Last night I noticed that Reverend Rick Warren had an interesting facebook status worth commenting on. His status had something to do with unbelievers not wanting to know the Truth of God or some such nonsense. After replying that unbelievers aren’t convinced by the claims made by believers, I checked back to see what other […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, culture war | 1 Comment »
Even though the term “agnostic” means without knowledge and pretty much applies to anyone who admits that we can’t know everything, there are some people who insist that agnostic is a category of belief in and of itself. These people insist that atheism is a dogmatic view that someone is 100% certain that there is […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, culture war, language | 2 Comments »
For most atheists, when we get into conversations with the religious, we tend to discuss facts and evidence. When we argue, we use logic, reason, and point out fallacies. But when the religious argue, they use personal connection. Religious people will try to get to know you. They don’t really care about the details of […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, culture war, de-conversion, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 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 »
Even though physicist Stephen Hawking has been an atheist for quite some time, this seemed to be breaking news yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hawking did make breaking news yesterday, but it wasn’t his lack of belief in a deity. The media has a really short attention span, because it was just three […]
Filed under: culture war, Current Events, Decline of Religion, First Cause Argument, god of the gaps, science | 2 Comments »
It seems that no matter how jolly I am when it comes out that I don’t believe in a deity; Christians always assume that I must be bitter and angry just because I don’t believe in their deity of choice. While I can be critical of their God and their whole religion for that matter, […]
Filed under: culture war, discussion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 »
While the media has a short memory and have already stopped talking about the massive child rape, child molestation, and the Vatican’s efforts to cover it all up, many actual Catholics haven’t forgotten so easily. As a result, many Catholics are leaving (or at least attempting to leave) the Church. How close is the Catholic […]
Filed under: Catholics, culture war, Religion | 2 Comments »
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 »
On Friday, a Dangerous Talker sent me an interesting article from the Washington Times. The article was written by conservative columnist and talk show commentator, Jeffrey T. Kuhner and was entitled, “Why God is great.” It was basically an attack piece on Christopher Hitchens. After reading the article, I thought that I would spend a […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, Religion | 8 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 »
I am really getting tired of always being on the defensive. Why is it that the Religious Right are always trying to make these ridiculous laws and we are always trying to stop them? I think it is time we go on the offensive for a change. Dangerous Talk has obtained this video (from YouTube) […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Gay Issues, Law, Political Activism, Religion | 6 Comments »
A lot of people have been asking me why I keep talking about Anne Rice’s decision to leave Christianity. One reason is because it is personal to me. Growing up, I was a big fan of most of her Vampire Chronicle series. They were the first vampire series that I am aware of that was […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, ex-athest, Personal | No 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 »
Last week, while on my vacation I heard about something which must make the Religious Right go even more insane then they are already. I heard about the latest technique in women’s breast augmentation… using Stem Cells! During the Bush administration the Religious Right pushed to limit Stem Cell Research. Their view on this was […]
Filed under: culture war, Religion, science | No Comments »
Let me tell you a true story. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there were star wars. First there was a massive clone war and then there was a rebellion against a galactic empire. Just because I have no evidence for this, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. I derived this […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, faith, god of the gaps, Religion, science, truth | 1 Comment »
It used to be that only fundamentalists would tell me that science was a religion, but these days even some moderate religious people are using this type of poor reasoning. Their view is that science claims to have the only method for understanding the world. In other words, science claims to have a monopoly on […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, Religion, science, truth | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, I was putting together an Examiner article on the upcoming PhillyCoR Picnic. This is an event that I have been promoting for months so I was very excited to be writing the article. However, I noticed that the PhillyCoR website was down and so I contacted the PhillyCoR president to find out […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, healthcare, Obama, Politics | 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 »
In case you were not aware, July is Global Atheist Blasphemy Month. While the details are explained in the Examiner article, the gist of the occasion is for atheists to claim blasphemy. Instead of being offended by all the usual suspects that religious people are offended by, this month is our turn to be offended […]
Filed under: atheism, Blasphemy, culture war, Religion | 3 Comments »
I have a 16 month old child and the other day we were at his library program and they were singing a song about bedtime routines. Part of the routine in the song was to say your prayers. As someone who grew up in a moderately Jewish home, I am curious, how early do Christians […]
Filed under: Catholics, culture war, Mainstream Christians, prayer, Religious Manipulation, sin | 2 Comments »
On Saturday, I was at the mall and walked past a Chick-Fil-A. Most people are aware that Chick-Fil-A is very religious right. Because of this, my rule of thumb is that I will never buy anything from Chick-Fil-A, but I will take their free samples. In fact, I will go out of my way to […]
Filed under: culture war, hell | 3 Comments »
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 »
Since well known atheists like Richard Dawkins and others have been vocal in their criticism of religion there has been a backlash by a few other atheists like Greg Epstein. Some atheists have been inspired by the “four horsemen” while other have decided to take a different approach. That’s fine, not all atheists have to […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, culture war, Religion | 4 Comments »
It is a pet peeve of mine when fellow people of reason call themselves, “Evolutionists.” I get it when fundy Christians call people that, but when people of reason use that label on themselves, I get annoyed. They should fucking know better! Creationists use that label on others because they are trying to lower the […]
Filed under: culture war, education, evolution, Religion, science | No Comments »
Today, I am continuing this series with an e-mail using the carpet bombing strategy on the Christians for a change. My bet is that most Christians won’t even attempt to address these issues and will simply reply with a “Jesus loves you” or a “I’m praying for you” type of response. Dear Christian, I am […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, ignorance, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
Yesterday, I talked about how Christians sometimes carpet bomb with arguments praying that at least one of them sticks. Today, I want to make a preemptive strike that can be used when a Christian starts their carpet bombing of piss poor arguments. Of course there are many more arguments than I can put into one […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, Car Bomb Argument, conversation, culture war, discussion, First Cause Argument, Preaching, Religion | 1,200 Comments »
