---
title: "From fundamentalism to atheism, learning forgiveness, and the comedy of awkwardness"
date: "2016-06-01T13:16:54+01:00"
modified: "2016-06-01T13:16:54+01:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2016/06/01/from-fundamentalism-to-atheism-learning-forgiveness-and-the-comedy-of-awkwardness/"
post_id: 6531
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# From fundamentalism to atheism, learning forgiveness, and the comedy of awkwardness

1\. [Beyond the cringe](/articles/5043/beyond-the-cringe)

In this preview from our Summer issue, Mark Fisher explores the rise of humour drawn from awkwardness and embarrassment, which reaches a new zenith with two American programmes.

2\. [The fundamentalist Christian preacher who became an atheist](/articles/5040/the-fundamentalist-christian-preacher-who-became-an-atheist)

After 19 years as a self-proclaimed “extremist”, Dan Barker renounced his faith – and he wants everyone to know about it. In our latest issue, he speaks to Ralph Jones.

3\. [Can you teach me how to forgive myself?](/playdice/428)

In this archive piece from 2013, David Belden reports on the restorative justice programmes of California.

4\. [Whatever happened to the Loch Ness monster?](/articles/5023/whatever-happened-to-the-loch-ness-monster)

Today, 80 years after Nessie was first “sighted”, the band of believers in this mythical creature is dwindling, writes Ronald Binns.

5\. [What I owe the library](/playdice/2514)

We can’t do without our private places to read and think, says novelist Philip Pullman, in this archive piece from 2011.

*[April’s top long-reads](/articles/5030/)*

*[More on our Summer issue – out now](/articles/5039/the-summer-2016-new-humanist-is-out-now)*