This is going to be a pretty packed weekend. Saturday is of course the DC Rallies and Sunday is Halloween. I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays. I talk about why I love Halloween more in today’s Examiner Article, but I do have some reasons for loving Halloween that I only hinted […]
Filed under: Blasphemy | 2 Comments »
While the forces of sanity and fear square off in our nation’s capital, the forces of reason are also converging. For those going to the Comedy Central rallies hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, atheists are gathering together at the event. I just posted an Examiner article with all the details. Unfortunately I will […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, humanism, People of Reason, Personal, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
I once joked that if there is anything in me that could be considered faith it would be my faith in people. This however is a slightly different use of the term “faith” and so it would be more accurate to say that I don’t really have anything in me which could reasonably be considered […]
Filed under: faith, Hope, Religion | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, I seem to have gotten into a few conversations with various progressive Christians. These are Christians who take their faith seriously, but who tend to focus more on poverty issues than the culture war issues. They are the so called, “good cops.” First, I got into a conversation with the progressive Christians […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, good cop-bad cop, Progressive Christians, Religion | 3 Comments »
With a little over a week to go before Election Day, it is time to start playing the Lawn Sign Game as a predictor of the election. It is a pretty easy game to play and can be great fun for small road trips. While it isn’t a perfect prediction of local election outcomes, it […]
Filed under: Election, Politics | 3 Comments »
Not long ago, I made the case that the Tea Party was a re-branding of the Christian Right. A few “Tea Baggers” disagreed and reiterated the position that it is an pro-Constitution/cut government waste movement. Well, this is their lucky day, because I have discovered a perfect test to see which one of us is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, church/state, culture war, Political Activism, Politics, Religion | No Comments »
Yesterday I talked about the perception that criticism and mockery is often considered going negative. Today I want to talk about the value of criticism and mockery. Quite simply, it is how we learn. When presented with an idea (good or bad) we have to think about the idea. Sometimes we don’t do that or […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, ignorance, Religion, Skepticism | 3 Comments »
A lot of people criticize me and other atheists because we criticize religion. They seem to think that criticism is “being negative.” Oddly enough, these people don’t think they are being negative when they criticize us for being negative. People keep asking me to stop being critical of religion and to stop mocking religion. But […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, culture war, ignorance, Offensiveness, Religion | 5 Comments »
Mathematics is one of those things that is not open to interpretation. It doesn’t matter who counting the numbers, they should always add up the same. But there are a few instances within Christianity in which the divinely perfect numbers just don’t add up. The first an obvious mathematical equation that doesn’t add up is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, ignorance, logic, Religion, science, Trinity | 4 Comments »
A lot of people get tripped up on labels and people in the greater atheistic community are no exception. Two of the main labels that tend to confuse a lot of freethinkers are atheism and agnosticism. Of course many religious people have learned to exploit this confusion. I have written quite a bit about the […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, language, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
There are lots of different types of believers in the Abrahamic God and they all have different reason for why they believe. But at the end of the day, whenever they are advocating for belief it almost always comes down to the carrot and the stick. Belief basically amounts to a threat of eternal torture […]
Filed under: death, delusion, good cop-bad cop, hell, humanism, Religion | 6 Comments »
So yesterday was the big debate between Delaware Senate candidates Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons. The debate has gotten a surprising amount of press for a race that seems all but decided. Despite Chris Coons’s unfortunate name he came into the debate up almost 20 points in the polls. It isn’t like this is an […]
Filed under: church/state, journalism, Media, Politics | 2 Comments »
I was talking to a Christian the other day and I mentioned that the Bible didn’t say anything condemning rape. My Christian friend corrected me by pointing out Deut 22:25-27. But it seems that he took the verse out of context. Let us just take a look at the verse that my friend pointed out […]
Filed under: family values, morality, Religion, ten commandments, the bible | 14 Comments »
I was talking to a fundamentalist Christian friend yesterday and I asked him if he thought gay marriage should be illegal. He informed me that homosexuality was a sin and that he has no objections to making “wallowing in sin” illegal. So I asked him if all sin should be illegal and he said, yes. […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Political Activism, the bible | 3 Comments »
Over the weekend, two of my friends got married… I mean Civil Unioned. This was the second Civil Union I’ve attended. While everyone had a great time and I am very happy for my friends, I can stop thinking about the fact that technically they are not actually married. While they have most of the […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Gay Issues, Mainstream Christians, Religion | 6 Comments »
I think there seems to be some confusion. When someone does something horrible, I often hear others (even non-Christians) claim that the behavior in question wasn’t a very Christian thing to do. Have these people read the Bible? Yes, there are passages in the Bible where Jesus says to turn the other cheek, love your […]
Filed under: family values, god, Real Christians, Religion, the bible, wwjd | No Comments »
I never really understood the idea of a Church… at least not from a theological point of view. If God is supposed to be everywhere, then what is the point of having a house of God? Now of course there are other reasons for have Christians to build Churches. From a historical stand point, it […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Church, Glory to God, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
If I through a loud party, there would be a pretty good chance that he police would come over and either talk to me about it or ticket me about it. There are of course local town ordinances dealing with sound. Yet everyday at noon, I am forced to hear church bells ringing from every […]
Filed under: church/state, Law, Religion | 4 Comments »
The other day, I got an e-mail from Liberty University. It was actually more of a spam mail. It seems that the Jerry Falwell School of Brainwashing has started an online degree program. I feel sorry for online colleges like Phoenix University that already struggles to be taken seriously and not they are put in […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Biblical Scholarship, culture war, education, ignorance, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Christians often accuse me of being too vocal about my atheism. Some have even claimed that I wear my atheism on my sleeve. While I do have a few atheist t-shirts (maybe three), I rarely wear them except to atheist meetings and meet-ups. Sure I have a bumper sticker, but that really is about it. […]
Filed under: culture war, image of god, Religion | 5 Comments »
Why are people convinced that ancient people knew some great secret to the universe that all our modern knowledge just can’t figure out today? This is not just an issue with religion, but with supernatural mysteries also. I’m not saying that we know everything. That would be stupid. But I am saying that we know […]
Filed under: delusion, prophecies, Religion, Skepticism, The Secret | 4 Comments »
