Yesterday I had a twitter conversation with a Christian over something I talked about in one of my Examiner articles. The interesting thing is that it wasn’t even the main point of the article and there is already another article in the “Atheism 101” series which addresses the issue in more detail. In any case, […]
Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, conversation, Religion, the bible | No Comments »
Last week, I got into an interesting conversation with a fellow atheist about de-converting Christians. My new atheist friend expressed the opinion that he thought moderate Christians were easier to de-convert and I expressed the opinion that I thought fundamentalists were easier to de-convert. I am not actually sure that either of us could prove […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion | 2 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 »
A popular Christian strategy for winning converts is basically to see how any arguments they can bombard you with in as little time as possible. The idea is to carpet bomb their mark with lots of arguments with the hope that at least one of them will resonate with their mark. On the off chance […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, atheism, conversation, culture war, discussion, First Cause Argument, god of the gaps, ignorance, Ontological Argument, prophecies, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Tomorrow (Saturday), I will be attending the Wizard World comic and sci-fi convention in Philadelphia. I attend this convention every year because I love sci-fi. This year I have learned the Stephen Baldwin will be at the convention. Stephen is the fundamentalist Christian Baldwin. So I thought I would write him a letter and hand […]
Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, faith, Preaching, Religion | 1 Comment »
I am a pretty outspoken atheist and I criticize religion often and in some cases extremely harshly. I generally argue against particular religious ideas and lines of “reasoning” rather than arguing behavior (although I do argue against some behavior of particular religious people or groups of people from time to time). Often when I present […]
Filed under: church/state, conversation, culture war, People of Reason, Personal, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Often times I get a lot of e-mails from Christians who are eager to prove their God. These particular Christians tend to be fundamentalists and seem to be under the impression that I must have never heard any arguments for their position and have never really heard the story of Jesus. These particular Christians tend […]
Filed under: conversation, ignorance, missionaries, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
Usually I discuss religion with Christians since Christianity is the majority religion in America however from time to time I get drawn into a conversation/debate with someone from one of the other Abrahamic religions. Interestingly enough, the arguments aren’t any different. Last year for example, I got into a pretty lengthy religious conversation with my […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, islam, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
A common theme that I run into when discussing religion with Christians (particularly fundamentalist Christians), is that they will often bring up old arguments which have long since been refuted as if they are some new revelation. These Christians often boast about how knowledgeable and thoughtful they are and yet they don’t seem to realize […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, conversation, discussion, First Cause Argument, God-Shaped Hole, ignorance, Judge God, Lord-Liar-Lunatic, Preaching, Religion | 1 Comment »
It is pretty common for Christians to claim that God is Truth. What they mean by this isn’t that God is simply a true, but rather that God is actually a synonym for Truth. In other words, to say that God is false would be like saying that the Bachelor is a married man. It […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Disproving God, god, Religion, truth | 1 Comment »
I love when Christians ask atheists questions that they should fucking know the answers to. I know they are all about their bronze-aged story book, but we live in the information age now. Now the one true God is Google. Seriously, before Christians try to ask an atheist a question that he or she thinks […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, discussion, education, Religion | 5 Comments »
You may have seen them on cars or t-shirts, the coexist message has become fairly popular with liberal Christians and other liberal religious people. On the surface, it sounds like a pretty cool movement, but I do have a few issues with it. Have you seen this Bumper Sticker: Each letter represents a different religion […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, Coexist, conversation, culture war, Decline of Religion, free speech, Progressive Christians, Religion | 12 Comments »
Today’s blog needs a little back story. A few years ago when I was interested in working with progressive Christians on our shared goals, I read a book by progressive Christians and founder of Sojourners Magazine, Jim Wallis. After reading his book, God’s Politics, I realized that he wasn’t much better than the fundamentalists and […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, conversation, facebook, Progressive Christians, Religion, sex | No Comments »
When I was in grad school, I was already a vocal atheist and was pretty knowledgeable about the greater atheist community. One day a fundamentalist Christian friend of mine was excited to tell me that the most famous atheist in the world had just converted to Christianity. Antony Flew was so famous that I had […]
Filed under: Anthony Flew, conversation, de-conversion, death, deathbed conversion, Evils of Christianity, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Vague Higher Power | 33 Comments »
I often break religious believers down into two categories fundamentalists or mainstream. There is however at least one other category that is important to talk about. That is the theologian or scholarly believer. I was reminded of believers in this category after writing my latest Examiner article dealing with Dispensational Theology. In any case, when […]
Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, conversation, Religion, the bible | No Comments »
Last weekend two young Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on my door. While most people would probably slam the door in their faces, I was happy to engage them in conversation. These two young women were probably college aged and they were happy to talk about their religion. When they asked if they could talk to me […]
Filed under: conversation, Jehovah's Witness, Preaching, Religion | 13 Comments »
I have been a vocal atheist for a long time and have had long and in depth conversations with people of many different sects of various religions. Christianity is of course the most prevalent religion in America and I have talked to many Christian sects. But until recently, I had never talked to a Jehovah’s […]
Filed under: conversation, Jehovah's Witness, Preaching, Religion | 13 Comments »
Yesterday, I watched the ABC Nightline debate between Sam Harris and Deepak Chopra featuring Michael Shermer and some crazy lady. The subject of the debate was whether or not God has a future. In reality, the real debate was whether or not Deepak Chopra is trying to be the next L. Ron Hubbard. Many times […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Decline of Religion, delusion, god, image of god, Religion, Vague Higher Power | 10 Comments »
In a recent discussion with a fundamentalist, the question was asked to me as to whether or not I wished that God existed or whether atheism was my desire. I thought this was an interesting question for a few reasons. To start off with, the obvious fact that ones desire for something to be true […]
Filed under: Atheism NOT Religion, blood sacrifice, conversation, delusion, image of god, Ontological Argument, Religion | No Comments »
I recently overheard a very disturbing conversation. One woman was very upset because her friend was on his deathbed due to cancer. She was telling her friend about it and her friend asked her if the dying friend “knew the Lord.” I was just overhearing this conversation and it wouldn’t be polite for me to […]
Filed under: conversation, death, deathbed conversion, Religion | 24 Comments »
It seems to me that Christians who proselytize are actually making a case against their position. Their claim is that their deity of choice is all-powerful and wants everyone to worship him but can’t seem to convince people on his own. God seems to need the Christian to proselytize. Why would such an all-powerful deity […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Disproving God, god, Preaching, Religion | 29 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 »
Ever since I was in college I have had evangelical Christians coming to my door to “witness” to me. Many of these evangelicals like to tell me about how they became “saved,” “Born again,” or whatever other cult-term they come up with. I like when they tell me about their story. It is a perfect […]
Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, delusion, discussion, missionaries, Preaching, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
I often get into prolonged conversations with fundamentalists. Usually after a little while our conversation changes from antagonism to a genuine exchange of ideas. The fundamentalist then starts to see where I am coming from and begins to reason on his or her own through the theological bullshit that has been drilled into their head. […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Every Knee, free will, god, Religion | 3 Comments »
My father used to tell me this old Jewish joke about a Jew praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. There was this Jew who came to the Wailing Wall every day for ten years to pray. One day, someone asked him if any of his prayers were every answered. He responded by saying, “No, […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, evolution, Religion | 8 Comments »
One of the big issues that I often have with fundamentalist religious people is that more often than not they will make wild accusations about atheists and sometimes these accusations even come in the form of a question. These questions often have implied answers which are not true and are just mean spirited toward atheists. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Hope, Religion | 9 Comments »
Over the break, I got a lot of e-mails asking me about my de-conversion story. To be honest, my story isn’t that interesting. I was never a fundamentalist nor did I have a lot of family pressure to stay religious. But it’s a new year, so I guess I’ll tell the story. First, it is […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 6 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 »
There have been quite a few people who have told me that valued friends and family members have defriended them on one of the many social networking sites like facebook or myspace because they posted atheistic opinions. While I am pretty open about my lack of belief in ancient superstitions, I do have some theistic […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, facebook, People of Reason, Religion, responsibility | 16 Comments »
