Posted on January 14th, 2011 by Staks
Continuing from yesterday’s analysis of my debate on the Bob Enyart radio show (first half-hour now on yesterday’s blog), I wanted to point out a particular trick that Bob used in our debate. Perhaps it is because he believes in authoritative doctrine, that he assumes that science is authoritative too. So his style of attack […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, Authority, Creationism, culture war, debate, evolution, science | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 11th, 2011 by Staks
In the wake of the Arizona shootings, a facebook page was created called, “Thoughts and Prayers for Rep. Giffords & Other Victims.” I actually don’t have a problem with this particular page even though it calls for prayers it also calls for thoughts. This to me is an acknowledgment that not everyone prays. However, Christians […]
Filed under: culture war, Preaching, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 4th, 2011 by Staks
I sometimes get accused of focusing too much on the religious right and not giving the religious left a fair hearing. While I don’t actually think this is the case, a few years ago I decided to put an end to such accusations. I went to the library and borrowed the book, “God’s Politics” by […]
Filed under: Media, Personal, Progressive Christians, Religion | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 22nd, 2010 by Staks
One of the problems with Christianity is that it values an imaginary essence of a person over the life of the actual person. The health of the soul trumps the health of the living breathing human being according. In Matthew 5:29 we learn that it is actually better to pluck out ones eye and cut […]
Filed under: healthcare, Religion, Soul | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 21st, 2010 by Staks
Every year, fundamentalist Christians get upset that Santa is all over the place and Jesus is not represented as much as they think he ought to be. They put up signs that say, “Jesus is the reason for the season” and “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” It is a genuine feud between two imaginary people, […]
Filed under: Christmas | 4 Comments »
Posted on December 15th, 2010 by Staks
Fundamentalist Christians often talk about Bible predictions and how Jesus fulfilled all of them. Aside from the fact that there really aren’t any messianic predictions, the Bible does make at least one prediction and surprise, surprise, it didn’t come to pass. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about the end of the world. Interestingly […]
Filed under: End of Days, End of the World, prophecies, Religion, The Rapture | 11 Comments »
Posted on December 9th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on December 7th, 2010 by Staks
The central message of the Christian religion is that all humans are evil sinners and deserve to be tortured for all eternity. While Christianity does offer the only solution to the problem that it creates in the form of vicarious redemption in Jesus Christ, there is no escaping the first part of this proposition. I […]
Filed under: hell, Religion, sin | 10 Comments »
Posted on December 1st, 2010 by Staks
As a critical thinker, I criticize a lot of ridiculous ideas. 9/11 Truthers, grand conspiracy theorists, ghosts, aliens, psychic powers, etc. are all things which I am critical of even though I actually believe in some of them to some degree. But when it comes to religion everyone gets offended. Let’s start with Christianity. I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war, ignorance, islam, jews, Mainstream Christians, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Skepticism | 8 Comments »
Posted on November 29th, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, I attended a family function. It was my Uncle’s 90th surprise birthday party and it was being held at a Knights of Columbus Hall. The Knights of Columbus is like the super Catholic Freemasons. Outside the Hall was a lawn sign which read, “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” So right away I […]
Filed under: Catholics, culture war, Personal, Religion | No Comments »
Posted on November 22nd, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, the latest Harry Potter movie came out. While I will hopefully be seeing it later in the week, it did remind me of a conversation I had with a fundamentalist Christian friend. In the conversation, he demanded that I tell him why I don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Before answering his question, […]
Filed under: delusion, god, Harry Potter | 5 Comments »
Posted on November 19th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on November 16th, 2010 by Staks
So last night I was at the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society and our President Margaret Downey was speaking about how she de-converted and got active in activism. Afterward, she invited others to briefly give their de-conversion tale. So when I was up, I talked about how I came from a mostly secularized Jewish […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, jews, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 15th, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, I had the interesting opportunity to visit a discount Christian bookstore. Whenever I can, I like to take a look at what Christians are selling and buying. I just find it fascinating. I feel like a anthropologist studying a primitive culture. For starters, I love how the store was open on Saturday […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 9th, 2010 by Staks
Awhile ago, I wrote about the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. I really like that blog and I am feeling a little lazy today so I am re-posting it: “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Babel, Biblical Scholarship, Blasphemy, delusion, Disproving God, language, Religion, the bible | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 5th, 2010 by Staks
Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from a Christian asking me if I would believe in fundamentalist Christianity if every Christian on Earth suddenly disappeared. The reasoning being that they were “obviously” all raptured up to Heaven, so that must be evidence that it is all true, right? I responded with a one word […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Real Christians, The Rapture | 18 Comments »
Posted on October 27th, 2010 by Staks
I once joked that if there is anything in me that could be considered faith it would be my faith in people. This however is a slightly different use of the term “faith” and so it would be more accurate to say that I don’t really have anything in me which could reasonably be considered […]
Filed under: faith, Hope, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 26th, 2010 by Staks
Over the weekend, I seem to have gotten into a few conversations with various progressive Christians. These are Christians who take their faith seriously, but who tend to focus more on poverty issues than the culture war issues. They are the so called, “good cops.” First, I got into a conversation with the progressive Christians […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, good cop-bad cop, Progressive Christians, Religion | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 21st, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on October 20th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on October 19th, 2010 by Staks
Mathematics is one of those things that is not open to interpretation. It doesn’t matter who counting the numbers, they should always add up the same. But there are a few instances within Christianity in which the divinely perfect numbers just don’t add up. The first an obvious mathematical equation that doesn’t add up is […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, ignorance, logic, Religion, science, Trinity | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 15th, 2010 by Staks
There are lots of different types of believers in the Abrahamic God and they all have different reason for why they believe. But at the end of the day, whenever they are advocating for belief it almost always comes down to the carrot and the stick. Belief basically amounts to a threat of eternal torture […]
Filed under: death, delusion, good cop-bad cop, hell, humanism, Religion | 6 Comments »
Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Staks
I was talking to a Christian the other day and I mentioned that the Bible didn’t say anything condemning rape. My Christian friend corrected me by pointing out Deut 22:25-27. But it seems that he took the verse out of context. Let us just take a look at the verse that my friend pointed out […]
Filed under: family values, morality, Religion, ten commandments, the bible | 14 Comments »
Posted on October 8th, 2010 by Staks
I think there seems to be some confusion. When someone does something horrible, I often hear others (even non-Christians) claim that the behavior in question wasn’t a very Christian thing to do. Have these people read the Bible? Yes, there are passages in the Bible where Jesus says to turn the other cheek, love your […]
Filed under: family values, god, Real Christians, Religion, the bible, wwjd | No Comments »
Posted on October 7th, 2010 by Staks
I never really understood the idea of a Church… at least not from a theological point of view. If God is supposed to be everywhere, then what is the point of having a house of God? Now of course there are other reasons for have Christians to build Churches. From a historical stand point, it […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Church, Glory to God, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 30th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on September 29th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on September 24th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on September 22nd, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on September 21st, 2010 by Staks
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 »
