North Texas Church of Freethought

06/14/2026

Ask Google "are people on the autism spectrum more likely to be atheists?" and it answers: "Yes, research suggests that individuals on the autism spectrum are statistically more likely to be atheists or agnostics compared to the general population." Not that all are, of course. But not being as reflexively inclined to attribute a theory of mind to everything makes it more difficult to accept the notion of disembodied supernatural minds and a "bottom up" systemizing way of making sense of things makes supernatural claims seem even more implausible and silly. Of course this does not mean that people with ASD - not that it's really a disorder, especialluy in high-functioning individuals! - have no religion or have difficulty with forming a "total reacction upon life" as William James called religion. But they appear to be more apt to reject ways of thinking that are at odds with "common sense" practicality.

This article presents a narrative theoretical and empirical review of religiosity in adults on the autism spectrum. Religiosity is defined as an individual set of beliefs and practices proposed by a religious institution or group. This topic is ...

05/24/2026

So you think the Abrahamic religions are giant scams that make a lot of money for their purveyors? The Medical Quackery Biz is right up there too:

05/19/2026

It's not just false belief in "God" that is promoted by adherents of the Abrahamic religions.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/generalobgyn/121315

Here we see the impact of the false belief that "miscarriage" - referred to medically as "spontaneous abortion" - is fundamentally different from and can be practically and legally distinguished from and separated from "abortion" which is conceived of by zealots as the deliberate termination of a perfectly normal pregnancy in perfectly healthy and normal women for "convenience."

Nuh-uh. These researchers show that restrictive abortion laws triggered by the striking down of Roe v Wade by the Catholic SCOTUS have affected - and degraded the quality of - medical care for women having spontaneous abortion.

Yes, ideas have consequences! And bad ideas have bad consequences

Shifts in management may be an unintended effect of abortion restrictions

05/18/2026

Sorry, it's behind the New York Times' paywall but THIS IS WHY belief is such a danegrous thing. Sadly, because of the influence of the Abrahamic religions ovber the last 2000+ years, most people, even most educated people, assume that "believing in things" is an unmitigated virtue. Further - and even worse - they hold that once one "believes in something" that it is of paramount importance to "stick to one's guns" and refuse to give up one's beliefs as if they are body parts they are born with. But this article is just one single example of a whole industry that ,manages public opinion. Businesses selling products and service pur untold sums into the same project. So: don't believe stuff that you don't know first-hand, much less because you read it online. Probably 90% of what is on-line is stuff like this firm comntrives to put there for the purpose of controlling public opinion. YOUR opinions.

Terakeet, a reputation management firm, used online tricks to downplay the friendship of the Goldman Sachs general counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, with the s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn’t enough.

05/18/2026

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23921675/

A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity. The association was stronger for college students and the general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavio...

05/10/2026

05/09/2026

THEY ADMIT IT! Devotees of supernaturalist religions need no more capacity than robots!

The humanoid promised to obey humans, save energy and treat other robots peacefully. South Korean Buddhist leaders have recently started to embrace artificial intelligence

05/03/2026

On this past 25 April Pastor Tim participated in a podcast discussion ranging over a variety of subjects of interest to atheists and Freethinkrs here:

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04/30/2026

https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/health-policy/positions/2026-gender-surgery-children-adolescents.pdf

04/22/2026

Researchers from the US, UK and Canada collaborated to assess the accuracy of medical information provided by generative AI chatbots. They found that roughly half of the responses to queries were problematic. About 20% were highly problematic. Grok was the worst. They concluded: “The audited chatbots performed poorly when answering questions in misinformation-prone health and medical fields. Continued deployment without public education and oversight risks amplifying misinformation.”