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 »
In his book, “Lying,” Sam Harris has argued that lying is always wrong in every situation. While I think honesty is a good general rule, I don’t think it ought to be an absolute commandment. For starters, it is not altogether clear what being honest fully entails. I knew a girl is college who didn’t […]
Filed under: morality | No Comments »
I have to admit that I am still fascinated by the recent conversion of former atheist blogger, Leah Libresco. Unlike the re-conversion of Patrick Greene, Libresco was a blogger and so I assume that she knew the standard arguments and was presumably knowledgeable about the plot holes, ridiculousness, and just factually incorrect aspects of Christianity. […]
Filed under: Catholics, conversation, ignorance, morality, People of Reason, Religious Manipulation | 8 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 »
It started with some punk Christian asserting that without God there can be no moral grounding. We have all heard that one before and so I responded with my Atheism 101 article on the subject (which is now out of date, but still useful). Then the Christian responded with this: “As far as your argument […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, debate, discussion, humanism, morality | 7 Comments »
“Atheists have no moral grounding. There morals are grounded in egoism.” While logically these two statements are contradictory, that never seems to bother the ignorant religious believers that make statements to this affect. Why is it that religious believers seem to think that without a moral grounding egoism must be the moral philosophy? Let’s say […]
Filed under: humanism, morality, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »
One of the things that really annoys me about fundamentalist Christians is that they often have an ignorance of an entire field of study; sometimes multiple fields of study. But Ethics in particular seems to be a field that many Christians aren’t even aware exists. It is not unusual for me to be in a […]
Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, education, ignorance, morality, Religion | 3 Comments »
Today’s installment of the series dealing with Jeffrey T. Kuhner’s article entitled, “Why God is Great” deals with one of my favorite subjects, morality. But Kuhner isn’t making the old moral grounding argument this time. Instead, he is making the moral norms argument. Interestingly enough, I first heard this argument while watching Christopher Hitchen’s film […]
Filed under: conversation, morality, Religion | 1 Comment »
Filed under: conversation, morality, Religion | Comments Off on Why Hitchens is Great (Part 3): Christian Morals
The other day I was behind a car that had a bumper sticker that stated, “Real Men Love Jesus” among other bumper stickers that were sufficiently fundamentalist Christian. Well, I guess I am not a real man according to that Christians. Oh well. The thing is that this bumper sticker brings up a few issues. […]
Filed under: culture war, Preaching, Religion, wwjd | 18 Comments »
When it comes to morality, Christians often think that they have the monopoly on the topic. Interestingly enough, one of the biggest problems with Christian morality was actually introduced long before Christianity by Socrates and still remains unanswered by Christians today. In Plato’s dialog Euthyphro, Socrates has a conversation with a young lawyer named Euthyphro […]
Filed under: morality, Religion | 3 Comments »
Due to the recent string of scandals plaguing the Catholic Church, Vatican Biblical scholars have been studying the Bible carefully to find out God’s opinion on rape. They can’t seem to find any passage which states or infers that child rape is a sin. Earlier this morning, the Pope met in a closed door session […]
Filed under: atheism, morality, People of Reason, Religion, science, sin | 9 Comments »
I have noticed that often times when I am discussing and/or debating Christians they assume the worst about me and my arguments. This I think is a symptom of their belief that humans are all evil sinners. It is hard to have a friendly conversation with someone who won’t give you the benefit of the […]
Filed under: conversation, discussion, Evils of Christianity, morality, Religion, responsibility, sin | 6 Comments »
One of the things that Christian fundamentalists always tell me is that I should worship their God because he is all powerful. I talked about this in previous blogs about the praise-worthiness of the Christian God, but I think it is an important issue in and of itself. If God were evil, would Christians still […]
Filed under: god, morality, Religion | 13 Comments »
Fundamental Christians often tell me that whether I believe in God or not, I will have to respect his authority. Of course, I inform them that even if their God does exist (and I am reasonably certain he doesn’t), I still see the God as portrayed in the Bible as immoral and would not follow […]
Filed under: Authority, Judge God, morality, Religion, sin | 9 Comments »
If I had a penny for every time a Christian has told me that I would one day stand before God and have to account for my sins, I would be a rich person. Even after I inform the Christian that I don’t believe in God, the question is still asked as a “what if.” […]
Filed under: god, Judge God, morality, Religion, sin | 3 Comments »
One of the issues that I have always had with Christianity is that belief that human beings are inherently evil. This means that every time they speak to another human being, they think they are talking to an evil person. Now, I know that some people will claim that not all Christians see other people […]
Filed under: Evils of Christianity, morality, Religion, satan, sex | 7 Comments »
Today is the day that Christian evangelist Ray Comfort and his same-sex heterosexual partner Kirk Cameron were supposed to give out copies of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The Comfort Edition of the book contains a 54 page introduction written by Comfort which basically Glenn Becks Darwin. The funny thing is that part of Ray […]
Filed under: culture war, morality, ray comfort, Religion | 9 Comments »
Recently, I watched the new DVD film, “Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson.” The film follows the book tour of atheist Hitchens and fundamentalist Christian Wilson as they debate each other on the question, “is Christianity good for the world?” Hitchens describes himself as an anti-theist in the film and makes the argument that morality […]
Filed under: atheism, morality, Religion | 7 Comments »
One particular aspect of Religious Right Christianity which sometimes trickles into the mainstream of Christianity is the idea that all sins (or wrongs) are equal. I remember when I was younger, a Christian explained it to me with the following analogy: God is pure and can’t tolerate anything other than purity. Sin is like an […]
Filed under: Religion, sin | 45 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 »
Almost every time I get into a prolonged conversation with a fundamentalist Christian the issue of morality come up. The claim of the Christians is almost always the same, “without God there can be no moral grounding.” Personally, I find that to be a pretty arrogant and inaccurate statement. The way I see it, with […]
Filed under: morality, Religion | 51 Comments »
One frequent argument I hear from Christians is what I call the “Judge God Argument.” Here, Christians tell me a story about a teen that is speeding, driving drunk, or some other illegal act that teenagers might commit. In this story, we are the teen and after being caught by the police we are brought […]
Filed under: god, Judge God, Religion | 22 Comments »
There seems to be a high corollary between Christianity and black and white reasoning. I am not saying that there is a causal connection although I suspect that there maybe a causal connection, but I have noticed that a very large number of Christians have a very hard time thinking in shades of gray. While […]
Filed under: morality, Religion | 13 Comments »
