Posted on August 13th, 2010 by Staks
I know the Anne Rice thing is getting old. The story has been around for a few weeks now and I just can’t let it go. Like I did with Stephen Baldwin, I have written an open letter to Anne Rice. I am confident she will read it since she has been so accessible in […]
Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, faith, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 1st, 2010 by Staks
Christians have a saying taken from John 3:16 of the Bible, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Atheists have a saying too although I don’t think it is in any book yet, “God so loved the world, […]
Filed under: delusion | 6 Comments »
Posted on June 30th, 2010 by Staks
I have a 16 month old child and the other day we were at his library program and they were singing a song about bedtime routines. Part of the routine in the song was to say your prayers. As someone who grew up in a moderately Jewish home, I am curious, how early do Christians […]
Filed under: Catholics, culture war, Mainstream Christians, prayer, Religious Manipulation, sin | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 28th, 2010 by Staks
On Saturday, I was at the mall and walked past a Chick-Fil-A. Most people are aware that Chick-Fil-A is very religious right. Because of this, my rule of thumb is that I will never buy anything from Chick-Fil-A, but I will take their free samples. In fact, I will go out of my way to […]
Filed under: culture war, hell | 3 Comments »
Posted on June 18th, 2010 by Staks
Christians have an answer for everything. If you ask a fundamentalist Christian why they believe their religion as opposed to some other religion, they have a standard dogmatic response. They will tell you that all other religions tell you how to reach God, but in Christianity, God reached out to man in the form of […]
Filed under: God reach man | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 17th, 2010 by Staks
Today, I am continuing this series with an e-mail using the carpet bombing strategy on the Christians for a change. My bet is that most Christians won’t even attempt to address these issues and will simply reply with a “Jesus loves you” or a “I’m praying for you” type of response. Dear Christian, I am […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, ignorance, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on June 4th, 2010 by Staks
The Bible (or any Holy Book, really) seems to be open to lots of various interpretations. Frequently when I point out a particular issue I have with the Bible to a Christian they will inform me that I am interpreting it incorrectly. If I take a liberal view of the Bible, the fundamentalists say I […]
Filed under: context, language, Real Christians, Religion, the bible | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Staks
It occurred to me recently that perhaps the Christian “get out of stoning free” card might actually have a theological weakness. When asked why Christians no longer stone people for working on a Saturday, the response is usually that Jesus forgave sin an abolished the old law with his “new covenant.” Theologically speaking that is […]
Filed under: Law, Religion, sin | No Comments »
Posted on May 28th, 2010 by Staks
For many young Christians, the belief in the literal resurrection of Jesus has become their primary justification for belief in the entire Christian system. One argument they use in particular is that they don’t believe that the apostles would have died for a lie. These particular Christians often tell me how many of the apostles […]
Filed under: delusion, Die for a Lie, Religion | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 27th, 2010 by Staks
Often times I get a lot of e-mails from Christians who are eager to prove their God. These particular Christians tend to be fundamentalists and seem to be under the impression that I must have never heard any arguments for their position and have never really heard the story of Jesus. These particular Christians tend […]
Filed under: conversation, ignorance, missionaries, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on May 13th, 2010 by Staks
The other day I was behind a car that had a bumper sticker that stated, “Real Men Love Jesus” among other bumper stickers that were sufficiently fundamentalist Christian. Well, I guess I am not a real man according to that Christians. Oh well. The thing is that this bumper sticker brings up a few issues. […]
Filed under: culture war, Preaching, Religion, wwjd | 18 Comments »
Posted on April 7th, 2010 by Staks
Last weekend two young Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on my door. While most people would probably slam the door in their faces, I was happy to engage them in conversation. These two young women were probably college aged and they were happy to talk about their religion. When they asked if they could talk to me […]
Filed under: conversation, Jehovah's Witness, Preaching, Religion | 13 Comments »
Posted on April 5th, 2010 by Staks
Yesterday was the holiest of holy days for most Christians. The funny part is that the story they celebrated, the Easter story, really celebrates the ridiculousness of the religion. We live in a Christian dominated world, so it is safe to say that we all know the basic story. Let me just give a brief […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, Easter, god, Good Friday, Religion, sin | 28 Comments »
Posted on February 19th, 2010 by Staks
Christians seem to have the greatest public relations department. Even many atheists seem to think that Jesus was some white guy with a long beard who wandered the Middle East trying to bring about world peace. According to the Bible, Jesus was a real asshole. Sure everyone knows about the golden rule and the character […]
Filed under: family values, image of god, morality, Neighbor, Preaching, Real Christians, Religion, the bible, wwjd | 56 Comments »
Posted on February 16th, 2010 by Staks
If you ask fundamentalist Christians, they will tell you that many well known atheists in history have had deathbed conversions to Christianity. Among the names that I have heard from Christians include Voltaire, Sartre, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, and of course Charles Darwin. Of course, these well known freethinkers never really had a deathbed conversion. […]
Filed under: death, deathbed conversion, image of god, Religion | 13 Comments »
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Staks
Christians often ask me for evidence for god’s nonexistence. Right from the start, that is a ridiculous demand. But as it turns out there is actually really strong philosophical evidence for god’s nonexistence. Christians created a God that is too perfect to exist. The Christian theologian Anselm once defined God as a being in which […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, delusion, Disproving God, free will, god, logic, Ontological Argument, Religion, sin, Vague Higher Power | 20 Comments »
Posted on January 13th, 2010 by Staks
For many mainstream Christians (usually not the fundamentalists), religion isn’t about divine truth. In fact, to these particular Christians, their religion isn’t even about the Bible. Instead, religion basically boils down to one simple question, what would Jesus do? When I say this however, I don’t mean that these mainstream Christians think that their religion […]
Filed under: Mainstream Christians, Religion, Vague Higher Power, wwjd | 6 Comments »
Posted on November 19th, 2009 by Staks
Today is the day that Christian evangelist Ray Comfort and his same-sex heterosexual partner Kirk Cameron were supposed to give out copies of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The Comfort Edition of the book contains a 54 page introduction written by Comfort which basically Glenn Becks Darwin. The funny thing is that part of Ray […]
Filed under: culture war, morality, ray comfort, Religion | 9 Comments »
Posted on September 21st, 2009 by Staks
The other day, a Christian wrote to me and told me that he didn’t think that even if incontrovertible evidence was shown for God, that I would accept it. One of his arguments was that Jesus did lots of miracles and there were still people in his day who didn’t believe even though they saw […]
Filed under: miracles, Religion | 8 Comments »
Posted on August 27th, 2009 by Staks
Recently I have gotten into conversations with multiple Christians who claim to be liberal and progressive. These are the Christians who mistakenly think that Jesus was this peace and love hippy. These are the Christian who are always telling me that the fundamentalists are not real Christians, but are “misusing” the Bible (despite no solid […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, Religion | 13 Comments »
Posted on July 24th, 2009 by Staks
While yesterday’s blog asked about whether God has the same kind of body parts we humans have since we were made in his image, today’s blog deals with the part of god which actually does look like us, Jesus. Jesus was a man. Men have penises. Therefore, Jesus had a penis. So here is the […]
Filed under: circumcision, image of god, Religion | 7 Comments »
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 by Staks
America has a real prison problem and I have the perfect solution. You might even say that it was divinely inspired… because I got the idea from the Bible. I think we should let everyone in the prisons go and I’ll take their place. I will serve a trillion year sentence so that everyone else […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, Judge God, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »
Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Staks
Why did Jesus have to die? I can image a young kid asking this question in Sunday school. The answer most commonly given is that Jesus died for our sins. He gave his life so that we can all go to Heaven… for those who believe of course. But that doesn’t really answer the question. […]
Filed under: blood sacrifice, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »
Posted on July 13th, 2009 by Staks
There is an old saying that dates back to ancient Tibet, “If you repeat a lie long enough than maybe Richard Gere really does like to stick a gerbils up his ass.” It really does seem that many religious people think this saying is true.
Filed under: atheism, conversation, death, evolution, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »
Posted on July 2nd, 2009 by Staks
Today’s Daily Blog is in recognition of Independence Day. One argument that I get from some particularly stupid fundamentalist Christians surprisingly a lot is that Christianity must be true because we use Christ’s alleged birth as the basis for our dating system; BC meaning “Before Christ” and AD meaning “Anno Domini” (in the year or […]
Filed under: AD/BC, Politics, Religion | 40 Comments »
Posted on June 11th, 2009 by Staks
While I have talked about this topic before in my column turned blog post titled “Will the Real Christians Please Stand Up,” It seems that I have to go into a little bit more detail here. Every Christian (I can’t think of one exception) that I talk to seems to claim to have the monopoly […]
Filed under: Real Christians, Religion | 12 Comments »
Posted on June 10th, 2009 by Staks
One particular aspect of Religious Right Christianity which sometimes trickles into the mainstream of Christianity is the idea that all sins (or wrongs) are equal. I remember when I was younger, a Christian explained it to me with the following analogy: God is pure and can’t tolerate anything other than purity. Sin is like an […]
Filed under: Religion, sin | 45 Comments »
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by Staks
In modern society, the idea of the right to privacy is something that most Americans value. Liberals fight to keep government laws out of the bedroom and right wing groups are strongly support the idea of government non-interference. Whether someone is right or left, privacy seems to be a value that we all hold. So […]
Filed under: Religion, sex | 31 Comments »
Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Staks
Christians are always telling me that I need to worship their deity of choice. When I ask why, they warn me of eternal punishment and damnation in the fires of Hell. Sometimes, they will entice me into worshipping their deity with promises of eternal bliss in Heaven. But all threats and bribes aside, they still […]
Filed under: Religion | 8 Comments »
Posted on May 15th, 2009 by Staks
Why is it that the Christian God is supposed to be all-powerful and yet it took him a full 6 days to create the world? Shouldn’t he have been able to do it with a snap of his metaphysical fingers? A real god should be able to think it and it happens. And while we […]
Filed under: god, god the father, Religion | 14 Comments »