By Astreja Trying to get something of value out of religion is kind of like trying to open a locked box. At the beginning of our experience, we are informed that the box contains something of inexpressible value, something that exists only in the box, something that we can't buy or borrow or build. And then we see... the lock. A combination lock forged from dogma, tradition and our own expectations. Before we can open that magic treasure chest, we have to crack the code. Some combinations appear to be fairly simple, but the gears stiff and heavy... The actual day-to-day practice of the creed proves too arduous, and we walk away. At other times, the lock has so many parameters that we can twirl the dial for a lifetime without actually getting anywhere. Once in the while we do hear something go 'click', which reinforces the desire to keep trying. But, once in a while -- Sometimes totally by accident -- the lock just opens by itself. Some people find peace, love, a sense of ...

By AL Hello. I’m Al. I’m an atheist, I actively believe that supernatural gods don’t exist. In my previous video, “What Science Isn’t”, I detailed the case that the intelligent design movement had motivations that were far more political than scientific. Creationism never had the anywhere near the level of objective evidence that evolution provided, but creationism still sees popular support in the United States. Although I’d like to go into the overwhelming evidence that evolution has, in this video I’ll detail my thoughts on why anti-evolutionism is so prevelant in America. This video doesn’t touch on atheism as much as my previous videos, but I think everyone, atheists included, has a stake in seeing that our education system stays true to scientific principles. Also, because this video is centered on religion in America, I’ll mostly be talking about Christianity instead of theism in general. I think I have some good insights into why science comes under assault when it deals with...

By Dave, the WM A look around at the tremendous variety, beauty, power, and complexity in nature can evoke admiration, awe, and wonder from even the most hardened cynic. Modern Christians often appeal to these emotions to argue the existence of a creator deity. Many Christians consider the arguments from nature to be powerful and convincing evangelistic, apologetic tools. The concept of nature somehow proving the existence of god isn’t particularly new. In 1691, John Ray , one of the most eminent naturalists of his time, as well as an influential philosopher and a theologian, wrote, “ The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation. ” One of the most popular books on the subject was written in 1802. Authored by William Paley -- British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian – the book was entitled “ Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature.” Paley is also the one credited with birthing the ...

On C-SPAN's Book TV , reason 's Nick Gillespie recently sat down with Susan Jacoby, author of the new book The Age of American Unreason , to talk about anti-intellectualism on the right and left, trends in popular culture, and what Jacoby sees as a dangerous decline in the level of academic and political discourse. From C-SPAN's description of the book: In "The Age of American Unreason," Susan Jacoby offers a critique on American society and says that the combination of anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism in American culture is becoming a serious problem. In the book she focuses on issues including society's addiction to mass media, ineffective educational systems, and religious fundamentalism. It's a spirited and intense conversation between a cultural pessimist and a cultural optimist that lasts for about an hour.

By Bill Jeffreys Every criminal act committed was done so for emotional reasons. No one acts rational and logical and then goes out and commits a crime. Yes, even serial killers have emotional reasons for the crimes they commit. They just don’t have guilt. It never is, "I just realized how logical it is for me to murder". It’s always some underlying emotionally based dysfunctional belief that they are acting upon. Religion is very similar. No one goes out and follows god for reasonable and logical reasons because the foundation of religion isn’t based on accurate evidence, reason or logic. People don’t convert because of the supposed evidence. They convert for emotional reasons. They convert because it's supposed to make them feel better and give them hope. If I remember my Christian stats correctly (when I was a Christian) most people convert in their childhood or youth when the brain is most susceptible to fantastical thinking. That was why we always targeted young peop...

Tomorrow, May 1st, is being promoted by Christians as the National Day of Prayer . So they all get together and pray for... what? It's hard to believe that nobody has ever prayed to end the war or feed all of the starving children or end poverty or rid the world of all suffering, etc. And if they have (and they surely have) and we still have all of these things (and we certainly do), then how the hell can they still believe prayer works? It's the same old thing. The Bible - God just can't lose! If Christians pray for something and they get it, they thank him for answering their prayers. And if the thing they prayed for doesn't happen, they excuse him with something like, "It wasn't God's will" or "God has his reasons." (I wonder what his reasons could be for allowing innocent children to suffer through sexual and physical abuse, starving, and disease.) And if their god is going to do whatever the hell he wants to do anyway, then why the hel...

Radical Preacher Takes on Ohio State Students Crazy Christian dudes at University of Oregon

A video segment from Real Time with Bill Maher Bill Maher talks with panel guests about Islam and how it is not a religion of peace. Specifically highlighted here is Ayaan Hirsi Ali , author of "Infidel." She has very strong views on Islam and its treatment of Muslim women.

A video by Edward Current Shame on Big Science for trying to squash Intelligent Design -- something I confirmed with only about an hour of research. Who knew that science is worse than Hitler?

A video portraying aggressive behavior by Christians matched with verses from the Bible is gaining traction on the Internet. Raed al-Saeed, a young businessman from Saudi Arabia, is the creator of Schism, a six-minute video response to Fitna — a short film released last month that portrays Islam as a violent, fascist-like ideology. " Fitna " provoked anger in many parts of the Muslim world. Fitna , which in Arabic means discord or social strife, was posted on the Internet by right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders. It pairs verses from the Quran exhorting violence with scenes of deadly suicide bombings and planes flying into the World Trade Center. Saeed, who runs an audio-visual company out of a rundown villa on a quiet, tree-lined street in Riyadh, says he remembers feeling helpless after watching Wilders' video. But then he realized there was a way for him to try to protect his religion and way of life: Answer the video with a video of his own. A part-time blogger, ...

By Pat Condell Humanity's ball and chain. You can download an audio version of this video at http://patcondell.libsyn.com tag: faith , Pat Condell , , atheism , atheist , agnostic , Christianity , creationism , science , freethinker , freethought , reason , skeptic , Bible

A video presentation by Aspirin99 As part of my graduate program, I'm taking a Rhetorical Theory class. For the last assignment, I was asked to take something I had previously written and improve it using principles we had studied. I chose Rogerian Argument. This principle is suggested for debating topics of hot emotional content, such as religion and politics. It seeks to place the opponent at ease by telling him or her what you like about their views and then finding common ground from which to start the discussion. I chose to take correspondence regarding Creationism and turn it into a Rogerian documentary video. I enlisted the help of Antlerman , a mod in the forums, to do some of the voice-overs. It's an hour-long documentary that I made in two weeks; so, it's not perfect, but I think you'll like it. I have not chopped it into 10-minute segments yet for Youtube, but it can be watched from my website (and here). I made a fast forward button for the player, so you ...

A short rant by Bob Patterson For reasons not easily understood, humans seem to have a basic need to want to believe that an invisible, omnipotent and omniscient deity -- one that is entirely responsible for everything and that demands our unquestioning devotion, obedience and respect for everything good that happens -- is watching over us. This same deity, however, vehemently denies any responsibility whatsoever for those things which are bad, undesirable, or painful. It's the ultimate and most divine "cop out" that humanity has ever documented! To sum it up simply: God gets all the credit for that which is good, but takes none of the responsibility for that which is bad. This is all somehow justified by the doctrine of "original sin" -- an unpaid debt that was caused when Eve ate a forbidden cumquat from the "tree of knowledge" and was suddenly made smarter. This episode pissed off the big guy in the sky, who obviously wished women to remain ignor...

And the Egalitarian Myth By Brian Worley Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. -- Matthew 5:13 When one asks me for a positive thought or idea from Christ, immediately this verse comes to mind. Within the context of this verse, the preserving quality of salt is discussed and a frank evaluation of Christianity is rendered. Now if you only want to fight, just “sound bite” this title without any further reading. If you are positive and want to do something constructive with your life, I want to challenge you! Missionary Chatter I have an English speaking Christian missionary for a neighbor here in Latvia. Some native local people find it ironic that they have one American in town that builds up religion and yet another that tears it down! Stranger yet, I am familiar with his home sending church in America. So far, I respect him and his love...

Whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God's infallible wingman, here on Earth, lock away the kids. Which is why I'd like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That's right, the Pope is coming to America this week and ladies, he's single! Now I know what you're thinking: "Bill, you shouldn't be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult." For one, altar boys can't even get pregnant. But really, what tripped up the little cult on the prairie was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands, all over the world. Cults get raided, religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? Volume, volume, volume! If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a...

In this short video, the American sketch comedy television program, MADtv , parodies the American television series, Touched by and Angel . George Carlin even takes the Pope to heaven.

By Dave, the WM Nearly every day I read another opinion piece in the press on how the "raging, militant proponents of the New Atheism ” are destroying the framework of our society. Most harshly denigrated in these articles are typically one or more of the Four Horsemen : Richard Dawkins , Daniel Dennett , Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens . The atheistic authors and speakers who hail from Christian cultures and backgrounds are not the only voices in the world to be shouted down for criticizing theism. From ancient times, those who stood up and voiced skepticism against the prevailing theistic superstitions had a good chance of being demonized, or worse. A little history from Wikipedia : Diagoras of Melos ( 5th century BCE ) is known as the "first atheist". He blasphemed by making public the Eleusinian Mysteries and discouraging people from being initiated. The Athenians accused him of impiety, and he was forced to flee the city. He died in Corinth . The effo...

From godsfavoritecolor I recently learned of this. For those of you who may not have heard of this before, check out the Gnostic text “ Hypostasis of the Archons ” or “The Reality of the Rulers,” an exegesis on the Book of Genesis 1-4 from The Nag Hammadi Library. The text is on the Internet at The Hypostasis of the Archons . It features an inversion of the roles of God and the serpent and of others in the traditional creation story. This should drive traditional Christians to apoplexy. What is Gnosticism? Taken from gnosis.org “Gnosis” and “Gnosticism” are still rather arcane terms, though in the last two decades they have been increasingly encountered in the vocabulary of contemporary society. The word Gnosis derives from Greek and connotes "knowledge" or the "act of knowing". On first hearing, it is sometimes confused with another more common term of the same root but opposite sense: agnostic, literally "not knowing". The Greek language differentiate...

By godsfavoritecolor I attended a formal debate a few days ago before an audience of about 200 on the question, “Does God Exist?” The representative for the negative was a college professor of philosophy. The representative for the positive was a pastor of a local fundamentalist Christian church. The pastor was a typical fundamentalist Bible thumper, a YEC (young earth creationist, yeeecchh!) and believes that everything in the Bible is literally true. His arguments were a compendium of logical fallacies, while he accused his opponent of using logical fallacies. Not surprisingly he compared atheists to Hitler, with the fallacious syllogism: Hitler was an atheist. Hitler killed millions of people. Therefore, all atheists are as evil as Hitler. Ignoring the fact that Hitler was not an atheist, by the pastor’s “reasoning,” since Hitler was a vegetarian, then all vegetarians are as evil as Hitler. I believe that the major field taught at the fundamentalist seminaries like the one the...

By Valerie Tarico Biblical creationism, repositioned as creation science and most recently intelligent design has lost the contest of ideas on all counts: the rules, the criteria and the judging. It doesn't follow the scientific method; it doesn't allow us to explain, predict, and control better; and the jury of relevant experts (aka biologists) keeps returning the same verdict. Now the creationists have taken a new approach that they hope will help them achieve their goal of teaching religious beliefs in our schools as science. That approach can be summed up in one simple word: whining. One week from today, the new movie, Expelled , attempts to turn creationist complaints into mainstream media. Featuring Ben Stein, one of the conservative right's biggest whiners, the film makes several plaintive appeals: There's a conspiracy among big government and big science, and it's not fair! All we ask is for our perspective to get equal time! (Read: we lost, so let's spl...