I get into discussions with a lot of religious believers and after a while I tend to hear the same arguments and the same “conversion” stories over and over again. This can often give the appearance that all Christians are the same. But they aren’t. When I address an audience usually through writing, I use […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, discussion, Personal Experience, Religion | 1 Comment »
Earlier this week, Gore Videl died. For those who don’t know, he was a giant intellectual and a vocal atheist. I wrote about his death on Examiner and some Christian had to chime in on it in the comments section. She writes: “It’s so sad to me to realize the genius of Gore Vidal yet […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Certainty, death | 2 Comments »
A few people on FreethoughtBlogs (AronRa & PZ) are talking about Presupposition Apologetics. As it so happens, this subject interests me greatly because I think it is the best argument religious believers have. What I mean by that is that it is by far the most convincing and the hardest for most atheists to refute. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Belief, faith, logic, Projection, Religious Manipulation, science | 12 Comments »
Everyone is talking about Leah Libresco’s recent conversion from atheist blogger to Catholic blogger. To be honest, I really don’t know anything about her. I stumbled on her blog briefly at the beginning of the year when she misrepresented something I said. I called her out on it and she apologized. I don’t really know […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Catholics, morality, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
It’s true, as an atheist I happen to think reason is better than faith, knowledge is better than ignorance, and evidence is better than assertions. I, like most atheists, am in intellectual snob… and proud of it. And why shouldn’t I be? Why would anyone take pride in not being intellectual? I look down on […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, education, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
The Christian blog, “The BitterSweet End” has posted an atheist challenge of ten questions. Okay, I’ll bite. Thanks to VJack over at Atheist Revolution for making me aware of this. 1. If there is NO God, then their is no Measurement or Standard for morality? Then what will define morality? Well, I think you are […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, argument, Criticism, ignorance, morality, Nothing, Projection, Purpose, Religious Manipulation | 10 Comments »
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 »
There are two ways I can go with this blog. First, religious believers often tell me that they know that nothing they say will convert me to their religion of choice and that they know that I have already made up my mind. Second, it bothers me when people take something I said years ago […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Certainty, conversation, culture war, forgiveness, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Let me get this straight, today is the National Day of Prayer and all Americans are encouraged to ask some magical sky daddy to save the country because our politicians are not up to the task? Okay, where are the adults. I have a better idea; let’s fire those politicians and start coming up with […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, god, miracles, prayer | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I talked about my conversation with two Jehovah’s Witnesses that came to my door. As we were talking, I wanted to make it clear to them that I was not dogmatic in my thinking in the hopes that I could encourage them to be less dogmatic and consider the possibility that they might not […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Certainty, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 2 Comments »
So the big news of the week is that some atheist few have ever heard of has converted to Christianity. While researching my Examiner article on the topic, I decided to go right to the source. I e-mailed Patrick Greene and asked him, what’s up? I read quite a few articles about Greene’s conversion and […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Belief, conversation, ignorance, logic, Religious Manipulation | 9 Comments »
There are lots of different stories that I want to tell about my experience at the Reason Rally. Today’s story is about Bill O’Reilly’s reporter. Yeah, Papa Bear himself sent a reporter to our rally to interview atheists. My brother and I were wondering around the Rally much of the time and I remember as […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Reason Rally | 6 Comments »
I don’t believe in original sin. As a result, I don’t treat people as if they are evil sinners right from the start. Instead, I am a Humanist and so I treat people as if they are trying to be the hero in their own story. I generally give people the benefit of the doubt […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, anti-intellectualism, atheism, humanism, morality | 2 Comments »
As we all know, the Reason Rally is next weekend and it seems that some people are upset because the purity of the atheist race will be tainted with some video speeches by people who are unreasonable about something in their lives. We all know that every speech must not only be 100% pure, but […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Coexist, People of Reason | 8 Comments »
Every once in a while, I find a fundamentalist pretending to be an atheist or at the very least they are trying to fool atheists into coming to their website. The one that comes to mind most is Mariano Grinbank. His website is called, “TrueFreethinker.com” Grinbank also writes for Examiner as the “Christian Apologetics Examiner.” […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Authority, culture war, forgiveness, Preaching, Religious Manipulation, sin | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, I talked about one of Aaron Tabor’s favorite arguments. Today, I want to talk about his other favorite argument. Aaron claims that Richard Dawkins believes that aliens seeded the Earth with life and since Dawkins is the Pope of atheism, all atheists are wrong and therefore Jesus. Aaron has presented this type of argument […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, Authority, Creationism, god of the gaps, Religious Manipulation, science | 4 Comments »
Over the weekend, I got into another conversation with Aaron Tabor. You don’t know who he is? He has more friends on facebook than anyone! He runs the “Jesus Daily” page with 12 million fans. Every once in a while, I’ll post an article on the page and to my surprise Aaron always responds. But […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, Creationism, evolution, ignorance, science | 2 Comments »
I was watching American Atheists president, Dave Silverman on Fox News yesterday and toward the end of the segment, his opponent made the remark that atheists believe in nothing. In fact, yesterday after I posted a comment on an article at Huffington Post, a Christian made the same remark. But yesterday wasn’t the first time […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, ignorance, Nothing, Religion | 1 Comment »
This is a topic I have talked about often, but recently two advocates have come forward in support of two competing visions for the future. These two views represent a stark contrast from each other and we really need to think about this now. The future of humanity is being written right now and we […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, education, humanism, People of Reason, science, The Future | No Comments »
It seems to be making the news lately that Richard Dawkins, the “world’s most famous atheist,” is agnostic. Well shit, so are most atheists. But the religion can’t understand this. To them, you can only be one or the other. Either you are 100% certain there is no God or you are agnostic. We can […]
Filed under: Agnostism, anti-intellectualism, atheism, Certainty, Current Events, Media, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Richard Dawkins had a gaffe recently in which he talked about a survey that the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science did showing that Britain is no longer a majority Christian nation. One of the criteria he used was asking people what the first book of the Gospel was. So some Christian asked him […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Current Events, evolution, Mainstream Christians, Religion, the bible | 6 Comments »
Many times when I get into a conversation with a fundamentalist believer, they do more than strawman atheism; they tell me what I MUST believe because of my lack of belief in their deity. Well, that is very kind of them to tell me what I MUST think, but they are almost always wrong. Not […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Belief, conversation, humanism, ignorance, logic, prophecies, ten commandments | 8 Comments »
I am so tired of Christians telling me that I can’t prove my love for my spouse, just like they can’t prove God exists. But no one questions the existence of love, so they don’t need to question God. Actually they do need to present evidence for their claim about God’s love and God’s existence. […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, god, Love, Religious Manipulation | No Comments »
I was having a conversation with a Christian and he actually told me that fossils prove God exists. Note that he didn’t say that fossils present strong evidence for the existence of God, but that they actually prove it. This clown assured me that he was well versed in science, too. The only thing I […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, evolution, Religious Manipulation, science | 1 Comment »
You know religious believers are living in a delusional world when they actively try to convince atheists that atheism is a religion, but that Christianity isn’t. As ridiculous as such a belief sounds, we hear such nonsense from religious believers all the time, but rarely at the same time. First, there is the claim that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Belief, delusion, god the father, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 6 Comments »
The state of the union is fucked up. It is fucked up because we have politicians who are bought and sold by corporate lobbyists and who more often than not try to appease religious zealots rather than scientifically minded constituents. Our country and our world will not get better until we take the money out […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Obama, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
The universe is a wondrous place filled with beauty and mystery. One thing that really ticks me off is when religious believers ascribe the wonders of the universe to their deity of choice. The universe is not “God’s handiwork!” It was Immanuel Kant who is known for verbalizing the fact that our senses are filtered […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, Glory to God, science | No Comments »
Some Christian thought they were doing God’s work by posting a Twitter message to atheists the other day. This Christian asked, “Why would you risk your soul? #atheism” I would like to answer this question. I responded to the Christian asking why he or she would risk their Thetans by rejecting L. Ron Hubbard? My […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, hell, Religion, scientology, Soul, twitter | No Comments »
Many times when I criticize a particular heinous verse of the Bible, religious believers will criticize me for taking the Bible too literally. They will claim that the verse is merely a metaphor. Sometimes they are correct, but not usually. It seems that religious believers will bend over backwards to find an interpretation that isn’t […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, blood sacrifice, Religion, Religious Manipulation, the bible | No Comments »
I love this election season’s Republican candidates. They are so entertaining. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney is going to be their candidate and even they don’t like him. So week after week, one of the other clowns takes their turn beating him in the polls. This week just might be Santorum’s week. First, it really […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, debate, Election, Politics | No Comments »
