I get into discussions with a lot of religious believers and after a while I tend to hear the same arguments and the same “conversion” stories over and over again. This can often give the appearance that all Christians are the same. But they aren’t. When I address an audience usually through writing, I use […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, discussion, Personal Experience, Religion | 1 Comment »
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 »
Atheists have a problem that we need to address. We need to communicate our ideas better. Religious believers don’t tend to have that problem. You ask them a question and the answer is either a Bible verse or God did it. If you ask why God did something that answer is that God works in […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war | 1 Comment »
My conversation from over the last two days at “Think Christian” has been cut short due to censorship. You see, I talked about how Progressive Christians had to acknowledge that the Bible is wrong on homosexuality in order to be absolved of being labeled hateful toward gays. A Christian responded by claiming that the free […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Authority, censorship, conversation, free speech, Offensiveness, Progressive Christians, Religion | 1 Comment »
For me, have to admit that it is a guilty pleasure to argue with fundamentalist religious believers in situations when I probably shouldn’t. I try to be good and not to start the discussion, but I admit that sometimes I will passive/aggressively get them to start the discussion. Sometimes however, I try to be good […]
Filed under: argument, atheism, conversation, Personal | 2 Comments »
I had a pretty interesting conversation at Arby’s yesterday. I was waiting for my food next to an old guy who was probably around 80. He had ordered a couple of shakes to take home for him and his wife. He was telling me that his wife likes the Jamocha shake, but he likes the […]
Filed under: conversation, Gay Issues, Personal | 1 Comment »
In my experience, there really are two goals that people argue for when they argue about issues and depending on which one of these goals or reasons people use will shape the argument dramatically. Sometimes an argument is just not worth having or is not worth having with the person one is having it with. […]
Filed under: argument, Coexist, conversation, Criticism, discussion, Projection | 1 Comment »
There are two ways I can go with this blog. First, religious believers often tell me that they know that nothing they say will convert me to their religion of choice and that they know that I have already made up my mind. Second, it bothers me when people take something I said years ago […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Certainty, conversation, culture war, forgiveness, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Last week, I was visited by two Jehovah’s Witnesses and I actually ended up having a nice long conversation with them (usually they try to run away). In any case, they tried to use all the standard arguments and I was able to easily refute them. But that wasn’t my goal. One of the guys […]
Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, discussion, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 3 Comments »
Hemant Mehta over at the Friendly Atheist is running a contest on twitter and facebook asking people to make atheist versions of Christian phrases. I actually think this is pretty brilliant and even though atheists have done this type of thing on their own in the past, I think it is good to do it […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, culture war, People of Reason, twitter | 3 Comments »
So the big news of the week is that some atheist few have ever heard of has converted to Christianity. While researching my Examiner article on the topic, I decided to go right to the source. I e-mailed Patrick Greene and asked him, what’s up? I read quite a few articles about Greene’s conversion and […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Belief, conversation, ignorance, logic, Religious Manipulation | 9 Comments »
When I first got to the Reason Rally, my brother and I were very early. We got there at about 7:30am. So we decided to look for breakfast. I remembered that there was a food court in the Ronald Reagan Trade Center, so we went in there. When we got there, a security guard had […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Reason Rally | 1 Comment »
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’m guilty of this too, but atheists show too much restraint and respect for other people’s beliefs even the ridiculous literal beliefs of fundamentalist believers. Over the weekend, I was at a party that a fellow atheist was hosting. Knowing that my friend has some very religious family members, I pulled him over and asked […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, delusion, discrimination, humanism, People of Reason, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Many times when I get into a conversation with a fundamentalist believer, they do more than strawman atheism; they tell me what I MUST believe because of my lack of belief in their deity. Well, that is very kind of them to tell me what I MUST think, but they are almost always wrong. Not […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Belief, conversation, humanism, ignorance, logic, prophecies, ten commandments | 8 Comments »
One of the most popular things Christians ask me is, “What if you are wrong?” Aside from the obvious attempt at a Pascal’s Wager, this question tries to force the non-believer to consider the possibility that we might be tortured for all eternity simply because of our lack of belief. It’s true, if atheists are […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, Certainty, conversation, Religion | 6 Comments »
One of the main problems with arguing against religion is that people get very passionate about the subject. Religious believers have invested a great deal of time and often money into their beliefs and as a result, they are very resistant to reconsidering their opinion on the matter. Politics is viewed in much the same […]
Filed under: Belief, conversation, discussion, Religious Manipulation | No Comments »
One of the most common pieces of “evidence” religious believers claim supports their belief in their deity of choice is the argument from personal experience. They claim that they have personally felt the presence of God. When challenged on their beliefs, they often ask how an atheist can possibly doubt their personal experience. First, it […]
Filed under: Belief, conversation, Personal Experience, Religion | 1 Comment »
I was talking with a liberal Christian recently and she was talking about how human beings aren’t perfect and how we God loves us anyway. As our conversation continued, I asked why it matters that we aren’t perfect and what that even means. What does “perfect” mean in relation to sentient beings… God included? When […]
Filed under: conversation, Glory to God, god, humanism, Love | No Comments »
It is bad enough when atheists dogmatically believe in the nonsense of grand conspiracies, but when Christians believe this crap, they are two levels of crazy. The other day, I posted an Examiner article about how Christians have been tweeting death threats to atheists. Yesterday, a Christian called me out on this. He claimed that […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, delusion, Hitchens, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
When atheists and Christians discuss religion we often talk past each other. That being the case, I came up with an idea that might change that. I think we should try to meet Christians halfway… as long as they are willing to meet us halfway. Here is how it works. First, we offer to meet […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, de-conversion, delusion | No Comments »
People often have conversations in which we label others into groups. Those group identities can be created by others or the group themselves. Either case, when we talk about the group ambiguity creeps in. The perceiver may make the assumption that the conversation must apply to the entire group rather than the group in general. […]
Filed under: context, conversation, logic | 2 Comments »
We are all familiar with Epicurus’s Problem of Evil but for the Christian there is a bigger Problem of Evil too. I’ll call it the Problem of the Cruelty Asshole. Epicurus has put his problem this way: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not […]
Filed under: conversation, Evils of Christianity, god, God Fearing, hell, Judge God, Religion | 1 Comment »
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 »
Back in my college days, there weren’t a lot of atheist t-shirts out there. I had a shirt that I got from Hot Topic that said, “i am god” in all lowercase letters. There is an interesting story with this shirt and what happened when I wore it to my Christian friend’s Creationism program. My […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, Creationism, de-conversion, god, Personal, Religion | No Comments »
I few months ago, I wrote my Republican congressman about health insurance reform. I wanted to persuade him to push for a Medicare for all system or even a compromised public option. A few weeks later, I got a letter back that was pretty much a form letter with a few details thrown in. Guess […]
Filed under: conversation, Government, Political Activism, Politics | No Comments »
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 »
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 Christians will ask people if they have heard the “Good News.” They will ask if you have ever heard of Jesus Christ. Once when I was in college, I thought I would try a little experiment and answer the question in a way most Christians wouldn’t expect. I said, “No, never heard of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, discussion, ignorance, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
