Category Archives: Atheist News and Links

The Ignored Atheist Vote

As the presidential candidates come together to discuss faith and issues of morality — at Saddleback last week and at the Democratic National Convention this week, there’s a large contingent feeling excluded. American atheist and agnostic voters are increasingly feeling left out of the debate or flat out ignored and taken for granted as politicians scramble to better woo the “faithful” .

The evolution enigma

One of the greatest scientific achievements of the human mind “ranks with Copernicus’ discovery that the Earth is not the center of the universe” … “compares with Einstein’s formulation of the laws of general relativity” … “is as important as the Watson-Crick model of DNA which set off the genetic revolution.” This is the language used by historians of science to describe Charles Darwin’s principles of evolution. These principles underlie and inform every facet of the biological world. They are the foundation on which all of biology and medicine are built.
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There exists, however, one glaring exception to the otherwise universal celebration of these discoveries about how the biological world operates: the Christian fundamentalists of the United States. And herein lies one of the great enigmas of our time. How is it that in the most advanced scientific country in the world, we have at the same time one of the most scientifically illiterate general populations on the planet?

Evolution and Creationism: The Conflict Lies In Perception

In his native Spain, Francisco Ayala attended Catholic schools, where he studied evolution in science class and creationism in religion class. No one saw a conflict. Having moved to the United States in 1961, he was shocked when, in the mid-1970s, California sought to introduce an antievolution curriculum into its public schools. How could this be, in the most scientifically advanced country in the world? His bewilderment led Ayala to a lifelong study of how evolution is, or is not, taught in public schools.

Austin Cline’s Mailbag: Nonsense of Evolution

Why Dawkins is right and his critics are wrong

As the Channel 4 series The Genius of Charles Darwin drew to an end on Monday, the usual chorus of insults reined down on the head of its star, Richard Dawkins. Despite the fact that Dawkins went out of his way to avoid bad-tempered arguments or overt proselytising on atheism, his critics saw only what they wanted to see – and often that was not what appeared on the screen.

Joe Hinman: Atheism is Dead, In Its Last Days

U.S. group leaves Beijing without Bibles

A group of American Christians who had more than 300 Bibles confiscated by Chinese customs officials left the airport Monday after a 26-hour standoff, saying they realized officials would not change their stance.

Richard Dawkins Lecture at UC Berkeley

Enemies of Reason: Available now on DVD!

Flat-Earthers Defending Biblical Authority from Satanic Science

Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science

Johann Hari: We need to stop being such cowards about Islam

This is a column condemning cowardice – including my own. It begins with the story of a novel you cannot read. The Jewel of Medina was written by a journalist called Sherry Jones. It recounts the life of Aisha, a girl who was married off at the age of six to a 50-year-old man called Mohamed ibn Abdallah. On her wedding day, Aisha was playing on a see-saw outside her home. Inside, she was being betrothed. The first she knew of it was when she was banned from playing out in the street with the other children. When she was nine, she was taken to live with her husband, now 53. He had sex with her. When she was 14, she was accused of adultery with a man closer to her own age. Not long after, Mohamed decreed that his wives must cover their faces and bodies, even though no other women in Arabia did.

Seven reasons why people hate reason

From religious fundamentalism to pseudoscience, it seems that forces are attacking the Enlightenment world view – characterised by rational, scientific thinking – from all sides. The debate seems black and white: you’re either with reason, or you’re against it. But is it so simple? In a series of special essays, our contributors look more carefully at some of the most provocative charges against reason. The results suggest that for all the Enlightenment has achieved, we still have a lot of work to do.

Austin Cline’s Mailbag: Feel The Love!

Have you ever let yourself be confirmed by the spirit that he lives? Sometimes it’s just easier for people not to believe in a God, then they think they’re the only one they have to answer their consequences to. I have a friend who was an athiest because of that reason (for the most part), he didn’t want to feel bad for doing bad things, but now he believes in Christ because he let himself feel His love. He told me that he doesn’t think that he could truly love until he had his faith in Christ.

Austin has yet another fan … who doesn’t know jack about atheists. This sort of reminds me of encounters I’ve had with Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to “save me” from myself. Believers should check out Austin’s response to this letter to learn about some common misconceptions people have about atheists. Another recent article from Austin on the subject can be found here.

John Madziarczyk: Atheists Rely Too Much on Science

John Madziarczyk argues that it is faulty reasoning for atheists to expect science to answer questions about religion:

Because the existence of God isn’t a question that science can answer. How do you set up an experiment to test for the existence of God? How do you set something up so that the data can be falsified, meaning that it could be either proved false or not, regarding God? You can’t. It’s not like analyzing the age of a particular strata of rock or doing a chemical experiment.

How does Austin answer the author of this article? Click the link to see.

“Evangelical” Atheism, Or, Is It Okay to Try to Change People’s Minds?

Is it okay for atheists to try to change people’s minds? To try to convince people that their religion is mistaken, and that they should de-convert and become atheists instead?

And is there any difference between that and religious evangelicalism? Between that, and religious evangelicals/ missionaries trying to convince people that their religion (or lack thereof) is mistaken, and that they should convert and join their own religion instead?

Tedious Faith

…when watching a “testimonial” video that would do Grandpa Simpson proud. A testament of faith so pointless, so unfocused, so self-involved, so completely devoid of content, it’s actually hilarious.

Like this one.

This video is … well … pretty awful. Aw hell, I laughed out loud and knew I had to post a link to Christina’s blog for this alone. Hey, she found it. She should reap the credit. Someone (a mean old atheist like me) should think about a site where they find ramblings like these on You-Tube or wherever. Anyway, the really cool part is at the very end of Christina’s article. You have to read the whole thing to get it, though.