have an update on a story Stuart Vyse wrote about in the latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer: Ars Technica reports a federal court in Massachusetts has dismissed a defamation complaint against Data Colada researchers Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, …

Ahoy-hoy! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. In a new feature for Free Inquiry, Jeffrey S. Victor examines “Trump’s Authoritarian Social Movement: A Social Psychological Analysis.” The focus is upon understanding his followers, not upon Trump’s personality. I suggest that there are social psychological processes …

Welcome back to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. You’ll find two brand-new features to start the week on the Skeptical Inquirer website. Cognitive psychologist D. Alan Bensley takes a deep dive into the question of whether conspiracy theory believers think critically. These examples of people believing and …