Here’s the deal, we all know that the Bible says some really ridiculous things. There are actually restrictions on how long you can grow your hair, what kind of clothing you can wear, and what you should do with your… excrement. So I thought it might be fun to make up your own wacky Bible […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, culture war, the bible | 6 Comments »
I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, language | 3 Comments »
One of the things I notice a lot when discussing religion with theists is that they tend to be quick to start with the name calling. When this happens, I like to call attention to it and then move on with the discussion. I don’t think it is productive to name call back but they […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, language, Religious Manipulation | 4 Comments »
Once again we come to the conversation about how critical atheists should be when criticizing religion with the religious. It seems that some atheists think I should be more respectful of the religious and realize that they sometimes feel personally attacked when their beliefs are criticized. I realize this, but that doesn’t mean that I […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Criticism, Offensiveness, Religion | 6 Comments »
Often times I use emotion and passion in my arguments. I find that when dealing with theists, this generally works best. But I think it is important to remain unemotional while doing it. To put it another way, one can argue with emotion while remaining unemotional. People (especially religious people) tend to be swayed by […]
Filed under: conversation, debate, discussion, language, Star wars | No Comments »
I occurred to me that when atheists message our billboard campaigns and other messaging, we always criticize things that religious people consider to be positive. For example, “Religion is a MYTH.” Many of our twitter messaging is the similar. We talk about how God is imaginary, the Bible is fiction, etc. There is nothing wrong […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, hell, Hope, Media, Religion, twitter | 2 Comments »
Right wing Christians love to talk about people should take personal responsibility for themselves. This usually is in reference to when minority is being persecuted. Whenever I heard this type of thing from them, I can’t help but laugh. Of all the people in the entire world the one group that is God bent on […]
Filed under: culture war, faith, humanism, Projection, responsibility | 2 Comments »
The other day, I got an e-mail from an anonymous Christians which was short and to the point. The two word e-mail said, “Jesus Rules.” I was not really in the mood for debate, so I thought I would have some fun with the guy instead. I was surprised that I actually changed the conversation […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, Religion | 2 Comments »
What do Christians hope to accomplish when they start an argument with an atheist? Do they think they are going to convince us with no evidence that some ridiculous ancient story is obviously true? They know that we know a lot about religion and we have probably heard all their arguments before they even come […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, debate, discussion, ignorance, Religion | 9 Comments »
I was recently reading a section of Sam Harris’s book, The Moral Landscape. In one part of the book, Harris talks about how our brain is wired. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it seems that religious believers tend to be more fearful, paranoid, and value authority more than secular people. I also remember […]
Filed under: Current Events, Decline of Religion, evolution | 5 Comments »
Religious believers often tell me that science can prove God exists. It is at this point that I start laughing in their face. But still they insist on continuing this line of evangelism. Next the theist will use the argument by design, the first cause argument, the fine tuning argument, and a handful of other […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, discussion, god of the gaps, Religion, Religious Manipulation, science | 12 Comments »
The other day I had a profound thought. I was coming out of the shower and thought to myself, “maybe Christianity is true.” Then I started laughing out loud. My profound thought was that I am moving beyond atheism. It isn’t just that I lack the belief in a god, now I lack the ability […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Belief, delusion, god, Religion | 19 Comments »
I want to make it clear that God is a character in a series of books known as the Bible. He is a fictional character. With that in mind, Christians often fall back to the view that we can’t know the mind of God and that God works in mysterious ways. But this really isn’t […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, god, image of god, Religion, Vague Higher Power, wwjd | 1 Comment »
I am tired of being intellectually honest when religious apologists don’t even bother. Recently, I read an article by a theist which was quite frankly, extremely intellectually dishonest. Should we play that game too? The article started out being friendly and the author made a point to say that he had many atheist friends and […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, culture war, discussion, god of the gaps, ignorance, Projection, Religious Manipulation | 7 Comments »
I often hear the argument from Christians that because I spend so much time thinking about and arguing against their imaginary deity, I must secretly believe. One Christian even told me yesterday, that I haven’t sufficiently convinced him that I was an atheist (as if I had to convince him I don’t believe). So it […]
Filed under: conversation, Religion, truth | 11 Comments »
While a lot of atheists run from anything that is even remotely reminiscent of religion, many others still go to church. Usually, if an atheist goes to church it is a Quaker or Unitarian Church. There is nothing wrong with avoiding religious trappings. Many atheists have had extremely bad experiences with churches and other religious […]
Filed under: atheism, Church, culture war, family values, humanism, Neighbor, Parenting, People of Reason | 3 Comments »
I have often said that if there is anything in me that could be considered faith, it would be faith in people. But the fact is that that is really a misuse of the term. Generally speaking, we have trust in people based on past experience which serves as evidence for trusting them further. Faith […]
Filed under: faith, Hope, morality, People of Reason, Religion | 3 Comments »
I was watching a clip from a local news in Alabama which was covering the American Atheists convention. One of the Christians interviewed made the argument that all an atheist has to do is look around and see God’s miracles in the trees or something. I hear this a lot and even big bad Bill […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Argument by Design, culture war, god of the gaps, Religion, science | 8 Comments »
I got into a conversation with a Christian yesterday and the guy said to me, “There are countless things that we could not scientifically prove, that does not mean that they don’t exist.” It is this type of argument that really pisses me off. This guy isn’t even a fundamentalist. He is a mainstream Christian […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, faith, ignorance, Religion, science | 8 Comments »
One of the things that really annoys me about fundamentalist Christians is that they often have an ignorance of an entire field of study; sometimes multiple fields of study. But Ethics in particular seems to be a field that many Christians aren’t even aware exists. It is not unusual for me to be in a […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, education, ignorance, morality, Religion | 3 Comments »
Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in debating with religious people that I actually start to take them seriously. I have to remind myself that despite their insistence that they have a legitimate point of view, their religion is ridiculous and has more plot holes than a Michael Bay movie. Seriously? Fundamentalist Christians want to […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Babel, blood sacrifice, culture war, delusion, god of the gaps, Mainstream Christians, Religion | 2 Comments »
There is this philosophy within a small segment of fundamentalist Christianity called the “Quiverfull Movement.” The idea is that people are weapons for God and as such, each Christian within the movement needs to focus on creating more “arrows” for God’s quiver by breeding mass amounts of Christians. By contrast, most atheists I know either […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, family values, Parenting, Religion | 3 Comments »
Yesterday, I heard an excerpt from the new Piers Morgan show on CNN in which Christian motivational speaker Joel Osteen commented that he isn’t judging gay people, but God says it’s a sin. He claims that is in the “scriptures.” Joel Osteen doesn’t hate gays, God does. Joel is a really nice guy. He loves […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, family values, god, Judge God, wwjd | 11 Comments »
My fellow atheists have often stated that you can’t prove a negative. While atheists shouldn’t have to prove a negative, I do think we can actually prove a negative. Today I am going to do exactly that. Just as Anselm tried to use an Ontological argument to prove there is a god, I will use […]
Filed under: atheism, Disproving God, god, Ontological Argument, Religion | 10 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 »
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 »
Recently, news organizations like CNN, Huffington Post, and the Washington Post (among others) have been reporting on a study that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study was called, “Anger Toward God: Social-Cognitive Predictors, Prevalence, and Links With Adjustment to Bereavement and Cancer” and it includes atheists anger toward God. CNN’s […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, ignorance, journalism, Media, Personal | 5 Comments »
Now that 2010 is almost over and Jupiter has still not turned into a second Sun, I want to take a moment to let everyone know about a few of the things Dangerous Talk has planned for 2011. On January 12th, I will be a guest of the fundamentalist Christian radio show “Bob Enyart Live.” […]
Filed under: atheism, billboards, conversation, culture war, Disproving God, End of Days, Media, Religion, The Rapture, Vague Higher Power | 3 Comments »
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 »
I love the greater atheist community, but sometimes there are people in our community that are stupid and/or annoying. While these people do make up a very small percentage of our community, they are there and some how I get cornered into talking to them or sitting next to them. The thing about these annoying […]
Filed under: atheism, Criticism, Personal | 4 Comments »
