Dangerous Talk is moving to SkepticInk.com! Don’t worry I am not retiring this site entirely. I will keep DangerousTalk.net up running because I have years of blog posts here that I love. But for the foreseeable future, I will not be posting new content here. The Daily blog will now be part of the Skeptic Ink […]
Filed under: atheism, Personal | 1 Comment »
The community of reason has lost a great activist and leader over the weekend. Joe Fox worked and led various Humanist groups in the Philadelphia/Lehigh Valley area. He was a hands-on kind of guy and was one of the hardest workers I knew. The reports I have heard are that he probably died sometime on […]
Filed under: death, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | No Comments »
For me, have to admit that it is a guilty pleasure to argue with fundamentalist religious believers in situations when I probably shouldn’t. I try to be good and not to start the discussion, but I admit that sometimes I will passive/aggressively get them to start the discussion. Sometimes however, I try to be good […]
Filed under: argument, atheism, conversation, Personal | 2 Comments »
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to officiate my first wedding. Two of my friends over at PolySkeptic got married and had asked me to conduct the wedding. While there was serious talk about me officiating wearing Jedi robes, we all thought better of that. Sure it would have been fun and funny, but […]
Filed under: humanism, Love, Personal, Personal Experience | No Comments »
I had a pretty interesting conversation at Arby’s yesterday. I was waiting for my food next to an old guy who was probably around 80. He had ordered a couple of shakes to take home for him and his wife. He was telling me that his wife likes the Jamocha shake, but he likes the […]
Filed under: conversation, Gay Issues, Personal | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I was at the polling booth all day talking to mostly socially liberal Republicans. Some of which told me they planned to vote for Obama. Others said that Obama is too polarizing and won’t budge on any issue. That one was comical because I don’t think there is an issue Obama hasn’t tried to […]
Filed under: Personal, Politics | 1 Comment »
Well, today is primary day and I will once again be away from my computer the whole day. Three years ago, I wrote myself in when voting on various local offices that didn’t have a democratic candidate and to my surprise I got a letter telling me that I won the election for Minority Election […]
Filed under: Personal, Politics | No Comments »
I recently visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art and while there, I saw my favorite sculpture, “The Thinker.” After looking at it for a few minutes, I noticed some of the other works around it. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words: What does this photo speak to you? Related articles Thinkering: […]
Filed under: Coexist, culture war, Personal | No Comments »
The audience of Dangerous Talk is almost always my fellow atheists with the occasional Christian or other fundamentalist believer. My Examiner articles get a more diverse mix of people. Religious believers often read and comment on my articles there. But I want to reach out to more religious believers than I get through Examiner. For […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Coexist, conversation, culture war, humanism, journalism, People of Reason, Personal, Progressive Christians | No Comments »
Former Star Trek actor, gay activist, and Humanist George Takei has been on fire lately. When a bill was on the table in one of the southern states (I forget which one) that attempted to restrict teachers from using the word, “gay” in the classroom, George Takei stepped up with his, “It’s okay to be […]
Filed under: culture war, facebook, Gay Issues, humanism, People of Reason, Personal, twitter | 1 Comment »
Whenever there is a sex scandal or just about anything at all having to do with sex or sexuality, Christians are often quick to complain, “How am I going to explain this to my kids?” I never really understood their complaint until somewhat recently. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t understand the complaint in […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Church, conversation, culture war, education, Parenting, Personal, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 5 Comments »
Back in my college days, there weren’t a lot of atheist t-shirts out there. I had a shirt that I got from Hot Topic that said, “i am god” in all lowercase letters. There is an interesting story with this shirt and what happened when I wore it to my Christian friend’s Creationism program. My […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, Creationism, de-conversion, god, Personal, Religion | No Comments »
Yesterday was Election Day and as Minority Election Inspector, I am at my polling place all day long. Since I live in a largely Republican area, it is an opportunity to talk to Republicans about politics. It came to no surprise to me that I couldn’t find anyone who liked Mitt Romney for President. What […]
Filed under: Election, Obama, Personal, Politics | 1 Comment »
A number of years ago, I attempted to run for the US Congress against a Republican who had been there for a long time (and is still there today). My plan was to take advantage of the situation in which no one wanted to run against this Congressman and use it to test out some […]
Filed under: Election, Personal, Politics | No Comments »
Republicans love to call anyone who disagrees with them names. Usually it is Socialist or Nazi (despite the fact that these are two completely opposite political philosophies). But then they go with anarchist which is an pretty interesting choice considering that they often claim that liberals are for big government which is last I checked […]
Filed under: Government, Law, Personal | No Comments »
I was reading a friend’s blog yesterday and one of the things she experiences seemed similar to what I recently experienced in relation to my friend’s funeral. We were both bullied into silence and forced to hide our lack of belief in the ridiculous. As it turns out, most people in the greater community of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Authority, Car Bomb Argument, Coexist, culture war, discrimination, Evils of Christianity, morality, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Over the weekend, one of my college friends died. He was a young guy and would occasionally comment on my facebook wall when I was discussing politics. While he might have denied it, I claim him as the first person I deconverted away from Christianity. What I realized however is that much of the words […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, death, People of Reason, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Awhile back, I met a Democratic Party candidate running for a local county office. I have met this candidate several times since I am active within the county party. But not long ago, my friend learned that this candidate rejects the science of evolution in favor of Creationism. It is one thing for the wacky […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, Creationism, culture war, education, facebook, faith, free speech, Personal, Politics | 4 Comments »
“Being a freedom fighter, a force for good, is a wonderful thing. You get to make your own hours, looks good on a resume, but the pay… sucks.” – Alfred Bester, Babylon 5 Being an atheist activist or any activist for that matter is a lot like being a freedom fighter in that sense. Sure […]
Filed under: atheism, Personal | 2 Comments »
Over the years, I have often repeated a joke to friends which was told to me on 9/11. The joke is horribly offensive however I do enjoy offensive humor and this joke in particular meant a lot to me at the time. So it being the tenth anniversary of that terrible day, I thought it […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, Patriot Day, Personal | 2 Comments »
Last week, I was listening to a talk radio show in which the host commented about how the title, “Patriot Day” commercializes and trivializes the tragedy of that day. He imagined commercials advertising for Patriot Day clearance sales. But after the events of 9/11, I think America did sell out. I remember the days after […]
Filed under: culture war, Patriot Day, Personal | 1 Comment »
Last night I went to my first Town Hall event hosted by my Republican congressman Patrick Meehan. This is Meehan’s first term in office and while I had heard that he was more of a moderate, he was backed by the Tea Baggers. Not long ago I had sent the Congressman a letter concerning Health […]
Filed under: Current Events, Government, Personal, Political Activism, Politics | 3 Comments »
Often times Christians will ask people if they have heard the “Good News.” They will ask if you have ever heard of Jesus Christ. Once when I was in college, I thought I would try a little experiment and answer the question in a way most Christians wouldn’t expect. I said, “No, never heard of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, discussion, ignorance, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Last week, I was at my parent’s house and my mother bought a Berenstain Bears book for my 2 and a half year old son. She remembered that I used to enjoy those books when I was young. However, upon reading it to my son, my mother noticed that it was full of Jesus talk. […]
Filed under: Bears, Current Events, Parenting, Personal | 20 Comments »
This morning, I was at the hospital with my wife who was getting an ultrasound to make sure the fetus is developing normally. While there, there was a woman in the waiting room also getting ready for an ultrasound. She was telling me that she believes that she is having a boy do to some […]
Filed under: delusion, Personal | 2 Comments »
It seems that the drama around Skepchick Rebecca Watson’s elevator encounter has escalated and people are starting to leave the greater community of reason over this. If you don’t know what I am talking about, Rebecca summarizes it HERE. On the plus side, this drama is getting a lot of attention and since all publicity […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Personal | 22 Comments »
A lot was going on this past weekend. Americans celebrated our independence from England, American Atheists flew banners over half the nation, and atheists celebrated our independence from gods. Yet despite all of this, most of the e-mails I got this weekend were asking me my opinion on Rebecca Watson’s 4am elevator encounter. Let me […]
Filed under: atheism, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Personal, Skepticism | 9 Comments »
My fellow atheist blogger over at Atheist Revolution recently posted a blog entry on why he chose the name he did for his blog. So today I thought I would do the same with mine. Why is my blog called Dangerous Talk? In 1995, my friend Jeff brought me on the air during his disco […]
Filed under: atheism, Media, Personal | No Comments »
Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist is Coming to DVD… with your help. If you are not familiar with Brother Sam, he is a character played by Roger Scott Jackson. Rosco travels around the country performing a one man comedy show. His main show is called Patriarchs and Penises. I have seen the show twice and it […]
Filed under: atheism, Blasphemy, culture war, free speech, People of Reason, Personal, Preaching | No Comments »
While most people know Ryan Dunn from his association with the Jackass movies, I know him from his staring role in a small film called Haggard. Haggard was a film made by Bam Margera. The movie was filmed in West Chester, PA where both Bam and Ryan live. At the time the movie was filmed, […]
Filed under: Current Events, death, Personal | 2 Comments »
