Right wing Christians love to talk about people should take personal responsibility for themselves. This usually is in reference to when minority is being persecuted. Whenever I heard this type of thing from them, I can’t help but laugh. Of all the people in the entire world the one group that is God bent on […]
Filed under: culture war, faith, humanism, Projection, responsibility | 2 Comments »
While a lot of atheists run from anything that is even remotely reminiscent of religion, many others still go to church. Usually, if an atheist goes to church it is a Quaker or Unitarian Church. There is nothing wrong with avoiding religious trappings. Many atheists have had extremely bad experiences with churches and other religious […]
Filed under: atheism, Church, culture war, family values, humanism, Neighbor, Parenting, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Today is the day we celebrate the birth and life of Martin Luther King Jr. To start off, I am a fan, I think Dr. King’s “I had a dream” speech was a great. Aside from the spattering of references to God, which one would expect to find in any political speech, this speech expresses […]
Filed under: church/state, Coexist, culture war, humanism, Martin Luther King Jr., People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, everyone was asking for prayers for those injured and killed in the Arizona shootings. As a person of reason, I cannot give any prayers because I don’t believe there is anyone to answer them. But I do wish to share my thoughts and hopes. As a progressive Democrat, I don’t always agree […]
Filed under: Atheism NOT Religion, Current Events, healthcare, humanism, New World Order, palin, Politics, responsibility | No 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
There are lots of different types of believers in the Abrahamic God and they all have different reason for why they believe. But at the end of the day, whenever they are advocating for belief it almost always comes down to the carrot and the stick. Belief basically amounts to a threat of eternal torture […]
Filed under: death, delusion, good cop-bad cop, hell, humanism, Religion | 6 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 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 »
Of course atheists are charitable. That is a pretty silly question. We can point to the fact that atheist billionaires have donated half their fortunes to charity and have encouraged other billionaires to do the same. The fact is that most atheists don’t donate in the name of atheism. We just donate to organizations on […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | No Comments »
Image via Wikipedia A number of years ago, I met a young Christian who was telling me his story about how he used to be addicted to drugs, alcohol, and sex. He told me that his life was spiraling out of control and no one he could do could save him. Then along came Jesus […]
Filed under: delusion, Hope, humanism, Religion, Religious Manipulation, responsibility, sin, wwjd | 1 Comment »
I think this is a problem with any minority group which has had to fight for acceptance so I don’t think atheists are in general pessimistic. In fact, most atheists I know tend to be pretty optimistic. But for some reason, whenever an atheist is trying to make a difference and to do something for […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, Political Activism, Politics | 2 Comments »
I have been a vocal atheist for almost twenty years now and have been an active member of the greater atheistic community for about half that time. Over the years, I have discussed and argued with people from many different religions and many different sects of the varying religions. A few years back, I even […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, discussion, humanism, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
It’s official; I am now the coordinator of the Philadelphia Coalition of Reason. Basically, this means that it is my job to help the seven atheistic organizations in the Philadelphia area to work together to promote reason and humanistic values. The problem with coordinating atheists is that we are frequently described as herded cats. We […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 7 Comments »
It has been a busy weekend and I will take a few days to talk about everything. Today, I want to talk about the Lehigh Valley Humanist picnic featuring Sam Singleton atheist evangelist… sort of. I think it is really important for people or reason to have summer picnics. It gives us a chance to […]
Filed under: atheism, humanism, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Last weekend was the Philadelphia Coalition of Reason’s annual Unity Picnic. This year however, when I was putting together the Examiner article to promote the event I learned a few things. I learned that the local Humanist group was pretty much doing all the work and that the rest of the coalition was really doing […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 5 Comments »
Yesterday, I received an interesting e-mail from an atheist in Pakistan. He is in a day to day struggle to keep his mouth shut out of a very real and legitimate fear that should a hint of his disbelief get out, he will probably be killed. Such a serious situation prompted me to turn to […]
Filed under: culture war, free speech, humanism, islam, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July weekend. I celebrated my independence from gods by taking the family on vacation to Carl Sagan’s old stomping groups in Ithaca New York. There we took the Sagan Planet Walk and Paced the Space. We walked from the Sun marker to the marker of the Earth […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, Disproving God, education, god, humanism, People of Reason, science | 3 Comments »
Christians often tell me that as an atheist I must believe in nothing. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Atheism refers to what I don’t believe in, but doesn’t say anything about I do believe in. So when asked, tell them that I believe in Star Wars. Today is Star Wars Day. On May […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, humanism, Star wars | 1 Comment »
One of the big advantages that religion has over the greater atheist/Humanist community is money. Christians are used to supporting and funding the propagation of their message. Many Christians even donate “their last dollar” to further “God’s Work.” In this world, money talks and so we need to start tithing for reason. In the free […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, Decline of Religion, humanism, People of Reason, Preaching | 3 Comments »
One of the issues that I have with the Christian system of belief is that it is very pessimistic. The attitude that it encourages is an attitude of distrust and fear. While none of this speaks to the truth value of the claims, I really don’t think it is a useful system either. At the […]
Filed under: humanism, People of Reason, Preaching, Projection, Religion, sin | 1 Comment »
