Thinking with your brain is important, but some things only your heart knows. The only problem with this is that hearts don’t ‘know’ anything. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood. Religious believers are always trying to separate human compassion from the brain and transfer that capacity onto the heart. I get that there […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Love, science, Soul | No 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 »
I always find it interesting when Christians tell me right from the start that they will never be convinced that they are wrong. But what is really interesting is that they then project that stone wall mentality onto me. They tell me that they will never be convinced or that neither of us will be […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Certainty, de-conversion, Religion | 4 Comments »
In the western religious traditions, it is believed that we are not only children of the same God of Abraham, but that we were created in His image. However, people come in many shapes, sizes, and colors so questions arise. If we are all created in the image of God, what does God look like? […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, Creationism, image of god | 1 Comment »
Fundamentalist religious believers love to ignore and attack science. Some will claim that there are other sources of knowledge. It is not unusual to hear some religious believer talk about spiritual knowledge or to claim that they can know God through faith. I maintain that without science there is no knowledge. I guess I am […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, science | 1 Comment »
Unless you have been in a cryogenic sleep, you are no doubt aware that yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The day has been dubbed by then President Bush as Patriot Day. Over the last few days, me and just about everyone else had a lot of things to say about this […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, Patriot Day, People of Reason, The Future | No Comments »
Christians have created a little trap for people of reason. It is a way they can attack us for whatever answer we give. It is an interesting new rhetoric that I am starting to hear them use more and more. I will call it “The Certainty Trap.” First they start out with the whole, “it […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Certainty, conversation, Preaching | 4 Comments »
There seems to be this disconnect for many Christians. I have come across it multiple times. When asked why God doesn’t present evidence for his existence, I often hear Christians tell me that God gave us Free Will. I don’t really see how that addresses the problem but it seems that many Christians equate evidence […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, conversation, faith, free will, ignorance, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Often times when I demand that religious believers present evidence for their claims they try to find some way to avoid doing so. One of their most common tactics is to claim or insinuate that I am not worthy of the evidence. If only I already believed then they could present me with the evidence […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, discussion, ignorance, Religious Manipulation | No Comments »
Yesterday I wrote an Examiner article about Rabbi Yehuda Levin’s claim that homosexuality caused the East Coast Earthquake. So today I was thinking about Jen McCreight’s boobs… I mean boobquake and thought maybe we need a gayquake to try to prove Rabbi Levin’s theory before we go and teach it alongside the scientific Theory of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, facebook, Gay Issues, global climate change, god | 3 Comments »
I have argued with many Christians who insist that there is more evidence for a historical Jesus than there is for various other historical figures. While I think they are wrong and that the best a knowledgeable Christian could really say would be that there is an equal amount of evidence for a historical Jesus […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Jesus, Religion | 2 Comments »
It seems that many religious believers can’t understand a life without authority figures. When arguing with a Christian recently, he told me that Richard Dawkins believes in Intelligent Design therefore I ought to accept it too. What he did was he took a clip from the ridiculously edited film Expelled in which Dawkins says that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Authority, People of Reason, Religious Manipulation, science | No Comments »
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 »
It started with some punk Christian asserting that without God there can be no moral grounding. We have all heard that one before and so I responded with my Atheism 101 article on the subject (which is now out of date, but still useful). Then the Christian responded with this: “As far as your argument […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, humanism, morality | 7 Comments »
Religious believers love to try to lower science to the level of faith. They love to talk about how science requires faith and some will even say that it requires more faith than… actual faith. Faith is dogmatic by nature and so religious believers like to claim that science is equally as dogmatic. It isn’t! […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, Religious Manipulation, science | 2 Comments »
One thing I hate is when Christians attempt to redefine my position and then argue against their newly created position as if that is actually the position that I hold. In philosophy this is called a “strawman” argument. So I thought it might be fun to do the same thing to Christians. Yeah, this is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war | No Comments »
The other day I was discussing religion with a Christian and he commented that in order for me to be an atheist, I have to prove that life can come from chemicals. This is an attempt to switch the burden of proof while invoking the God of the Gaps argument. For starters, atheists don’t have […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, god of the gaps, Religious Manipulation | 7 Comments »
Over the weekend, I was in my car and turned on the radio. I started listening to a re-broadcast of the Tom Hartmann program from earlier in the week. Apparently atheists have been calling in and rightfully giving him a hard time over his interview with Rick Wingrove. Hartmann continued to assert that atheism is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, ignorance, Religion | 5 Comments »
Yeah, you heard me; I can prove that the Easter Bunny is real! You see that tree outside? There you go. People live in houses, right? So if you see a house, that is proof that people exist. The Easter Bunny lives in a tree, so if you see a tree that is proof that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, culture war, ignorance, Religion | 10 Comments »
Yesterday, I was reading the Huffington Post Religion Section (always a good time) and I saw an article from my favorite Rabbi, Adam Jacobs. For those unfamiliar with him (which should be almost everyone), he is a fundamentalist Christian… I mean Jew. I have actually written a few Examiner articles responding to his craziness (Links […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Creationism, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Many religious leaders have educated themselves a good deal in the history of their religion. I find that the more people learn about religion the less literal they take their holy books. However, there is a divide between the intellectual religious leaders and the common practitioners. What I mean here is that many religious leaders […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Authority, conversation, ignorance, Preaching, Religious Manipulation, responsibility | 3 Comments »
I get into a lot of conversations with Christians and often times when the Christian gets backed into an intellectual corner and their ideas have been shown to be unreasonable, illogical, and flat out ridiculous, they throw up a brick wall. One of the most common brick wall tactics is to insist that I open […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Belief, conversation, delusion, discussion, faith, Glory to God, god, Personal, prayer, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
With all the talk about the Rapture lately, one Christian sent me a message saying that he believes Harold Camping was wrong, but that the lesson we should learn is that we ought to live everyday as if it were our last. He says that this is the message Jesus was trying to send with […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, responsibility, Self-Help, The Future | No Comments »
The theme I have been hitting lately that many Christians don’t seem to get is that their belief is ridiculous superstitions is no different than Harold Camping’s belief in ridiculous superstition. Christians can’t distance themselves fast enough from Camping with good reason. He makes them look bad. I know that Christianity is a pretty broad […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Argument by Popularity, culture war, End of the World, Projection, Religion, The Rapture | 8 Comments »
Okay, so the big news yesterday is that Obama released his long-form birth certificate to shut “The Donald” up. Before I go into why this was a terrible idea on Obama’s part, let’s talk about the facts. In 2000, the Bush campaign claimed that John McCain was not a naturally born United States citizen and […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Current Events, Obama, Politics | 12 Comments »
So I was on the Huffington Post’s religion page over the weekend and saw a ton of articles that just seemed silly to me. Here are a few examples: Who Killed Jesus? An Examination of the Evidence Pontius Pilate v. Jesus: Was It a Fair Trial? Re-Enacting The Trial Of Jesus The Mysteries Of The […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Biblical Scholarship, journalism, Religion | 8 Comments »
Over the weekend, I read a story about a cross made out of the steal girders from 911. You see, when all the dust cleared, two girders shaped as a cross was miraculously found in the wreckage. Now Christians are worshiping the miracle. The thing that bothers me is that some Christians are claiming that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Current Events, delusion, miracles, Religion | 4 Comments »
Most Christians will attempt to argue their position using some semblance of reason, logic, and evidence. There are however a small but special few who will not even bother. These few, proud, believers will admit that all the evidence, logic, and reason in the world will not convince them of anything… god related of course. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, conversation, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 5 Comments »
I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, language | 3 Comments »
Yesterday, a Christian on Twitter called me “ignorant” because he didn’t like the title of my article which he did not bother to read. I tried to explain to him that ignorance is of a particular nature that it can be cured through education. In his case, he could read the article he commented on […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, ignorance, language, Projection | 3 Comments »
