DangerousTalk

Filed under: conversation, morality, Religion | Comments Off on Why Hitchens is Great (Part 3): Christian Morals

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 »

When it comes to morality, Christians often think that they have the monopoly on the topic. Interestingly enough, one of the biggest problems with Christian morality was actually introduced long before Christianity by Socrates and still remains unanswered by Christians today. In Plato’s dialog Euthyphro, Socrates has a conversation with a young lawyer named Euthyphro […]

Filed under: morality, Religion | 3 Comments »

I tend to get a lot of e-mails from angry fundamentalist Christians. There is a particular type of e-mail that I get often. This type is usually short and usually informs me that the Christian will enjoy watching me being tortured or burning in Hell for all eternity. This quick sentiment probably took the writer […]

Filed under: Evils of Christianity, hell, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »

The Catholic sex scandal continues and the Vatican has continued to blame everyone except themselves. Most Catholics in America don’t even agree with the Pope on a growing list of important issues and yet they continue to go to church and donate money which gets funneled back to the Vatican to fight for and against […]

Filed under: abortion, Catholics, culture war, morality, Religion | 1 Comment »

There is a terrible double standard going on in the world today. Could you imagine how society at large would respond if the headlines of the morning newspapers reported that the largest atheist group in the world had allowed members of their group to molest children? What if the atheist group used member donations to […]

Filed under: Catholics, Current Events, journalism, Law, morality, Religion | 11 Comments »

Over the weekend, I read an interesting article on Huffington Post by Roy Fitzgerald. The article was titled, “Should Richard Dawkins be Arrested for Covering up Atheist Crimes?” While there are many problems with this article, there is one issue in particular I want to talk about. Fitzgerald’s main focus is on Dawkins’s “selective campaigning” […]

Filed under: Catholics, culture war, journalism, logic, morality, Religion | 4 Comments »

One of the main reasons why the Catholic Church attempted to cover up the abuses that their priests where engaged in was because it would ultimately impact on the Church’s bottom line. The Catholic Church is after all a business. I read an article the other day which talked about how a lot of accused […]

Filed under: Catholics, morality, Religion | 3 Comments »

Due to the recent string of scandals plaguing the Catholic Church, Vatican Biblical scholars have been studying the Bible carefully to find out God’s opinion on rape. They can’t seem to find any passage which states or infers that child rape is a sin. Earlier this morning, the Pope met in a closed door session […]

Filed under: atheism, morality, People of Reason, Religion, science, sin | 9 Comments »

Christians seem to have the greatest public relations department. Even many atheists seem to think that Jesus was some white guy with a long beard who wandered the Middle East trying to bring about world peace. According to the Bible, Jesus was a real asshole. Sure everyone knows about the golden rule and the character […]

Filed under: family values, image of god, morality, Neighbor, Preaching, Real Christians, Religion, the bible, wwjd | 56 Comments »

Even though it is pretty well established that I am an atheist, I still get e-mails for “Prayers” or to join “Prayer Chains.” On social networking sites I also see these stupid things. How ought an atheist respond to such things? For starters, I have to figure out what these people are hoping to accomplish […]

Filed under: atheism, Hope, morality, prayer | 15 Comments »

I have noticed that often times when I am discussing and/or debating Christians they assume the worst about me and my arguments. This I think is a symptom of their belief that humans are all evil sinners. It is hard to have a friendly conversation with someone who won’t give you the benefit of the […]

Filed under: conversation, discussion, Evils of Christianity, morality, Religion, responsibility, sin | 6 Comments »

A number of years ago, when I was doing the Dangerous Talk radio show on WCUR 91.7 FM in West Chester, I had a fundamentalist Christian preacher on. This particular preacher would travel to different Universities and tell everyone that they were going to Hell… even the other fundamentalists Christians. In any case, I invited […]

Filed under: blood sacrifice, morality, Religion, the bible | 10 Comments »

One of the things that Christian fundamentalists always tell me is that I should worship their God because he is all powerful. I talked about this in previous blogs about the praise-worthiness of the Christian God, but I think it is an important issue in and of itself. If God were evil, would Christians still […]

Filed under: god, morality, Religion | 13 Comments »

Many times when I am engaged in a conversation with a fundamentalist Christian, he or she will ask me to read one of their apologists. They convince themselves that if only I read this other book, the Bible will make perfect sense. If only I read this other book all the immoral, unscientific, false history, […]

Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, discussion, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »

Fundamental Christians often tell me that whether I believe in God or not, I will have to respect his authority. Of course, I inform them that even if their God does exist (and I am reasonably certain he doesn’t), I still see the God as portrayed in the Bible as immoral and would not follow […]

Filed under: Authority, Judge God, morality, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »

If I had a penny for every time a Christian has told me that I would one day stand before God and have to account for my sins, I would be a rich person. Even after I inform the Christian that I don’t believe in God, the question is still asked as a “what if.” […]

Filed under: god, Judge God, morality, Religion, sin | 3 Comments »

One of the issues that I have always had with Christianity is that belief that human beings are inherently evil. This means that every time they speak to another human being, they think they are talking to an evil person. Now, I know that some people will claim that not all Christians see other people […]

Filed under: Evils of Christianity, morality, Religion, satan, sex | 7 Comments »

A lot of times I talk about the immorality of Christianity. Most of the time, Christians and even a few atheists jump to defend Christianity by talking about various good deeds particular Christians have done and continue to do. But I wasn’t talking about Christians being immoral; I was talking about Christianity being immoral. What […]

Filed under: blood sacrifice, Evils of Christianity, Judge God, morality, Religion, responsibility, sin | 10 Comments »

Today is the day that Christian evangelist Ray Comfort and his same-sex heterosexual partner Kirk Cameron were supposed to give out copies of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The Comfort Edition of the book contains a 54 page introduction written by Comfort which basically Glenn Becks Darwin. The funny thing is that part of Ray […]

Filed under: culture war, morality, ray comfort, Religion | 9 Comments »

Recently, I watched the new DVD film, “Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson.” The film follows the book tour of atheist Hitchens and fundamentalist Christian Wilson as they debate each other on the question, “is Christianity good for the world?” Hitchens describes himself as an anti-theist in the film and makes the argument that morality […]

Filed under: atheism, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »

Many theists complain to me that I shouldn’t criticize religion because it makes them happy. They accuse me of “trying to take away their happiness.” I find this accusation to be a sad attempt at a conversation stopper. For starters, I don’t think I am trying to take anyone’s happiness away any more than drug […]

Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, Evils of Christianity, god, morality, Religion, the bible | 7 Comments »

Why is it that so many Christians assume incorrectly that Christianity has the monopoly on family values? We live in a pluralistic society, and as such, people’s values will clash. Fundamental Christianity in particular has to learn that they cannot censor someone else’s values or culture because those values offend the rigid fundamentalist Christian value […]

Filed under: atheism, discussion, education, morality, Parenting, People of Reason, Religion | 48 Comments »

When we hear about Islamic suicide bombers, the first thing we generally think of is the promise of 72 virgins. While most Americans laugh at this and think to themselves about how ridiculous it is that some people believe that God will give them 72 virgins if they die correctly, I look at this and […]

Filed under: death, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »

There is an old saying that dates back to ancient Tibet, “If you repeat a lie long enough than maybe Richard Gere really does like to stick a gerbils up his ass.” It really does seem that many religious people think this saying is true.

Filed under: atheism, conversation, death, evolution, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »

Almost every time I get into a prolonged conversation with a fundamentalist Christian the issue of morality come up. The claim of the Christians is almost always the same, “without God there can be no moral grounding.” Personally, I find that to be a pretty arrogant and inaccurate statement. The way I see it, with […]

Filed under: morality, Religion | 51 Comments »

Many people think that because I believe that the Bible is fiction that it automatically means that I haven’t read it or that I do not like it. The fact is that I love the Bible… as a book of bronze aged fiction. As a book claiming to be divine and historical truth I think […]

Filed under: morality, Religion, the bible | 19 Comments »

An argument that I hear a lot from Fundamentalist Christians is that atheists reject God because we love sin and don’t want the responsibility of living a “Godly Life.” Of course this is a ridiculous argument because it assumes that atheists really do believe in the Christian God, but just don’t want to admit it […]

Filed under: morality, Religion, responsibility | 12 Comments »

There seems to be a high corollary between Christianity and black and white reasoning. I am not saying that there is a causal connection although I suspect that there maybe a causal connection, but I have noticed that a very large number of Christians have a very hard time thinking in shades of gray. While […]

Filed under: morality, Religion | 13 Comments »

The Super Bowl these days is all about one thing, the commercials and every advertiser wants to make sure their new million dollar ad makes it on the air for this commercial event. This is after all the one time of year when people actually want to watch the commercials. Of course, it has become […]

Filed under: morality, Politics | 19 Comments »