Category: Atheism


Video: 30 Renowned Writers Speaking About God

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January 23, 2012

(This post was remorselessly pillaged from Pharyngula… just saying…)

It’s a really nice video of some really nice authors talking about god… or the lack of one. Well worth the time to watch.

This list of authors in the video was, too, remorselessly pillaged from Pharyngula:

1. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer
2. Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Laureate in Literature
3. Professor Isaac Asimov, Author and Biochemist
4. Arthur Miller, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright
5. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature
6. Gore Vidal, Award-Winning Novelist and Political Activist
7. Douglas Adams, Best-Selling Science Fiction Writer
8. Professor Germaine Greer, Writer and Feminist
9. Iain Banks, Best-Selling Fiction Writer
10. José Saramago, Nobel Laureate in Literature
11. Sir Terry Pratchett, NYT Best-Selling Novelist
12. Ken Follett, NYT Best-Selling Author
13. Ian McEwan, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
14. Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (1999-2009)
15. Professor Martin Amis, Award-Winning Novelist
16. Michel Houellebecq, Goncourt Prize-Winning French Novelist
17. Philip Roth, Man Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
18. Margaret Atwood, Booker Prize-Winning Author and Poet
19. Sir Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
20. Norman MacCaig, Renowned Scottish Poet
21. Phillip Pullman, Best-Selling British Author
22. Dr Matt Ridley, Award-Winning Science Writer
23. Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate in Literature
24. Howard Brenton, Award-Winning English Playwright
25. Tariq Ali, Award-Winning Writer and Filmmaker
26. Theodore Dalrymple, English Writer and Psychiatrist
27. Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist
28. Redmond O’Hanlon FRSL, British Writer and Scholar
29. Diana Athill, Award-Winning Author and Literary Editor
30. Christopher Hitchens, Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Columnist

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Video: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

Filed under: Atheism, Video — 3 Comments
January 18, 2012

An excellent, insightful talk by Alain de Botton that covers some things that Atheism/Secularism can learn (and steal) from religion; useful things that religions do (no really, they do some actually useful things, strange as that may sound…) very well that secular society seems not to.

He makes several outstanding points and it’s given me quite a bit to think about. So I will. Think about it. And then, hopefully, remember what it was that I thought so I can write about it.

But seriously. Watch the video.

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Link: Girl at the Center of the Cranston “Prayer Banner” Case targeted by Cyber-Bullies

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January 14, 2012

A reader sent me this link:

Girl at the Center of the Cranston “Prayer Banner” Case targeted by Cyber-Bullies

The summary is: School breaks US constitution by promoting Christianity, school girl sue’s school, school girl wins, Christians threaten to assault her, murder her or express how delighted they will be if she had to be harmed.

Jessica Ahlquist - The winner.

Read the whole post at that link, it seems to be by her uncle and it lays out the Christian love she’s experiencing nicely.

I guess it’s only Christians who can’t see the problems with their behaviour. It is, after all, only Christians who seem to be unable to read the Bible, the manual they allege to live their lives by.

To be a Christian is to be a hypocrite. That’s all there is to it. “Not all Christians are hypocrites!”, I hear some people scream. Well, actually, all Christians ARE hypocrites on some level; some more so than others I’ll grant, but fundamentally there are some pretty clear instructions in the Bible from their god that not a single one of them follow or even attempt to follow. I go over one or two of the blindingly obvious ones in this post:  I hate religion but love I god and a couple in this one: Christianity: conveniently forgetting the inconvenient

Am I surprised Christians act like this? No. But I am very happy that a teenager and the US justice system can at least see what millions of supposedly neighbour loving, adult Christians can not.

Jessica Ahlquist for the win!

Some related sites:

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Video: I Hate Religion, And Jesus Too

Filed under: Atheism, Religion, Uncategorized, Video — 2 Comments
January 14, 2012

My wife showed me this video (Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY) last night. My brother posted the link to it on Facebook. Now, that was a bit of a surprise to me I have to admit, since I didn’t realise my brother was a hard-core Jesusianismist. Perhaps it was wishful thinking that he was, at the very least, agnostic. Not, it seems. I have tried to remember how it is that I came to have the incorrect impression of him and it’s quite strange really since we’ve spoken about religion a number of times. He never said he was a Jesusianismist. He never took issue with my (rampant, unrestrained) anti-theism.

Anyway, I watched the video, I had many issues, I toyed with writing a post about it. Then I saw The Amazing Atheist (bless his brilliant banana loving ass) had already made a video that takes it apart, in style. So I now happily post it here since it says just about everything that  needs to be said.

Take it away TJ:

Yea. Christians doing what Christians do: bend ‘your beliefs’ until they fit what you want to believe. The entire video is empty, contradictory and filled with marketing speak. It’s a sales job that sells nothing new. It’s controversy stirring where there is none. It is par for the course as far as Christians are concerned.

On top of that, it’s not new either, I’ve blogged on that particular statement of idiocy before: I hate religion but love I god. Silly Christians are silly.

If it wasn’t for the stupid subject, the poem and video would have been quite nice though. Quite nice.

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Video: Atheists…What if you’re wrong? An Answer to Pascal’s wager.

Filed under: Atheism, Video — 7 Comments
September 7, 2011

A very well put, very eloquently delivered answer to Pascal’s wager. Outstanding. With reasoning like this, how could you not be proud to be an atheist.

And Christians? You should be ashamed at your ass backwards, shoddy reasoning and special pleading. What you claim to believe is downright embarrassing.

And yes, bdwilson1000, he isn’t wrong. Not even a little. RAmen.

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Link: Whither Eagleman? – Sam Harris’ response

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August 31, 2011

A link to a post by Sam Harris

Sam Harris wrote a response to a TEDx talk by the neuroscientist David Eagleman. It’s not a long post and well worth reading here: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/whither-eagleman/

While I freely admit that Sam Harris is perhaps not the most engaging speaker and his books aren’t the easiest or the most exciting the read, the man has clarity of thought second to none and his writing is exceedingly clear and concise and conveys his points masterfully.

What I’m really trying to say is that I wish, enviously, that I could think and write like him. Nigh on every sentence in his post is a gem like this one:

We simply observe, as you do, that the God of Abraham has the same empirical status as Poseidon and that the books attesting to His existence bear every sign of having been cobbled together by ignorant mortals. This is all one needs to judge Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to be incorrigible cults peddling ancient mythology.

Its true, one god has the same empirical status as another – all of them – and it doesn’t take much to see that. Which does lead one to wonder why so many can’t.

In fact, atheism (old and new) is entirely comfortable with the sentiment, famously expressed by the geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, that “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

Anybody who has spent any amount of time looking into quantum mechanics or particle physics can tell you that the universe really is so strange it’s hard if not impossible to imagine. So strange that nobody could have imagined just how strange. And we keep finding even stranger things every day. God, just isn’t one of those things.

About the three Abrahamic religions he says:

Worse still, each rests on the premise that its holy book contains the transcribed thoughts of an omniscient Deity. A glance at the books reveals this claim to be manifestly insane, as each is barren of scientific insights and bursting with logical, factual, and moral errors

Indeed.

Now go read “Whither Eagleman” on Sam’s blog. (I do wish he would allow comments).

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Amorphophallus titanum by any other name…

Filed under: Atheism, Comment — 2 Comments
August 23, 2011
Faith by any other name...

Faith by any other name...

PZ Myers just wrote a post decrying the use of the label “interfaith” to describe the cooperation between the religious and atheists and he refuses to operate under such a label because of the ‘faith’ part of the word.

I’m with him 100%. Faith is a dirty word, it goes against everything that atheism is; it eschews empirical evidence. It is obedience without question. I am not willing to operate under that label even, or especially, when cooperating with the religious for the greater human good.

Dressing up anything with the word ‘faith’ attached to it is a bit like decorating something with Amorphophallus titanum – it may seem more interesting, perhaps prettier but in reality is smells like a decomposing corpse.

Perhaps “inter-ideological cooperation” is a better way to describe it. I would be more comfortable with it myself, if put that way.

Just a thought.

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The “We Are Atheism” campaign has been launched!

Filed under: Atheism, Fanboy — 2 Comments
August 20, 2011
We Are Atheism

We Are Atheism: Stand up and be counted!

The “We Are Atheism” campaign is a platform that enables atheists to be heard, to stand up and be counted. The campaign is to show atheists around the world that we are not alone, we are many, we are proud of it and we won’t be ignored.

The campaign website is here: http://www.weareatheism.com/

Atheists everywhere acknowledging that they are atheists makes it easier for those who haven’t been able to publicly acknowledge who they are to do so.

The only things we have in common is our lack of belief in god and our humanity. Well, perhaps those aren’t the only things, after all, a preference for reason, logic and truth are traits you’ll find in most atheists. At the very least though, that we see no credible evidence for any deity existing what so ever, is something we do share.

I haven’t uploaded a video but even though video is really not  my thing, I think I might do so.

A host of popular atheist speakers, like Hemant Mehta, Greta Christina and Jen McCreight  already support the campaign and tell their stories about their atheism and how it changed their lives for the better. And then there is Chris Redford (YouTube’s Evid3nc3, I think I might be his biggest fan) who’s video’s on his de-conversion and thought process are mind blowingly awesome and provide clear, logical progression from very Christian to atheist.

It’s ok to be an atheist

The “We Are Atheism” campaign will:

  • Provide an outlet for atheists to feel comfortable to come out o the closet.
  • Always let visitors know there are other people out there that are non-believers.
  • Help people find other atheists like them in their state, city, and even neighborhood.
  • Give access to local, national, and international organization to become involved in the secular community.
  • Empower people to start their own organization in areas that does not already have one.

You can read more about how the campaign came about here: http://www.weareatheism.com/about/

Always be awesome.

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Video: Christian to atheist

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August 6, 2011

Just watched an awesome video by johnsharhynes where he describes why he is an atheist (or more to the point, why he went from Christian to atheist). It’s a straight and candid video and I think it’s freaking awesome.

What he says is so simple, so easy to see and so many people ignore it and force what they read to fit what they want to believe. It’s tragic really.

Anyway, here it is. Watch it. Now.

See the rest of his video’s at his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/johnsharhynes

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Link: How Atheism Can Make the World Better…

Filed under: Atheism — Leave a comment
July 6, 2011
Atheism: Because reality IS awesome.

Atheism: Because reality IS awesome.

I just came across this post on AlterNet which I thought was absolutely brilliant:

How Atheism Can Make the World Better By Tearing Down Religious Irrationality by Amanda Marcotte

It’s definitely worth reading but this passage stood out:

Humanism has given birth to progressivism by opening up space to question some of the oldest prejudices: the belief that men are better than women, that gays are “unnatural,” that different skin colors or ethnicities automatically means different roles and mental abilities, that people are wealthier because they’re more deserving, that kings rule by divine right. When you start asking hard questions of these other beliefs, you often discover that the rationale for all of them tends to circle back toward “God said so.”

God said many terrible things that the religious tend to ignore; He makes discrimination and subjugation easy… in fact he used to command it.

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