Category Archives: Secular Atheist

VIDEO: What Is Scientology?

Suddenly, I like James Spader. And Boston Public.

That's me in the corner

I have a vivid childhood memory from when I was perhaps eight or nine years of age. I was with my mom in our minivan. I think my younger sister was with us, but I'm not positive about that. I remember saying to my mom, "I'm scared that someday I'll reject Jesus and won't be a Christian anymore." My mother, wholesome and wonderful person that she is, told me that I'd have to be careful. "Just follow Jesus and you won't have to worry about it." I remember other times when she told me that she "worried" and "was concerned" about me, because I was intelligent. "I worry that your intelligence will lead you away from Jesus." As things stand, I suppose she had good cause for concern.

Greta Christina's Blog: Atheists and Anger

Worth reading if you haven't already.

Austin Cline's Mailbag: Why Choose Atheism?

Although the New York Daily News has no problem endorsing astrology on its news pages, the idea of giving sympathetic coverage to atheism is apparently too much for them to swallow. In a recent issue, they published this obnoxiously bigoted column from Gabriel Gillen, a Dominican friar, which manages to cram just about every anti-atheist slur in the book into a brief space.

We start with the old standby: pick a controversial atheist, accuse him of hypocrisy or some other charge, and assume that he somehow speaks for or represents all atheists:

Death threats force removal of atheist billboard

Daylight Atheism > Anti-Atheist Bigotry in the Daily News

PTN: Paranormal Television Network

Well, we knew it had to happen. It wasn’t a matter of where, only when. Get your flashlights out ghosthunters! We are about to embark on an new era of supernatural fiction the likes of which have never been seen or heard of  in any other civilized country. Watch as the glimmer of skepticism that was once a bright new concept in television gets buried under an avalanche of dung masquerading as entertainment. Ahhhhhhhh. Only in America…

I agree with Mark. Even networks like Discover and History Channel are getting inundated with this stuff. ::Sigh::

Atheism 3.0 finds a little more room for religion

Abstinence Makes The Church Grow Fondlers

For your amusement…

Daylight Atheism > Jehovah’s Witnesses Hate the Smurfs

Yeah, this is more for my ex-Witness readers, but I couldn't resist posting it now.

NOTE: I was toying with a new plugin called Old Post Promoter, which promoted this old post to a more recent spot even though I asked the plugin to omit this category from promotion. So this news is out of date. I thought this would be a nice to bring some of my older articles back to the front page now and then, but I had to deactivate the plugin when I saw this. Sorry about that. I will probably delete the plugin since the author hasn’t gotten back to me about the reason for the problem. Oh well.

Richard Dawkins slaps creationists into the primordial soup

His books sell in their millions, his TV programmes are rapturously received, and he’s appeared in Doctor Who. Not bad for a 67-year-old academic. Now Richard Dawkins, scourge of creationists, is championing his Victorian hero

Karadzic ‘worked in Serb clinic’

Captured war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic was living in Serbia’s capital Belgrade and practising alternative medicine, Serb officials say.

Austin Cline On: Atheism Has to be a Creed. It Just Has to Be!

One of the more popular myths about atheism is the idea that it’s some sort of ideology, philosophy, religion, or creed. Some religious theists just can’t understand how atheism can be anything less than that; in fact, some are so much in denial about what atheism is that they will go to great lengths to insist that it must involve some set of beliefs, assertions, and ideas about the world which is analogous to their own.

Alan Roebuck writes…

They should have seen it coming

For years James Randi’s foundation has had a million dollars for anyone able to prove they have paranormal powers. But, he explains, in 2010 that money will be put to far better use.

Anti-Atheist Bigotry: I Don’t Really Hate Atheists, Honest!

Bush Edits Out Jefferson’s Criticism of Religion

Bill Maher Reads from The Purpose Driven Life

I’m so there.

Puppets Like Skepticism, Too

This week I was interviewed by Farrah, a puppet on the Hoggworks Studios video podcast called The Rant Puppets. He asked me about bird smarts, critical thinking, crystals, PZ Myers, and chiropractic medicine. I liked his hair. Enjoy…

Is Obama more religious than George W. Bush and can atheists trust him?

Maybe yes and maybe no. I still like what Obama is trying to do as President.

Why I Deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus

An ancient book says a man 2,000 years ago was born of a virgin and was sired by God himself. I once believed this, because I believed the Bible — a book I thought God himself wrote.

I was wrong. Here are five reasons why I no longer believe in the virgin birth.

I’m with Daniel (the author) on this one. I even doubt that Jesus was a real person, much less a supernatural messiah.

Scientology Meets It’s Match Or More Religulousness From The Hollywood Elite

Last week’s invitation-only GATE event drew an audience of about 500 that included Adrian Grenier, Jackson Browne, Garry Shandling, and Virginia Madsen. Melissa Etheridge was among the speakers. And if you think this group isn’t serious about transformational entertainment, consider that the meeting continued for four hours. (Tolle teaches that time is an illusion so perhaps that was not a problem.)

[Jim] Carrey himself has long been into a mixed-bag of spirituality—a filmmaker once told me that the actor “talked about Jesus, Gandhi, and Mohammed in a way that made me think he had not done the reading.” He’s been into Tolle for a while now and at the meeting, he explained that he’d come to an understanding that his thoughts were illusory and thought is responsible for “if not all, most of the suffering we experience”—Tolle in a nutshell.

A Conversation With WhoIsYourCreator.Com

A reader sent in his email exchange with WhoIsYourCreator.Com, a Christian creationist website. It’s much longer than anything I normally post, but I thought it was interesting enough to pass on.

Instead of just quoting something from the article, I will quote PZ Myers who commented about it: “Dishonesty has consequences, and creationists are fundamentally distorting the evidence to fit their desired conclusion. That hurts them when people take a moment to actually examine what they are claiming.”

He’s right. The badly researched “Creation Book” was one of the things that pulled me out of the Watchtower Society.

The Unreasonable Faith of Martin Luther

Christian Belief as a Natural Phenomenon: A Six-Part Series Part 1: Why Cognitive Science is essential to understanding Christianity.

Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science: Part 2 of 6

Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science: Part 3 of 6

I hope to read the rest of this series soon.

Outragously Irresponsible Claim by Weak-Minded Theist Group

The title may be a tad inflammatory, but so were the words this group put on their billboard: “Sweden is one of the most secular countries in the world. It’s a land of no color where children will you for candy.”

A Guide to Christian Clichés and Phrases

Charlotte Allen Anti-Atheist Editorial In LA Times

Charlotte Allen is bored of atheists? We’re bored of the standard Christian arguments and hate speech – there’s nothing new under the sun there.

This is a bit of a rant, but a good one.