Let me start off by saying that I am extremely critical of the performances of atheists when they go up against pundits. While Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris usually get B’s, I have only graded one atheist an A+. Most atheists get failing grades. Last night Dave Silverman of American Atheists joined that crowd. There […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, Mainstream Christians, Media | 4 Comments »
Now that 2010 is almost over and Jupiter has still not turned into a second Sun, I want to take a moment to let everyone know about a few of the things Dangerous Talk has planned for 2011. On January 12th, I will be a guest of the fundamentalist Christian radio show “Bob Enyart Live.” […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, conversation, culture war, Disproving God, End of Days, Media, Religion, The Rapture, Vague Higher Power | 3 Comments »
I love the greater atheist community, but sometimes there are people in our community that are stupid and/or annoying. While these people do make up a very small percentage of our community, they are there and some how I get cornered into talking to them or sitting next to them. The thing about these annoying […]
Filed under: atheism, Criticism, Personal | 4 Comments »
My friend and aspiritual leader, Jake recently wrote a post on his blog, AfterFaith.com, that reminded me about an issue I’ve been wanting to write about for some time. Lately, I have been getting a lot of e-mails from recent de-converts from religion and I wanted to talk about the betrayal many of them feel. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Decline of Religion, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Self-Help | 3 Comments »
I have often written about the psychological reasoning for the born again experience and the path in which many religious people take towards losing their religion. But today I want to talk more about the trends involved in the exodus from religion. There are two pretty interesting trends that I have noticed in regard to […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Earlier in the week, I talked about how Margaret Downey of the Freethought Society is asking people to put a Tree of Knowledge in their homes this year, take a photo of their trees, and send them to her. I will be doing this hopefully next week. But in the meantime, I have created a […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, free speech, humanism | No Comments »
It was thirty years ago today that John Lennon was murders. Lennon was not only a great musician with the Beatles and on his own, but he was also a strong activist for social change. He took an extremely optimistic view of Humanity and was the world’s most visible Humanist and atheist. John Lennon wrote […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, Personal | 1 Comment »
For too long, Christians have claimed the monopoly on the winter season. While they have allowed Jews into the club despite the fact that Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday. A few years ago many in the atheist community made our claim for inclusion in the winter season with the holiday of Human Light and […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Christmas, church/state, culture war, Current Events, free speech, humanism, Neighbor, People of Reason, Personal, Tree of Knowledge | 4 Comments »
A few days ago, Christopher Hitchens went up against the former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair to debate the proposition that, “religion is a force of good for the world.” The thing about debates is that after they are over, both sides usually claim victory. However, this debate was done a bit more scientifically. […]
Filed under: atheism, debate, Hitchens, humanism, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »
As a critical thinker, I criticize a lot of ridiculous ideas. 9/11 Truthers, grand conspiracy theorists, ghosts, aliens, psychic powers, etc. are all things which I am critical of even though I actually believe in some of them to some degree. But when it comes to religion everyone gets offended. Let’s start with Christianity. I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war, ignorance, islam, jews, Mainstream Christians, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Skepticism | 8 Comments »
Yesterday I was watching part of the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Intelligent Design proponent Dr. William Demski of the “Discovery Institute” (which for the record has yet to discover anything). In any case, Demski made a particular claim that many other Christian make, but not as forcefully as Demski did. He stated that “Humans […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Evils of Christianity, humanism | 11 Comments »
Unlike Christians, atheists have no support network. If an atheist is suffering emotional, financial, or even physical distress, they have no one to turn to. Christians on the other hand can go to any church and get help. We need to start building an atheist support network. Earlier this week, the President of the Freethought […]
Filed under: atheism, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 1 Comment »
Every year for at least three years now, the Freethought Society (of Greater Philadelphia) has put up a Tree of Knowledge outside the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, PA. The tree is a large evergreen decorated with the laminated book covers of various atheist, scientific, philosophical, and even religious books. Every year there is […]
Filed under: atheism, censorship, church/state, free speech, People of Reason, Tree of Knowledge | 8 Comments »
So last night I was at the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society and our President Margaret Downey was speaking about how she de-converted and got active in activism. Afterward, she invited others to briefly give their de-conversion tale. So when I was up, I talked about how I came from a mostly secularized Jewish […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, jews, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, I had the interesting opportunity to visit a discount Christian bookstore. Whenever I can, I like to take a look at what Christians are selling and buying. I just find it fascinating. I feel like a anthropologist studying a primitive culture. For starters, I love how the store was open on Saturday […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war | 2 Comments »
Yesterday the American Humanist Association launched their big multimedia campaign. I think it is a great time to talk briefly about their campaign and about where the focus of these groups should be going. If you haven’t heard about this campaign please check out my Examiner article on it. For starters, I have been critical […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, humanism, Media, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
While the forces of sanity and fear square off in our nation’s capital, the forces of reason are also converging. For those going to the Comedy Central rallies hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, atheists are gathering together at the event. I just posted an Examiner article with all the details. Unfortunately I will […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, humanism, People of Reason, Personal, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I talked about the perception that criticism and mockery is often considered going negative. Today I want to talk about the value of criticism and mockery. Quite simply, it is how we learn. When presented with an idea (good or bad) we have to think about the idea. Sometimes we don’t do that or […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, ignorance, Religion, Skepticism | 3 Comments »
A lot of people criticize me and other atheists because we criticize religion. They seem to think that criticism is “being negative.” Oddly enough, these people don’t think they are being negative when they criticize us for being negative. People keep asking me to stop being critical of religion and to stop mocking religion. But […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, culture war, ignorance, Offensiveness, Religion | 5 Comments »
A lot of people get tripped up on labels and people in the greater atheistic community are no exception. Two of the main labels that tend to confuse a lot of freethinkers are atheism and agnosticism. Of course many religious people have learned to exploit this confusion. I have written quite a bit about the […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, language, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
After 9/11, four atheists started to write books criticizing religion. While the media has dubbed these atheists “New Atheists,” Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett have jokingly labeled themselves as “The Four Horsemen of Atheism.” Now I think there is a fifth horseman, Stephen Hawking. At the beginning of the month, Stephen […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, discussion, good cop-bad cop, science | 4 Comments »
While there are many really important people and great voices within the greater atheistic community, there are two people in particular that I consider my atheist heroes (currently living). Over the weekend, I got to hang out with one of them. The so called “Four Horsemen of Atheism” are all great people and worthy of […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Last night I noticed that Reverend Rick Warren had an interesting facebook status worth commenting on. His status had something to do with unbelievers not wanting to know the Truth of God or some such nonsense. After replying that unbelievers aren’t convinced by the claims made by believers, I checked back to see what other […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, culture war | 1 Comment »
Even though the term “agnostic” means without knowledge and pretty much applies to anyone who admits that we can’t know everything, there are some people who insist that agnostic is a category of belief in and of itself. These people insist that atheism is a dogmatic view that someone is 100% certain that there is […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, culture war, language | 2 Comments »
I got a message today from a fellow atheist asking why so many atheists take a literal view of the Bible rather than argue the Bible from a more metaphorical position. I think it is a fair question to some degree. For starters, here in America we tend to run into a large number of […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, good cop-bad cop, image of god, Religion | 7 Comments »
I get into a lot of conversations with a lot of fundamentalist believers. Even though I love these conversations it sometimes seems like I am having a conversation with a wall. We have all had these types of conversations. But sometimes we forget that there might be flies on that wall and they might benefit […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, discussion, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 5 Comments »
Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society. This month’s guest speaker was former American Atheist President Ellen Johnson. Johnson was promoting her new organization called “Enlighten the Vote” and she said a lot of very interesting things. First, I want to point out that while I think what Ellen Johnson said […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Over the weekend at my 9/11 Birthday Barbecue, a Christian friend claimed that I never have anything positive to say about religion. I told him that there are actually a few things that I do admire about Christianity and I think atheists can learn a few things from Christianity… without of course believing in ridiculous […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
We all know that nine years ago Islamic terrorists flew planes into buildings and changed the world forever. What most people don’t know is that 36 years ago on that very same day a dangerous talker was born. I often joke about how former President Bush decided to turn my birthday into a national holiday. […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 4 Comments »
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from someone who works at a state agency in the Bible Belt. The head of the agency often uses working lunches and meetings to conduct a short prayer session. According to the e-mail, this happens often and most people just go along with it rather than risk their jobs. Most […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
