By Psiemens Growing up Baptist in the 60’s and 70’s, the name of the woman who helped “kick God out of the public schools” was infamous. Although this Supreme Court ruling was decided in 1963, a year and a half after I was born, as a Christian teenager I knew Madalyn Murray O’Hair to be an evil, hateful woman, and an enemy of all that was righteous and moral. Unfortunately, her name was the first I ever linked with the word “atheist”. Most movements have characters of whom they’d rather not claim. Christianity itself has hordes that have bruised and tarnished the cause of Christ. Aside from the different characters involved in the various crusades of long ago, who can forget the more recent embarrassments caused by televangelist Jim Baker, numerous Catholic priests (not to mention their perverted Protestant counterparts), and most recently the reverent Ted Haggard. Most Christians I know feel disappointment in such men but seem to easily forgive and forget, ready to defend them i...

A two-part video of a debate featuring Michael Shermer and Dinesh D’Souza which was held on Monday, October 15, 7 PM, by the Oregon State University Socratic Club. Dinesh D’Souza is the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Investor’s Business Daily called him one of the “top young public-policy makers in the country,” and the New York Times Magazine named him one of America’s most influential conservative thinkers. Before joining the Hoover Institution, Mr. D’Souza was the John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In 1987-88 he served as senior policy analyst at the Reagan White House. From 1985 to 1987 he was managing editor of Policy Review. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983. His books include the New York Times bestseller What’s So Great About America. His 1991 book Illiberal Education was the first study to publicize the phenomenon of political correctness. His latest book, What's So Great...

A Declaration of Intellectual Independence by Joseph Lewis -- 1954 Many ask what difference does it make whether man believes in a God or not. It makes a big difference. It makes all the difference in the world. It is the difference between being right and being wrong; it is the difference between truth and surmises -- facts or delusion. It is the difference between the earth being flat, and the earth being round. It is the difference between the earth being the center of the universe, or a tiny speck in this vast and uncharted sea of multitudinous suns and galaxies. It is the difference in the proper concept of life, or conclusions based upon illusion. It is the difference between verified knowledge and the faith of religion. It is a question of Progress or the Dark Ages. The history of man proves that religion perverts man's concept of life and the universe, and has made him a cringing coward before the blind forces of nature. If you believe that there is a God; that man was ...

Sent in by exfundie I just watched the Michael Moore film, " Sicko ." Let me tell you, I laughed, I cried, and I pondered many things. Mostly however, I cried. Especially through the whole part where Moore took the group of sick 9-11 rescue workers to Cuba. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the movie for yourself. Anyway, this segment not only enraged me, but broke my heart too. Mostly because it reminded me of my biggest regret to this day... being such a sheep to the establishment of Christianity. I was so brainwashed and closed-minded to things. I mean I voted for George W. Bush both times! I held him up as such a godly pursuer of right, and of truth, and of all things good. I felt like any attack on him must be either untrue or completely founded upon a misrepresentation of information. I wouldn't hear it! Some may not see the connection between the two, but I feel they are one in the same. Every occurrence in our recent history w...

By Psy-Cop Since announcing my departure from Christianity, I have been barraged with some well meaning friends and family. There have been some not so well meaning but they have cut me off for being a traitor. I am confronted with questions about my faith and what happened to it. Here are my thoughts on faith. The question of faith has come up repeatedly in my conversations with Christians. Most conversations start fairly civilly with we both are using good evidence and reasons for our beliefs. When things start getting rocky for believers or they run out of arguments, they have an easy out, “you just need to have faith.” As Romans 1:17 says, “The righteous will live by faith.” What is faith? The biblical definition given in Hebrews 11:1 says that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Dictionary.com gives the definition of faith as “belief that is not based on proof.” To put it simply, I do not have faith in anything. None. Zip, Zero and Nada. ...

I think we should tell kids the truth about God and Jesus at a very young age, but let them believe in Santa a little longer. He's a much better role model for kids! He's never smited anyone, killed any babies, wiped out every living thing on the planet, ordered people stoned to death, or any of that nonsense. He doesn't want to be worshiped, doesn't demand animal or human sacrifice, doesn't care if we're circumcised, and as far as I know he's never sent a single soul to Hell. Let's put Santa back in xmas! Happy Holidays!

By Nick @ www.onlymomentsbook.com Most religions are exclusionary and therefore prejudicial to each other. One would do well to research and go back to the dawn of real civilization and the far Eastern religions that Jesus learned and used in the attempt at the reformation of Judaism. St. Paul borrowed from the pagan religion of Mithras to forge and recreate Judaism into a cult of “The Christ” from the Greek term Christos and Jesus of Nazareth became Jesus Christ. The cult of Mithras predates St. Paul by a least a thousand years. The Roman army first encountered the cult of Mithras in Persia (now Iran) during the reign of the emperor Nero, its origins in India have been traced back to 1400 BC. There were over 17 different religious cults that spawned from this movement that began by this reformation and the Pauline Christians eventually became the most accepted. Paul broke away from the original teachings of Judaism by allowing dietary laws and circumcision (an integral part of ...

Today’s comic was inspired by The 9 Most Badass Bible Verses on Cracked.com. Check it out, it's hilarious! Anyway, Badass verse #8 refers to 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 23-24; the story of Elisha and the bears. 2 Kings 2:23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 2 Kings 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. I wonder why they don’t teach this story in Sunday school…

Parts of our modern Christmas celebrations have roots in Pagan Roman festivals. James Williams, correspondent with the Discover Channel , unwraps a few of the details.

The Pagan origins of Christianity.

Christopher Hitchens is widely-published polemicist and frequent radio and TV commentator and contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School . In the tradition of Bertrand Russell 's "Why I Am Not a Christian" and Sam Harris 's recent bestseller, "The End of Faith," Hitchens makes a case against religion in "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." With a close reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which he believes religion is a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos, and frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason. Presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life and University Book Store in Seattle.

By Sharon “You got to walk while you can walk!” an elderly man walking with a cane said to me, “because when you can’t walk, you won’t be able to walk.” I thought to myself, “How true.” We have to utilize our bodies, when they break down we have to tend to them to they’ll work again, and we have to use them again when our abilities are restored. “Walk while you can walk.” That statement rang so true with me because as late in life Ex-Christian I am finally learning the wisdom of living within my own body. The wisdom of knowing that my body is the essence of me, not just an appendage of myself, as Christianity mistaught me. Believing that my body was just an extension of myself, made acceptance of reality of health problems extremely difficult whenever things went wrong with my body. And my internalization of the new truth about my body being such a process makes acceptance of the reality of health problems difficult still. As an example, I’m an athlete at heart, and I keep run...

It amazes me that so many otherwise intelligent people, who use reason in every other aspect of their lives, can believe the Christian dogma . People who would never believe anything even remotely as far-fetched, somehow believe. People who question the things they hear, see, and read everyday—and require concrete proof before making a judgment or decision—still somehow believe. How can this be? Technorati Tags: humor Atheist Bible Christianity Comics humor

By Steven What a drag. The "Hell o'days" are here and the baby Jesus (cast in authentic Chinese designer resin!) is on sale NOW at Rite Aid! Even before the post Halloween 50% off candy sale (IMPORTANT!!) was over...last years left over Xmas crap was dusted off and dragged out of the back room by miserable employees and diligently scattered around the drug store. Overhead (by authority of The President) the torture is piped in...silent nite, away in a mangy, holly jolly Xmas...I would rather be water boarded than to hear F@%$!!#@ Jingle Bells one more time. Years ago my pastor shocked the congregation with this statement from the pulpit... "I see bumper stickers everywhere that read "Keep Christ in Christmas" I say leave him out of it!...Christmas is hopelessly compromised and we'd do better just to celebrate with a wonderful Winter Feast and think about the baby Jesus some other time" Needless to the old ladies were shocked. I agr...

Reposted from the Freethought Café by J.C. Samuelson Scanning the Internet for news and views on a variety of topics, and for how they relate to secularism, I frequently find myself shaking my head at the smörgåsbord of absurdity issuing from the keyboards of religionists. Both the ignorant and the educated get in on the act, the latter merely couching their vituperation in more sophisticated language. During the holiday season especially, their frequency and variety seems to increase. There are so many, in fact, I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony - it's hard to know where to begin. Today, I'll be focusing on just one ridiculous idea - that non-theists literally have nothing to be thankful to. This particular chestnut makes the rounds every year around Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday with no basis in religious dogma or scripture, but with a culturally religious origin. Many theists profess to believe, of course, that gratitude and appreciation are contingent u...

A little blast from the Daily Show's past. The Daily Show (currently The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ) is a Peabody and Emmy Award -winning American satirical television program produced by and airing on Comedy Central . The half-hour long show premiered on Monday, July 22 , 1996 , and was hosted by Craig Kilborn , who acted as its anchorman . In 1998, Kilborn left the show and was replaced by Jon Stewart in early 1999. -- Wikipedia Great Moments in the Evolution Debate - The Scopes Monkey Trial (0:58) Clarence Darrow asks William Jennings Bryan if he's ever spent time with men of learning at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Evolution's Evolution (2:58) On the final night of The Daily Show's special evolution week, Jon examines human attempts to intelligently design nature. Evolution Schmevolution - A Heritage Tour (4:16) In the first stop on his "Evolutionary War" tour, Ed Helms visits Dayton, TN, site...