Many believers have never spent time talking honestly and openly with an atheist.
Jun
30
Malone is afraid of losing members to atheism because of a billboard, it is a poor reflection on the strength of his message; and is evidence he has not prepared his flock to counter the objections of the Atheist ...
Jun
30
God is great. His reasoning is beyond that of yours or mine, and all of His creation is without flaw. Everything He makes, He makes for a reason, and nothing He makes is lacking in order or clarity.
Jun
30
Recent increases in the numbers of those who reject traditional theism have spawned a vast army of god-defenders, the quality of whose work, in my estimation, has varied widely. It seems many of these new apologetic theists, ...
Jun
30
Many believers have never spent time talking honestly and openly with an atheist. Especially here in the Bible Belt. One of the most common observations I've made since becoming an �open atheist� is that lots of ...
Jun
30
Week In Religion: Famous Atheists, Fat Ministers, Papal Tweets, and a Mega-Hoax Religion Dispatches An atheist in Florida claims she is being harassed by an evangelical sheriff. Here's a periodic table of famous atheists. An atheist billboard ended up being posted on the property of a church in Ohio. The Obedient Wives Club is spreading among Muslim ... |
Jun
30
Week In Religion: Famous Atheists, Fat Ministers, Papal Tweets, and a Mega-Hoax Religion Dispatches An atheist in Florida claims she is being harassed by an evangelical sheriff. Here's a periodic table of famous atheists. An atheist billboard ended up being posted on the property of a church in Ohio. The Obedient Wives Club is spreading among Muslim ... |
Jun
30
Atheists have a message for Seattle this July 4th Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog) The message is that God doesn't exist, and it comes to you courtesy of a national atheist group. Planes with trailing banners will fly over major US cities with messages like “God-LESS America” and “Atheism is Patriotic.” Seattle is one of the cities ... Atheists flying ad campaign meets strong resistance Atheist banners will fly this 4th of July Filmmaker Hopes for 'Atheist Brokeback Mountain' |
Jun
30
 SodaHead News | Atheists flying ad campaign meets strong resistance CNN (blog) I get out there and celebrate the Fourth, too," Blair Scott, who calls himself a proud atheist, proclaimed. Blair, the communications director for the New Jersey-based American Atheists, said atheists in the United States often feel alienated and face ... Atheists have a message for Seattle this July 4th Flying over Texas: God-LESS America atheist banners Airborne atheist 4th of July ad campaign meets heavy resistance |
Jun
30
By Katie Glaeser, CNN (CNN)--It's a battle of belief -- and the right not to believe -- in a country founded on freedom. "I'm a patriotic American. I served my country. I get out there and celebrate the Fourth, ...
Jun
30
The group American Atheists has a suggestion for people who are looking for life's answers this Fourth of July: Look to the sky! Because flying overhead in Seattle and 25 other locations around the country will be airplanes trailing banners that read "God-LESS America" and "Atheism is Patriotic". The group had tried to get planes to fly in all 50 ...
Jun
30
Atheist banners will fly this 4th of July Examiner.com It will be airplanes towing atheist banners with messages like: It's "the next step" in an American Atheists publicity campaign that has also included controversial billboards like the one outside New York's Lincoln Tunnel last December that read, ... |
Jun
30
My wife has recently become acquainted with a woman in our neighborhood who was a regular at the store my wife works at. My wife is a very outgoing and kind person, unlike me, and she makes friends easily. Unfortunately, the more my wife finds out about this woman, the more she has boundaries set up around her.
To be frank, this woman is the perfect example of a moocher. Not someone who comes around asking for money from her, but someone who does it in a more roundabout way: she gets money from the government.
This woman has been on unemployment for a long time and has openly stated that because she is on unemployment, she will not look for a permanent job. Instead, she will look around for the occasional odd jobs for work. Right now, she is trying to find work as a dog walker. Unfortunately, when she applied to a local agency, her criminal record came up and she was denied a job.
She has a criminal history of theft. I do not know how often she has gotten entangled in this kind of thing or how long ago it was, but it is certainly a big red flag for most employers, even in an area like mine where the economy has not yet taken a huge downward spiral.
In any case, I do not believe her to be a nasty person and she has hints of work ethic. One time when my wife was working, a co-worker quit in the middle of his shift on a holiday and having no else to work for her, this woman did lend a helping hand for a few hours while the customers were taken care of.
At the same time, it is disconcerting to hear about her attitudes about taking welfare. Not only does she express any shame in it, she practically boosts about it. I believe she bragged to my wife that she was getting food stamps soon as well. Beyond just her attitudes about money and where it comes from, she demonstrates a clear destructive streak that I think you will find among many other moochers.
Her driving habits basically boil down to not paying attention to the road and doing many other things like texting. She is more than likely suffering addiction problems as she is usually drunk or has the shakes when my wife meets her. I am sure she has her good sober days and perhaps my wife just does not notice those times, but the fact that she has shakes when she is not intoxicated is a little unnerving. In any case, I am not too sure how severe the problem is because I am no expert on addiction.
What we have here is a woman who has had trouble with the law for stealing, possibly alcoholic, and constantly looking for the easiest way to live without regard for the long-term consequences. I can think of no better example of a moocher than this woman.
Am I angry with this woman? Hardly. In fact, I pity her more than anything else in the sense that she behaves like a child in many matters and does not seem to understand the personal destruction she is bringing upon herself through her behavior. Or perhaps she does understand and simply does not care. Either way, if we were to imagine a large portion of the United States citizenry to be like this woman, then I think you can see why our economy is in a downward spiral. The moocher class has gotten way too big in this country and it is high time that we stopped allowing them to have their way.
Jun
30
 Seattle Weekly (blog) | Filmmaker Hopes for 'Atheist Brokeback Mountain' Media Research Center Hollywood once eschewed making movies that openly advocated atheism. That is no longer the case. "The Ledge" is the latest in a series of recent Hollywood films that actively promote atheism. Director Matthew Chapman hopes that his movie ... Godless banners to fly on Independence Day Atheist Airplanes to Take Flight This Fourth of July (In States that Allow ... |
Jun
30
When people start discussing philosophy or Christian apologetics, I tend to get bored easily, but Zach Weiner does a nice job explaining the problem with theodicy (why there's suffering in the world if god exists): ...
Jun
30
I occasionally read the blog Blag Hag just to keep up with what people in the sci/atheist realm are talking about. Recently Jen (the Hag herself) announced that she is suffering from OCD. Which got me thinking: is there ...
Jun
30
The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women.
Jun
30
No, this isn’t a post about what attractive, female followers of Jesus think of atheism (no one gives a shit about what the Palins think).
Atheists are bombarded on a daily basis with religion, primarily Christianity (or at least what passes for it these days). In many ways, atheists have a better vantage point for analyzing religions, because believers are often in a situation where they cannot see the forest for the trees. While the Christian has convinced themselves their faith is all about things like love and compassion, those on the outside looking in have a clearer view of reality.
This isn’t because atheists are just so amazing and intelligent, but because Christians basically never shut the fuck up about their religion. Their dogma is everywhere, and it permeates American laws and social norms. We all know what Christianity says, and those of us on the outside have a much clearer view in regards to what Christianity actually does.
Just as an example, the Christians have attempted to appropriate marriage as an institution that was “created/ordained by God.” Logically, this makes no sense, because people have been forming their own family units since before God was ever a twinkle of the eye of the Bronze Age desert Semites who borrowed him from their Pagans neighbors. However, taken in the context of the belief that this God has been around since the beginning of time, it makes a bit more sense (or at least achieves an amusing semblance of sense).
So, let’s flip the tables.
What do Christians know about atheism? Well, as it turns out, not much. Most Christians I have met cannot even properly define what atheism is. Really stop and consider that for a second, because this may be one of the root causes of the other problems I want to delve into regarding Christian perceptions of atheism.
Frankly, I am astounded by the things I have heard Christians say about atheism and atheists (both in general or about specific atheists). If you had asked me a decade ago what I thought of Christians, when I was a newly minted atheist of just a few years, I would have told you Christians were mentally deranged, and that they clearly suffered from some form of cognitive disorder.
Over time, I found this insanity to be far too systematized to be organic. Generally, a mental disorder is expressed differently in different patients. For example, if two people are hallucinating, they probably won’t see the exact same thing. If you’re an atheist for any length of time and you engage Christians in discussion, you will find that the madness they exhibit is far too standardized and similar to be the result of spontaneous mental failure.
In other words: Christians are saying the same crazy things, so the most likely reason for this is not disease, but rather that crazy people are feeding crazy ideas to Christians.
What sort of crazy ideas? While there are a finite number of these dim-witted views, they are far too numerous to list them all here. In fact, I would also need an inordinate amount of time to collect all of these ideas, because the roots of Christian apologetics runs deep. They’ve been shoveling bullshit for thousands of years, after all, so the pile is bound to be pretty high.
Just some examples:
- atheists believe in God, they just refuse to worship out of pride
- atheists worship Satan
- atheists leave religion because they cannot adhere to God’s morality
- atheists are angry at God
- atheism is a phase some young people go through
- atheists are possessed by demons
- atheists believe nothing created everything
- atheists are all gay
- gay people are all atheists
- atheists can’t be trusted (since they can’t swear on the Bible)
- there are no atheists in foxholes
- Charles Darwin recanted on his deathbed
- atheists have no moral compass
- atheism is a religion
- atheists can’t prove there isn’t a God, therefore there is one
And the list goes on, one canard after another.
Most Christians don’t talk to atheists about atheism. Let’s be honest: religion doesn’t come up very often in daily conversation. I’m sure Christians interact with plenty of atheists on a daily basis, they just don’t know it. This is why it’s such a shame to me how closeted most atheists are, because most people only have one type of interaction with atheists.
I would be willing to bet a fair amount of the exchanges a Christian knowingly has with atheists will be adversarial in nature. The oft-cited “they got offended by me saying ‘God bless you’ when they sneezed” or “these atheists were protesting the Christmas tree downtown” are the only time some Christians are exposed to atheism.
This might account for some of the hostility Christians display, a sort of misguided, ill-informed counter-counter-protest attitude. Christians have no way of knowing how unbelievably fucking annoying they can be, so in their mind, here’s the scenario: atheists appear magically out of the blue to screw up the happy, smiling community that just wants to keep on marginalizing people in peace.
Of course they are then going to get upset at these atheists who are suggesting such extreme ideas as not using public funds to erect a monument to the ten commandments (over half of which aren’t even laws…).
It really comes down to two different ways of looking at things: those who are rational, and those who rationalize. Those who are rational tend to want to change what is wrong with the world to make it a better place. Those who rationalize want nothing to change, and in order to defend it, will dig down deep and pull every possible argument they can find out of their ass and shove it in your face, like a rhetorical Dirty Sanchez.
Atheists are bombarded on a daily basis with religion, primarily Christianity (or at least what passes for it these days). In many ways, atheists have a better vantage point for analyzing religions, because believers are often in a situation where they cannot see the forest for the trees. While the Christian has convinced themselves their faith is all about things like love and compassion, those on the outside looking in have a clearer view of reality.
This isn’t because atheists are just so amazing and intelligent, but because Christians basically never shut the fuck up about their religion. Their dogma is everywhere, and it permeates American laws and social norms. We all know what Christianity says, and those of us on the outside have a much clearer view in regards to what Christianity actually does.
Just as an example, the Christians have attempted to appropriate marriage as an institution that was “created/ordained by God.” Logically, this makes no sense, because people have been forming their own family units since before God was ever a twinkle of the eye of the Bronze Age desert Semites who borrowed him from their Pagans neighbors. However, taken in the context of the belief that this God has been around since the beginning of time, it makes a bit more sense (or at least achieves an amusing semblance of sense).
So, let’s flip the tables.
What do Christians know about atheism? Well, as it turns out, not much. Most Christians I have met cannot even properly define what atheism is. Really stop and consider that for a second, because this may be one of the root causes of the other problems I want to delve into regarding Christian perceptions of atheism.
Frankly, I am astounded by the things I have heard Christians say about atheism and atheists (both in general or about specific atheists). If you had asked me a decade ago what I thought of Christians, when I was a newly minted atheist of just a few years, I would have told you Christians were mentally deranged, and that they clearly suffered from some form of cognitive disorder.
Over time, I found this insanity to be far too systematized to be organic. Generally, a mental disorder is expressed differently in different patients. For example, if two people are hallucinating, they probably won’t see the exact same thing. If you’re an atheist for any length of time and you engage Christians in discussion, you will find that the madness they exhibit is far too standardized and similar to be the result of spontaneous mental failure.
In other words: Christians are saying the same crazy things, so the most likely reason for this is not disease, but rather that crazy people are feeding crazy ideas to Christians.
What sort of crazy ideas? While there are a finite number of these dim-witted views, they are far too numerous to list them all here. In fact, I would also need an inordinate amount of time to collect all of these ideas, because the roots of Christian apologetics runs deep. They’ve been shoveling bullshit for thousands of years, after all, so the pile is bound to be pretty high.
Just some examples:
- atheists believe in God, they just refuse to worship out of pride
- atheists worship Satan
- atheists leave religion because they cannot adhere to God’s morality
- atheists are angry at God
- atheism is a phase some young people go through
- atheists are possessed by demons
- atheists believe nothing created everything
- atheists are all gay
- gay people are all atheists
- atheists can’t be trusted (since they can’t swear on the Bible)
- there are no atheists in foxholes
- Charles Darwin recanted on his deathbed
- atheists have no moral compass
- atheism is a religion
- atheists can’t prove there isn’t a God, therefore there is one
And the list goes on, one canard after another.
Most Christians don’t talk to atheists about atheism. Let’s be honest: religion doesn’t come up very often in daily conversation. I’m sure Christians interact with plenty of atheists on a daily basis, they just don’t know it. This is why it’s such a shame to me how closeted most atheists are, because most people only have one type of interaction with atheists.
I would be willing to bet a fair amount of the exchanges a Christian knowingly has with atheists will be adversarial in nature. The oft-cited “they got offended by me saying ‘God bless you’ when they sneezed” or “these atheists were protesting the Christmas tree downtown” are the only time some Christians are exposed to atheism.
This might account for some of the hostility Christians display, a sort of misguided, ill-informed counter-counter-protest attitude. Christians have no way of knowing how unbelievably fucking annoying they can be, so in their mind, here’s the scenario: atheists appear magically out of the blue to screw up the happy, smiling community that just wants to keep on marginalizing people in peace.
Of course they are then going to get upset at these atheists who are suggesting such extreme ideas as not using public funds to erect a monument to the ten commandments (over half of which aren’t even laws…).
It really comes down to two different ways of looking at things: those who are rational, and those who rationalize. Those who are rational tend to want to change what is wrong with the world to make it a better place. Those who rationalize want nothing to change, and in order to defend it, will dig down deep and pull every possible argument they can find out of their ass and shove it in your face, like a rhetorical Dirty Sanchez.
Jun
30
Believers are exposed to a lot of the same information that atheists are exposed to (same education and media resources), they simply choose to stick with belief as oppose to going to atheism. This doesn't make them any ...
Jun
30
The filthy pigs are the same all over the world!
"Cops, pigs, murderers!" chanted the crowd at a line of white-helmeted riot police as tear gas projectiles turned the air outside parliament white. A line of protesters joined hands in a traditional Greek dance in front of police lines.-Violence flares before key Greek austerity vote
And yet, some "liberals" are in love with cops and call them the good guys! Strange, when the cops take the side of the ruling class against the people. The armed thugs of the state have but one real purpose, to protect and serve their masters by keeping that ruling class and the state corporate system in power.
"Cops, pigs, murderers!" chanted the crowd at a line of white-helmeted riot police as tear gas projectiles turned the air outside parliament white. A line of protesters joined hands in a traditional Greek dance in front of police lines.-Violence flares before key Greek austerity vote
And yet, some "liberals" are in love with cops and call them the good guys! Strange, when the cops take the side of the ruling class against the people. The armed thugs of the state have but one real purpose, to protect and serve their masters by keeping that ruling class and the state corporate system in power.
