Catherine Caldwell-Harris is an associate professor of psychology at Boston University. She conducted a small study in 2008 comparing the spiritual beliefs of atheists, Christians and Buddhists; it included questions about meaning and purpose in life, as well. She also presented a paper, titled “The puzzle of nonbelief,” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the […]

Louise M. Antony is a philosophy professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has written various essays about atheism and is editor of the book Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life (2007), to which she also contributed one of the chapters, titled “For the Love of Reason.” She once debated Christian apologist/philosopher William […]

Stephen Frederick Uhl is a former Roman Catholic priest and the author of Out of God’s Closet: This Priest Psychologist Chooses Friendly Atheism (2009). He lives in Oro Valley, Ariz.

Ryan T. Cragun is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Tampa, where he studies secularization, the nonreligious and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Read a Nov. 14, 2009, New York Times article about research into whether religious behavior is an evolved instinct.

Read a Dec. 4, 2009, essay by evolutionary psychologist and biologist Marc D. Hauser, “It seems biology (not religion) equals morality.”

Read a June 23, 2010, Religion News Service story about a University of Toronto study comparing anxiety levels of believers and nonbelievers. The story is posted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Read an Aug. 30, 2010, NPR story about the connection between human evolution and belief in the super-natural.

A. Richard Bullock is an associate clergy member at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Portland, Ore., and co-author of Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide to Sabbatical Planning.