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 »
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 »
Yesterday, I shared a video from my new favorite Christian, Michael Voris. When I first saw his videos, I wasn’t sure he was for real. Many other people had similar doubts. On the other hand, many atheists who initially watched Edward Current videos on YouTube thought he was for real despite being so over the […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Catholics, Religion | 1 Comment »
Christians have a saying taken from John 3:16 of the Bible, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Atheists have a saying too although I don’t think it is in any book yet, “God so loved the world, […]
Filed under: delusion | 6 Comments »
I have often talked about how we choose what offends us and how we could just as easily choose not to be offended. However, some things have a reasonable expectation of being offensive. The Crucifix should have a reasonable expectation of being offensive and it offends me. When I say that something has a reasonable […]
Filed under: culture war, morality, Offensiveness, People of Reason, Religion | 1 Comment »
Last week, I got into an interesting conversation with a fellow atheist about de-converting Christians. My new atheist friend expressed the opinion that he thought moderate Christians were easier to de-convert and I expressed the opinion that I thought fundamentalists were easier to de-convert. I am not actually sure that either of us could prove […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Religion | 2 Comments »
Since well known atheists like Richard Dawkins and others have been vocal in their criticism of religion there has been a backlash by a few other atheists like Greg Epstein. Some atheists have been inspired by the “four horsemen” while other have decided to take a different approach. That’s fine, not all atheists have to […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, atheism, culture war, Religion | 4 Comments »
Today, I am continuing this series with an e-mail using the carpet bombing strategy on the Christians for a change. My bet is that most Christians won’t even attempt to address these issues and will simply reply with a “Jesus loves you” or a “I’m praying for you” type of response. Dear Christian, I am […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, ignorance, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
A popular Christian strategy for winning converts is basically to see how any arguments they can bombard you with in as little time as possible. The idea is to carpet bomb their mark with lots of arguments with the hope that at least one of them will resonate with their mark. On the off chance […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, atheism, conversation, culture war, discussion, First Cause Argument, god of the gaps, ignorance, Ontological Argument, prophecies, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
Often times I get a lot of e-mails from Christians who are eager to prove their God. These particular Christians tend to be fundamentalists and seem to be under the impression that I must have never heard any arguments for their position and have never really heard the story of Jesus. These particular Christians tend […]
Filed under: conversation, ignorance, missionaries, Preaching, Religion | No Comments »
One of the issues that I have with the Christian system of belief is that it is very pessimistic. The attitude that it encourages is an attitude of distrust and fear. While none of this speaks to the truth value of the claims, I really don’t think it is a useful system either. At the […]
Filed under: humanism, People of Reason, Preaching, Projection, Religion, sin | 1 Comment »
A common theme that I run into when discussing religion with Christians (particularly fundamentalist Christians), is that they will often bring up old arguments which have long since been refuted as if they are some new revelation. These Christians often boast about how knowledgeable and thoughtful they are and yet they don’t seem to realize […]
Filed under: Argument by Design, conversation, discussion, First Cause Argument, God-Shaped Hole, ignorance, Judge God, Lord-Liar-Lunatic, Preaching, Religion | 1 Comment »
It is pretty common for Christians to claim that God is Truth. What they mean by this isn’t that God is simply a true, but rather that God is actually a synonym for Truth. In other words, to say that God is false would be like saying that the Bachelor is a married man. It […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Disproving God, god, Religion, truth | 1 Comment »
I love when Christians ask atheists questions that they should fucking know the answers to. I know they are all about their bronze-aged story book, but we live in the information age now. Now the one true God is Google. Seriously, before Christians try to ask an atheist a question that he or she thinks […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, discussion, education, Religion | 5 Comments »
Muslims do this more than Christians, but I do hear it from Christians every now and then too. These believers tell me that they do what they do in order to bringing glory to their God. That seems like a pretty arrogant thing to claim when you think about it. If God is so all-powerful, […]
Filed under: Glory to God, god, Religion | 3 Comments »
I tend to get a lot of e-mails from angry fundamentalist Christians. There is a particular type of e-mail that I get often. This type is usually short and usually informs me that the Christian will enjoy watching me being tortured or burning in Hell for all eternity. This quick sentiment probably took the writer […]
Filed under: Evils of Christianity, hell, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »
I recently overheard a very disturbing conversation. One woman was very upset because her friend was on his deathbed due to cancer. She was telling her friend about it and her friend asked her if the dying friend “knew the Lord.” I was just overhearing this conversation and it wouldn’t be polite for me to […]
Filed under: conversation, death, deathbed conversion, Religion | 24 Comments »
I get a lot of e-mails from Christians. One e-mail forward that I get often is a Christian idea of a joke at the expense of atheists. Stop me if you heard this one: An atheist was walking through the woods. ‘What majestic trees!’ ‘What powerful rivers!’ ‘What beautiful animals!’ He said to himself. As […]
Filed under: Bears, Religion, the bible | 6 Comments »
Often times when I get into a conversation with a fundamentalist Christian, they tend to get offended by the mere possibility that they don’t know everything. I think people of reason and fundamentalists have a very different view of knowledge and a much different view of what it means to lack knowledge. As a person […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, god of the gaps, ignorance, Religion | 5 Comments »
I often get into prolonged conversations with fundamentalists. Usually after a little while our conversation changes from antagonism to a genuine exchange of ideas. The fundamentalist then starts to see where I am coming from and begins to reason on his or her own through the theological bullshit that has been drilled into their head. […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Every Knee, free will, god, Religion | 3 Comments »
Why is it that religious people feel the need to insert their religious views into seemingly every conversation? If an atheist inserting his or her lack of belief into seemingly every conversation we are criticized by the religious for “pushing our atheism.” Yesterday, I was out with my 8 mouth old son and a woman […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, miracles, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
Yesterday, I discovered a great 7 part de-conversion story on YouTube. I don’t even think that the guy is finished with it yet, but I really like the way he has done this series so far. So today I am going to be lazy and just post the playlist for this series. When one video […]
Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Religion | 8 Comments »
During the first week of my freshman year at college, I noticed a newspaper of campus called “The Rampage.” My university’s mascot was the Ram, so I figured that it must be the campus newspaper. It certainly looked like the campus newspaper. The front page had a typical story which one would expect to find […]
Filed under: discussion, Preaching, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 10 Comments »
Just like all cults, fundamentalist Christianity seems to have its own vocabulary. There are certain terms that seem to have pretty standard meanings, but when used in the fundamentalist Christian context they tend to mean almost the exact opposite. The most overused term I hear is “Truth” with a capital “T.” To most people, something […]
Filed under: 1984, conversation, discussion, Religion | 3 Comments »
While intelligence is no guarantee that someone knows what they are talking about, the fact is that statistics show that the more educated someone is the less likely they are to 1. Vote Republican and 2. Believe in a personified deity. Conversely, the less educated someone is the more likely they are to vote Republican […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, education, palin, Politics, Religion | 12 Comments »
This seems to come up a lot and in many different forms. Often times, Christians or some other believer in the Abrahamic God will accuse atheists of being the very thing that they themselves are. For example, it is not uncommon for a Christian to claim that the atheist position (that no credible evidence has […]
Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, faith, Projection, Religion | 16 Comments »
Recently I have gotten into conversations with multiple Christians who claim to be liberal and progressive. These are the Christians who mistakenly think that Jesus was this peace and love hippy. These are the Christian who are always telling me that the fundamentalists are not real Christians, but are “misusing” the Bible (despite no solid […]
Filed under: conversation, culture war, discussion, Religion | 13 Comments »
Why is it that so many Christians assume incorrectly that Christianity has the monopoly on family values? We live in a pluralistic society, and as such, people’s values will clash. Fundamental Christianity in particular has to learn that they cannot censor someone else’s values or culture because those values offend the rigid fundamentalist Christian value […]
Filed under: atheism, discussion, education, morality, Parenting, People of Reason, Religion | 48 Comments »
Let me start off by defining what exactly I mean by prayer and what I do not mean. Some people use prayer as sort of a “good luck” sentiment to others that the care about. I don’t have an issue with knowing that you can’t help someone, but wishing them good luck or wishing them […]
Filed under: prayer, Religion | 25 Comments »
Many times when I am in a conversation with a Christian, they will end the conversation with the Biblical claim that “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” –Psalms 14:1. The Christian concludes that if someone lacks the belief in a god therefore they must be a fool. This is one […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Psalm 14, Religion | 24 Comments »
