The universe is a wondrous place filled with beauty and mystery. One thing that really ticks me off is when religious believers ascribe the wonders of the universe to their deity of choice. The universe is not “God’s handiwork!” It was Immanuel Kant who is known for verbalizing the fact that our senses are filtered […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, Glory to God, science | No Comments »
One of the main problems with arguing against religion is that people get very passionate about the subject. Religious believers have invested a great deal of time and often money into their beliefs and as a result, they are very resistant to reconsidering their opinion on the matter. Politics is viewed in much the same […]
Filed under: Belief, conversation, discussion, Religious Manipulation | No Comments »
When I criticize religions like Christianity, I almost always criticize the system of belief rather than the believers in the system. There are reasons for this however many Christians don’t see this distinction. I view the belief system of Christianity as a living system, like a virus. They system adapts and changes in order to […]
Filed under: Belief, de-conversion, delusion, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 5 Comments »
Earlier this week, I wrote about how religious believers often seem like they are just waiting to die and that this world is just a doorway into the next world. For many Christians, this world only purpose is to serve God by proselytizing until the end comes. But now, when a Christians comes to proselytize […]
Filed under: death, deathbed conversion, Religion | 1 Comment »
One of the most common statements religious believers make toward atheists is that without the promise of everlasting life, our lives must be meaningless. Quite frankly, I think it is reversed. It seems to me that most religious believers are so focused on their afterlife that they go around this life just waiting to die. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, Criticism, death, healthcare, Projection, Religion | 4 Comments »
Religious believers often accuse atheists of being angry, but if you ever read comment on any article dealing with atheism, it really seems like it is the theists who are the angry ones. Why is that? Last weekend, atheists rallied to protest our exclusion from the “Free Speech Zone” in West Chester, PA. The local […]
Filed under: culture war, Religion, truth | 5 Comments »
Yesterday was Election Day and as Minority Election Inspector, I am at my polling place all day long. Since I live in a largely Republican area, it is an opportunity to talk to Republicans about politics. It came to no surprise to me that I couldn’t find anyone who liked Mitt Romney for President. What […]
Filed under: Election, Obama, Personal, Politics | 1 Comment »
As Halloween approaches, I always look forward to seeing adults dressing up in sexy costumes. Some people however, maintain the religious demonization of sexuality and label anyone who wears a scantily clad outfit a “slut.” They use this term to demean others who chose to express their sexuality publicly. I don’t consider myself to be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Blasphemy, censorship, culture war, Halloween, sex | 4 Comments »
I was reading a friend’s blog yesterday and one of the things she experiences seemed similar to what I recently experienced in relation to my friend’s funeral. We were both bullied into silence and forced to hide our lack of belief in the ridiculous. As it turns out, most people in the greater community of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Authority, Car Bomb Argument, Coexist, culture war, discrimination, Evils of Christianity, morality, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Over the years, I have helped to de-convert many people away from religion. One would think that if the religious really believed what they claim to believe then they would consider me to be a worse criminal than most serial killers. A murderer takes away someone’s life, but I have taken away people’s eternal afterlife. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Belief, de-conversion, death, delusion, hell, morality, Religion, Soul | 2 Comments »
A friend of mine died recently. When I first met him, he was a Christian. However, he also had a strong analytic mind and so it didn’t take long for him to research the questions I posed to him. As a result, he de-converted. He told me once or twice about his really religious family. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, culture war, death, Evils of Christianity, God-Shaped Hole, humanism, Religious Manipulation | 6 Comments »
Yesterday was another Republican Primary Debate and tonight I will be attending the Silverman/D’souza Debate. These are however very different debates with very different objectives. Both are entertaining for their own reasons. The political debate is focused on persuading people to support other people while the religion debate is focused on persuading people to change […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, debate, Dinesh D'Souza, Election, Politics | 1 Comment »
The public relations arm of the Christianity long ago realized that they can get more converts with honey. So they came up with this idea of going to under developed nations and helping them out. While they are at it, they can push their religion on those who are physically and emotionally not in a […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, Decline of Religion, humanism, missionaries, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
In a debate between Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe, Harris talked about how when people talk about their belief that Elvis is still alive in job interviews, etc. there is an immediate price to be paid. When politicians invoke religious terminology there should be a price they too should have to pay. Let’s be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, church/state, culture war, Decline of Religion, Election, Government, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Political Activism | No Comments »
I always find it interesting when Christians tell me right from the start that they will never be convinced that they are wrong. But what is really interesting is that they then project that stone wall mentality onto me. They tell me that they will never be convinced or that neither of us will be […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Certainty, de-conversion, Religion | 4 Comments »
In the western religious traditions, it is believed that we are not only children of the same God of Abraham, but that we were created in His image. However, people come in many shapes, sizes, and colors so questions arise. If we are all created in the image of God, what does God look like? […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, Creationism, image of god | 1 Comment »
Fundamentalist religious believers love to ignore and attack science. Some will claim that there are other sources of knowledge. It is not unusual to hear some religious believer talk about spiritual knowledge or to claim that they can know God through faith. I maintain that without science there is no knowledge. I guess I am […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, science | 1 Comment »
According to the Bible, one cannot serve two masters. So my question to politicians is, “Are you a public servant or a servant of God?” I think it is time for the greater community of reason to start throwing our weight around in politics. We need to start making it clear to politicians that we […]
Filed under: culture war, Election, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 7 Comments »
Last week, I was at my parent’s house and my mother bought a Berenstain Bears book for my 2 and a half year old son. She remembered that I used to enjoy those books when I was young. However, upon reading it to my son, my mother noticed that it was full of Jesus talk. […]
Filed under: Bears, Current Events, Parenting, Personal | 20 Comments »
Religious believers love to try to lower science to the level of faith. They love to talk about how science requires faith and some will even say that it requires more faith than… actual faith. Faith is dogmatic by nature and so religious believers like to claim that science is equally as dogmatic. It isn’t! […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, Religious Manipulation, science | 2 Comments »
This morning, I was at the hospital with my wife who was getting an ultrasound to make sure the fetus is developing normally. While there, there was a woman in the waiting room also getting ready for an ultrasound. She was telling me that she believes that she is having a boy do to some […]
Filed under: delusion, Personal | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I saw a great video on YouTube by Dusty Smith. In the video he talks about the claim Christians often make that atheists believe in nothing. Then, last night I attended my local monthly atheist meetup group. If atheists believe in nothing, then a social group of atheist must have nothing to talk about. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, discussion, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
Within the gay community there is a taboo around outing other gays although some gay rights activists do it anyway. While there is certainly some gray areas about this especially if the person being outed is anti-gay. My question for the day is whether or not there should be such a taboo in the atheist […]
Filed under: Argument by Popularity, atheism, culture war, People of Reason | 17 Comments »
It was just a few weeks ago that a Christian commented to me that, “The internet has actually worsened god’s world because science is spread quicker than the truth.” And now Christian apologist Josh McDowell has pretty much come out and said the same thing… to an audience of Christians no less. I love these […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, conversation, culture war, Decline of Religion, education, People of Reason, Skepticism | 2 Comments »
Over the weekend, I was in my car and turned on the radio. I started listening to a re-broadcast of the Tom Hartmann program from earlier in the week. Apparently atheists have been calling in and rightfully giving him a hard time over his interview with Rick Wingrove. Hartmann continued to assert that atheism is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, ignorance, Religion | 5 Comments »
Once again a particular Christian has tried to equate organized atheism with religion in an attempt to dirty atheism by lowering it to the level of religion. We must be doing something right when religion practically admits to being dirty. In this case it is liberal radio host, Thom Hartmann. I don’t think Rick Wingrove […]
Filed under: Ad Hominem, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, ignorance, Progressive Christians, Religion | 2 Comments »
I know, we are all sick of this topic but it seems that the elevatorgate situation is a symptom of a larger issue. As a point of fact, there are more men in atheist groups, meetups, conferences, etc. then there are women. So how can we as a community get more women engaged in the […]
Filed under: atheism, Coexist, humanism, People of Reason, Self-Help | 4 Comments »
Atheists often joke about how Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses go door to door pushing their religion. Yes, it is incredibly annoying and no one likes it. But even though it annoys people, it also gets their message out there. People don’t even have to listen to what they say, the fact that they are there […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, Jehovah's Witness | 3 Comments »
My fellow atheist blogger over at Atheist Revolution recently posted a blog entry on why he chose the name he did for his blog. So today I thought I would do the same with mine. Why is my blog called Dangerous Talk? In 1995, my friend Jeff brought me on the air during his disco […]
Filed under: atheism, Media, Personal | No Comments »
On Friday, New York passed and signed into law a gay marriage bill. The interesting thing is that the bill almost didn’t pass. It seems that religious groups led by the Catholic Church were lobbying pretty hard against allowing gays to marry. It has never been clearer that religion is the primary force against equal […]
Filed under: Catholics, Church, church/state, culture war, Current Events, Evils of Christianity, Gay Issues, Religion | 3 Comments »
