Posted on August 3rd, 2012 by Staks
Every once in a while my Christian friend Greg sends me an e-mail. It usually is just one question that someone at his church convinced him would stump an atheist. Greg isn’t looking for a debate or discussion though; he just wants to push his point and be done. The other day, I got this […]
Filed under: argument, Evils of Christianity, hell, morality, torture | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 27th, 2012 by Staks
In his book, “Lying,” Sam Harris has argued that lying is always wrong in every situation. While I think honesty is a good general rule, I don’t think it ought to be an absolute commandment. For starters, it is not altogether clear what being honest fully entails. I knew a girl is college who didn’t […]
Filed under: morality | No Comments »
Posted on June 20th, 2012 by Staks
I have to admit that I am still fascinated by the recent conversion of former atheist blogger, Leah Libresco. Unlike the re-conversion of Patrick Greene, Libresco was a blogger and so I assume that she knew the standard arguments and was presumably knowledgeable about the plot holes, ridiculousness, and just factually incorrect aspects of Christianity. […]
Filed under: Catholics, conversation, ignorance, morality, People of Reason, Religious Manipulation | 8 Comments »
Posted on June 19th, 2012 by Staks
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 »
Posted on June 7th, 2012 by Staks
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 »
Posted on May 25th, 2012 by Staks
One of the most prominent themes in Christianity is that everyone is an evil sinner. One Christian I talked to recently put it this way, “We are all wicked, evil doers. ‘There is no one who does good, not even one,’ Romans 3:12.” Through the lens of Christianity, the glass is completely empty. Through the […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Evils of Christianity, morality, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 23rd, 2012 by Staks
I was having a conversation with my wife the other day about how atheists tend to be less outspoken about our views than religious believers… even very outspoken atheists like me. We both agreed that atheists usually have an internal governor which helps us to determine when it is appropriate to talk about our lack […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, culture war, morality, Preaching | No Comments »
Posted on March 21st, 2012 by Staks
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 »
Posted on February 9th, 2012 by Staks
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 »
Posted on December 21st, 2011 by Staks
Christians are always complaining about how mean atheists are and how Christianity is a religion of peace and compassion. But this is just another Christian delusion. The fact is that the opposite is true. It is pretty rare for atheists to threaten Christians over some expression of their religiosity. Sure, there may be atheists that […]
Filed under: Evils of Christianity, Love, morality, twitter | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 14th, 2011 by Staks
It isn’t quite the Clinton question of what is the meaning of the word “is,” but what is torture is pretty straight forward. Herman Cain said it best when he said, “I do not agree with torture… period. However, I will trust in the judgment of our military leaders to determine what is torture and […]
Filed under: Current Events, debate, Election, morality, Politics, torture | No Comments »
Posted on November 1st, 2011 by Staks
Often times when I get into a discussion about religion with a Christian they will abruptly stop the discussion and ask me a particular question. Sometimes they even ask this question after I have shown the ridiculousness of the story pointing out plot hole after plot hole. “What if it is true?” Sure I can […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, conversation, delusion, hell, humanism, morality, Religion | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 26th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Staks
Over the years, I have helped to de-convert many people away from religion. One would think that if the religious really believed what they claim to believe then they would consider me to be a worse criminal than most serial killers. A murderer takes away someone’s life, but I have taken away people’s eternal afterlife. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, de-conversion, death, delusion, hell, morality, Religion, Soul | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Staks
I hate when people go out of their way to appear honest. This usually means that they really aren’t honest and are just trying to put up a false front. However, sometimes actually being honest isn’t enough. For atheists we not only have to be honest, but since we are often under a microscope by […]
Filed under: atheism, morality, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 29th, 2011 by Staks
Last week Sam Harris gave his tip on how to lose blog readers. What the hell, I’ll give it a shot. He said that the best way to lose blog reader is to advocate for higher taxes on the rich (which actually seems like a pretty reasonable and obvious idea). Today, I want to talk […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Capitalism, communism, culture war, Government, humanism, morality | 3 Comments »
Posted on August 18th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on July 28th, 2011 by Staks
Yesterday I posted an article on Examiner about an upcoming debate between Dave Silverman of American Atheists and Ann Coulter’s ex-fiancée, Dinesh D’souza. While some atheists feel comfortable writing off D’Souza as a hack, the fact is that he is a very intelligent and skilled hack. So I thought I would help Dave prepare. D’souza […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Evils of Christianity, free will, morality, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 21st, 2011 by Staks
Yesterday, I attended my third gay marriage. While it wasn’t legal, no police came in to break up the festivities either. But since the couple have a baby daughter, it would be nice if they had the legal protection that straight couples have for our children. Currently, gay marriage isn’t legal in the state of […]
Filed under: Coexist, culture war, Gay Issues, Law, morality, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 2nd, 2011 by Staks
For some bizarre reason, people love the 10 Commandments. Most people don’t even know what they are, few people today actually obey them, and almost anyone could create much better commandments without a whole lot of mental effort. Quite frankly, the 10 Commandments are ridiculous! Before we go into them, it is important to remember […]
Filed under: Judge God, morality, Religion, ten commandments | 6 Comments »
Posted on May 13th, 2011 by Staks
While this isn’t a new argument against the idea of Hell, it is still a pretty good one. How could any genuinely good person be happy for all eternity knowing that so many people will be tortured for all eternity in Hell? I know we deserve it since we just can’t seem to believe in […]
Filed under: faith, hell, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 11th, 2011 by Staks
Religious believers always talk about how God grounds morality. The view is that religious people can be immoral and that non-religious people can be moral, but it is all based on God’s standard. That being the case, when a religious person does something immoral, they know it and they have to repent. But the problem […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, delusion, faith, morality, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on April 4th, 2011 by Staks
Some of you may not know this, but I am a loving father. I have a two year-old son at home with me and like all loving parents I only want the best for my son. So over the weekend, I demanded that he kneel before me and worship me. I really want him to […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Authority, Belief, blood sacrifice, delusion, Every Knee, Evils of Christianity, family values, free will, god, God Fearing, god the father, hell, Judge God, Love, morality, Parenting, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Staks
“Atheists have no moral grounding. There morals are grounded in egoism.” While logically these two statements are contradictory, that never seems to bother the ignorant religious believers that make statements to this affect. Why is it that religious believers seem to think that without a moral grounding egoism must be the moral philosophy? Let’s say […]
Filed under: humanism, morality, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 7th, 2011 by Staks
I have often said that if there is anything in me that could be considered faith, it would be faith in people. But the fact is that that is really a misuse of the term. Generally speaking, we have trust in people based on past experience which serves as evidence for trusting them further. Faith […]
Filed under: faith, Hope, morality, People of Reason, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 31st, 2011 by Staks
One of the things that really annoys me about fundamentalist Christians is that they often have an ignorance of an entire field of study; sometimes multiple fields of study. But Ethics in particular seems to be a field that many Christians aren’t even aware exists. It is not unusual for me to be in a […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, education, ignorance, morality, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on December 17th, 2010 by Staks
One of the most common attacks that Creationsists make is that “Evolutionists” are responsible for Hitler’s Eugenics program. This is of course ridiculous and in reality is no different than claiming that Gravitiests are responsible for the crimes of murderers dropping people out a window. First, I take issue with the term “Evolutionist.” Evolution is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Creationism, culture war, evolution, morality, Religious Manipulation, science | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 2nd, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Staks
I was talking to a Christian the other day and I mentioned that the Bible didn’t say anything condemning rape. My Christian friend corrected me by pointing out Deut 22:25-27. But it seems that he took the verse out of context. Let us just take a look at the verse that my friend pointed out […]
Filed under: family values, morality, Religion, ten commandments, the bible | 14 Comments »
Posted on August 18th, 2010 by Staks
Today’s installment of the series dealing with Jeffrey T. Kuhner’s article entitled, “Why God is Great” deals with one of my favorite subjects, morality. But Kuhner isn’t making the old moral grounding argument this time. Instead, he is making the moral norms argument. Interestingly enough, I first heard this argument while watching Christopher Hitchen’s film […]
Filed under: conversation, morality, Religion | 1 Comment »