This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sam Harris speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Conference . Sam Harris is the author of two best-selling books, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation . He speaks regularly on television and radio about the danger he believes religion poses to modern societies. His essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, The Boston Globe , and numerous other publications. A graduate in philosophy of Stanford University, for 20 years he has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines. He is also currently completing a doctorate in neuroscience. This video is approximately 70 minutes in length. Download: Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World (mp3) Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World (Windows) Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World (Quicktime) Download transc...

By Brother Jeff I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. -- Mohandas Gandhi I find myself in agreement with Gandhi. Though I don’t believe that he was god, I have nothing in particular against Christ. I do, however, have something against Christians, and it is this -- I hate their willful ignorance and I hate their bigotry and intolerance. I am referring specifically to homosexuality. I get so tired of hearing about how homosexuality is allegedly a “sin” and an abomination worthy of death and eternal damnation. I get so tired of hearing Christians -- who are supposedly filled the the Holy Spirit and the Love of Jesus -- continually spout hatred and bigotry against homosexuals. I get so tired of their willful ignorance in this area. I have news for Christians -- you have no idea what you are talking about, the opinions of the authors of your Bronze Age Book of Myths be damned. If you actually, truly knew anything at all about homose...

From the EAC : An Eight-Step Guide to Bible Literalism through Christian Apologetics Step One Accept the divine, absolute, and literal truth of the Bible. This is by far the most important step: If the Bible isn't the literal and absolute truth, we might as well just give up the whole game right now. Step Two Redefine "literal" when needed. Yes, the Bible is a the literal word of God. We all know that from step one. But does this mean that every word is supposed to be taken literally? The answer is yes, except in those cases where it isn't. For example, the Bible clearly says that God hates homosexuality. That part is literal. The bible also says that God hates mixing different fibers in clothing. That part is not literal. Now, critics will ask "Ok, but how did you decide?" If this happens, do not panic. A few simple rules of thumb will help: Shortcut: Before applying these rules, ask the questioner if he or she is an atheist. If so, mention that some famous...

By Tom C I really love this website! - many thanks to everyone here for not suffering in silence and reminding me how un-alone I am as an ex-Xtian. Having eagerly digested lots of the juicy philosophical debate on exchristian.net, I feel compelled to contribute some thoughts that may be relevant for some to a couple of the more popular topics here on site. Disclaimer: I have to admit that personally I feel quite strongly about some of these things, and my enthusiasm may come through in a slightly assertive writing style at times, but let me assure you I'm not trying to convert anyone (and if I do convert someone they've seriously missed the point!) These are just thoughts, intended to inspire thoughts, and any implications of value judgments are for the most part unintentional, but left in to keep things interesting and to preserve the original flow of said thoughts. Just see what -you- think... *** I II III I. Having only just left the relative comforts of blind faith in one...

A film by Robert Beckford In 2004, Robert Beckford hosted a documentary called Who Wrote the Bible? in the UK. Beckford begins this documentary with this question and pursues the assertion that the Bible's history involves multiple revisions, exclusion and political imperative. The documentary is NOT meant to be inflammatory, but informative. Length: approximately 100 minutes long.

tag: evolution , Darwin , science , creationism

By Heather H This post is really mainly a rant, but it is also an actual question to all Christians out there. The question is really why on earth they try to convert me in the first place? An old one, perhaps, asked by many here, but over reading the Bible recently I’ve come to a conclusion, possibly a question a lot of people have come to... but I digress. It’s really doing my nut though and makes me wonder why on earth people would even try to make me believe in their version of a god. I first stopped really believing in that religion mainly due to scientific proof showing the creation story to be absolute bunk, (among other stories); as well as making a few friends of other faiths in university (or none). See, I was not entirely comfortable with the fact that these perfectly nice people would roast while I’d be dancing it up with Jesus without a care in the world as if it wasn’t happening right below my feet. Yeah. That never really sat right with me. But I’ve come to a rather larg...

By James C Evangelist Hagee took some heat recently for a comment in a sermon concerning the holocaust, " How did [the Holocaust] happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel ." But Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg at: http://www.washingtontimes.com /article/20080524/NATION /810558402/1002 responded by supporting Hagee, saying, "Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian." At http://www.populstat.info/Asia /israelc.htm we find that Israel's population only went from 880,000 in 1930 to 1,834,900 in 1945, an increase of 954,900. So the pastor and the rabbi both feel their God thought it was OK to slaughter six-million people in order to get less than one-million to emigrate t...

By Dave, the WM I was just reading about 71-year-old Rev. George O. Lowe, that he is in prison for sexually abusing a child in his congregation back in the 80s. There’s nothing particularly unique or interesting about the story; it's just another in a long, long line of sexually perverted religious leaders. What caught my eye in this story is that that the good reverend had recently tried to appease his victim who is now an adult by quoting Bible verses that discourage Christians from taking Christians to court and by claiming that God had already sufficiently punished him. Quoting Bible verses to support a position (any position) is typical, but the statement he made that God had already punished him, that one got me to thinking. The doctrine that God does or will eventually punish the wicked is universally touted as true by every variety, branch and stream within Christendom. Christians are frequently encouraged to leave to the Lord all thoughts of paying back the wicked for t...

By Billy B I hope that I've learned my lesson. Yesterday my Christian neighbor came to my door under the false pretense of wanting to ask my permission to place a sign endorsing a local political candidate in my yard. What he really wanted was an excuse to try and drag me into another mental cage-match over his insane worldview...(i.e. the Bible , prayer in schools, 'Expelled the movie'...etc...) I took the bait and within 15 minutes he had me so fucking mad that I literally had to laugh. Luckily the tension was broken by an important phone call that allowed us both an honorable exit from the situation, but this experience taught me a very important lesson: Engaging stupidity is self-abuse. I've finally realized that there are some situations where I will only be submitting myself to emotional torture by entering a debate with certain types of Christians. Therefore, I've given myself permission to take a passive stance and let them run their mouths while I silently...

By Clair Most of us come in regular contact with others, and when the subject of religion comes up a person can react in many ways: 1.Happiness and agreement. 2. Silence and a vague pleasant expression. 3. Silence, waiting for them to drop it. 4.Irritation and voicing non-agreement, with or without eye rolling. 5. Louder more serious disagreement. 6.Shouting with very unpleasant outcome. But, we move on, get over it ASAP. People that we truly care about though can cause serious mental anguish. Parents can push buttons with great emotional dexterity. This is no suprise, since they are usually the ones who at least helped to indoctrinate their children. When the kids are grown, and have their own children, some grandparents are secretly afraid that all that bullshit has been found out. They want the illness to be carried on so they will be assured of having someone to agree with them. Or maybe they just want everyone to be physically uncomfortable for a minimum of two hours at the same ...

If you are an educated Christian, I would like to talk with you today about an important and interesting question. Have you ever thought about using your college education to think about your faith? Your life and your career demand that you behave and act rationally. Let's apply your critical thinking skills as we discuss 10 simple questions about your religion. The answers will amaze you. -- http://whywontgodhealamputees.com

What if it could be proved that Jesus never existed? What if there was evidence that every word of the New Testament is based on myth and metaphor? And what if those revelations extended beyond Christianity, putting into question even the fundamental beliefs of Judaism and Islam? These are the ideas presented in The Pagan Christ , a documentary based on theologian Tom Harpur's explosive, best-selling book . Using an investigative reporting approach to the topic, the cameras journey from the Egyptian temple at Luxor and the Great Pyramids of Giza to Vatican City and Jerusalem's wailing wall . What do you think about the ideas presented in this film?

By Geoff I tend to avoid writing about or discussing the topic of religion. In general, my unconventional views on the subject get me into a heated discussion with a zealous, but well meaning believer concerned with my eternal destiny or a mentally draining screaming match with a pretentious asshat who believes I worship Darwin and who seems convinced that atheism is just another religion (which is like saying that not playing sports is a sport). Despite this, I usually try to remain civil. After all, we are all entitled to believe whatever we want, right? HOWEVER! There are a few annoying arguments Christians use that quite frankly make about as much sense as a gay republican. Were I to go into all of them, I would be typing here for hours and hours. So, I will focus on one for now: Moral Relativity Moral relativity essentially states that analysis into whether an action is right or wrong should come from several facets of study, culture, context, usefulness, etc. This ideas lies in s...

An interview with Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief .

This debate, which examined the rational evidence for faith in Jesus' resurrection, was given at the University of California, Los Angeles on April 19, 2004, and was moderated by S. Scott Bartchy, Professor of History at UCLA and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion. Richard Carrier is a historian and philosopher, whose articles have appeared in many publications, including the Skeptical Inquirer and the Secular Web. His book, Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism, is due out next year, along with an anthology, Jesus Is Dead, which includes three chapters by Carrier on the Resurrection. He is currently writing a dissertation on ancient Roman science at Columbia University. He has been involved in online, atheist-theist debates for more than ten years and served as Feedback Editor and Editor in Chief of the Secular Web for many years. Mike Licona is a New Testament historian with a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Liberty U...

By James C Most of us are aware of the Noah's Flood story. People of the earth evil. God upset. Floods the world but saves Noah & family and enough animals to re-populate the world. But, for an interesting "another take" on that story, link over to the Wikipedia story about the same, with inputs concerning the other Abrahamic religions and their look at the whole thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Noah's_Ark#cite_note-14 The ark itself. Skeptics have, for a long time, questioned how a small family with no boat-building experience could have accomplished the ark; what kind of wood was used; that the dimensions are larger than any known successful wooden ship; and that it could not have held all the animals and the food and water necessary to keep them alive. So let's explore comments on that: Origen stated that Moses had been thinking of the (larger) Egyptian cubit, meaning the Ark was even larger vs the historically successful wooden...

By Doc Mike This is hilarious! Christian scholars and theologians are releasing a manifesto today to "take back" the term Evangelical from the politicians. Apparently, it's starting to have a negative connotation in the world of politics. I wonder why? USA Today says in Manifesto aims to make 'evangelical' less political : "Evangelical" has been widely used to refer to Christians who have conservative political views, but the Evangelical Theological Society requires members to agree on just two points: inerrancy of Scripture, and belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as "separate but equal in attributes and glory" and essential for salvation. This really makes me laugh because if "Scripture" is nothing else it is errant. In fact that's exactly what my blog ( By The Book Comics ) is all about. And don't even get me started on the "holy trinity"... Ha! Technorati Tags: humor Atheist Bible Christian Comi...