Posted on June 1st, 2012 by Staks
My conversation from over the last two days at “Think Christian” has been cut short due to censorship. You see, I talked about how Progressive Christians had to acknowledge that the Bible is wrong on homosexuality in order to be absolved of being labeled hateful toward gays. A Christian responded by claiming that the free […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Authority, censorship, conversation, free speech, Offensiveness, Progressive Christians, Religion | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 29th, 2012 by Staks
I don’t go to atheist conventions or conferences and I have three reasons for that. Two are practical and one is much less so. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad these conferences exist and I don’t want to discourage anyone from going to them. But I won’t be attending. One reason why I don’t […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Coexist, Offensiveness, People of Reason | 17 Comments »
Posted on November 28th, 2011 by Staks
Fundamentalist Christians are upset because apparently President Obama didn’t mention God in his Thanksgiving Day address. Personally, I don’t know why the President has to even have a Thanksgiving Day address. But the Right Wing has been complaining all weekend that Obama “omitted” God from the address. The Amazing Atheist did a great video on […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Obama, Offensiveness, Religion, thanksgiving | No Comments »
Posted on October 26th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on October 4th, 2011 by Staks
In a debate between Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe, Harris talked about how when people talk about their belief that Elvis is still alive in job interviews, etc. there is an immediate price to be paid. When politicians invoke religious terminology there should be a price they too should have to pay. Let’s be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, Decline of Religion, Election, Government, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Political Activism | No Comments »
Posted on September 30th, 2011 by Staks
Today is International Blasphemy Day! I love holidays like this. For one thing, I am a huge supporter of free speech and this is an opportunity to express free speech in a creative way that hopefully sends a powerful message to those who need it most. For this reason, I consider it among the most […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, church/state, culture war, family values, free speech, Law, Offensiveness, Political Activism, sex | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 22nd, 2011 by Staks
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about words that particular minorities find offensive and asked what label atheists might consider offensive. Over the weekend, I discovered the answer. I guess it has been a pet peeve of mine for a while, but I just didn’t think of it at the time I […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Authority, Creationism, culture war, evolution, language, Offensiveness | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 10th, 2011 by Staks
I am going to warn everyone that today’s blog I am going to use words that most people consider horribly offensive. I will however not be using them in an offensive manner, but I don’t think it is appropriate to use a euphemism instead. Louis C.K. put it best when he said that the “N-word” […]
Filed under: atheism, censorship, free speech, language, Offensiveness | 18 Comments »
Posted on July 5th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on June 24th, 2011 by Staks
It has occurred to me that in the Bible, the character of God is always telling people what to do and complaining about various things. One of his biggest issues is that the Hebrews don’t love him enough. In the New Testament Jesus whines about how people don’t love God enough. So I just gotta […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, god, Offensiveness, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on April 26th, 2011 by Staks
If it were just one Christian, I would say that he or she was just ignorant of the use of the philosophical term, but it seems that many Christians who I get in online discussions/debates with seem to misuse to term “ad hominem.” So I thought I would take the time to explain it in […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, discussion, logic, Offensiveness | No Comments »
Posted on March 11th, 2011 by Staks
Once again we come to the conversation about how critical atheists should be when criticizing religion with the religious. It seems that some atheists think I should be more respectful of the religious and realize that they sometimes feel personally attacked when their beliefs are criticized. I realize this, but that doesn’t mean that I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, Offensiveness, Religion | 6 Comments »
Posted on March 10th, 2011 by Staks
Last night I was pretty surprised to get an e-mail from the executives at Examiner.com. I write for Examiner as the Philly Atheist Examiner to help fund Dangerous Talk. Apparently, they received a complaint about one of my articles and determined that a statement I made might be libelous. The article was the one I […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, censorship, Offensiveness, Personal, Raelians, Religion, scientology | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 7th, 2011 by Staks
It seems that many religious people are offended every time an atheist makes his or her lack of belief known. This is why organized atheism offends them so much lately. Why are they so offended by our mere existence? In George Orwell’s book 1984, there is a very interesting and often overlooked conversation. In this […]
Filed under: 1984, Alternative Worldview, Authority, Blasphemy, culture war, deathbed conversion, Offensiveness, Religion, Religious Manipulation, science | 4 Comments »
Posted on November 23rd, 2010 by Staks
Thanksgiving is a few days away and that means for many atheists an uncomfortable long weekend with religious family members. The question is always the same, how vocal should an atheist be during Thanksgiving? I’m pretty lucky in that my family pretty much knows where I stand and expects me to be vocal. Most of […]
Filed under: conversation, Offensiveness, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 20th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on August 27th, 2010 by Staks
I always have to laugh when some Christian cries about the horrible persecution they suffer because they aren’t allowed to discriminate against gays or force their religion and values down everyone the throats of others like they used to. Woe it is to be a Christian today, lol. Yesterday, I blogged about how the Catholic […]
Filed under: culture war, discrimination, Offensiveness, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 25th, 2010 by Staks
I have often talked about how we choose what offends us and how we could just as easily choose not to be offended. However, some things have a reasonable expectation of being offensive. The Crucifix should have a reasonable expectation of being offensive and it offends me. When I say that something has a reasonable […]
Filed under: culture war, morality, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Religion | 1 Comment »