Christians have created a little trap for people of reason. It is a way they can attack us for whatever answer we give. It is an interesting new rhetoric that I am starting to hear them use more and more. I will call it “The Certainty Trap.” First they start out with the whole, “it […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Certainty, conversation, Preaching | 4 Comments »
There seems to be this disconnect for many Christians. I have come across it multiple times. When asked why God doesn’t present evidence for his existence, I often hear Christians tell me that God gave us Free Will. I don’t really see how that addresses the problem but it seems that many Christians equate evidence […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, conversation, faith, free will, ignorance, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Often times Christians will ask people if they have heard the “Good News.” They will ask if you have ever heard of Jesus Christ. Once when I was in college, I thought I would try a little experiment and answer the question in a way most Christians wouldn’t expect. I said, “No, never heard of […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, discussion, ignorance, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Often times when I demand that religious believers present evidence for their claims they try to find some way to avoid doing so. One of their most common tactics is to claim or insinuate that I am not worthy of the evidence. If only I already believed then they could present me with the evidence […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, discussion, ignorance, Religious Manipulation | No Comments »
I have argued with many Christians who insist that there is more evidence for a historical Jesus than there is for various other historical figures. While I think they are wrong and that the best a knowledgeable Christian could really say would be that there is an equal amount of evidence for a historical Jesus […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Jesus, Religion | 2 Comments »
It started with some punk Christian asserting that without God there can be no moral grounding. We have all heard that one before and so I responded with my Atheism 101 article on the subject (which is now out of date, but still useful). Then the Christian responded with this: “As far as your argument […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, humanism, morality | 7 Comments »
For some reason the question of whether or not the 17 foot tall 9/11 Cross should go into a federally funded museum has become a controversy within the atheist community. It has actually gotten pretty heated and I have taken the obvious position that Christians have over stepped their bounds and are once again trying […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, Preaching | No Comments »
One thing I hate is when Christians attempt to redefine my position and then argue against their newly created position as if that is actually the position that I hold. In philosophy this is called a “strawman” argument. So I thought it might be fun to do the same thing to Christians. Yeah, this is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war | No Comments »
The other day I was discussing religion with a Christian and he commented that in order for me to be an atheist, I have to prove that life can come from chemicals. This is an attempt to switch the burden of proof while invoking the God of the Gaps argument. For starters, atheists don’t have […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, god of the gaps, Religious Manipulation | 7 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 »
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 »
I once heard it said that the internet is where religions go to die. This is pretty accurate and as religious believers become less lazy they will soon realize that any question they have for atheists has already been answered. All they have to do is Google their question and pick a fairly reputable website […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, Disproving God, god, Religion, truth | 8 Comments »
Yeah, you heard me; I can prove that the Easter Bunny is real! You see that tree outside? There you go. People live in houses, right? So if you see a house, that is proof that people exist. The Easter Bunny lives in a tree, so if you see a tree that is proof that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, culture war, ignorance, Religion | 10 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 »
Yesterday, I was reading the Huffington Post Religion Section (always a good time) and I saw an article from my favorite Rabbi, Adam Jacobs. For those unfamiliar with him (which should be almost everyone), he is a fundamentalist Christian… I mean Jew. I have actually written a few Examiner articles responding to his craziness (Links […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Creationism, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
I would say that the single most common message I get from Christians is usually in two parts. The first part is an expression of love and the second part is a threat of eternal torture. This is of course not the first time I have written about this however, the title of my Atheism […]
Filed under: Authority, conversation, culture war, delusion, Disproving God, forgiveness, Love, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
Once again I am on my rant about taking the fight to the religious and playing their games on them for a change. This time, I think we should force Christians to stop calling their blood kin “family.” They can use some other name, but I don’t think they can call it “family.” According to […]
Filed under: church/state, culture war, family values, Gay Issues, Political Activism, Religion | 1 Comment »
It has occurred to me that in the Bible, the character of God is always telling people what to do and complaining about various things. One of his biggest issues is that the Hebrews don’t love him enough. In the New Testament Jesus whines about how people don’t love God enough. So I just gotta […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, god, Offensiveness, Religion | 2 Comments »
Over the weekend, I was having a conversation with a Christian over twitter. Nothing beats twitter for intellectual conversations in which you have to simplify your points down to 140 characters. The Christian in question told me that he considers himself to be a reasonably intelligent person. Toward the end of the conversation he asked […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, Religious Manipulation, Self-Help | 7 Comments »
I was listening to a video yesterday in which a Christian preacher was talking about forgiveness. It always fascinates me when religious believers talk on this subject. This video was no exception. So I thought today I would compare religious forgiveness with my view of secular forgiveness. The context of the video was Reverend Creflo […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, blood sacrifice, forgiveness, Judge God, People of Reason, responsibility | 1 Comment »
Many religious leaders have educated themselves a good deal in the history of their religion. I find that the more people learn about religion the less literal they take their holy books. However, there is a divide between the intellectual religious leaders and the common practitioners. What I mean here is that many religious leaders […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Authority, conversation, ignorance, Preaching, Religious Manipulation, responsibility | 3 Comments »
I get into a lot of conversations with Christians and often times when the Christian gets backed into an intellectual corner and their ideas have been shown to be unreasonable, illogical, and flat out ridiculous, they throw up a brick wall. One of the most common brick wall tactics is to insist that I open […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Belief, conversation, delusion, discussion, faith, Glory to God, god, Personal, prayer, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
While atheism is a label used to define what I don’t believe, I sometimes talk about my beliefs in Humanism and Star Wars. In fact, I take my Star Wars very seriously (you can ask my wife). With that in mind, an old college friend recently asked me the following question: How are those that […]
Filed under: delusion, discussion, Personal, Religion, Star wars, the bible, wwjd | 20 Comments »
With all the talk about the Rapture lately, one Christian sent me a message saying that he believes Harold Camping was wrong, but that the lesson we should learn is that we ought to live everyday as if it were our last. He says that this is the message Jesus was trying to send with […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, responsibility, Self-Help, The Future | No Comments »
The theme I have been hitting lately that many Christians don’t seem to get is that their belief is ridiculous superstitions is no different than Harold Camping’s belief in ridiculous superstition. Christians can’t distance themselves fast enough from Camping with good reason. He makes them look bad. I know that Christianity is a pretty broad […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Argument by Popularity, culture war, End of the World, Projection, Religion, The Rapture | 8 Comments »
For me, Harold Camping is a gift that keeps on giving. I really don’t think Christians understand this. I read a few articles over the weekend in which Christians talked about how Harold Camping was an extremist and how his belief that the Rapture would occur on May 21st 2011 was ridiculous. I even got […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, End of Days, Mainstream Christians, People of Reason, Projection, The Rapture | 7 Comments »
From now on, whenever a Christian tries to talk to you about their bullshit, we can tell them with some confidence that they are not a real Christian. All we have to do is remind them that May 21st 2011 was the Rapture and they are still here so that must mean that they were […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Current Events, End of Days, hell, Judge God, Progressive Christians, Real Christians, The Rapture | 9 Comments »
While this isn’t a new argument against the idea of Hell, it is still a pretty good one. How could any genuinely good person be happy for all eternity knowing that so many people will be tortured for all eternity in Hell? I know we deserve it since we just can’t seem to believe in […]
Filed under: faith, hell, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »
