Over the weekend, I friend of mine sent me an article by a Christian missionary to Japan. I love articles like this one because they just throw out a bunch of bullshit and see what sticks. What they don’t realize is that when they do this, they lose any credibility that a reader might have […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, missionaries, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
I am someone who has hope for the future of humanity. I believe that human knowledge and technology are progressing at an ever increasing rate. Just a little over a hundred years ago, the Wright Brothers flew for the first time. Now we can fly around the globe with relative ease. It was only 43 […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Decline of Religion, The Future | 1 Comment »
Many religious believers believe that we not only have an immortal soul, but that this soul is our true self. When we die, we live on as our soul. They often ask in a serious manner, “Where will we be in 1000 years?” Of course the reality is that in 1000 years we will be […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, End of Days, Hope, humanism, Sci-fi, The Future | 3 Comments »
I get into discussions with a lot of religious believers and after a while I tend to hear the same arguments and the same “conversion” stories over and over again. This can often give the appearance that all Christians are the same. But they aren’t. When I address an audience usually through writing, I use […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, discussion, Personal Experience, Religion | 1 Comment »
Every once in a while my Christian friend Greg sends me an e-mail. It usually is just one question that someone at his church convinced him would stump an atheist. Greg isn’t looking for a debate or discussion though; he just wants to push his point and be done. The other day, I got this […]
Filed under: argument, Evils of Christianity, hell, morality, torture | 1 Comment »
I was out at lunch today and while I was trying to order my food at a chicken restaurant that was not Chick-Fil-A, I heard the most annoying church bells ever. Do these fuckers really need to announce their presence to the world? We all know that 80% of Americans are Christians; do we need […]
Filed under: Church | 2 Comments »
Sometimes I really hate to say, “I told you so.” This is one of those times. I am still seeing atheists posting comments about Aurora, Colorado shooter James Holmes claiming that he was a Christian. On Monday, I warned against this and not some evidence has come out that Holmes was not a Christian and […]
Filed under: Current Events | 1 Comment »
I have been watching this situation pretty carefully. The killer, James Holmes, does not have much of an online presence so it is difficult to learn much about him. A few details have surfaced however and they make his religious affiliation uncertain. His parents are Christian and he at one point went to church fairly […]
Filed under: Atheism NOT Religion | 1 Comment »
I was watching a short-lived British sci-fi show yesterday and there was a conversation between a religious leader and an atheist. The religious leader asked what the atheist is hopeful toward. What does he have to look forward to? The atheist jokingly said, “Dinner.” Obviously, he was joking because if he were really serious, he […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, death, hell, Purpose, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
Over the weekend, I had a pretty long conversation with an old friend of mine who up until recently was a Christian. In fact in the ten or so years that I have known him, this was the first conversation we had together in which we were both atheists and he is still having difficulty […]
Filed under: de-conversion | 6 Comments »
A few people on FreethoughtBlogs (AronRa & PZ) are talking about Presupposition Apologetics. As it so happens, this subject interests me greatly because I think it is the best argument religious believers have. What I mean by that is that it is by far the most convincing and the hardest for most atheists to refute. […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Belief, faith, logic, Projection, Religious Manipulation, science | 12 Comments »
The Church of Scientology of New York is offering free food to the hungry for every Facebook “like” they get on their Facebook page. Aren’t they charitable? Go “like” their page, because it shouldn’t matter where we’re feeding the hungry, just that we ARE feeding them, right? Except that it does matter. Who has read […]
Filed under: Evils of Christianity, facebook, missionaries, Preaching, Religious Manipulation, scientology | No Comments »
Atheists have a problem that we need to address. We need to communicate our ideas better. Religious believers don’t tend to have that problem. You ask them a question and the answer is either a Bible verse or God did it. If you ask why God did something that answer is that God works in […]
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war | 1 Comment »
Christians often ask atheists about the purpose of life. But I think a better question is what is the purpose of our morality? On this question, the divide between Christians and atheists couldn’t be wider. For Christians, morality amounts to God’s whim, while for atheists morality is about the well-being of sentient creatures. Christians tend […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Car Bomb Argument, missionaries | 2 Comments »
My conversation from over the last two days at “Think Christian” has been cut short due to censorship. You see, I talked about how Progressive Christians had to acknowledge that the Bible is wrong on homosexuality in order to be absolved of being labeled hateful toward gays. A Christian responded by claiming that the free […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, anti-intellectualism, Authority, censorship, conversation, free speech, Offensiveness, Progressive Christians, Religion | 1 Comment »
Today’s blog post follows from yesterday’s blog post. In the comments section of the Think Christian article, one Christian is ready to address the Christian problem with gays. He explains that he isn’t hateful toward gays at all and that Christians just need to communicate better. That’s all this is, a communication problem. Well, in […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, Gay Issues, Progressive Christians, the bible | 3 Comments »
Nathan Albert over at “Think Christian” wrote an interesting article in which he advocates for liberal and progressive Christians to apologize to gay people on behalf of the wacko fundies. Nathan’s heart is in the right place, but he just isn’t thinking clearly about this issue. I guess he is thinking too much like a […]
Filed under: Coexist, Evils of Christianity, Gay Issues, Progressive Christians, the bible | 3 Comments »
One of the most prominent themes in Christianity is that everyone is an evil sinner. One Christian I talked to recently put it this way, “We are all wicked, evil doers. ‘There is no one who does good, not even one,’ Romans 3:12.” Through the lens of Christianity, the glass is completely empty. Through the […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Evils of Christianity, morality, Religious Manipulation | 2 Comments »
I was having a conversation with my wife the other day about how atheists tend to be less outspoken about our views than religious believers… even very outspoken atheists like me. We both agreed that atheists usually have an internal governor which helps us to determine when it is appropriate to talk about our lack […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Coexist, culture war, morality, Preaching | No Comments »
There are two ways I can go with this blog. First, religious believers often tell me that they know that nothing they say will convert me to their religion of choice and that they know that I have already made up my mind. Second, it bothers me when people take something I said years ago […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Certainty, conversation, culture war, forgiveness, People of Reason | 2 Comments »
Whenever I get into a discussion about religion with a progressive Christian the first thing I like to bring up is Hell. It is easy for progressive Christians to speak out against Dick Cheney’s torture program here on Earth, but for some strange reason they are much more hesitant to speak out against God’s eternal […]
Filed under: culture war, hell, Progressive Christians, Religion, torture | 10 Comments »
I get e-mails, messages, and comments from Christians all the time either telling me flat out or eluding to the belief that I will be tortured for all eternity in Hell. It is more than them just stating a belief however; they are also making the claim (either upfront or covertly) that I should be […]
Filed under: de-conversion, God Fearing, hell | 4 Comments »
You know someone is full of shit when they use the word, “Truth” instead of laying out the evidence for why something is true. Also, you know they are full of shit when they use the word, “Truth” instead of saying that something is “true.” For example, “God is the Truth.” Religious believers also like […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, Reason Rally, Religious Manipulation, truth | 2 Comments »
Hemant Mehta over at the Friendly Atheist is running a contest on twitter and facebook asking people to make atheist versions of Christian phrases. I actually think this is pretty brilliant and even though atheists have done this type of thing on their own in the past, I think it is good to do it […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, conversation, culture war, People of Reason, twitter | 3 Comments »
Many Christians talk about non-believers being tortured for all eternity in Hell by their all-loving deity. This is when I like to ask them if non-believing children go to Hell to be tortured for all eternity. I get a variety of answers on this one and they are all comically funny for atheists. First I […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, hell, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 3 Comments »
Yesterday on the Friendly Atheist blog, Hemant posted a a clip from an upcoming Christian film called, “Blue Like Jazz.” The clip posted shows a debate between a Christian and an atheist with an audience member asking a question, “Where do we find meaning?” Here is the clip: Now I have a lot of issues […]
Filed under: atheism, debate, Purpose | 1 Comment »
Every time I get an e-mail or a message from a Christian and almost every time I get into a religious conversation with a Christian, they almost always have the same old arguments which a quick google search can easily refute. So, I have a challenge for Christians. Don’t worry I’m not going to ask […]
Filed under: debate, god | No Comments »
Over the weekend, I finally got to watch the film “The Hunger Games.” Don’t worry I don’t think I will say anything that would be considered a spoiler. There was one part early in the movie that I thought Christians might claim as proof that the film has Christian themes in it. After watching the […]
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, blood sacrifice, culture war, The Hunger Games | 2 Comments »
A Very Special Dangerous Talk: Many atheists really love this time of year because it is just too easy to criticize two of the three Abrahamic religions without much effort at all. Jews and Christians just make it so easy; it is like they are handing atheists the logical death blow to their own beliefs. […]
Filed under: Easter | 5 Comments »
So the big news of the week is that some atheist few have ever heard of has converted to Christianity. While researching my Examiner article on the topic, I decided to go right to the source. I e-mailed Patrick Greene and asked him, what’s up? I read quite a few articles about Greene’s conversion and […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Belief, conversation, ignorance, logic, Religious Manipulation | 9 Comments »
