Posted on June 15th, 2012 by Staks
I recently watched an interesting debate on the question, “Is the world better off without religion.” The debate featured two sides with two people representing each side. The atheist side was represented by A.C. Grayling and Matthew Chapman. Both of these men are very intelligent, but don’t have a whole lot of debating experience. The […]
Filed under: argument, culture war, debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Evils of Christianity, humanism, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on April 11th, 2012 by Staks
Yesterday on the Friendly Atheist blog, Hemant posted a a clip from an upcoming Christian film called, “Blue Like Jazz.” The clip posted shows a debate between a Christian and an atheist with an audience member asking a question, “Where do we find meaning?” Here is the clip: Now I have a lot of issues […]
Filed under: atheism, debate, Purpose | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 10th, 2012 by Staks
Every time I get an e-mail or a message from a Christian and almost every time I get into a religious conversation with a Christian, they almost always have the same old arguments which a quick google search can easily refute. So, I have a challenge for Christians. Don’t worry I’m not going to ask […]
Filed under: debate, god | No Comments »
Posted on November 30th, 2011 by Staks
Fox News is good at one thing and it is distorting the truth and flat out lying. As a Lib and a moral person, I like to bitch and complain about this; however the sad fact is that it works. Poll after poll has shown that Fox News viewers are generally misinformed about the events […]
Filed under: culture war, debate, Election, journalism, Media, Political Activism, Politics | 2 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 October 19th, 2011 by Staks
I love this election season’s Republican candidates. They are so entertaining. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney is going to be their candidate and even they don’t like him. So week after week, one of the other clowns takes their turn beating him in the polls. This week just might be Santorum’s week. First, it really […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, debate, Election, Politics | No Comments »
Posted on October 13th, 2011 by Staks
Last night I attended a debate between American Atheist president, Dave Silverman and Ann Coulter’s ex-fiancée and hack, Dinesh D’Souza. The question on the table was, “Is Christianity good for the world?” While the debate was held at the University of Pennsylvania, I noticed that the crowd was heavily religious. When I left, I saw […]
Filed under: debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Most Dangerous Religion | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 12th, 2011 by Staks
Yesterday was another Republican Primary Debate and tonight I will be attending the Silverman/D’souza Debate. These are however very different debates with very different objectives. Both are entertaining for their own reasons. The political debate is focused on persuading people to support other people while the religion debate is focused on persuading people to change […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Election, Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 13th, 2011 by Staks
The Republican’s say that we should cut taxes on the “Job Creators” because they don’t have enough money to create jobs. However they seem to have a lot of money to buy politicians. Then the Republicans are pushing to drop corporate taxes dramatically for a limited time to “Repatriate” money back into the country. But […]
Filed under: Capitalism, debate, language, Politics | 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 August 17th, 2011 by Staks
There is a fine line between being overly emotional in an argument and using emotion to strengthen an argument. Often time’s people confuse the two. More often however, people tend to be overly emotional in arguments rather than merely using emotion to strengthen their argument. So what’s the difference? Well, when someone is overly emotional, […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, debate | 3 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 May 12th, 2011 by Staks
One tactic that I often run into when discussing religion with the religious is a variation of the old sports strategy called, “running the clock.” The idea is to load the atheist up with stuff and waste our time. Here are a few examples: The most common example is when religious believers simply make multiple […]
Filed under: context, conversation, debate, discussion, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on April 12th, 2011 by Staks
Generally speaking, I tend to get quite a few demands from fundamentalist religious believers to engage in some sort of debate. I imagine that some of the more famous atheists get hundreds a day. There simply is no time to debate every fundy wishing to make a name for themselves so obviously atheists need to […]
Filed under: atheism, debate, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 17th, 2011 by Staks
I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, language | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 9th, 2011 by Staks
Often times I use emotion and passion in my arguments. I find that when dealing with theists, this generally works best. But I think it is important to remain unemotional while doing it. To put it another way, one can argue with emotion while remaining unemotional. People (especially religious people) tend to be swayed by […]
Filed under: conversation, debate, discussion, language, Star wars | No Comments »
Posted on March 3rd, 2011 by Staks
The other day, I got an e-mail from an anonymous Christians which was short and to the point. The two word e-mail said, “Jesus Rules.” I was not really in the mood for debate, so I thought I would have some fun with the guy instead. I was surprised that I actually changed the conversation […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 2nd, 2011 by Staks
What do Christians hope to accomplish when they start an argument with an atheist? Do they think they are going to convince us with no evidence that some ridiculous ancient story is obviously true? They know that we know a lot about religion and we have probably heard all their arguments before they even come […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, debate, discussion, ignorance, Religion | 9 Comments »
Posted on February 21st, 2011 by Staks
Over the weekend, I had a little problem with a particular Christian. A few weeks ago, a Christian e-mailed me asking for a collaborative project where we each ask each other 5 questions on our Examiner pages and then we each answer them. The way it was pitched to me, we would refrain from personal […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Coexist, conversation, debate, Personal, Religion | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 14th, 2011 by Staks
Continuing from yesterday’s analysis of my debate on the Bob Enyart radio show (first half-hour now on yesterday’s blog), I wanted to point out a particular trick that Bob used in our debate. Perhaps it is because he believes in authoritative doctrine, that he assumes that science is authoritative too. So his style of attack […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, Authority, Creationism, culture war, debate, evolution, science | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 13th, 2011 by Staks
Well, I followed the Friendly Atheist on fundamentalist radio’s Bob Enyart Live. The first half hour was live and then we recorded probably a weeks worth of material. I will post digital recordings of the shows when Bob’s producer e-mails them to me. All in all, I thought that the live segment was the worst. […]
Filed under: Creationism, debate, Religious Manipulation | 11 Comments »
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 »
