Fundie Fun

 

Interesting…I have to believe he exists prior to coming to him.  Yeah…I guess that makes sense.  But I guess that works for any god out there too.  The lingering carrot stick of rewards is always a nice touch too.  Too bad the all knowing being couldn’t be a little more specific with what rewards he was referring to so that people would know when they were getting them…but oh well.  I guess this way you can assume anything at all that seems to be positive in your life could have only happened because of your belief in your invisible sky daddy.

Out Campaign

One great thing about blogging is connecting with like-minded individuals on the web.  I’m a strong proponent of intelligent and rational discussion of ideas.  The more skeptics out there that also find a way to be open with their atheism, the stronger and louder voice we have to be heard.  Unfortunately, coming out can be a very difficult thing to do for many people who live with and love people with different theological beliefs.  Luckily my wife is also a non-believer, but I can only imagine the difficulty this could cause in a family with different beliefs. 

My childhood family was very religious and continues to be. I am the only one able to break free from the dogmatic way of thinking that Christianity imposes.  While I am sad for them, we have enough respect for each other not to belittle each other for our different worldviews.  Therefore, my announcement of atheism came as no suprise. 

Has coming out, or the fear of coming out, been difficult for you?

Jesus…….Eww…Creepy

I guess people don’t think anymore when they develop money making schemes.  This Jesus statue takes it to a whole new level of creepy.  What lesson is he teaching these kids?  Thanks to TheBeattitude for pointing this out in the first place.  If you don’t read his blog, you should, he is consistently on point and intelligently spoken.   Now get over there and look around!

Apparently I am a Fairytale

Okay guys…I guess it’s time for me to be honest with everyone.  Someone has figured out that I am actually the Prince of Darkness…Satan himself.  I know that this may come to a shock to many of you as I spend so much time helping other people.  Actually to be honest it was quite a surprise to me too…since I don’t even believe in him!  I suppose I have to get to some evil bidding now.  Anyone have any pointers on how to get started with this?  It seems like such a big undertaking.

But seriously…What is life like where if someone disagrees with you instead of having a rational and thoughtful discussion about the reasoning and evidence for your beliefs you instead call them the Prince of Darkness? This is the kind of irrationality that makes Christians look even crazier.  It seems to come back to black and white thinking.  If someone disagrees with you, not only are they wrong, but they are incredibly evil.  With this approach to life, you never have to examine your beliefs (because if you did then in turn you are evil).  It is a self-perpetuating and self-justifying way of keeping one’s dogmatic beliefs safe from scrutiny.

Christian Love (Faith vs. Evidence Part 2)

It seems that for some Christians it is really hard to hear viewpoints that differ from their own.  In my ongoing discussion of requesting evidence for supernatural claims, I had the pleasure of being called a “fool” by Marianne, the author of this Christian blog.  I’m not sure that this is the loving attitude of a Christian that I’m so often told about.  I doubt her god would want her evangelizing to nonbelievers in this manner.  Well…let’s look at the evidence for her claim!  Since a fool is defined as: a person lacking in judgment or prudence let’s see if this is true.

For myself:

1. I demand that the things I believe about life are based on evidence.
2. I want to have as many true beliefs as possible, therefore I critically examine evidence with a skeptical mindset.
3. I am open to changing my current beliefs when presented with valid evidence.

Now Marianne:

1. You believe in an imaginary sky daddy of which there is no evidence for. 
2. You disregard science, reasoning, and logic when it conflicts with your preconceived ideas of your religion.
3. You refuse to examine the evidence when it is presented to you, become angry, and call names.

Which way of examining the world sounds more foolish to you?

Faith vs. Evidence

I’ve recently been having an interesting discussion on a christian blog recently, where I have continued to ask the believers to provide any evidence of their god.  One commenter Kate on the blog had the following to say:

The reason I have not presented evidence for my writing is that my relationship with Christ is a faith. My relationship with Christ is the only true faith. You want to know why I know that?! Because it’s a FAITH, if you look up the word faith, it means “a belief that is not based on proof”. Christians have an extremely strong faith in the Lord because of the Word, support from other Christians. If you still want proof, your not getting it.

As I said in response to Kate:

Exactly my point.  But I demand that my beliefs be based on evidence. I actually care if my beliefs are true or not.

It makes my brain hurt to see how many people will openly admit that they have no evidence for the god they believe in.  Instead, it’s almost seen as a badge of honor to have this ‘faith’.  To me it just seems rediculous.  What other area in your life do you allow this level of ignorance to flourish?  Hopefully none.

Ask an Atheist

Many people have various negative connotations associated with the word atheist.  Hopefully this can be an opportunity to ask questions of one person’s experience of atheism.  One of the major misconceptions that I can start with is that atheists have a certain dogma or set of beliefs that they follow.  This is completely untrue.  It is like claiming that being bald is a hairstyle.  The only commonality between atheists is the following:

A disbelief in any gods

Other than that one disbelief, atheists are completely varied in their actual beliefs.  Many believers will attempt to make the case that ‘atheism becomes a religion.’  This statement is completely false.  There is absolutely no dogma associated with atheism…no set of rules that one has to follow.  The only way to know if someone is an atheist is if they do not believe in any gods.

One other important note is the following:

A disbelief in god is completely different than disproving god.

I am not claiming to have disproved any of the gods, but instead that there is not any credible evidence in support of a god.  Just the same as one cannot completely disprove invisible unicorns, fairies or goblins – I just don’t see any evidence to believe in them.  Anyone who wants to make a supernatural claim has the burden of proof. 

So what questions do you have?

Misrepresenting Atheists

There are many religious individuals who claim to speak for atheists, oftentimes doing so in a very irrational, inconstent, and blatently incorrect manner.  In a recent post on Sola Scriptura the author claims the following:

“THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT ARE DIVINE REVELATION.

But when confronted with the revealed truth of the Bible, they ( i.e. nonbelievers) shirk their responsibility, and choose to believe what makes them comfortable.”

This is just another argument that claims that because the bible claims itself to be true that makes it true.  This is circular reasoning at it’s best.  Atheists are not choosing to not believe in the claims of the bible because it makes them feel better, they are doing it because there is no evidence that the claims are true.

I am ready to hear any evidence of the supernatural claims of any religion.  No one has been able to provide any verifiable, testable, and objective evidence.  That’s all it would take to convince nonbelievers….just some evidence of the claims that any religion makes that are not better accounted for by secular means.

So if the entire bible is divine revelation…this god has some explaining to do.  What about:

The parts that describe how to treat your slaves?

Or what about stoning:
Your kids if they are disobedient?
Someone who curses?
Someone who commits adultury?
Or a woman who is not a virgin on her wedding night?
Anyone who picks up sticks on a Sunday?

It’s rediculous that people claim the bible to be divine inspiration and then pick and choose which parts they want to believe.  It almost makes sense why religous fundamentalists exist.  At least they take their holy book by the letter of the law….despite the contradictions and evil acts committed by and in the name of a supposed loving god.

What Really Happens With Prayer

From Crackle: Mr. Deity and the Messages – Episode 4

Taking the position that god exists, which I do not, this has to be the reason why so many prayer requests go unanswered.  Evidence has shown that prayer has no statistical advantage in clinical trials.  Even so, the confirmation bias is a powerful thing which creates the illusion of outcome.  People attribute positive outcomes to the prayer (regardless of any other explanations) and disregard or ignore any ‘unanswered prayers’.  Christians will say there are three outcomes of prayer: yes, no, or not yet.  So that basically covers all angles.  If nothing or even something bad happens after praying…the prayer was answered, just not in the way the person would have wanted.  I would assume the person would attribute this to god’s will. 

 

This point then asks the question: If everything that happens is god’s will, isn’t praying asking god to change his mind?

 

It seems highly presumptious that a person could coerce an omniscient being who already knows what is going to happen to change his mind about the outcome of any event. Just something to think about as the National Day of Prayer approaches… 

Salad Bar Christianity

Christianity seems to take the form of salad bar Bible study, based on which parts of the Bible a person feels most comfortable with.  Christians pick and choose certain verses to support their ideals, while completely disregarding the offensive ones.  Most people do not take the old testament seriously, except if they are referring to the ten commandments.  But these same people seem to ignore the parts about the rules of slave ownership which come shortly afterwards. (Exodus 21:20-21 & 21:26-27)

So on what basis does a person choose which parts of the Bible to take seriously?  Unless one is a fundamentalist and takes his or her holy book literally, it seems that it comes down to simply guessing.  My opinion is that people pick and choose what they want to follow based on their own personal beliefs.  In this way the individual creates their own version of the religion.  Not only does there seem to be a thousand denominations of Christianity, but each person in each denomination has their own version of their specific denomination.