Since the only thing that all atheists must have in common due to their atheism is a lack of belief in deities, it is only natural that atheists will argue with other atheists over other issues. That makes sense and I don’t have any problems with that. However, there are too few atheists and far […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, People of Reason | 5 Comments »
Today is the President’s first official State of the Union Address. But what is the state of our union with respect to atheism? According to the ARIS Poll done at the end of 2008 non-belief has been up not just all across the nation but in every single state. Obama has reversed Bush’s policy on […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason | 21 Comments »
It is kind of funny sometimes when religious fundamentalists claim that America is an atheist nation. Sometimes they even say that in the same breath as when they tell me that America is a Christian nation. Of course I have to inquire. Sometimes religious people don’t understand the difference between atheism and secularism and as […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, education, Religion | 4 Comments »
Many well reasoned atheists disagree on issues of taxation, foreign policy, states rights, etc. So I can understand why not all atheists are politically active and that all the atheists that are politically active may not all be Democrats. But what I can’t understand is how any well reasoned atheist could possibly be a Republican. […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, evolution, free speech, Gay Issues, global climate change, palin, People of Reason, Politics, Religion, science | 22 Comments »
One of the big issues that I often have with fundamentalist religious people is that more often than not they will make wild accusations about atheists and sometimes these accusations even come in the form of a question. These questions often have implied answers which are not true and are just mean spirited toward atheists. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Hope, Religion | 9 Comments »
Yesterday, two of my favorite authors verbally attacked each other on the interweb pages of foreignpolicy.com. Sam Harris and Karen Armstrong have both written outstanding books. As an atheist, I frequently recommend Armstrong’s The History of God and The Bible: A Biography to Christians. I also recommend Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation. Armstrong asserts […]
Filed under: atheism, education, People of Reason, Religion, Vague Higher Power | 5 Comments »
Apparently, this weekend there will be a meeting of atheist leaders. I didn’t even know there were atheist leaders, but I digress. I’m sure my invitation must have been lost in the mail. In any case, one of the topics on the agenda is whether or not to have one huge massive atheist unity convention […]
Filed under: atheism, Current Events, People of Reason | 6 Comments »
Over the break, I got a lot of e-mails asking me about my de-conversion story. To be honest, my story isn’t that interesting. I was never a fundamentalist nor did I have a lot of family pressure to stay religious. But it’s a new year, so I guess I’ll tell the story. First, it is […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 6 Comments »
First and foremost, I think that it is important for atheists to build a strong local community. There are freethought, humanist, and skeptic groups all over the nation and the world and we should all take part in those local groups. The new Coalitions of Reason (COR) are also helping to bring atheists together locally. […]
Filed under: atheism, facebook, People of Reason, Tree of Knowledge, twitter | 11 Comments »
Last week, I got a nasty e-mail from a fellow atheist about one of my blogs. This atheist didn’t agree with my approach to religion and thinks that we ought not to offend the religious in any way. He claimed that my view of atheism reflects negatively on all atheists. I wonder, does that mean […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Religion | 7 Comments »
Recently, I watched the new DVD film, “Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson.” The film follows the book tour of atheist Hitchens and fundamentalist Christian Wilson as they debate each other on the question, “is Christianity good for the world?” Hitchens describes himself as an anti-theist in the film and makes the argument that morality […]
Filed under: atheism, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »
Yesterday, the Friendly Atheist posted a story about a new bus campaign going up soon in Washington State. Here is what the ad will look like: Hemant thinks that this is an “inaccurate” ad and that religious people will use it “against us.” I take issue with this. First, it is not inaccurate. As a […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, billboards, culture war, People of Reason, Religion | 7 Comments »
While there is a large atheist community on the internet and some of us have atheist friends and see fellow atheists at local group meetings and meet-ups, we tend to think that everyone in the general public are god-believers. For the most part they are, however that is starting to change. Earlier in the week […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, People of Reason, Religion | 14 Comments »
I have strongly advocated in favor of building a positive atheist community. I think a community of reason is very important. For starters, such a community would strongly help in lobbying politicians to vote against the religious fundamentalists and would help to establish more reasonable public policies. However, many times I meet atheists who tell […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
Yesterday, I discovered a great 7 part de-conversion story on YouTube. I don’t even think that the guy is finished with it yet, but I really like the way he has done this series so far. So today I am going to be lazy and just post the playlist for this series. When one video […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
After 9-11, some people started to realize that the terrorist attacks were faith based initiatives. Many of those same people then realized that America responded with faith rather than reason. As a result, atheists started to speak up and many became much more vocal about their lack of belief and their criticism of belief. The […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion | 15 Comments »
If you take a look at the blogs on MySpace, it is clear that there is a very large atheist presence on that social networking site. According to Penn Jillette, atheists, agnostics, Humanists, and nones are the number three response to the question of religion on Facebook. That isn’t even counting Pastafarians, Jedi, or those […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, twitter | 3 Comments »
Many theists complain to me that I shouldn’t criticize religion because it makes them happy. They accuse me of “trying to take away their happiness.” I find this accusation to be a sad attempt at a conversation stopper. For starters, I don’t think I am trying to take anyone’s happiness away any more than drug […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, Evils of Christianity, god, morality, Religion, the bible | 7 Comments »
I get asked a lot by both Christians and atheists alike, what is the book that I would most recommend to people in order to de-convert them away from god-belief. The answer I always give surprises a lot of people. While some people would expect me to say, Richard Dawkin’s book, The God Delusion, I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion, the bible | 7 Comments »
If someone owed you a hundred dollars and handed you 10 cents insisting that it was a hundred dollars, what would you do? Would it be considered proselytizing to inform them of reality? Would you claim that they are entitled to their belief? What if someone told you that they sincerely believed Elvis was still […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, delusion, Religion | 20 Comments »
James Dobson and Chris Hedges have very little in common, but when it comes to the non-believers, they are on the same page. In fact, they constantly play off each other. Dobson talks fire and brimstone and Hedges talks of peace on Earth. Yet we never see the two of them debate each other or […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, People of Reason, Religion | 24 Comments »
Yesterday was Blasphemy Day and some atheists have been critical of the holiday. I don’t really have a problem with that. Not all atheists have to agree on this or anything else for that matter except of course the lack of belief in deities. But I would like to address some of the criticisms. One […]
Filed under: atheism, Blasphemy, free speech, People of Reason, Religion | 3 Comments »
Fuck Mohammad with a Crucifix, today is Blasphemy Day! For those who aren’t aware, this is the anniversary of publishing of a handful of Danish cartoons which caused mass rioting from the Muslim community. Incidentally, none of the major US publishers published those cartoons at the time out of fear. In fact, the executives at […]
Filed under: atheism, Blasphemy, Religion | 7 Comments »
I’m a little disappointed in the greater atheist community. Atheists are notorious for not uniting together and for not supporting fellow atheists. We really need to fix this problem. While not all atheists agree with each other on anything necessarily except for the lack of belief in a god or gods that is no excuse. […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, People of Reason, Political Activism, Religion, Tree of Knowledge | 13 Comments »
Last year, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia put up a winter display outside the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, PA. As a member of that organization, I was part of the effort. While we were putting up our Tree of Knowledge, a film maker named Greg Walsh took some video that he was […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion, Tree of Knowledge | 2 Comments »
A few months ago, I saw the Academy Award nominated film, Milk about gay activist, politician, Harvey Milk. One of the things that I noticed about as I saw the movie was that the main character was able to gain political power because he formed a strong gay community to elect him. I remember wondering […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion | 14 Comments »
Many times when I am in a discussion with religious and/or atheistic moderates, they tell me that, “some people need religion.” They also often tell me that, “you can’t reason with a fundamentalist.” These are interesting opinions and many of my readers may even agree with them. I however do not. I think people are […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion | 5 Comments »
This seems to come up a lot and in many different forms. Often times, Christians or some other believer in the Abrahamic God will accuse atheists of being the very thing that they themselves are. For example, it is not uncommon for a Christian to claim that the atheist position (that no credible evidence has […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, faith, Projection, Religion | 16 Comments »
I was talking with an atheist friend of mine last week and he asked a fantasy question. What I mean by a fantasy question is that the questioner is reasonably certain that the question will never come up in reality. It is like asking who you would pick for your all star football team or […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, discussion, god, god the father, Religion | 24 Comments »
Why is it that so many Christians assume incorrectly that Christianity has the monopoly on family values? We live in a pluralistic society, and as such, people’s values will clash. Fundamental Christianity in particular has to learn that they cannot censor someone else’s values or culture because those values offend the rigid fundamentalist Christian value […]
Filed under: atheism, discussion, education, morality, Parenting, People of Reason, Religion | 48 Comments »
