The Westboro Baptist Church is coming to the Reason Rally. Don’t worry; they were invited… sort of. The National Atheist Party sent them a tongue-and-cheek invitation and the WBC tweeted that they will accept that invitation. I like this idea. First, it should be pointed out that the WBC go where the attention is. So […]
Filed under: Coexist, culture war, Current Events, Media, People of Reason | 3 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 »
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 »
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 »
When we talk about atheism, we are talking about a lack of belief in a god or gods. But not all atheists are the same. Duh, right. Not all Christians are the same, so why would anyone expect all atheists to be the same. All the term “atheism” tells you about someone is that they […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Certainty, culture war | No Comments »
Recently, a Christian told me that I was an ungrateful person because I was an atheist. He claimed that because I don’t thank God for my existence, that I was an ungrateful person. Personally, I think the opposite is true. I think theists are the ungrateful ones. The people I am grateful to for my […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, delusion, Glory to God, Gratitude | No Comments »
Yesterday, I wrote an Examiner article about how religious institutions are always seeking exemptions from the law. Why can’t atheists play this game too? One person commented on my article asking why we can’t have an atheist exemption from the gay marriage bans in some states. I think this is a great idea. I think […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, discrimination, Gay Issues, Government, humanism, morality, Political Activism | 1 Comment »
Over the last few years, atheists have been putting up billboards, bus ads, and even aerial banners. Most of these have been pretty tame by any standard and if you compare them to the billboards of the religious, they are extremely tame. Yet, despite this obvious fact, we get criticism for “pushing our beliefs…” or […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, billboards, Coexist, culture war, free speech, Media, Preaching, Religion | 6 Comments »
Yesterday, I wrote an Examiner article responding to Jefferson Bethke’s latest video called “Sex, Marriage, and Fairytales.” Today, I still have more to say on the topic. I thought of making my own spoken word on the subject, but I would rather be more informative. First, I want to talk about sex before marriage. People […]
Filed under: culture war, family values, Love, sex, Valentines Day | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I attended my county Democratic Party nomination convention and it really pissed me off. I was already a bit disenfranchised with the Party because included in last year’s slate of endorsed candidates were a Christian Dominionist running for Judge and a Creationist running for County Council. This year, the convention was opened with a […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Politics | 2 Comments »
I rarely ever say anything negative about other atheists. The way I see it is that we are all in this fight together and we each have our own approaches to the problem. With that said, Alain de Botton’s “Atheism 2.0” is stupid. Alain de Botton is basically the British equivalent to Greg Epstein, but […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Church, culture war, humanism, Religion | 2 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 »
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 »
Religious believers often accuse atheists of being angry, but if you ever read comment on any article dealing with atheism, it really seems like it is the theists who are the angry ones. Why is that? Last weekend, atheists rallied to protest our exclusion from the “Free Speech Zone” in West Chester, PA. The local […]
Filed under: culture war, Religion, truth | 5 Comments »
Fox News is good at one thing and it is distorting the truth and flat out lying. As a Lib and a moral person, I like to bitch and complain about this; however the sad fact is that it works. Poll after poll has shown that Fox News viewers are generally misinformed about the events […]
Filed under: culture war, debate, Election, journalism, Media, Political Activism, Politics | 2 Comments »
I recently watched Greta Christina’s presentation at Skepticon IV about why atheists are angry. It is well worth the watching. In it, she mentioned that Christians often give atheists advice on how we should run our movement. This particularly caught my attention because I hear this all the time and even heard it shortly before […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Religion | No Comments »
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 »
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 »
No, I didn’t misspell the holiday, I renamed it. Recently, there has been a new fundamentalist Christian movement to take back Halloween for the prudish and those who are fun impaired. The Jesusween movement encourages wacky Christians to give out Bibles instead of candy when kids come knocking on the door. But I want to […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, culture war, Halloween, hell | No Comments »
As Halloween approaches, I always look forward to seeing adults dressing up in sexy costumes. Some people however, maintain the religious demonization of sexuality and label anyone who wears a scantily clad outfit a “slut.” They use this term to demean others who chose to express their sexuality publicly. I don’t consider myself to be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Blasphemy, censorship, culture war, Halloween, sex | 4 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 »
A friend of mine died recently. When I first met him, he was a Christian. However, he also had a strong analytic mind and so it didn’t take long for him to research the questions I posed to him. As a result, he de-converted. He told me once or twice about his really religious family. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, culture war, death, Evils of Christianity, God-Shaped Hole, humanism, Religious Manipulation | 6 Comments »
Yesterday was another Republican Primary Debate and tonight I will be attending the Silverman/D’souza Debate. These are however very different debates with very different objectives. Both are entertaining for their own reasons. The political debate is focused on persuading people to support other people while the religion debate is focused on persuading people to change […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Election, Politics | 1 Comment »
The public relations arm of the Christianity long ago realized that they can get more converts with honey. So they came up with this idea of going to under developed nations and helping them out. While they are at it, they can push their religion on those who are physically and emotionally not in a […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, Decline of Religion, humanism, missionaries, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Some Christians believe that the Bible has answers to every question and I suppose that if to read into it enough that is true. However, if you read into it enough you can find contradictory answers to every question too. Since we are in an economic crisis, I thought I would consult the Bible about […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Politics, Religion, Self-Help, the bible | No Comments »
