Category Archives: Atheist News and Links

VIDEO: Hitchens on cancer diagnosis: ‘Why not me?’

AUDIO: Atheist Experience Podcast

They talk about this somewhat disturbing article at length in the podcast, which discusses the (supposed) agnostic views on atheism. Note that the article’s title and subtitle go as follows: An Agnostic Manifesto-At least we know what we don’t know. Yes, kind of a smart ass about it. The folks in the podcast point out that many people totally get atheism wrong. The author of the article is one of them.

I’ve noticed that some agnostics have a problem with atheists, especially since many of us consider them to be atheists or wimpy atheists. Dudes … chill. Most atheists aren’t rabid bulldogs, ya know.

VIDEO: A Conversation Between Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking

VIDEO: Theory of Mind – Robert Seyfarth, the Richard Dawkins Foundation

The Associated Press: Far from ground zero, opponents fight new mosques

Muslims trying to build houses of worship in the nation’s heartland, far from the heated fight in New York over plans for a mosque near ground zero, are running into opponents even more hostile and aggressive.

And, on a similar note… Fla. church organizing Sept. 11 burning of Quran

American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical than most realize — or at least want to admit.

From Debunking Christianity: My Best Substantive Posts So Far in 2010

Belief is about truth, not feelings

Belief isn’t a wormhole to knowledge about God – it’s a cognitive function that should be flexible and open to correction

Debunking the Myth that Atheism is a Religion

It is suggested by many people that Atheism is a religion. Applying the definition of religion toward atheism is an oxymoron and I concur with others who have come to the conclusion that the religious are are so caught up in their own beliefs that imagining another person without having any religious beliefs is largely incomprehensible to them. Either that or they simply don’t care that what they are stating lacks any sense. Those who claim that atheism is a religion do not have a clear understanding of what atheism is, and when religious terms are used to describe atheism, it is the always the beginning of the end of a sensible argument.

From Austin Cline’s Mailbag: Childish Atheism

It takes maturity and experimentation to move past the childish and immature arguments of atheism. Atheist are the “living dead” for the most part. You can stay if you like, it’s ok.

The living dead? Sweet! Let’s say it together: braaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!

The Art of Misdirection

I have my Google News page set to capture articles on Atheism, among other things. Every day I get as many articles as I can stand about Atheism, among other things. Over the months I have noticed a trend among the Atheist related articles, towards labeling Atheist as “angry”. This trend is followed closely by soulless, depressed, monsters and variants – you can guess which type of “news” sources these come from. Mr Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are often the targets of the accusation “angry Atheist.”

I have watched many an Atheist debate that included Mr. Hitchens and Dawkins, so I am pretty familiar with their approach and demeanor. After giving this allot of thought and going back over how I personally debate, I have come the conclusion the accusation is overall (only a fool claims to never get angry), without merit. What also became clear to me is the reason behind the accusation.

Deceptive Apologetic Strategies

Have You Signed Up for Skepticon?

Protest the Pope Film Season 13

A Letter From A House Divided: Atheist vs. Christian

I’ve been asked many times about the dynamics of being an Anti-Theist married to a Christian and I’ve written about my personal experiences a few times in various venues. I’ve received a lot of letters, emails and comments from many of you describing your experiences in “unequally yoked” marriages and they ran the gamut from living a peaceful co-existence to what amounts to a war zone. Unfortunately, most of these stories reveal an unpleasant reality and some of you have written to me to tell that the end result had been divorce. The reasons that many of you have given in your communications are not surprising, but they are no less disturbing. This brings me to Randy. He sent me a rather long letter a few days ago that took me quite a while to get through, and after asking his permission, I will tell you his story.

Psychic Offers Up Vatican Tabernacle for a Mere $22,000.00

Drakar Druella just wanted a palm reading, but later down the line after paying out the starting fee of $265.00 to psychic Cathy Stevens, he found himself paying for his own personal tabernacle, direct from the Vatican. And it only cost him $22,000.000! What a steal. Drakar is now bankrupt to the tune of somewhere near $150,000.000 and going on record to warn others not to waste their money on phony psychics. Good for you Drakar!

VIDEO: Q&A: Adventures in Democracy (With Richard Dawkins)

VIDEO: Christopher Hitchens vs Dinesh D’Souza Debate

VIDEO: The Mormon Proposition (Trailer)

Pope, atheists on collision course

Faithful folks are struggling to stay faithful between the emboldened atheism of scientist Richard Dawkins, author Christopher Hitchens et al on one side, and the clergy sex abuse crisis on the other.

Both forces appear headed for a showdown when Pope Benedict visits Britain in September where he plans to beatify the 19th-century theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman.

US Supreme Court – cross is now a secular symbol

The US Supreme court, by a 5-4 majority, has held that it is okay for the government to use a cross as a “secular” symbol in the context of a war memorial. In that context, the cross is now de-Christianised, according to the majority, so no question of separation of church and state arises.

Who’s Free to Discriminate?

A Supreme Court case highlights how religious conservatives tend to forget that the separation of church and state protects religion from government — not the other way around.

No-name radicals vs. ‘South Park’ just a distraction

On a somewhat similar note…

Awesome, They Found the Ark, Again

I gotta ask, are they done finding the Ark yet? Come on, these guys have found it like a dozen times by now. Let it go, already. Anyway, here’s another story about the Ark that even more direct. It’s called “Fake Noah’s Ark Found On Mt Ararat.”

Antony Flew, 87, Philosopher and Ex-Atheist, Dies

Bultmann’s Job

In the case of Job, particularly the famous prose prologue to which you refer, we find a strictly mythical God, one who keeps order in the universe by means of a bureaucracy of subordinate governors (the “sons of God,” gods or angels who each rule one country as Jehovah’s lieutenants) and who keeps an eye on things by means of a patrolling security chief, “the Satan” (which was originally no proper name but rather a title, “prosecuting attorney” including sting operations man), who roams the world, keeping files on people whose supposed loyalty to God he questions. Job, for instance. At this point in the evolution of biblical mythology “the Satan” is not yet considered an evil being or an opponent of God. That happens later and only insofar as he has somehow been combined with evil mythic entities including Beelzebul (Mark 3:22-23), Ahriman (Luke 10:19) or Leviathan (Revelation 12:9). In the Old Testament (Zechariah 3:1-5; 1 Chronicles 21:1) he is God’s servant, testing God’s mortal servants. He continues this role even in the New Testament (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 22:31; Revelation 12:10). This is what we see him doing in Job chapters 1 and 3.

God Doesn’t Have a Plan for Your Life

I love it when even the Friendly Atheist lays the hammer down.

Fossil skeletons may belong to an unknown human ancestor

Young Americans abandoning organised religion

More Boobs Than You Can Shake A Stick At

My kinda post. Well, it’s about Boobquake at any rate. BTW, here’s a title from the same lady I couldn’t resist: In the name of science, I offer my boobs. I might just be in love … again.

Toxic Supplements

I have some in-laws that are crazy (dare I say evangelical?) for alternative medicine and supplements. They’re always pushing them on others. So I always pounce on stuff that points out the hypocrisy and anti-science aspects of it.

The Improbability Pump

But that’s fiction, right? Well, not entirely, for it applies precisely to another “theory” that is also a fact: the theory of evolution. Over the past quarter-century, poll after poll has revealed that nearly half of all Americans flatly reject evolution, many clinging to the ancient superstition that the earth was created only 6,000 years ago, complete with all existing species. But as Richard Dawkins shows in his splendid new book, The Greatest Show on Earth, the theory of evolution is supported by at least as much evidence as is the germ theory of disease–heaps of it, and from many areas of biology. So why is it contemptible to reject germ theory but socially acceptable to reject evolutionary theory?

And you thought the title was about some new sex toy. Sheesh.

Richard Dawkins – Conservapedia

Ah, good old Conservapedia. It’s been so long since I poked fun at you. Here’s to the good ol’ days. Find out more about Conservapedia’s approach to Dawkins here.

NOTE: I’ve been trying to move for the past week even while the East Coast has been dealing with an string of blizzards. Yeah, it sucks. And before that I was trying to get everything together for settlement on our place. That’s why I haven’t been posting much. Sorry about that. Too many problems hitting all once.

AUDIO: How Stuff Works-Ghost Hunting Technology

This podcast is told from a skeptic’s viewpoint. The link takes you right to the mp3.

Hear the rumble of Christian hypocrisy

The evangelist who says the Haiti earthquake is retribution for sin is at least true to his religion

That one comes from Richard Dawkins.

It’s idiotic to blame God, the devil, or anything other than geology for the Haitian earthquake.

On a related theme, we have one from Christopher Hitchens. Go Hitch!

Bowling for Atheists: Haiti Proves that Nonbelievers Care Too

On Friday, January 15, I received in email from Richard Dawkins explaining that his Executive Director Elizabeth Cornwell has organized a campaign to raise money on behalf of the victims of the Haitian earthquake-induced tragedy, and he wanted to know if the Skeptics Society would like to participate, which of course I unhesitatingly agreed. The campaign is called Non-Believers Giving Aid and is set up through PayPal. Richard Dawkins has generously offered to cover all the PayPal fees (up to $10,000) and the Skeptics Society got things started off with a bang with a $1000 donation. Within minutes of it’s launch on Saturday morning, tens of thousands of dollars started pouring in as members of the other participating groups (Sam Harris’ The Reason Project, The James Randi Educational Foundation, Atheist United, Atheist Alliance International, and many others) jumped in without hesitation. (All monies go to Doctors without Borders and the International Red Cross—you choose.)

Michael Shermer joins the fray, though on a more positive note. It’s almost as if skeptics can be nice and charitable too. Hmmm… If skepticism had it’s own four horsemen, Shermer would be one of them. (Hmmm. Can you guess who those four horsemen would be?)

Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws

A shame something like this had to happen. This is one of the reasons I and others find it so hard to believe the “factual” claims made by creationists and other hard core believers. They often use disinformation to try to bolster their claims. When people figure out a few of their misleading assertions, they start to doubt everything that comes from those sources and feel the need to check them. Some people skip right to the doubting.

As far as I know, the case for climate change is still plenty strong, but now those who don’t want to believe it will use these headlines as an affirmation. Most won’t even bother listening to the fact that life threatening climate changes are still a real concern to scientists and that this is a minor, isolated incident.

And now the antivaxxers’ humiliation is complete

This one’s by Phil Plait. Another candidate for the four horsemen of skepticism? Anyone, I know a few people who are hot on the “don’t get vaccinated” bandwagon. Hope they read this article. There are a lot of links in it to other sources, so this one kinda sums them up. Follow the links if you want more on this.

VIDEO: Loophole Allows Gays To Marry

No comment. You figure it out.

Whack-A-Medium

How sad that yet another medium has been given press approval. I could write a post on a different medium or phony psychic every week and never run out of material. This week’s entry into the never-ending cycle of mediums I predicted would be coming (see my post “ESP Boot Camp” of 23 Feb. 2009) is Rebecca Rosen. I will hopefully not catch all the flack I caught two weeks ago when the Internet press release I quoted from was taken down, making the points I tried to make un-verifiable. This time, you can read all about Mrs. Rosen here:

Why Atheists Don’t Turn to Religion When Faced with Death or Disaster

The notion that ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’ isn’t just mistaken, it’s bigoted and ugly; a denial of atheists’ humanity and the reality of our experience with death.

No, really. It’s true. Stop looking at me like that. Oh, just deal with it already!

Word salad lunacy Bible babble blah blah blah

I’ve often noticed a tendency for some people to host a whole gnarly syndrome of denialist symptoms: some people are creationists+HIV denialists+global warming denialists+ant-vaxers+whatever. They stand out in the crowd as hyper-intense paragons of idiocy; I often wonder how they get around at all, since the power of their disbelief is so strong that they probably deny their shoelaces as soon as they get up in the morning, yet at the same time they believe a magic man in the sky will soon make them float up into the air to a rapturous eternal congress of their fellow reality deniers.

I’ve found an amazing example of this syndrome. You’ll be able to recognize the problem from just the title of his blog post:

Movie Review: Creation

Creation is an indie movie about Charles Darwin.

Pink Ouija Board Targeting Young Girls Riles Critics – FOXNews.com

‘Coming up on Freethought Radio · February 6, 2010’ by Freedom From Religion foundation – Richard Dawkins Interview

I’m not real big on Freethought Radio myself. It seems like more of an acquired taste to me. But they are interviewing Dawkins, which I’m always interested in.