sent in by Daniel As a Christian, I used to think that God defined what was good -- or at least that if he declared something good, then it must be good, or analogously, if he declared something bad, then it was bad. Hence by definitional fiat he could both be perfectly good, and at the same time do things like punishing people in hell which one might otherwise think of terribly cruel and evil. More recently I have questioned that way of seeing God and found it lacking. The following is a short article I wrote on the question. I'm interested in people's thoughts. Is God Good? Introduction Christians frequently proclaim the goodness of God. But what exactly do we mean when we say God is good? We have a general idea of what it means for a person to be good, but do the same or different criteria apply to God? Once we can determine what it means for God to be good, then does he satisfy the criteria? One answer is to ignore the evidence and claim dogmatically that God must satis...

For centuries there have been claims that the world was going to end. I was in a church that firmly believed that Y2K would signal the end of life as we knew it. In this episode of Bullshit , Penn and Teller will take a look into these claims and predictions. Thank you Penn & Teller

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film review by Charles G. Lambdin Intelligent design (ID) is a dressing up of the old “argument from design,” with technical jargon added to lend a thin veneer of scientific credibility. ID advocates’ opportunistic tactics, which have more in common with politicians than scientists, have been described as the “wedge” strategy — an attempt to gain academic acceptance by maintaining a presence in academic and scientific venues. A prime example of this is the film The Privileged Planet , a contemporary classic of pseudoscience. The film was produced by the Discovery Institute, a conservative think-tank whose expressed goal is the promotion of Intelligent Design. The film gained a degree of notoriety when the Discovery Institute boasted that The Privileged Planet was screening at none other than the Smithsonian Institute itself, with the implied endorsement of that august body. In fact, the Discovery Institute donated $16,000 to the Smithsonian, which by policy allowed the Discovery Instit...

A video lesson by Reginald Finley: For the comprehensive text version of this topic, click here .

by Salvatore This past Christmas Eve (2005) I was awaiting the arrival of a friend for a lunch date. He was running about thirty minutes late so I sat in my car listening to some talk radio (as I am wont to do). I switched over to an AM station and caught Paul Harvey ("The Rest of the Story") launching into a Christmas tale. (The following is my own paraphrased rendition.) As the story goes, there was a family all preparing to go to church at midnight on Christmas Eve. The father, an unbeliever, was reluctant to accompany but promised to stay up until their return. So the family set off to their service leaving the faithless father behind. As the night drew on, the snow started coming down pretty hard. After some time, he began to hear a thumping commotion on the front porch; something akin to snow balls being lobbed against the door. In curiosity, he opened the front door and noticed a small assemblage of birds that had sought refuge from the snowy tempest. Feeling compassio...

Two mothers with very different beliefs traded lives, leading to a dramatic homecoming, on the two-part season premiere of TRADING SPOUSES: MEET YOUR NEW MOMMY which began Wednesday, Nov. 2 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Christian Fundamentalist Marguerite Perrin of Ponchatoula, LA, and Pagan Jeanne D’amico-Flisher of Boxborough, MA, traded places to try out the ultimate life change – leaving their families to take over a clan from another walk of life. As they met each other’s families and instilled their own set of rules, chaos ensued. Then, during the dramatic conclusion which aired Wednesday, Nov. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), viewers found out how each mom distributed the other family’s $50,000 prize and what caused one mom’s major meltdown after she returned home to her family. If you missed the misadventure, here is the exciting conclusion: Trading Spouses - Margaret freaking out Thanks to madamehel for finding and sending this in.

by Wayne Adkins The United States military has gone to great lengths to accommodate soldiers from a variety of religious backgrounds. They provide dietary alternatives, a variety of chaplains and printed materials from every major religion. They have gone as far as accommodating Wiccan rituals and allowing open Satan worship on military bases and ships. But there is one group of soldiers that the military has turned its back on. Atheists are still openly disparaged by chaplains in today’s military. Chaplains continue to perpetuate the myth that there are no atheists in foxholes despite the fact that atheists are serving honorably right now in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The military’s response has been to simply ignore it. Some chaplains, like Captain Scott McCammon and Major Eric Albertson, have gone as far as saying that atheists are less qualified as soldiers than their religious counterparts. McCammon said in an interview "You can know how to dig a foxhole, but unless y...

A short skit by Rowan Atkinson illustrating Christian gullibility. Launch in external player

CHRISTMAS TIME IS PAGAN! (sung to Gloria in Excelsius Deo or Angels We Have Heard on High ) (Long intro) Christmas time is here again, Decorations everywhere. Christmas carols ringing out, We're ex-Christian, we don't care. (Short interlude) Modern folks all celebrate What they learned in Sunday School. In December, they don't know They are celebrating Yule! CHORUS: Glo - o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - it's - hil - a - rious! Christ - mas time is pa - gan! Glo - o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - it's - hil - a - rious! Christ - mas time is pa - gan! (Short interlude) Let them have their Christmas trees, Decked in red and green and blue. We rejoice to see the sight! Christmas trees are pagan , too. CHORUS: Glo - o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - it's - hil - a - rious! Christ - mas time is pa - gan! Glo - o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - ho - ho... o - ho - ho - ...

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Beyond Belief Media declares war on Christmas Last week Beyond Belief Media issued a press release declaring war on Christmas . Here are the first four paragraphs of this historic document: Beyond Belief Media has formally declared war on Christmas, the December 25 holiday in which Christians celebrate the birth of the mythical figure Jesus Christ, the company announced today. "Christian conservatives complain nonstop about the 'War on Christmas,' but there really isn't any such war," said Beyond Belief Media president Brian Flemming, a former fundamentalist Christian who is now an atheist activist. "So we have decided to wage one, to demonstrate what it would look like if Jesus' birthday were truly attacked." As its opening salvo, Beyond Belief Media has purchased advertisements this week in the New York Times, USA Today and the New Yorker magazine. The company's 300-member volunteer "street team" is also descending on Christmas-themed...

John Maynard Smith, who died in 2004 at the age of 84, was one of the major figures in 20th century evolutionary biology. He was professor emeritus at the University of Sussex . Robert Wright interviews John Maynard Smith: Books by John Maynard Smith: Evolution And The Theory Of Games The Major Transitions In Evolution The Theory Of Evolution Books by Robert Wright: Nonzero |  The Moral Animal Check out more interviews at Meaningoflife.Tv

Choose a screen name, click the log-in button, and you're chatting. This A/Video Chat application created by Userplane Webchat enables users to connect through webcams, microphones and phone conference, as well as text. However, as this sort of service is expensive, it is supported by annoying advertisements. Screen names can be registered by clicking on the "sign-up" link. Those who take a minute to register will find they have a several advantages over guests. Give it a try, it's fun.

Molecular biologist Dr. Zachary Moore studies the effects of DNA, RNA and proteins on human disease. He is a former Christian, a moderator on this site, and recently began participating in a series of talks for The Infidel Guy website entitled "Evolution 101". In this first talk Dr. Moore talks about evolution, alleles, information theory, phenotypes, retroviruses, eugenics, mutations and more! Special thanks are extended to Infidel Guy , Reginald Finley, for allowing us to offer this interview here. Click the play arrow to listen. Forum subscribers can download the file to their hard drive here . Dualbase :: Montreal webdesign :: the home of FLAM player Flam Player :: Macromedia Flash mp3 player :: the home of FLAM player flashVars="fp_root_url=http://www.exchristian.net/FlamPlayer/&ovr_color=0x949DB0&ovr_langage=en&ovr_playlist=zach&ovr_author=all&ovr_order=date_music&ovr_order_direction=DESC&ovr_autoplay=0...

1. Select either the pdf or the html format. (pdf will look better, but take longer to load. You also need Acrobat Reader to open PDF files. Acrobat Reader is free and can be downloaded here ) 2. Click on the Side 1 Button of your chosen format. 3. Print out the resulting page. 4. Take the printed paper out, flip it over, and stick it back into your paper feed, top end in first. 5. Press "Back" to return here, press the Side 2 button and print to get the others side. 6. Cut out and fold along the blue lines. 7. Place in wallet, and enter argument Side 1 in .pdf Side 2 in .pdf Side 1 in .html Side 2 in .html