August Berkshire
Photo Quotes
Upcoming Appearances
- No events.
Feedback From Appearances
Past Print Appearances
- “Student organizations debate existence of god” – Valerie Steffl (Mar. 1, 2010)
- “Challenging the deepest beliefs” – Nia Jonesz (Dec. 2, 2008)
- “Minnesota Atheists head elected International VP” – Tim Harlow (Oct. 6, 2008)
- “August Berkshire: Atheist Talk-Show Producer” – Steve Marsh (June 2008)
- “Minnesota Atheists radio program to debut on Air America Radio in January” – Tim Harlow (Dec. 27, 2007)
- “Civil Unions for Everyone?” – August Berkshire (Nov. 28, 2007)
- Time magazine letter re. Mother Teresa – August Berkshire (Sept. 17, 2007)
- “Becoming atheist akin to finding religion” – Jean Lundquist (Sept. 3, 2007)
Writings: Atheism
Writings: Atheism – Criticism
Writings: Bible
Writings: Problem of Evil
Writings: Science
Writings: Human Rights
Writings: Humor
Pamphlet Template Downloads
Quotes By August
Latest Post: Jesus Did Not Die For Your Sins
According to Christians, all humans are “sinners” who need to be forgiven. Christians further believe that the Biblical character of Jesus is a savior who died for our sins. What are these sins, who are these sins committed against, who needs to do the forgiving, and in what way does Jesus save us? Click on through for the full essay. (continue reading...)
Upcoming Conferences
- No conferences listed right now.
Groups: Atheism, Science & First Amendment
- Secular Coalition for America (SCA)
- Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF)
- Atheist Alliance International
- American Atheists
- American Humanist Association (AHA)
- Center For Inquiry
- Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF)
- Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)
- Atheist Nexus (networking)
- Secular Student Alliance (SSA)
- Camp Quest (CQ)
- Parenting Beyond Belief
- Richard Dawkins Foundation (RDF)
- Skeptics Society
- James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)
- National Center for Science Education (NCSE)
- NCSE: “Voices for Evolution”
- Americans United for Separation of Church and State
- Americans for Religious Liberty (ARL)
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Groups: Gay Rights & Exposing “Ex-Gay” Ministries (National)
Groups: Gay Rights (Minnesota)
Groups: Against Faith Healing
Periodicals: Atheism & State / Church Separation
Periodicals: Skepticism
Periodicals: Science
Blogs
Action E-Alerts
E-Newsletters
Podcasts
Atheist & Science Merchandise
Atheism
- “History of Atheism” (Wikipedia)
- “Atheism 101: Introduction to Atheism & Atheists” – Austin Cline
- “The History of Freethought and Atheism” – Gordon Stein
- “Why I Want to Turn Religious People Into Atheists” – Greta Christina
- “Atheism and the silly goodness competition” – Susan Jacoby (Feb. 15, 2010)
- Godless – Dan Barker
- The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
- Letting Go of God – Julia Sweeney
- Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment – Phil Zuckerman
- “Nonreligious community increasingly split by provocative tactics”
Atheists & Skeptics
- Women Without Superstition – Annie Laurie Gaylor
- “The 50 Most Brilliant Atheists of All Time”
- “Roger Ebert: The Essential Man” – Chris Jones (Feb. 16, 2010)
- Interview with Sam Harris (Southern California Public Radio, Feb. 15, 2010)
- Divine Impulses: Richard Dawkins on “the arrogance of religious persons” (video)
- “Thoughts About God” – James Randi (YouTube)
- “How an Amazonian tribe turned a missionary into an atheist”
- George Carlin on MAD TV – “Touched by an Atheist” (YouTube)
- “Confessions of a Lonely Atheist” – Natalie Angier (Jan. 14, 2001)
- The Age of Reason, Parts 1 & 2 (full text for free) – Thomas Paine
Evolution: General (Books)
Evolution: General (Articles)
- Talk Origins
- NCSE Creation/Evolution Journal (1980-1996)
- “29+ Evidences for Macroevolution” – Douglas Theobald
- “Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions”
- Evidence For Evolution and Against Creationism (32 videos)
- “Why Evolution is True” – Jerry Coyne (YouTube)
- Nova: “What Darwin Never Knew” (video)
- “This is Why Every Scientist Accepts Evolution” (YouTube)
- “Let’s Test Them: Evolution vs. Creationism” (YouTube)
- “Evolutionary Fate Of ‘Useless’ Traits”
- “The Mistakes That Argue for Evolution” – Kenneth Chang
- The Cambrian Explosion
- The Clergy Letter Project (supporting evolution)
Evolution: Origins of Life
Evolution: Epigenetics
Evolution: Transition Species
Evolution: Vestiges & Atavisms
Unintelligent Design
Creationism & “Intelligent Design”
- Index to Creationist Claims, with Rebuttal- Mark Isaak, ed.
- The Counter-Creationism Handbook – Mark Isaak
- The Cambrian Explosion
- “Intelligent Design’s 8 Biggest Fails”
- “Evolution Of ‘Irreducible Complexity’ Explained”
- “Evolution myths: The bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex” – Michael Le Page
- “More ‘Evidence’ of Intelligent Design Shot Down by Science” – Brandon Keim
- Neil deGrasse Tyson on “Intelligent Design” (YouTube)
- “Rock of Ages and the Age of Rocks” – Frank Zindler
- “Let’s Test Them: Evolution vs. Creationism” (YouTube)
- Exposé of Muslim creationist Harun Yahya
Universe / Multiverse
Brain & Mind
Free Will Vs. Determinism
- “How Free Is Your Will?” – Daniela Schiller & David Carmel (March 22, 2011)
- “Neuroscience, free will and determinism: ‘I’m just a machine’ ” – Tom Chivers (Oct. 12, 2010)
- “Scientists say free will probably doesn’t exist, but urge: ‘Don’t stop believing!’” – Jesse Bering (April 6, 2010)
- Does Free Will Exist? – Alfred Mele (Jan. 5, 2010)
- “Free Will versus the Programmed Brain” – Shaun Nichols (Aug. 9, 2008)
- “Free will? Not as much as you think” – Barbara Feder Ostrov (April 14, 2008)
Afterlife & Near-Death Experiences (NDE) & Out-Of-Body Experiences (OBE)
Neurotheology
- “Neurotheology – With God In Mind” – Victoria Powell
- “The God Helmet” – Todd Murphy
- The God Part of the Brain – Matthew Alper
- “Is God All in Your Head?” – Michael Craig Miller
- “Searching for God in the Brain” – David Biello
- “The Biology of Belief” – Jeffrey Kluger
- “(Un)wired for God” – Sharon Begley
- “Creator of God: A Brain Surgeon’s Story” – Vivekananad Palavali
Religion: General
- “The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product?” – Ilkka Pyysiäinen and Marc Hauser (Feb. 8, 2010)
- How a Lack of Control Leads to Superstition” – Michael Shermer (Feb. 2010)
- “Creating God in one’s own image” – Ed Yong (Nov. 30, 2009)
- “Why fundamentalism will fail” – Harvey Cox
- “The Evolution of the God Gene” – Nicholas WadeAn Evolutionary Bent Toward Religion?
- “How Will Religion Evolve?” – John Tierney
- “The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions” – Gregory Paul (3rd Qtr. 2009) [PDF]
- “The Non-Evolution of God, Part 1” – Nicholas Wade
- “The Non-Evolution of God, Part 2” – Nicholas Wade
- “The Top One Reason Religion Is Harmful” – Greta Christina
- “Viruses of the Mind” – Richard Dawkins
Judeo-Christianity & The Bible
- Early Jewish Writings
- Early Christian Writings
- Skeptic’s Annotated Bible
- Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So – Annie Laurie Gaylor
- Which Ten Commandments?
- Bible Atrocities – Donald Morgan
- The Jury Is In: The Ruling on McDowell’s “Evidence”
- Case Against Faith: Debunking Lee Strobel
- “God is not the Creator, claims academic” (Oct. 8, 2009)
- “An Open Letter to Dr. Laura” – J. Kent Ashcraft
Jesus
- The Jesus Puzzle – Earl Doherty
- The Jesus Mysteries: Was the “Original Jesus” a Pagan God? - Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy
- Deconstructing Jesus - Robert M. Price
- The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man – Robert M. Price
- The Jesus the Jews Never Knew – Frank R. Zindler
- The Jesus Project
- “Did Jesus Exist?”
- “Shroud of Turin Developments” – Joe Nickell (Dec. 1, 2009)
Islam & The Qur’an
- Skeptic’s Annotated Qur’an
- “Predicting Modern Science: Epicurus vs. Mohammed” – Richard Carrier
- “Cosmology and the Koran” – Richard Carrier
- Space Travel in the Qur’an?
- “Islamic Embryology and Galen”
- “Koran: The Myth of Embryology!”
- Why I Am Not a Muslim – Ibn Warraq
- Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Jihad Watch
- “Ayaan Hirsi Ali: abandoned to fanatics” – Sam Harris and Salman Rushdie
- “Yale under fire for removal of Muslim cartoons”
Scientology
Sexuality / Abstinence
Homosexuality / GLBT Rights
- “The Conscience of a Conservative: Gay Marriage is a Legal Right” – Eve Conant (Jan. 18, 2010)
- “Nepal to court gay tourism” (Jan. 20, 2010)
- “Divorce Rates Higher in States with Gay Marriage Bans” (Jan. 12, 2010)
- Rachel Maddow’s coverage of Ugandan anti-gay bill (Dec. 2009)
- “Lesbian albatrosses and bisexual bonobos have last laugh on Darwin” – Chris Smyth
- “Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name” – Dinitia Smith (Feb. 7, 2004)
- Biological Exuberance – Bruce Bagemihl
- Evolution’s Rainbow – Joan Roughgarden
- “The Gay Animal Kingdom” – Jonah Lehrer
- “The gay culture war is about to turn chemical” – William Saletan (June 18, 2008)
- “Sexual Antagonism: A genetic theory of homosexuality” – William Saletan (June 25, 2008)
- “Gay Men in Twin Study” (Dec. 17, 1991)
Exposing “Ex-Gay” Ministries
- “The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion” – Patrick Strudwick (Feb. 1, 2010)
- “Going Undercover in the Crazy, Tragic World of Christian Gay-Conversion Therapy” (Dec. 5, 2009)
- Anything But Straight – Wayne Besen
- “Why Reparative Therapy and Ex-Gay Ministries Fail”
- APA: “Insufficient Evidence that Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Work”
- APA: “Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation [pdf]
- “Is It Possible to Systematically Turn Gay People Straight?” – Melissa Lafsky
Abortion
- “The Great Tim Tebow Fallacy” – Richard Dawkins (Feb. 3, 2010)
- “Abortion’s New Battleground” – Ruth Marcus (Nov. 28, 2009)
- “The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights?” – Rachel Morris
- “Whose Team Is It, Anyway?” – Katha Pollitt
- “Some Abortion Foes Shifting Focus From Ban to Reduction” – Jacqueline L. Salmon
History and Separation of Religion & Government
Court Decisions: State & Church
Court Decisions: Evolution & Creationism
- “Ninth Circuit Court allows Univ. of California to reject admissions credit for Creationist courses” (Feb. 6, 2010)
- “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District” (2005): Intelligent Design (complete decision)
- “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District” (2005): Intelligent Design
- “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Distric” (2005): Intelligent Design
- “Edwards v. Aguillard” (1987): Evolution, Creationism, and Balanced Treatment
School Vouchers
Polls / Surveys / Trends: General
- “Study Links Religion and Racism” (Feb. 10, 2010)
- “Who Needs God?” – Tom Rees (Jan./Feb. 2010)
- “Pope decries growing ‘aversion’ to Christianity” (Jan. 30, 2010)
- “Divorce Rates Higher in States with Gay Marriage Bans” (Jan. 12, 2010)
- “Paranormal Flexibility” (Pew Forum) – Charles M. Blow (Dec. 11, 2009)
- “Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths” (Pew Forum) (Dec. 9, 2009)
- “New Study Links Religion to Immoral Behavior” (Nov. 19, 2008?) (YouTube)
- American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008
- ARIS 2008: “America becoming less Christian, survey finds” (March 9, 2009)
- ARIS 2008: “Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds” (March 17, 2009)
- “Atheists as ‘Other’: Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society.”
- “Why the Gods are not Winning” – Gregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman
- “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies” – Gregory S. Paul
- Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment – Phil Zuckerman
- “Who Needs God When We’ve Got Mammon?” – David Villano
- “Plummeting attendance shows Canadian church faces ‘extinction’ ” (Dec. 6, 2005)
- “Atheists Are (Happy) People Too, Study Says”
- Intelligent people tend to be more secular
Polls / Surveys / Trends: Young People
- “Atheist student groups flower on college campuses” – Eric Gorski
- “Less Than 1 Percent of Young Adults Hold Biblical Worldview” (March 10, 2009)
- Many In U.S. Drop Their Childhood Religion
- “This Just In: College Will Make You an Atheist” – Susan Henking
- unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity – Kinnaman & Lyons
- “Young adults aren’t sticking with church” (Aug. 6, 2007)
- “Teen Birth Rates Higher in States Where Religion Is Widespread”
Ethics / Morality & Mirror Neurons: Books
- Morality Without God? – Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
- Moral Minds: How Nature Designed a Universal Sense of Right and Wrong – Marc D. Hauser
- The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Car, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule – Michael Shermer
- Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals – Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce
- The Ethical Brain – Michael Gazzaniga
- Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others – Marco Iacoboni
- On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy – Stein Braten, ed.
- Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience – Giacomo Rizzolatti, Corrado Sinigaglia, and Frances Anderson
- Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved – Frans de Waal, edited by Stephen Macedo and Josiah Ober
- Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals – Frans de Waal
- The Evolution of Morality – Richard Joyce
Ethics / Morality & Mirror Neurons: Articles
- “Biologist sees human morality evolving from the sociality of primates” – Nicholas Wade
- “Deformed Skull Suggests Human Ancestors Had Compassion” – Alexis Madrigal
- Lawrence Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development
- “The Moral Instinct” – Steven Pinker
- “Evolution Easily Explains Morality” – Philip Brocoum
- “Godless Moral Values” – Austin Cline
- Moral Foundations Theory
- “Atheists ‘just as ethical as churchgoers’ ” (Feb. 9, 2010)
- “Atheism and the silly goodness competition” – Susan Jacoby (Feb. 15, 2010)
Humanism
Homeopathy
Faith Healing & Alternative Medicine
Prayer: Heart Study
Placebo Effect
National Health Care
- “Sen. Al Franken humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies” (YouTube)
- “Learn to Speak Teabag” – Mark Fiore (YouTube)
- Insurance Reform Watch
- “Abortion’s New Battleground” – Ruth Marcus (Nov. 28, 2009)
- “The Values Question” – David Brooks (Nov. 23, 2009)
- “My Health-Care Story: Over 50 and Out of Luck” – John Hewko
- “The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights?” – Rachel Morris
- “Whose Team Is It, Anyway?” – Katha Pollitt
- “Why I Voted NO” – U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich
- “Uncharitable Charities” – E.J. Dionne Jr.
- “Private insurers are in it only to make a buck” – Chris Gay
- “Until Medical Bills Do Us Part” – Nicholas D. Kristof
- “No Country for Sick Men” – T.R. Reid
- “Another take on health care execs’ tale of woe” – Jan Rabbers
- “For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning” – Michael Moore
- “As always, Arne Carlson speaks his mind” – Lori Sturdevant
- Sick for Profit
- Sick for Profit: “Was I Hired to Stand in the Way of Health Care Reform?” (Blue Cross)
- The Health Insurance Racket: Cigna (YouTube)
- Fight back against health insurance lies: UnitedHealthcare (YouTube)
Debates
Atheist Humor