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Spokane
Thursday, October 10, 2024

Jim Downard

Jim Downard is a Spokane native (with a sojourn in Southern California back in the early 1960s) who was raised in a secular family, so says had no personal faith to lose. He's always been a history and science buff (getting a bachelor's in the former area at what was then Eastern Washington University in the early 1970s).

Christmas in September: Trump gave us ‘source methods’ gifts debating Harris

Find out why fact-checking matters in the Trump and Harris debate. Read James Downard's analysis on the role of media in the vetting process.

Christian nationalism: The nasty tip of a bigger (and even nastier?) iceberg

Get insights into the threat of Christian nationalism and its interconnected players at the upcoming conference in Spokane. Join us for a discussion with renowned speakers Andrew Seidel and Brad Onishi.

Louisiana’s Latest ‘Thou Shalt’ Law: 10 Commandments to Save Public Schools (But Only if Churches Foot the Bill)

Louisiana mandates the display of the 10 Commandments in public schools, inviting legal challenges and controversy over church-state separation. Governor Landry's move sparks debate on religious influence in education.

Everything You Need To Know About Life You Can Get from ‘The Twilight Zone’ and Rodgers & Hammerstein Musicals

Should someone ask me (a secular atheist) where I got my philosophy of life — what to value, how to behave — and how not to, I can answer simply and directly: from watching Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” and Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals as I grew up.

Confessions of an Unrepentant Expociter

Nonetheless, I was among the legion of screwball cocky activists (known as “Expociters”) who insisted it was possible for our dumpy decaying little burg, the peripheral civic pimple on the back ass of Washington state, to match (or even outdo) grand Seattle in having—hold your horses, fasten your seatbelts—a real live WORLD’S FAIR here.

ICR on the Road … and on the Ropes

Creationism has two main songs: “Origins or Bust” about life itself or aspects of it being impossible other than via divine creation, and “Gee Whiz” stuff marveling at the amazing (fill in the blank) but not going too far into whatever science literature there may be on them, especially their evolutionary history.

Ask An Atheist: Where did human beings come from?

The science end of it is clear enough: our species appeared several hundred thousand years ago in Africa, one of several hominid species of that period, including our ancestral branch Homo erectus, the first of our genus to venture outside Africa.

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