The website of John C. Snider
[Originally posted on January 14, 2008 at AmericanFreethought.com.] One of the most talked-about movies of 2007 is writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Anderson has a reputation as a bold filmmaker unafraid to tackle strange and disturbing subjects: Boogie Nights, with its 70s porno backdrop; Magnolia, a mesmerizing three-hour-long epic in which half a dozen ill-fated characters …
[Originally posted on January 3, 2008 at AmericanFreethought.com. A slightly different version appeared in 2006 in Volume 12, No. 3 of the magazine Skeptic.] It has been nearly four centuries since Galileo Galilei lost his legendary showdown with the Catholic Church’s Court of the Inquisition. Threatened with imprisonment, torture and certain death, Galileo backed down—officially, at …
[Originally posted January 1, 2008 at AmericanFreethought.com.] Christopher Hitchens seems to revel in his role as the Bad Boy of Unbelievers. With books like The Missionary Position (a scathing criticism of the late and soon-to-be-canonized Mother Teresa) and his recent bestseller God Is Not Great, Hitchens tweaks the conservative establishment, and he’s not afraid to engage in public debate …
[Originally posted on November 15, 2007 at AmericanFreethought.com.] Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is one of the most talked-about books in recent years. Not only is it a heartbreaking story of childhood tragedy, this 2003 novel provides an invaluable insight into the culture of late 20th century Afghanistan—the culture that would trigger 9/11 and plunge the globe into a bitter, and …
[Originally posted on November 9, 2007 at AmericanFreethought.com.] Whether we like it or not, the Evolution/Creation Wars will be with us for a while. The forces of Creationism are as determined as ever to challenge Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, especially as it is currently taught in public schools and universities. The Creationists’ latest ploy is ”Intelligent Design,” …
[Originally posted on October 26, 2007 at AmericanFreethought.com.] The Bible is pretty straightforward in its message when it comes to homosexuality: it’s a sin, and those who insist on practicing it are going to Hell. It’s simple. Or is it? The growing movement to reconcile gay rights with Christianity is the subject of a fascinating …
[Originally posted in July 2006 at SciFiDimensions.com; re-posted on October 16, 2007 at AmericanFreethought.com. This documentary subsequently won an Academy Award; Al Gore won a Nobel Prize for his work in raising awareness about global warming. I should also point out that when I wrote this review, my views were much more Libertarian and my …
One of the highlights of last weekend’s “Crystal Clear Atheism” conference was a presentation by Sam Harris entitled “The Problem with Atheism” (reprinted here at the Washington Post). Here is, I think, the crux of his argument: Another problem is that in accepting a label, particularly the label of “atheist,” it seems to me that we are …
[Originally posted in February 2007 at SciFiDimensions.com; re-posted on September 25, 2007 at AmericanFreethought.com.] It’s hard to believe, 82 years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, that there are still Americans who really do believe that the earth is 6,600 years old (give or take a century) and that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is just …
[Originally posted in March 2004 at SciFiDimensions.com; re-posted on September 24, 2007 as the first entry at AmericanFreethought.com.] What is “human nature”? How much of what we do is really “free will,” and how much of it is driven by deep genetic programming laid down even before there was such a thing as a human …