Posted on July 31st, 2009 by Staks
Fundamentalist Christians love to talk about how homosexual behavior is an “abomination.” They are always talking about how God loves everyone, but hates that gay people engage in gayness. It is the whole “love the sinner, hate the sin” thing which just seems to look a lot like hating the sinner in most of these […]
Filed under: Gay Issues, Religion, sex, the bible | 15 Comments »
Posted on July 30th, 2009 by Staks
A surprising number of people (some of whom are even educators by profession) don’t seem to understand the difference between education and indoctrination. While at times indoctrination may be used to educate, the fact is that they are two very different things. Education is a process of teaching people things. Indoctrination is something which may […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, Religion | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 29th, 2009 by Staks
The greatest piece of evidence against the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect God is and always will be the imperfect world around us. This is why theists have to create elaborate schemes to explain this obvious evidence away. All of their schemes inevitably put the blame for the imperfection of this world onto us […]
Filed under: god, Religion | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 28th, 2009 by Staks
There is an off shoot of the Argument by Design that a surprisingly large number of Christians still use. The claim is that the Earth is perfectly placed by God to support life. Those who espouse this argument state that if the Earth was just one degree closer to or further away from the Sun, […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, Religion | 15 Comments »
Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Staks
Yesterday I attended the 2nd annual Philadelphia Coalition of Reason (PhillyCoR) Picnic. PhillyCoR is an umbrella organization which unites several freethought, Humanist, atheist, and secular organizations together. The picnic was a great way to mix all of our respective groups together and to engage in intellectual dialog, brainstorming, and just some pleasant conversation. One of […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion | 28 Comments »
Posted on July 24th, 2009 by Staks
While yesterday’s blog asked about whether God has the same kind of body parts we humans have since we were made in his image, today’s blog deals with the part of god which actually does look like us, Jesus. Jesus was a man. Men have penises. Therefore, Jesus had a penis. So here is the […]
Filed under: circumcision, image of god, Religion | 7 Comments »
Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by Staks
I never really understood the whole “image of God” thing Christians always talk about. I look in the mirror every day and I have to tell you that I really don’t think I look a thing like God. For starters, I can actually see myself. That aside, does God have two legs, two arms, two […]
Filed under: god, image of god, Religion | 21 Comments »
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 by Staks
America has a real prison problem and I have the perfect solution. You might even say that it was divinely inspired… because I got the idea from the Bible. I think we should let everyone in the prisons go and I’ll take their place. I will serve a trillion year sentence so that everyone else […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, Judge God, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »
Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Staks
Why did Jesus have to die? I can image a young kid asking this question in Sunday school. The answer most commonly given is that Jesus died for our sins. He gave his life so that we can all go to Heaven… for those who believe of course. But that doesn’t really answer the question. […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »
Posted on July 20th, 2009 by Staks
In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman. The court ruled that public school money could not fund private religious school text books and salaries. But more importantly than that, this case created what has been called the “Lemon Test.” The Lemon Test was supposed to have settled the issue […]
Filed under: church/state, Current Events, Religion | 10 Comments »
Posted on July 17th, 2009 by Staks
Yesterday I talked about how the world is going to come to and end… soon. Well, religion isn’t the only source of superstition in this regard. For some reason many Americans are actually living in fear of the year 2012 (and not just because Sarah Palin might run from President). Yes, Hollywood is coming out […]
Filed under: End of Days, prophecies, Religion | 13 Comments »
Posted on July 16th, 2009 by Staks
I first became aware of this worlds impending doom from my friend Greg in college. It was through him that I learned that the world was going to end on September 23rd 1994. He heard it through preacher and radio mogul Harold Camping. Of course that day has now passed and we are all still […]
Filed under: death, End of Days, Preaching, prophecies, Religion | 15 Comments »
Posted on July 15th, 2009 by Staks
So yesterday, I was talking about the importance of actor Daniel Radcliffe coming out as an atheist on my Examiner blog. I mentioned that Radcliffe’s admission may have been a career risk in come out as an atheist. One comment that a Christian made on the story was that it was more of a career […]
Filed under: atheism, faith, Real Christians, Religion | 9 Comments »
Posted on July 14th, 2009 by Staks
The thing is that the label of “New Atheist” implies that there are “Old Atheists.” The distraction between “New Atheists” and “Old Atheists” seems to be that those who step out of the closet and simply make it public that they are skeptical of the claims of theistic religions are now branded as “New Atheists.”
Filed under: atheism, Religion | 20 Comments »
Posted on July 13th, 2009 by Staks
There is an old saying that dates back to ancient Tibet, “If you repeat a lie long enough than maybe Richard Gere really does like to stick a gerbils up his ass.” It really does seem that many religious people think this saying is true.
Filed under: atheism, conversation, death, evolution, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »
Posted on July 10th, 2009 by Staks
The other day, I got an e-mail from a Christian claiming that I should believe in God even though I can’t see him. After all, I can’t see the wind either and yet I surely believe in the wind, right? As absurd as this argument is, it is not the first time I have heard […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, faith, god of the gaps, Religion, science | 19 Comments »
Posted on July 9th, 2009 by Staks
We have all heard that the holier than thou Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, announced that she will be resigning from the office of Governor in three weeks for apparently no reason. Her press conference was wildly unfocused, vague, and left more questions than answers. This of course has lead to tons of rumors and […]
Filed under: free speech, palin, Politics | 8 Comments »
Posted on July 8th, 2009 by Staks
Recently, someone made a comment about the book, “The Secret” on my friend’s facebook page. The claim was that “The Secret” really works, and that everyone should try it. When people make claims about reality, they really need to be able to back up those claims with some sort of evidence. As a point of […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, prayer, Religion, The Secret | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 7th, 2009 by Staks
Over the Independence Day weekend, Governor Sarah Palin announced her early retirement from the Governor’s position with a year and a half still left in her term. There has been much speculation on why she would do this when she is also raising money for a possible race to the White House. Palin’s announcement was […]
Filed under: free speech, palin, Politics | 23 Comments »
Posted on July 6th, 2009 by Staks
For some reason, because I am a pretty outspoken atheist, religious people (even not so religious people) seem to go out of their way to start a religious conversation with me. That’s fine, I have no problem with that and always enjoy a good conversation about religion. The problem comes in sometimes when those people, […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Preaching, Religion | 14 Comments »
Posted on July 2nd, 2009 by Staks
Today’s Daily Blog is in recognition of Independence Day. One argument that I get from some particularly stupid fundamentalist Christians surprisingly a lot is that Christianity must be true because we use Christ’s alleged birth as the basis for our dating system; BC meaning “Before Christ” and AD meaning “Anno Domini” (in the year or […]
Filed under: AD/BC, Politics, Religion | 40 Comments »
Posted on July 1st, 2009 by Staks
Politicians should not make sex tapes. I think we need to add that to the Constitution or something. It appears that former presidential candidate John Edwards may have made a sex tape with his “videographer,” Rielle Hunter. I know she was supposed to video tape his every move and everything, but I think she might […]
Filed under: Current Events, Politics, sex | 20 Comments »