Today I have heard probably the single worst argument for the existence of God that I have ever heard. This argument is so stupid that it amazes me what lengths people go with mental gymnastics in order to justify their imaginary friend. If people are indoctrinated into belief in God and people are manipulated by […]
Filed under: god, image of god, Ontological Argument, Projection, Religion | 9 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 »
Even though it has become pretty much common knowledge and has been accepted by just about every scholar including most Biblical scholars (if they even count), I still get e-mails from people telling me that Christmas was not stolen from the pagans and that Jesus is the reason for the season. One need look no […]
Filed under: Christmas, Religion | 19 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 »
It seems that right after Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season officially begins. These days, the holiday season usually starts before Halloween is even over. The thing is that it seems that fundamentalist Christians and even a growing number of mainstream Christians seem to think that this season is the Christmas only season. For the last […]
Filed under: Christmas, culture war, People of Reason, Religion, Tree of Knowledge | 4 Comments »
One of my issues with the Abrahamic religions is that it doesn’t just focus on the ridiculous belief in an all-powerful supernatural being, but that they demand that we worship this imaginary being (often times in some strange and interesting ways). A popular argument that some fundamentalist believers use is that humans were created (by […]
Filed under: god of the gaps, God-Shaped Hole, Religion, responsibility | 8 Comments »
Thanksgiving can be a difficult time of year for many in the greater atheist community who have to sit and interact with our usually more religious family members. In such settings, the topic of religion is almost certainly going to come up. Every atheist is in a different situation on this holiday. Some have pretty […]
Filed under: conversation, People of Reason, Religion, thanksgiving | 4 Comments »
Think about it for a moment. Let’s say you are God. You have always existed and then suddenly even though nothing has changed or can change you decided to poof create the Universe. Why? If nothing had changed why wouldn’t God just keep doing what God was doing? What caused God to decide to one […]
Filed under: First Cause Argument, god, Religion | 22 Comments »
It seems that Sarah Palin’s 15 minutes of fame is not up just yet. It is pretty well established that she was picked to be the 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential candidate largely due to her strong fundamentalist views. The McCain campaign had hoped to get the Religious Right energized about his campaign through her. While McCain […]
Filed under: Current Events, End of Days, palin, prophecies, Religion | 8 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 »
Last week, I got a nasty e-mail from a fellow atheist about one of my blogs. This atheist didn’t agree with my approach to religion and thinks that we ought not to offend the religious in any way. He claimed that my view of atheism reflects negatively on all atheists. I wonder, does that mean […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Religion | 7 Comments »
Fundamentalist Christians constantly say that God has been banned from public school. That is a lie. God has not been “banned” from public schools at all. If a child wants to pray to God, Jesus, Allah, Xenu, or Ringo Star before, during, or even after a test, they are absolutely free to do so. While […]
Filed under: culture war, education, free speech, prayer, Preaching, Religion | 28 Comments »
Christian evangelist Ray Comfort is known for his use of fear as a tool to gain converts. While he is not the only one by a long shot who uses this tool, he is one of the more notable culprits. Comfort and his completely straight heterosexual partner Kirk Cameron (aka Mike Seaver from Growing Pains) […]
Filed under: Judge God, Preaching, ray comfort, Religion, Religious Manipulation, ten commandments | 6 Comments »
A very popular 11th grade English teacher was suspended last week because he handed out a short story by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. The story was called “Guts” and is a cautionary tale about teens experimenting with masturbation techniques. The story is pretty graphic and is full of strong imagery. Aside from the obvious […]
Filed under: education, Religion, sex | 8 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 »
Almost anyone who reads the Bible cover-to-cover from an objective perspective will be able to notice that the story is ridiculous. It is almost certain that the character of God as portrayed in the Bible is as fictional as the evil Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. And yet there are still billions (with […]
Filed under: god, image of god, Ontological Argument, Religion, the bible, Vague Higher Power | 3 Comments »
Remember, remember the fifth of November. Today is of course the anniversary of the day when the Catholic plot to blow up the Protestant controlled Parliament went astray. This year, I think we need to take this holiday a little more seriously than we normally would. First, it is of course a reminder that Christians […]
Filed under: Catholics, Current Events, Obama, Politics, Religion | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, the Friendly Atheist posted a story about a new bus campaign going up soon in Washington State. Here is what the ad will look like: Hemant thinks that this is an “inaccurate” ad and that religious people will use it “against us.” I take issue with this. First, it is not inaccurate. As a […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, billboards, culture war, People of Reason, Religion | 7 Comments »
It seems that every few months someone sends me a link to a YouTube video (or ten) with important information that I “have” to see. As it turns out, there is a group of rich and powerful people who have been plotting or hundreds of years to take over the world and turn the rest […]
Filed under: delusion, New World Order, Religion | 27 Comments »
While there is a large atheist community on the internet and some of us have atheist friends and see fellow atheists at local group meetings and meet-ups, we tend to think that everyone in the general public are god-believers. For the most part they are, however that is starting to change. Earlier in the week […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, People of Reason, Religion | 14 Comments »
Yesterday I talked about a double standard between religious and non-religious. Today, I have another double standard that goes beyond claims of belief or lack of belief in deities and is more about general disagreements. Nevertheless, since people tend to disagree about religion a lot, this double standard comes up a lot in religious conversations. […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Hasty Generalization, logic, Religion | No Comments »
Why is it that religious people feel the need to insert their religious views into seemingly every conversation? If an atheist inserting his or her lack of belief into seemingly every conversation we are criticized by the religious for “pushing our atheism.” Yesterday, I was out with my 8 mouth old son and a woman […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, miracles, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
It has become ridiculously obvious to me that every time it becomes apparent that I am not a religious believer one of the very first things that happens is that some believer (usually a Christian) will insult me. When this happened over the weekend, I called the particular person out on the insult and proceeded […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Projection, Religion | 14 Comments »
I have strongly advocated in favor of building a positive atheist community. I think a community of reason is very important. For starters, such a community would strongly help in lobbying politicians to vote against the religious fundamentalists and would help to establish more reasonable public policies. However, many times I meet atheists who tell […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
Yesterday, I discovered a great 7 part de-conversion story on YouTube. I don’t even think that the guy is finished with it yet, but I really like the way he has done this series so far. So today I am going to be lazy and just post the playlist for this series. When one video […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
After 9-11, some people started to realize that the terrorist attacks were faith based initiatives. Many of those same people then realized that America responded with faith rather than reason. As a result, atheists started to speak up and many became much more vocal about their lack of belief and their criticism of belief. The […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion | 15 Comments »
Yesterday, I posted an article on Examiner about near-death experiences. As it turns out, science can explain the experiences that many people have in this regard which tends to lead many people to believe in an afterlife and God. This article got a conversation going with a few people who wrote to me telling me […]
Filed under: death, god of the gaps, Religion | 8 Comments »
During the first week of my freshman year at college, I noticed a newspaper of campus called “The Rampage.” My university’s mascot was the Ram, so I figured that it must be the campus newspaper. It certainly looked like the campus newspaper. The front page had a typical story which one would expect to find […]
Filed under: discussion, Preaching, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 10 Comments »
Theists always ask me why I don’t believe in God. I usually rattle off any number of reasons why I think that the whole idea of God is ridiculous, silly, and illogical. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to convince them since they tend to ask me the same question again at a later time. I guess […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, god, missionaries, Religion | 14 Comments »
