by Tyrone Williams (Available as a ) Christians often complain that if we unbelievers don’t believe in god, then we should be quiet about it. “Why argue against god so much, if you don’t believe in him?,” they’ll quip. They are suggesting that maybe, on some Freudian level, we really DO believe, and that is why we debate and argue. (I’ll deal with this bit of sophistry later.) Not only is this absolute nonsense, but I can prove that the exact opposite is true. And that opposite truth is that Christians are afraid to shut up about god precisely because they DON’T believe in him and they must constantly reinforce their beliefs lest they become atheists. Think about it. Why do Christians read their bibles daily or weekly? Don’t they already know what it says? (Probably not.) Why do they obediently swarm to church services each week, sometimes three times a week, to hear the Word of God as preached by some stranger? Again, don’t they already know what His Word says? Why must Christians ...

By Nvrgoingbk I searched among the Mayan ruins. I traveled there alone. I hoped to find it among the ghosts Of worshippers now gone, And when I came up wanting I journeyed to a different shore. I hoped to find it in a grand old mosque And within the Muslim lore. It was not there, and so I hurried To a land not far away. Now it was the Jewish Sabbath, So I bowed my head to pray. I left the temple wondering Just where the truth could be. I traveled by air, by foot, by bus… I sailed an endless sea. I read the Bagahvad Gita, The Annalects divine I learned the proper chanting… Showed my respects at the Buddhist shrine. Still, I wandered aimlessly, Not finding what I sought. I studied the philosophers And the highest of human thought. I gave my heart to Jesus I made him Savior and Lord. I was born again, spoke in tongues, But on Sundays I was bored. I tried my hand at the Ouija Board I summoned the spirits of old I stopped in to see my psychic, my shrink… Wherever the truth was sold. I smoke...

NOTE FROM LENNY FLANK of Creation "Science" Debunked : The Wedge Document is an internal memorandum from the Discovery Institute (the leading proponent of Intelligent Designer "Theory") that was leaked to the Internet in 1999. The Discovery Institute later admitted to its authenticity. Since then, Discovery Institute hasn't talked very much about the document, or the strategy it outlines. The reason is crushingly obvious, since the Wedge Document makes it readily apparent that the Discovery Institute is flat-out lying to us when it claims that its Intelligent Designer campaign is concerned only with science and does not have any religious aims, purpose or effect. The Wedge Document is reproduced here, in full. CENTER FOR THE RENEWAL OF SCIENCE & CULTURE INTRODUCTION The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, o...

By Lorena I spent the first 22 years of my life believing in the God of the Old Testament and the next 18 years believing that I had been wrong for 22 because I hadn’t accepted the Grace of God introduced by Jesus. So basically, for 40 years, I believed that God was watching me, recording my thoughts, and following me around. How creepy! At the beginning of the second phase of my life — when I accepted Jesus — I believed, by faith, that God was omnipresent. I had questions about omnipresence, but no real answers. “Who cares how he does it,” I'd have to tell myself, “He’s God; he can do anything He wants.” I was a computer science student at the time, and when I graduated, I became a programmer. At that time mainframes were "in," as compared to today, when personal computers are popular. After a couple of years of life in Christianity, the idea of omnipresence still puzzled me. I started thinking that God couldn’t possibly be literally everywhere. He was probably more lik...

by Robert Jensen This past year, after decades of steadfastly avoiding churches of all kinds, I returned to church. Ironically, and completely by coincidence, I returned to a Presbyterian church, the denomination in which I was raised and to which I swore -- in both senses of the term -- I would never return. But return I have, prodigally perhaps, depending on one’s position on various doctrinal issues, which we will get to tonight in due time. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but my early experience with church had been life-threatening: I was bored, nearly to death. For me, growing up in a middle-of-the-road Protestant church in the Midwest, religion seemed a bland and banal approach to life -- literature, politics, and philosophy seemed far more fruitful paths to explore. As I have confessed to my pastor, in my entire life I have cheated on only one test -- the exam to pass confirmation class so I could fulfill that requirement imposed by my parents and be done with the whole ent...

Otherwise rational people who look to ancient manuscripts for moral instruction inevitably do so within the framework of modern ethics. Modern ethical norms grease the wheels for the student of ancient morality, allowing the acceptance of certain doctrines that seem timeless while rejecting others that seem barbaric. Generally speaking, this is a perfectly reasonable approach to the study of ancient moral philosophy. Unfortunately, such an approach becomes unreasonable once an ancient manuscript is believed to be the product of divine authorship, applicable to all people in all ages. As we will see, it is this belief in divine authorship and universal applicability that undermines the position of religious moderates. Among the most popular belief systems, it is usually taught that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and infallible. Perfect in the administration of justice and the source of morality, God does not make mistakes or lie. These characteristics of God are just...

...in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not soon depart from it. — Solomon

by John W. Loftus As many of you know I've been preparing for my public debate with David Wood of "answeringinfidels.com" on the problem of evil, so I'm not posting much until afterwards. The question is this: "Does the extent of suffering in our world make the existence of God implausible?" The debate is not far away. It takes place on Saturday October 7th at 7 PM, in Norfolk VA, at the Old Dominion University, BAL 104. If you're in the area and can make it please do. The transcript (and video) will be available afterward with comments by Victor Reppert and probably Paul Copan on his side, and Andrea Weisberger and Richard Carrier on my side (plans still in progress). I don't know of a major public debate that focused specifically on this problem by able defenders of each side for more than a decade (but I could be wrong). It may turn into a book too. A big thanks goes out to those who've made helpful comments on a draft of my opening stat...

You'll never be able to hear this song the same way again. Religion and relationships is next. And this is Sarah Silverman .

An ex-Christian writes a letter to his Christian mom.

Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American evangelist and prominent "Young Earth" creationist who is currently offering US$250,000 to anyone who can prove evolution "is the only possible way" that the universe and life arose, although his numerous critics consider the challenge to be spurious because evolutionary theory has nothing to say about how the universe came about or how life began. The self-styled "Dr. Dino" (whose Ph.D, from an unaccredited university, is in Christian education) established the Creation Science Evangelism Ministry in 1989. Hovind now speaks frequently in schools, churches, university debates and on radio and television broadcasts, and is the subject of controversy and public scrutiny. He is currently charged with 58 federal crimes, including separate counts of making threats against federal officials, filing false complaints and tax evasion. This video is a critical analysis of the first of Kent Hovind's lectur...

Colbert interviews science educator Ken Miller regarding the "debate" (or lack thereof) between evolution and the junk science know as "Intelligent Design."

by Tyrone Williams (aka Checkmate) The Bible is a book of vile trash. From cover to cover, Old Testament and New, from the mouths of Moses, Jesus or Paul, the “word of God” is an “inspired” mish-mash of instructions and commandments that promote MURDER, GENOCIDE, RAPE, ABORTION, INFANTICIDE, SLAVERY, HATRED, MISOGYNY, MANIFEST DESTINY, CONQUEST, INTOLERANCE, RACISM, BIGOTRY, CLASSISM, IGNORANCE, GULLIBILITY, SELF-MUTILATION, THE BELIEF IN MAGIC and just about every IMMORAL and HEINOUS DEPRAVITY a sick mind can imagine. And there is not one HONEST person, who has read the Bible, who can deny this fact. However, I am being told by the Liberal Christian (Liberal, in this case, meaning any Christian who ISN’T a Fundamentalist.) that I need to ignore all these “bad” things, and simply focus on the “good”. Yes, the Liberal agrees, the Bible is guilty of having a few “blemishes,” but why not simply throw out these “aberrations” and focus instead on the “good moral teachings/lessons” we can le...

This post is excerpted from The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth. ( www.lulu.com/content/220355 .) There is nothing respecting which a man may be so long unconscious of as the extent and strength of his prejudices. —Francis Jeffrey1 Several of the writers of the Bible didn't care much for females. More than one thought homosexuals were vile. Some considered foreigners to be slightly less human than God’s Chosen People. If the Bible is the record of imperfect humans, each limited by his own historical and cultural context, struggling to comprehend the divine, then we can approach its contents as those who carry forward this legacy. We can marvel at what our forebears achieved in their attempts to see Goodness "through a glass, darkly”2 and to model their societies and their individual lives on what they saw. We can look with humility on their failings, knowing that, if we are willing, they can teach us about our own. If, on the other hand, the Bible i...