One of the most common claims that Christians make is that the Old Testament perfectly predicts the rise, fall, and re-rise of Jesus. Christians often ask how it is possible for a book (the Old Testament) to so perfectly predict Jesus unless God wrote it all as part of his divine plan. The answer is […]
Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, prophecies, Religion, the bible | 4 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 »
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 »
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 »
Every year for at least three years now, the Freethought Society (of Greater Philadelphia) has put up a Tree of Knowledge outside the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, PA. The tree is a large evergreen decorated with the laminated book covers of various atheist, scientific, philosophical, and even religious books. Every year there is […]
Filed under: atheism, censorship, church/state, free speech, People of Reason, Tree of Knowledge | 8 Comments »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
A lot of people get tripped up on labels and people in the greater atheistic community are no exception. Two of the main labels that tend to confuse a lot of freethinkers are atheism and agnosticism. Of course many religious people have learned to exploit this confusion. I have written quite a bit about the […]
Filed under: Agnostism, atheism, language, People of Reason | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 recently had a conversation with a Christian whose concept of God is so vague that he couldn’t define it. Now, I often talk about how Christianity has two main God concepts, the first being the character of God as portrayed in the Bible and the second being some sort of vague higher power concept. […]
Filed under: conversation, god, image of god, Vague Higher Power | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 »
Image via Wikipedia A number of years ago, I met a young Christian who was telling me his story about how he used to be addicted to drugs, alcohol, and sex. He told me that his life was spiraling out of control and no one he could do could save him. Then along came Jesus […]
Filed under: delusion, Hope, humanism, Religion, Religious Manipulation, responsibility, sin, wwjd | 1 Comment »
I always have to laugh when some Christian cries about the horrible persecution they suffer because they aren’t allowed to discriminate against gays or force their religion and values down everyone the throats of others like they used to. Woe it is to be a Christian today, lol. Yesterday, I blogged about how the Catholic […]
Filed under: culture war, discrimination, Offensiveness, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Filed under: conversation, morality, Religion | Comments Off on Why Hitchens is Great (Part 3): Christian Morals
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 »
Last week, Interview with the Vampire author Anne Rice made news when she publicly left Christianity… but remained “committed to Christ.” Pretty soon after her announcement, I wrote an Examiner article on the subject. I even started to follow Anne Rice’s facebook page. I was surprised at how approachable she was for someone of her […]
Filed under: conversation, de-conversion, facebook, Progressive Christians, Vague Higher Power | 1 Comment »
I love it when Christians try to use logic to show why God can’t do something or why God must do something a certain way. Don’t these Christians realize that they have created a character that is too perfect for their own good? I keep hearing the voice of Doc Brown from Back to the […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, god, image of god, logic, miracles, Religion | 3 Comments »
It used to be that only fundamentalists would tell me that science was a religion, but these days even some moderate religious people are using this type of poor reasoning. Their view is that science claims to have the only method for understanding the world. In other words, science claims to have a monopoly on […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Atheism NOT Religion, culture war, Religion, science, truth | 3 Comments »
