Christians sometimes argue that everyone “knows” there is a God. I always find this line of argument comical for so many reasons. First, it is sort of childish. I could just as easily declare that the Christian knows there isn’t a God. It is an assertion which needs no justification. The argument can’t go anyway. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Lord-Liar-Lunatic, Projection | 3 Comments »
Something that really annoys me about many religious people is that they are so eager to give credit to their God when humans do all the work. While this is obviously noticeable during football games and other sporting events, it happens in relation to science even more often. For example, science has proven that God […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, People of Reason, Religion, science | 1 Comment »
Surprisingly, there are many religious believers (some even ardent fundamentalists) who have never actually thought about what they believe and why. Last night, I read an article from one such believer… I think. In any case, I think it is important to reach out to these religious believers and to get them to actually think […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war, discussion, Personal, Religion | 2 Comments »
It seems that many religious people are offended every time an atheist makes his or her lack of belief known. This is why organized atheism offends them so much lately. Why are they so offended by our mere existence? In George Orwell’s book 1984, there is a very interesting and often overlooked conversation. In this […]
Filed under: 1984, Alternative Worldview, Authority, Blasphemy, culture war, deathbed conversion, Offensiveness, Religion, Religious Manipulation, science | 4 Comments »
Let me start off by saying that I am extremely critical of the performances of atheists when they go up against pundits. While Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris usually get B’s, I have only graded one atheist an A+. Most atheists get failing grades. Last night Dave Silverman of American Atheists joined that crowd. There […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, Mainstream Christians, Media | 4 Comments »
Within the last year, many American Muslims have been using the term “Islamaphobia” to describe the fear people have of the Muslim religion. Being labeled an Islamaphobic is generally considered akin to racism. Last year Bill Donahue of the Catholic League coined the term “Catholic-phobia” and in a recent conversation I had with a Christian […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, culture war, delusion, faith, ignorance | 2 Comments »
My friend and aspiritual leader, Jake recently wrote a post on his blog, AfterFaith.com, that reminded me about an issue I’ve been wanting to write about for some time. Lately, I have been getting a lot of e-mails from recent de-converts from religion and I wanted to talk about the betrayal many of them feel. […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Decline of Religion, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Self-Help | 3 Comments »
I have often written about the psychological reasoning for the born again experience and the path in which many religious people take towards losing their religion. But today I want to talk more about the trends involved in the exodus from religion. There are two pretty interesting trends that I have noticed in regard to […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Last week, I was having a conversation with another atheist who isn’t as vocal as I am. She asked how Christians can believe this stuff and commented that they must be stupid. I found myself in the odd position of defending Christians. It is not that Christians are stupid, but rather that the system that […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, de-conversion, discussion, ignorance, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 14 Comments »
A few days ago, Christopher Hitchens went up against the former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair to debate the proposition that, “religion is a force of good for the world.” The thing about debates is that after they are over, both sides usually claim victory. However, this debate was done a bit more scientifically. […]
Filed under: atheism, debate, Hitchens, humanism, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »
Yesterday I was watching part of the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Intelligent Design proponent Dr. William Demski of the “Discovery Institute” (which for the record has yet to discover anything). In any case, Demski made a particular claim that many other Christian make, but not as forcefully as Demski did. He stated that “Humans […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Evils of Christianity, humanism | 11 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 »
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 »
Religious believers often claim that God doesn’t care about material possessions. Many fundamentalists claim that God doesn’t care about works. So what does an all powerful God what’s he care about? Of course most Christians will give you the standard line. We are all evil sinner and don’t deserve to be rewarded in Heaven. God […]
Filed under: Authority, faith, god, God reach man, Religion | 2 Comments »
Unlike most Christians, I have actually read the Bible… all of it. While there are a few positive things in the Bible, most of it is very poorly thought out and very immoral. In fact, you would not be able to find a single person who believes in everything the Bible says and yet you […]
Filed under: Progressive Christians, Religion, the bible | 8 Comments »
Last night I noticed that Reverend Rick Warren had an interesting facebook status worth commenting on. His status had something to do with unbelievers not wanting to know the Truth of God or some such nonsense. After replying that unbelievers aren’t convinced by the claims made by believers, I checked back to see what other […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, culture war | 1 Comment »
I got a message today from a fellow atheist asking why so many atheists take a literal view of the Bible rather than argue the Bible from a more metaphorical position. I think it is a fair question to some degree. For starters, here in America we tend to run into a large number of […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, good cop-bad cop, image of god, Religion | 7 Comments »
For most atheists, when we get into conversations with the religious, we tend to discuss facts and evidence. When we argue, we use logic, reason, and point out fallacies. But when the religious argue, they use personal connection. Religious people will try to get to know you. They don’t really care about the details of […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, culture war, de-conversion, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
Whenever someone makes a life and death decision, there will be a theist around to claim that someone is “playing God.” The thing is that when it is a life or death decision, we aren’t playing. Unlike theists, atheists view this life as the only life we have. We don’t view life as a game […]
Filed under: de-conversion, Religious Manipulation, responsibility | 1 Comment »
I get into a lot of conversations with a lot of fundamentalist believers. Even though I love these conversations it sometimes seems like I am having a conversation with a wall. We have all had these types of conversations. But sometimes we forget that there might be flies on that wall and they might benefit […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, discussion, Jehovah's Witness, Religion | 5 Comments »
Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society. This month’s guest speaker was former American Atheist President Ellen Johnson. Johnson was promoting her new organization called “Enlighten the Vote” and she said a lot of very interesting things. First, I want to point out that while I think what Ellen Johnson said […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Political Activism, Politics | 1 Comment »
Over the weekend at my 9/11 Birthday Barbecue, a Christian friend claimed that I never have anything positive to say about religion. I told him that there are actually a few things that I do admire about Christianity and I think atheists can learn a few things from Christianity… without of course believing in ridiculous […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Over the weekend, I had a barbecue to celebrate 9/11 (which just so happens to be my Birthday). Even though many people jokingly inquired about burning some holy books, no holy books were burnt during this celebration. I did want to take a moment to thank all the people on facebook and twitter who sent […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Personal | 5 Comments »
We all know that nine years ago Islamic terrorists flew planes into buildings and changed the world forever. What most people don’t know is that 36 years ago on that very same day a dangerous talker was born. I often joke about how former President Bush decided to turn my birthday into a national holiday. […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 4 Comments »
A lot of times, Christians will insist that their belief was not a product of brainwashing, indoctrination, or some other form of emotional trickery. They will insist that there are logical and reasonable reasons for their belief. Okay, what are they? They will give you a million different arguments for God and Christianity but which […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
One thing that I love to point out to proponents of the “One True Religion,” (whichever religion that might be) is that no one has yet disproven past religions. The fact is that even though no sane person still believes in the God Zeus, no one has actually disproven Zeus’s existence. Why is it that […]
Filed under: Coexist, conversation, Decline of Religion, Religion, Zeus | 9 Comments »
I was talking to a Christian over the weekend and he asserted that there are three kinds of knowledge, empirical, rational, and faithful. I think this is a brilliant move to assert that faith is a kind of knowledge. What is the argument for that? Where is the evidence? Oh wait, if there is an […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, faith | 4 Comments »
Even though physicist Stephen Hawking has been an atheist for quite some time, this seemed to be breaking news yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hawking did make breaking news yesterday, but it wasn’t his lack of belief in a deity. The media has a really short attention span, because it was just three […]
Filed under: culture war, Current Events, Decline of Religion, First Cause Argument, god of the gaps, science | 2 Comments »
