Religious believers often claim that God doesn’t care about material possessions. Many fundamentalists claim that God doesn’t care about works. So what does an all powerful God what’s he care about? Of course most Christians will give you the standard line. We are all evil sinner and don’t deserve to be rewarded in Heaven. God […]
Filed under: Authority, faith, god, God reach man, Religion | 2 Comments »
Unlike most Christians, I have actually read the Bible… all of it. While there are a few positive things in the Bible, most of it is very poorly thought out and very immoral. In fact, you would not be able to find a single person who believes in everything the Bible says and yet you […]
Filed under: Progressive Christians, Religion, the bible | 8 Comments »
After 9/11, four atheists started to write books criticizing religion. While the media has dubbed these atheists “New Atheists,” Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett have jokingly labeled themselves as “The Four Horsemen of Atheism.” Now I think there is a fifth horseman, Stephen Hawking. At the beginning of the month, Stephen […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, discussion, good cop-bad cop, science | 4 Comments »
While there are many really important people and great voices within the greater atheistic community, there are two people in particular that I consider my atheist heroes (currently living). Over the weekend, I got to hang out with one of them. The so called “Four Horsemen of Atheism” are all great people and worthy of […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
Last night I noticed that Reverend Rick Warren had an interesting facebook status worth commenting on. His status had something to do with unbelievers not wanting to know the Truth of God or some such nonsense. After replying that unbelievers aren’t convinced by the claims made by believers, I checked back to see what other […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, culture war | 1 Comment »
Even though the term “agnostic” means without knowledge and pretty much applies to anyone who admits that we can’t know everything, there are some people who insist that agnostic is a category of belief in and of itself. These people insist that atheism is a dogmatic view that someone is 100% certain that there is […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, culture war, language | 2 Comments »
I got a message today from a fellow atheist asking why so many atheists take a literal view of the Bible rather than argue the Bible from a more metaphorical position. I think it is a fair question to some degree. For starters, here in America we tend to run into a large number of […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, good cop-bad cop, image of god, Religion | 7 Comments »
For most atheists, when we get into conversations with the religious, we tend to discuss facts and evidence. When we argue, we use logic, reason, and point out fallacies. But when the religious argue, they use personal connection. Religious people will try to get to know you. They don’t really care about the details of […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, culture war, de-conversion, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
Whenever someone makes a life and death decision, there will be a theist around to claim that someone is “playing God.” The thing is that when it is a life or death decision, we aren’t playing. Unlike theists, atheists view this life as the only life we have. We don’t view life as a game […]
Filed under: de-conversion, Religious Manipulation, responsibility | 1 Comment »
I get into a lot of conversations with a lot of fundamentalist believers. Even though I love these conversations it sometimes seems like I am having a conversation with a wall. We have all had these types of conversations. But sometimes we forget that there might be flies on that wall and they might benefit […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, discussion, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 5 Comments »
Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society. This month’s guest speaker was former American Atheist President Ellen Johnson. Johnson was promoting her new organization called “Enlighten the Vote” and she said a lot of very interesting things. First, I want to point out that while I think what Ellen Johnson said […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
I recently had a conversation with a Christian whose concept of God is so vague that he couldn’t define it. Now, I often talk about how Christianity has two main God concepts, the first being the character of God as portrayed in the Bible and the second being some sort of vague higher power concept. […]
Filed under: conversation, god, image of god, Vague Higher Power | 1 Comment »
Over the weekend at my 9/11 Birthday Barbecue, a Christian friend claimed that I never have anything positive to say about religion. I told him that there are actually a few things that I do admire about Christianity and I think atheists can learn a few things from Christianity… without of course believing in ridiculous […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Over the weekend, I had a barbecue to celebrate 9/11 (which just so happens to be my Birthday). Even though many people jokingly inquired about burning some holy books, no holy books were burnt during this celebration. I did want to take a moment to thank all the people on facebook and twitter who sent […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Personal | 5 Comments »
We all know that nine years ago Islamic terrorists flew planes into buildings and changed the world forever. What most people don’t know is that 36 years ago on that very same day a dangerous talker was born. I often joke about how former President Bush decided to turn my birthday into a national holiday. […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 4 Comments »
A lot of times, Christians will insist that their belief was not a product of brainwashing, indoctrination, or some other form of emotional trickery. They will insist that there are logical and reasonable reasons for their belief. Okay, what are they? They will give you a million different arguments for God and Christianity but which […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
One thing that I love to point out to proponents of the “One True Religion,” (whichever religion that might be) is that no one has yet disproven past religions. The fact is that even though no sane person still believes in the God Zeus, no one has actually disproven Zeus’s existence. Why is it that […]
Filed under: Coexist, conversation, Decline of Religion, Religion, Zeus | 9 Comments »
I was talking to a Christian over the weekend and he asserted that there are three kinds of knowledge, empirical, rational, and faithful. I think this is a brilliant move to assert that faith is a kind of knowledge. What is the argument for that? Where is the evidence? Oh wait, if there is an […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, faith | 4 Comments »
Even though physicist Stephen Hawking has been an atheist for quite some time, this seemed to be breaking news yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hawking did make breaking news yesterday, but it wasn’t his lack of belief in a deity. The media has a really short attention span, because it was just three […]
Filed under: culture war, Current Events, Decline of Religion, First Cause Argument, god of the gaps, science | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from someone who works at a state agency in the Bible Belt. The head of the agency often uses working lunches and meetings to conduct a short prayer session. According to the e-mail, this happens often and most people just go along with it rather than risk their jobs. Most […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
It seems that no matter how jolly I am when it comes out that I don’t believe in a deity; Christians always assume that I must be bitter and angry just because I don’t believe in their deity of choice. While I can be critical of their God and their whole religion for that matter, […]
Filed under: culture war, discussion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
