By Tyrone Williams I love comedians and I love parody songs. I love them because with biting sarcasm and cunning insight they are capable of exposing the ugly truth of things even the most stubborn person can’t ignore nor deny. And they're just plain funny! Take for example one of my all-time favorite comedic instigators, Ray Stevens. Long before Weird Al Yankovic came along, Ray Stevens pioneered the field of comedy songs with such classics as “The Streak”, “Ahab, the Arab”, “It’s Me Again, Margaret” and “Would Jesus Wear a Rolex™?” It’s the latter song to which I call your attention. It begins like this: “Woke up this morning, turned on my TV set There in living color, was something I can’t forget This man was preaching at me, laying on the charm Asking me for twenty, with ten thousand on his arm “He wore designer clothing, and a big smile on his face Selling me salvation, while they sang Amazing Grace Asking me for money, when he had all the signs of wealth Almost wrote a check ...

by Tyrone D. Williams Without question my favorite movie of all time is The Wizard of Oz . From the black and white beginning in Kansas, to the colorful world of Oz. From the mundane antics of the farm hands and the natural threat of Miss Elmira Gulch, to the comic buffoonery of Dorothy’s new friends and the supernatural threat of the Wicked Witch of the West, I find The Wizard of Oz a marvelous tale of timeless delight for both young and old. I never get tired of watching that flick. To me, The Wizard of Oz is the Greatest Story Ever Told. “There’s no place like home” dammit. I especially love the ending, when Toto unceremoniously yanks back the curtain to reveal the scam of the carnival huckster. Apparently Toto was fed up with all the whining and cowering of his companions, so he blew the whistle on the deal. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!,” the big-headed apparition bellows, but it is much too late. Dorothy and friends have already seen too much. The “Wiz...

Burke lecture: UC San Diego

By John W. Loftus People in Biblical times defended God against the problem of evil by blaming themselves and their own sins for the natural disasters that God sent on them. They believed God controls all natural happenings (Ex. 12:23,29,30; 32:35; Num. 11:33; 16:46-50; 25:18; 2 Sam. 24:15-16). Why don’t very many Christians today use this same response to exonerate God for natural disasters? In ancient times, disasters were usually explained in only one way: God was upset with people because of their sins. And that’s the explanation we find most often in the Bible, although there are a few notable exceptions (Job; Luke 13; John 9). But even here we see a God who could do anything with the world of nature that he wanted to do without regard for the ordered world and laws of nature. In Job for instance, we see the Biblical answer for the problem of evil in the first two chapters. The answer was that God is testing us with disasters and he allows Satan to do us harm so that he migh...

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. 8:31 It is well-known that the spread of religious ideas has often been facilitated by the threat of force. Economic, social, political, or physical force (violence) has been exercised by and upon nearly every religion in history. In the name of God, our ancestors exterminated entire communities and even cultures, using scripture and traditional doctrine as justification. To be fair, the forceful propagation of religion carried with it certain economic, strategic, or political incentives. The church has classically endorsed or encouraged actions that strengthen its position in the world. The same could be said of certain political ideologies (Communism or Socialism, for example) that hold secular philosophy in high regard. However, it is not these additional considerations that concern me. What concerns me is that each of the three largest religions today have scripture that not only permits this, but encourages it. It is truly ...

This is a two minute trailer for a new documentary that paints a vivid image of the evangelical subculture in middle America. From a mother home-schooling her son on the lunacy of evolution to kids at camp praying fervently for a cardboard cutout of George W Bush, the agressive beliefs, mixed with politics, is scary. The children are drilled on the evils of homosexuality, told that prayer in school is necessary for effective teaching, and made to believe that America is responsible for the deaths of fifty million innocent children since 1973. The childrens' families even travel to Washington to protest in front of the Supreme Court building. Also see this clip at Variety.Com . This film is scheduled for release on September 15, 2006. Click here for showtimes and locations. More clips and information available at http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/

This is part one in a three-part series that was broadcast on the BBC in the fall of 2005. For more information, click here .

Tom had lost his faith. He felt a mild sense of euphoria at having rediscovered the freedom to think, to act, without fear of divine retribution and condemnation. He also felt apprehension that when he died, nothing would follow. There would be no heaven, no hell, no resurrection, no rapture — no life beyond the grave. When Tom breathed his last, he would be no more. At 25, when he’d first abandoned belief in God, death didn’t bother him. Lately, however, episodes of depression troubled him. His parents had died, first his father to a heart attack, and then his mother to an agonizing battle with breast cancer. A few years later he lost a good friend to a tragic automobile accident. Knowing he would never see any of them again, a sinking sense of hopelessness seeped into his psyche. He understood the illogical nature of belief, especially belief in Christianity’s god, a god of “love” that threatened to roast all unbelievers in a torturous chamber of unimaginable horror throughout a...

By an anonymous agnostic Baptist minister From Infidels.Org Two concepts few would ever find themselves combining into one are “Baptist minister” and “agnostic” – unless of course one is describing a debate of some kind. Keep them separate and they make sense, bring them together into one person and the dissonance begins. And yet, an agnostic Baptist minister is exactly what I am. How I came to this place from fundamentalist Christianity is a story in itself better told another time, and where my beliefs might end up is yet to be seen. Nevertheless, this is what I am today. I have been impressed with and an avid reader of articles on the Secular Web for about two years now. In fact, I suppose one could say that the Secular Web has played a significant role in my move from an advocate and employer of conservative Christian apologetics to a place of general theistic agnosticism. The Internet Infidels helped jam my own theistic memes, not by jamming anything down my throat, but by providi...

Saying Goodbye By Ian *** A few years ago, I was reading a strategy guide for the video game Dino Crisis and came across a quote near the back of the book. In the section of the game, the main character is fleeing a tyrannosaurs rex and has to fire grenades into it's face to slow it down. At the end of the section, the book says "After three or four grenades to the face, he'll (the T-rex) come to understand that some partings are inevitable, that even fleeting friendships help you grow as an individual, and that Regina's (the protagonist) haste to leave Ibis island is in no way a rejection of him personally." That book was one of the funniest things I've ever read, and at the time I did not give much thought to that particular paragraph. But now, years later, I can see how truthful the general statement of that is: That sometimes partings between individuals are inevitable and that friendships, no matter how fleeting, help you grow. Why do I bring this up?...

Secular Humanism versus Christianity, Lawyer versus Theologian. Evangelical Christian apologist William Lane Craig debates humanist atheist lawyer Eddie Tabash at Pepperdine University, February 8, 1999.

By Ian Recently, a Billy Graham tract arrived in my mailbox called "Joy in tribulation". Looking through it, I chuckled at some of what it said. While I may not personally agree with Mr. Graham's approach to spirituality, I must admit that he is dedicated to his views and his ideas. But then again, so am I. With that in mind, I decided to…ahem…adapt and rewrite his own brochure into something new, in the vein of my own views. Here is the end result. *** Learn how to get through suffering knowing that it can help you: *Focus all your energies on improving your situation *Think "How can getting through this improve me as an individual?" *Know that by being exposed to life, you are become a more mature, well-rounded individual. Many people today are suffering as a result of natural catastrophes such as tidal waves, hurricanes, earthquakes, famines, etc. This has been happening since when humanity first appeared on the face of this planet. Religious fundament...

By John W. Loftus Because of the sick mind of one lone Christian I no longer comment on any other blog but my own at www.debunkingchristianity.com . If you see a comment purportedly from me dated later than 1 PM August 16th 2006 (EST), I did not write it. I repeat, I did not write it. Someone is sending emails to people with mine and Daniel Morgan's return email addresses on them. Ed Babinski pointed it out to me because he received something that had the official look of coming from me, but it didn't come from me. Then on a different blog someone commented using my name who made statements to the effect that I was a homosexual pedophile, and by clicking on my name it takes a person to my blogger profile. I was alarmed at this and immediately denied that such a comment came from me, but my comment was deleted , leaving the other comment falsely attributed to me to stand. I'm very surprised that I threaten someone so much that this is justifiable in the name of his God. And ...