I recently read the fascinating epic memoir Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which is about three generations of women who grew up in 20th century China. The most riveting part is when the author describes the great upheaval that occurred under the dictatorship of Mao Zedong. Of the hundreds of pages the author spends describing the sweeping changes that overtook her country during that time, one section stood out to me the most. Chang writes:

One day in 1965, we were suddenly told to go out and start removing all the grass from the lawns. Mao had instructed that grass, flowers, and pets were bourgeois habits and were to be eliminated…Mao had attacked flowers and grass several times before,...READ MORE

Below is a series of excerpts from articles that I’ve clipped for my “Culture of Death” file. Can you spot the common theme among all the following statements?

• The Austin American-Statesman interviewed a woman who was an early user of the birth control pill. When touting all the supposedly wonderful things the Pill did for women, she said: “Children are great when you want them, but a millstone around your neck if you don’t.”
• In an article heralding the arrival of a new, less invasive test to detect Down syndrome that will allow us to “slowly eradicate the disease,” a spokesperson from the Institute of Neurology and Genetics said: “There is no cure [for Down syndrome], so this is a test...READ MORE

“Why can’t you be a good person without a man in the sky telling you what to do?” I am sometimes asked by my atheist readers when I mention that Christianity has made me a better person. I understand their confusion; if I’m willing to try to be a good person now, why couldn’t I have done that when I was an atheist? What’s God got to do with it? The short answer is: Everything. Here’s why:

1. What is “good” is really clear now

One of the biggest lessons of my conversion experience was when I learned that evil always works through lies. No sane person has ever woken up in the morning and said, “I think I’ll do something despicably evil today!” The only way we ever cooperate with evil is by...READ MORE

Yesterday I was going through my email inbox, and I came across an old note that filled me with mixed emotions. In the From line was the name Anne Rice.

A couple of years ago, shortly after she announced her return to the Catholic Church, I sent Ms. Rice a note to say how excited I was to hear her story as a fellow former atheist. When I saw her name pop up a few hours later, I figured it must be an auto-responder. Instead, I was delighted to find a brief but warm response from the author herself, offering thanks and encouragement on my own journey. The email made my day.

As I re-read that old exchange, I thought back to those days when Ms. Rice was overflowing with excitement about her...READ MORE

There’s a controversy brewing in Tacoma, Washington because the Tacoma Art Museum may show the work of an artist named David Wojnarowicz. Specifically, they want to show a video montage he put together that was pulled by the Smithsonian because it was too offensive. The Tacoma museum’s curator responded to critics by saying, “For someone to come and have to confront this image, it’s not going to be easy but art’s not easy.”

Curious about what this non-easy art might involve, I did some searches and found a clip of the video on Youtube (it’s called Fire in My Belly by David Wojnarowicz if you’re interested, though I don’t recommend viewing it). It features images of ants crawling on a...READ MORE

I recently read the powerful conversion story of The Raving Theist, formerly The Raving Atheist, who was once one of the most popular atheist bloggers in the world. (You can find his story and many others, including mine, in the new book Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion). His entire story is fascinating, but one sentence particularly struck me.

While still an atheist, he got to know some Christians through the blog world who were involved in the pro-life movement. Intrigued by their selfless dedication to others and inspired by their “gentle and reasonable” writings, he did something out of the ordinary and began volunteering at a pro-life crisis pregnancy center. He says of...READ MORE

Did you know that it’s atheist pride week? March 20 - 26 has been designated by a group of atheists as A Week, a time when nonbelievers are encouraged to step forward and announce themselves as atheists “to raise awareness of how many people are ‘Good Without God’ and don’t need religion to influence their lives.” With over 18,000 Likes on Facebook and 15,000 participants last year, this movement is certainly getting some traction.

I’ll leave it to the Archbolds to come up with some witty suggestions for how one might celebrate A Week (watching reruns of NOVA and gathering ‘round a wreath that is decidedly symbolic of nothing, perhaps?). Instead, I’ll focus on what strikes me most about...READ MORE

Last week Sir David Attenborough gave a speech to the Royal Society of Arts in London in which he urged leaders to combat the problem of overpopulation. His main point was that we need greater awareness about all the problems it causes when people have too many kids.

I’ll skip the rebuttal of the overpopulation alarmists’ claims since others have covered the issue well (Father Frank Pavone has a good overview of the subject here). What strikes me most about the anti-population-growth crowd’s position is a disturbing disconnect in their message:

They discourage people from having children, but they do not discourage people from having sex.

As I’ve said elsewhere, this is a dangerous...READ MORE