Posted on February 1st, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on January 27th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on January 25th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on January 24th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on January 20th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
Posted on January 12th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
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 5th, 2011 by Staks
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 »
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 16th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
Posted on December 14th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
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 6th, 2010 by Staks
For too long, Christians have claimed the monopoly on the winter season. While they have allowed Jews into the club despite the fact that Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday. A few years ago many in the atheist community made our claim for inclusion in the winter season with the holiday of Human Light and […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Christmas, church/state, culture war, Current Events, free speech, humanism, Neighbor, People of Reason, Personal, Tree of Knowledge | 4 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 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 18th, 2010 by Staks
Unlike Christians, atheists have no support network. If an atheist is suffering emotional, financial, or even physical distress, they have no one to turn to. Christians on the other hand can go to any church and get help. We need to start building an atheist support network. Earlier this week, the President of the Freethought […]
Filed under: atheism, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 1 Comment »
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 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 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 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 October 4th, 2010 by Staks
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 »
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 »
