Philosophy of religion

A study of over 3,000 people in 13 countries has found that most of the world think atheists are immoral.

Most interesting of all, is the finding that this perception even exists among atheists themselves.

Religious people are more tolerant of different viewpoints than atheists, according to researchers at a Catholic university.

A study of 788 people in the UK, France and Spain concluded that atheists and agnostics think of themselves as more open-minded than those with faith, but are are actually less tolerant to differing opinions and ideas.

If you take your political campaign to mosques, then you should realize that you would be dividing the people who go to mosques to pray; you would be separating the congregants.    

There is no such thing as an easy start. For the so-called ordinary people of this world, and for the leaders who are equipped with the moderation that comes from the reading of history, the beginning of every serious effort is exceptionally hard: new and relatively unknown territory, a new role, and new people (on your side as well as against you).

Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman sparked controversy last week after suggesting that secularism should not be included in Turkey's new constitution, as this is a Muslim country. Both the president and the prime minister quickly denounced his remarks as his "personal views," ensuring that no debate on secularism takes place.

A new academic book claims that atheism is not a modern invention, but actually dates back to the ancient world.

At a non-descript office block in the Kad?köy neighborhood of Istanbul's Asian side, the "Atheism Association" has its HQ, nestled among stores selling electronic devices, musical equipment, and old CDs. 

The office consists of just a single table and a few chairs. There, ?ener Atik from the association spoke to Hürriyet about their struggle.

Why do we do this? Is it that we like to torture ourselves? Is it that we like pain? Are we masochists who strive for sorrow, pain, humiliation, destruction, poverty, violence and death? Do we have such low self-esteem that whenever we are near to some form of happiness, we sabotage ourselves? 

The number of Americans who don't affiliate with a particular religion has grown to 56 million in recent years, making the faith group researchers call "nones" the second-largest in total numbers behind evangelicals, according to a Pew Research Center study released May 12.

Christianity is still the dominant faith by far in the U.S.; 7 in 10 Americans identify with the tradition.

On Jan. 10, three American college students were murdered at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Unmistakably, they were all Muslims: Deah Shaddy Barakat (23), Yusor Mohammad (21) and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19). And again unmistakably, their murderer, a 46-year-old man named Craig Stephen Hicks was a self-declared ?anti-theist? who wanted to see ?religion go away.?