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 »
One of the minor claims that ex-atheist Leah Libresco made was that Catholicism was a consistent system. This is a claim most religious believers hold but rarely mention. I am glad Leah mentioned it, because it gives me the opportunity to criticize that claim. “I’m a big Harry Potter nerd and I can see how […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Biblical Scholarship, Religion | 1 Comment »
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 »
There have been a bunch of zombie stories in the news lately as a result of bath salts. I really haven’t been following it much so I don’t know all the details. But what I do know is that it gave me an idea. A few weeks ago, I wrote an examiner article about a […]
Filed under: culture war, End of Days, End of the World, Religion, satan, The Rapture | 1 Comment »
When talking to fundamentalist believers, the two traits I run into the most are pride and ignorance. Interestingly enough, I find that these believers take pride in not being prideful and that they are generally ignorant of their ignorance. Still, I think that if we can get these believers to stop being prideful and ignorant, […]
Filed under: atheism, Religion | 2 Comments »
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 »
One of the ways religious believers try to sidestep criticism of their ridiculous beliefs is to claim that anyone who has any criticism must “hate God.” The conversation usually goes down like this, “You must hate God and therefore your argument is invalid.” There is actually a logical fallacy for that. When religious believers claim […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, argument, Religion | 1 Comment »
Religious believers often try to defend the ridiculousness of God’s commands in the Bible by asking me, “Who are you to question God?” Who am I indeed? I think the question I would like them to answer is, “If we don’t question God, who will?” Now of course God is fictional and so it really […]
Filed under: Authority, culture war, god, Judge God, Religion, responsibility, wwjd | 3 Comments »
Whenever I get into a discussion about religion with a progressive Christian the first thing I like to bring up is Hell. It is easy for progressive Christians to speak out against Dick Cheney’s torture program here on Earth, but for some strange reason they are much more hesitant to speak out against God’s eternal […]
Filed under: culture war, hell, Progressive Christians, Religion, torture | 10 Comments »
Yesterday I talked about my conversation with two Jehovah’s Witnesses that came to my door. As we were talking, I wanted to make it clear to them that I was not dogmatic in my thinking in the hopes that I could encourage them to be less dogmatic and consider the possibility that they might not […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Certainty, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 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 »
Many Christians talk about non-believers being tortured for all eternity in Hell by their all-loving deity. This is when I like to ask them if non-believing children go to Hell to be tortured for all eternity. I get a variety of answers on this one and they are all comically funny for atheists. First I […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, hell, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
If you ever go into a Christian bookstore or read a Christian newspaper (yes, they do exist), it is generally filled with testimonial stories about how great their God is. But don’t Christians already know how great their God is? If they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be Christians, right? So what’s the point of these […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
I was watching American Atheists president, Dave Silverman on Fox News yesterday and toward the end of the segment, his opponent made the remark that atheists believe in nothing. In fact, yesterday after I posted a comment on an article at Huffington Post, a Christian made the same remark. But yesterday wasn’t the first time […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, ignorance, Nothing, Religion | 1 Comment »
I have often said that I don’t believe in a deity believe the idea is ridiculous and no sufficient evidence has been put forward to support such a ridiculous belief. I have told many Christians that if they wanted to convert me, all they had to do was to present some valid evidence for such […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Authority, Belief, free will, Glory to God, god, hell, Religion | 3 Comments »
Occasionally, I run into Christians who are very upset when atheists oppose their attempts to push their beliefs on everything from high school gymnasiums to dollar bills. They are so upset that they can’t give a shout-out to their deity on everything that they actually try to play the persecuted card. At some point in […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Belief, Religion | 6 Comments »
Richard Dawkins had a gaffe recently in which he talked about a survey that the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science did showing that Britain is no longer a majority Christian nation. One of the criteria he used was asking people what the first book of the Gospel was. So some Christian asked him […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Current Events, evolution, Mainstream Christians, Religion, the bible | 6 Comments »
It being Valentine’s Day and all, I thought I would take the opportunity to do a quick walk through on how far we as a society have gone when it comes to linking love and marriage. Today, we take it for granted that the reason you marry is because you love someone, but that wasn’t […]
Filed under: Coexist, Love, Religion, Valentines Day | No Comments »
Over the last few years, atheists have been putting up billboards, bus ads, and even aerial banners. Most of these have been pretty tame by any standard and if you compare them to the billboards of the religious, they are extremely tame. Yet, despite this obvious fact, we get criticism for “pushing our beliefs…” or […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, billboards, Coexist, culture war, free speech, Media, Preaching, Religion | 6 Comments »
You know religious believers are living in a delusional world when they actively try to convince atheists that atheism is a religion, but that Christianity isn’t. As ridiculous as such a belief sounds, we hear such nonsense from religious believers all the time, but rarely at the same time. First, there is the claim that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Belief, delusion, god the father, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 6 Comments »
I know that I could probably just ask a Mormon about this, but that wouldn’t nearly be as much fun and it would probably offend the Mormon anyway. So I just gotta know… Do babies born of Mormon parents have to wear magic diapers? When you think about it, they should. I mean the whole […]
Filed under: Criticism, Mormons, Religion | No Comments »
I rarely ever say anything negative about other atheists. The way I see it is that we are all in this fight together and we each have our own approaches to the problem. With that said, Alain de Botton’s “Atheism 2.0” is stupid. Alain de Botton is basically the British equivalent to Greg Epstein, but […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Church, culture war, humanism, Religion | 2 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 »
Some Christian thought they were doing God’s work by posting a Twitter message to atheists the other day. This Christian asked, “Why would you risk your soul? #atheism” I would like to answer this question. I responded to the Christian asking why he or she would risk their Thetans by rejecting L. Ron Hubbard? My […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, hell, Religion, scientology, Soul, twitter | No Comments »
Many Christians are surprisingly ignorant about some of the basic facts concerning the Bible. When I talk about these facts, I mean that these are things that really aren’t in dispute even among Christian Biblical “Scholars.” This isn’t coming from some atheist like me who is critical of the Bible, it comes from religious believers […]
Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, ignorance, Religion, the bible | 2 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 »
When I criticize religions like Christianity, I almost always criticize the system of belief rather than the believers in the system. There are reasons for this however many Christians don’t see this distinction. I view the belief system of Christianity as a living system, like a virus. They system adapts and changes in order to […]
Filed under: Belief, de-conversion, delusion, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 5 Comments »
Christians almost always get into a tizzy when atheists compare their holy book to other works of fiction. It doesn’t matter what aspect is being compared, it is the comparison itself that seems to generate the outrage. Usually when I compare the Bible to some other work of fiction, I am comparing a particular aspect […]
Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, Religion, the bible | 3 Comments »
Earlier this week, I wrote about how religious believers often seem like they are just waiting to die and that this world is just a doorway into the next world. For many Christians, this world only purpose is to serve God by proselytizing until the end comes. But now, when a Christians comes to proselytize […]
Filed under: death, deathbed conversion, Religion | 1 Comment »
One of the most common statements religious believers make toward atheists is that without the promise of everlasting life, our lives must be meaningless. Quite frankly, I think it is reversed. It seems to me that most religious believers are so focused on their afterlife that they go around this life just waiting to die. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, Criticism, death, healthcare, Projection, Religion | 4 Comments »
