When atheists and Christians discuss religion we often talk past each other. That being the case, I came up with an idea that might change that. I think we should try to meet Christians halfway… as long as they are willing to meet us halfway. Here is how it works. First, we offer to meet […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, de-conversion, delusion | No Comments »
Back in my college days, there weren’t a lot of atheist t-shirts out there. I had a shirt that I got from Hot Topic that said, “i am god” in all lowercase letters. There is an interesting story with this shirt and what happened when I wore it to my Christian friend’s Creationism program. My […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, Creationism, de-conversion, god, Personal, Religion | No Comments »
Of course atheists are charitable. That is a pretty silly question. We can point to the fact that atheist billionaires have donated half their fortunes to charity and have encouraged other billionaires to do the same. The fact is that most atheists don’t donate in the name of atheism. We just donate to organizations on […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, humanism, People of Reason | No 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 »
It is a pet peeve of mine when fellow people of reason call themselves, “Evolutionists.” I get it when fundy Christians call people that, but when people of reason use that label on themselves, I get annoyed. They should fucking know better! Creationists use that label on others because they are trying to lower the […]
Filed under: culture war, education, evolution, Religion, science | No Comments »
Recently, I have been telling a lot of Christians and atheists alike that I have heard so many arguments both for and against religion, that it seems like I have heard them all. I have even told some people how excited I would get if I actually heard a new argument. Today I heard a […]
Filed under: Capitalism, church/state, culture war, Religion | 2 Comments »
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 »
When I was in grad school, I was already a vocal atheist and was pretty knowledgeable about the greater atheist community. One day a fundamentalist Christian friend of mine was excited to tell me that the most famous atheist in the world had just converted to Christianity. Antony Flew was so famous that I had […]
Filed under: Anthony Flew, conversation, de-conversion, death, deathbed conversion, Evils of Christianity, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Vague Higher Power | 33 Comments »
Often times when Christians find out that I am an atheist, they will ask me why I hate God. Usually I inform these Christians of the obvious by asking them how I could hate something that I just said I don’t believe even exists? This rarely satisfies them and maybe they are right. After thinking […]
Filed under: Blasphemy, god, image of god, Religion, the bible | 7 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 »
It is kind of funny sometimes when religious fundamentalists claim that America is an atheist nation. Sometimes they even say that in the same breath as when they tell me that America is a Christian nation. Of course I have to inquire. Sometimes religious people don’t understand the difference between atheism and secularism and as […]
Filed under: atheism, church/state, culture war, education, Religion | 4 Comments »
For many mainstream Christians (usually not the fundamentalists), religion isn’t about divine truth. In fact, to these particular Christians, their religion isn’t even about the Bible. Instead, religion basically boils down to one simple question, what would Jesus do? When I say this however, I don’t mean that these mainstream Christians think that their religion […]
Filed under: Mainstream Christians, Religion, Vague Higher Power, wwjd | 6 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 »
Theists always ask me why I don’t believe in God. I usually rattle off any number of reasons why I think that the whole idea of God is ridiculous, silly, and illogical. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to convince them since they tend to ask me the same question again at a later time. I guess […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, god, missionaries, Religion | 14 Comments »
I’m a little disappointed in the greater atheist community. Atheists are notorious for not uniting together and for not supporting fellow atheists. We really need to fix this problem. While not all atheists agree with each other on anything necessarily except for the lack of belief in a god or gods that is no excuse. […]
Filed under: atheism, culture war, People of Reason, Political Activism, Religion, Tree of Knowledge | 13 Comments »
A few months ago, I saw the Academy Award nominated film, Milk about gay activist, politician, Harvey Milk. One of the things that I noticed about as I saw the movie was that the main character was able to gain political power because he formed a strong gay community to elect him. I remember wondering […]
Filed under: atheism, People of Reason, Religion | 14 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 »
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 »
The thing is that the label of “New Atheist” implies that there are “Old Atheists.” The distraction between “New Atheists” and “Old Atheists” seems to be that those who step out of the closet and simply make it public that they are skeptical of the claims of theistic religions are now branded as “New Atheists.”
Filed under: atheism, Religion | 20 Comments »
Christians are always telling me that I need to worship their deity of choice. When I ask why, they warn me of eternal punishment and damnation in the fires of Hell. Sometimes, they will entice me into worshipping their deity with promises of eternal bliss in Heaven. But all threats and bribes aside, they still […]
Filed under: Religion | 8 Comments »
The popular Christian argument is that in order for atheists to reject the claim that a god exists, we must first know everything. What they are claiming is that atheists must know the entire set of facts about the universe before we can look and that set and see that their God is not included […]
Filed under: faith, Religion | 14 Comments »
Not to long ago, I had a pretty lengthy conversation with a Christian that I had met. The conversation was going pretty well and we were both enjoying the discussion. I had thought that I had finally gotten him to understand that he really shouldn’t be trying to convert everyone he meets. It is intolerant […]
Filed under: prayer, Religion | 25 Comments »
While I often talk about conversations that I have with Christians of the various varieties, I don’t often talk much about other conversations I have. Since it is pretty well known that I am somewhat of an atheist activist, I often come across people who are not Christians who are not well-informed atheists. They may […]
Filed under: Religion, Trinity | 12 Comments »
Every so often when I am discussing or debating religion with someone, he or she will tell me that at one time they were once an atheist too. I even had one person call himself an “ex-atheist.” I always found this kind of odd considering that all Christians (and even all theists for that matter) […]
Filed under: ex-athest, Religion | 31 Comments »
Apparently, there is a movement to make this Friday (tomorrow) “Atheist Day.” I am not entirely sure if this is to be an annual atheist day or just a one time event. Nor am I sure I really want an “Atheist Day.” To me everyday is an atheist day. It isn’t as if I believe […]
Filed under: Religion | 14 Comments »
An argument that I hear a lot from Fundamentalist Christians is that atheists reject God because we love sin and don’t want the responsibility of living a “Godly Life.” Of course this is a ridiculous argument because it assumes that atheists really do believe in the Christian God, but just don’t want to admit it […]
Filed under: morality, Religion, responsibility | 12 Comments »
We all know that there are a wide range of people who believe very different things and yet all call themselves Christians. Some Christians are the Good Cop Christians, some are the Bad Cop Christians, and some are somewhere in between. The thing with atheists is that atheism is a term that describes a lack […]
Filed under: good cop-bad cop, Religion | 10 Comments »
Recently, I watched a few youtube videos from Brother Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist. In his latest video, Brother Sam talked about the Rules of Engagement that he employs when discussing religion with Christians. While I disagree with many of Brother Sam’s rules, I do think he is right to have rules. And while his rules […]
Filed under: Religion | 8 Comments »
