I keep hearing this thing where atheists pose the question, “what if all the atheists left America,” and then they point out particular atheists who would leave and how that would make the country worse. I guess that might convince someone that atheists aren’t evil baby eaters, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I have […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, Coexist, culture war, Political Activism | 7 Comments »
Recently President Obama decided to take military action in Libya. We are already involved in military action in Iraq (still) and Afghanistan. We are fighting as if this was still the 20th century. The problem is that we are now in the information age and we ought to be conducting our wars accordingly. Missiles, bombs, […]
Filed under: education, facebook, islam, Obama, Politics, twitter | 1 Comment »
Last night, I attended the Freethought Society’s monthly meeting. Our special guest was Jill McDevitt, who is a Sexologist and the owner of a “sex shop.” In other words, her store, Feminique Boutique sells lingerie, vibrators, and has sex positive lectures. I was working in West Chester, PA (where her store is located) when her […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, family values, Religion, sex | 3 Comments »
“Atheists have no moral grounding. There morals are grounded in egoism.” While logically these two statements are contradictory, that never seems to bother the ignorant religious believers that make statements to this affect. Why is it that religious believers seem to think that without a moral grounding egoism must be the moral philosophy? Let’s say […]
Filed under: humanism, morality, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
So everyone is talking about this new study that religion is becoming extinct in nine countries. I wish I had the link to the actual study, but I don’t at the moment. Do wonder however, which of our modern religions will die first. We know that religion is trending down world-wide. It is also probable […]
Filed under: culture war, Decline of Religion, Religion | 2 Comments »
Most Christians will attempt to argue their position using some semblance of reason, logic, and evidence. There are however a small but special few who will not even bother. These few, proud, believers will admit that all the evidence, logic, and reason in the world will not convince them of anything… god related of course. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, conversation, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 5 Comments »
Although my Twitter profile photo is always the Dangerous Talk “A,” my facebook profile photo is usually me. This week, atheists are asked to change our facebook photos to the uniform scarlet A, this year in grey, for the week. The reason for this is so that people on facebook and see that there are […]
Filed under: atheism, facebook, humanism, Neighbor, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Here’s the deal, we all know that the Bible says some really ridiculous things. There are actually restrictions on how long you can grow your hair, what kind of clothing you can wear, and what you should do with your… excrement. So I thought it might be fun to make up your own wacky Bible […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, culture war, the bible | 6 Comments »
I once heard it said that being an atheist in a theist world is like being the only sober person at a party. I think this is pretty accurate sometimes. I also think that it seems like I’m one of the few sane people in a world gone mad. The way I see it, religion […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, delusion, Evils of Christianity, Religion | 5 Comments »
I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, language | 3 Comments »
Yesterday, a Christian on Twitter called me “ignorant” because he didn’t like the title of my article which he did not bother to read. I tried to explain to him that ignorance is of a particular nature that it can be cured through education. In his case, he could read the article he commented on […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, ignorance, language, Projection | 3 Comments »
This really gets old, but once again religious groups are putting lots of money toward using the earthquakes in Japan as a public relations stunt. Sure, there are helping the people there too, but they are doing it mainly out of a need to promote their ridiculous beliefs. I remember seeing the commercials on television […]
Filed under: Current Events, Evils of Christianity, missionaries, Preaching, Religious Manipulation | 7 Comments »
One of the things I notice a lot when discussing religion with theists is that they tend to be quick to start with the name calling. When this happens, I like to call attention to it and then move on with the discussion. I don’t think it is productive to name call back but they […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, language, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Once again we come to the conversation about how critical atheists should be when criticizing religion with the religious. It seems that some atheists think I should be more respectful of the religious and realize that they sometimes feel personally attacked when their beliefs are criticized. I realize this, but that doesn’t mean that I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, Offensiveness, Religion | 6 Comments »
Last night I was pretty surprised to get an e-mail from the executives at Examiner.com. I write for Examiner as the Philly Atheist Examiner to help fund Dangerous Talk. Apparently, they received a complaint about one of my articles and determined that a statement I made might be libelous. The article was the one I […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, censorship, Offensiveness, Personal, Raelians, Religion, scientology | 3 Comments »
Often times I use emotion and passion in my arguments. I find that when dealing with theists, this generally works best. But I think it is important to remain unemotional while doing it. To put it another way, one can argue with emotion while remaining unemotional. People (especially religious people) tend to be swayed by […]
Filed under: conversation, debate, discussion, language, Star wars | No Comments »
It seems that theists aren’t always the ones who lack reason. Many times even normally reasonable atheists fall into the trap of using anecdotal evidence to justify an irrational belief. The old, “it works for me” claim is not actually evidence! I usually hear religious people and new age people make the claim that something […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, logic | 3 Comments »
I occurred to me that when atheists message our billboard campaigns and other messaging, we always criticize things that religious people consider to be positive. For example, “Religion is a MYTH.” Many of our twitter messaging is the similar. We talk about how God is imaginary, the Bible is fiction, etc. There is nothing wrong […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, hell, Hope, Media, Religion, twitter | 2 Comments »
Right wing Christians love to talk about people should take personal responsibility for themselves. This usually is in reference to when minority is being persecuted. Whenever I heard this type of thing from them, I can’t help but laugh. Of all the people in the entire world the one group that is God bent on […]
Filed under: culture war, faith, humanism, Projection, responsibility | 2 Comments »
The other day, I got an e-mail from an anonymous Christians which was short and to the point. The two word e-mail said, “Jesus Rules.” I was not really in the mood for debate, so I thought I would have some fun with the guy instead. I was surprised that I actually changed the conversation […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, Religion | 2 Comments »
What do Christians hope to accomplish when they start an argument with an atheist? Do they think they are going to convince us with no evidence that some ridiculous ancient story is obviously true? They know that we know a lot about religion and we have probably heard all their arguments before they even come […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, debate, discussion, ignorance, Religion | 9 Comments »
The other day I was having a discussion with a Christian and I cited a scientific study. In return, the Christian cited an opinion poll. Then she said that since we both have resources that support our point of view, it must be a wash. It seems to me that many Christians don’t understand the […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, logic, science | 3 Comments »
