by Lance Courtney just posted an excellent rant on November 27th titled " Satan's waiting, and you better believe there are NO donuts ." I was going to write a quick reply, but the more I thought about it, the more it turned into a full on rant. So thanks Courtney for your post. My rant has to do with Courtney's observation that all sorts of Christians constantly say that non-like minded Christians are not "real" Christians. We have heard liberal or progressive Christians on this site say that the hate filled fundies are not real Christians. And we all know that to a fundie, pretty much all the other so-called Christians are obviously fakes. I even saw a YouTube video of Texas preacher RA Smith saying that he would not even listen to the preaching of anyone that reads the NIV Bible . How is that for exclusionary? So here is the deal. In the Bible , specifically John 17, Jesus prays to the father on the night before he gets pinned to the cross. H...

By William S. Burroughs “Thanks for a Nation of Finks,” says America’s Poet, William S. Burroughs, in this beloved Thanksgiving Prayer. (It is traditional for the head of household to recite this prayer before the Feast.)

“Hell” by Hans Memling , 1485 By Courtney I pointed out (in My Atheist Manifesto ) that the Bible claims that people will know Christians at first glance 'by their light,' being such serene and loving beings, and how that's actually never the case. Christians rebut this, with such reliable consistency that you could bet your house on it, by claiming that most Christians are not 'true' Christians. Let's pretend that this is true for an instant. In that case, we can glean two things: It is extremely hard to be a Christian, as only very few people can pull it off despite all the millions that are trying, and If only 'true' Christians get into Heaven, as they say, then even MORE people than we already know of are headed toward eternal torture. The vast majority of God 's beloved creations will die and be tormented, the killers along with the nonbelievers, the stubborn rationalists who insisted upon working in the soup kitchens rather than just TALKING a...

By TruthSurge The standard in morality monitoring just got better. The MoralMaster 2.0 can gage your morality with a few quick questions. Don't wait! Call now and get your own MoralMaster 2.0 morality monitor! It could save you an eternity of regret !

By Brian Crisan Atheism is a lack of belief in supernatural deities (i.e. God); the opposite of theism. Atheists as a whole do not have a consensus on how to define atheism. A number of the issues involved in defining the term appear below. Implicit and explicit atheism Implicit atheism is defined as a lack of belief in a god. Any person who has not been exposed to religious beliefs about the existence of god falls within the definition of implicit atheism. Atheists generally consider this definition inclusive of babies and little children who haven't yet formed opinions about the existence of supernatural deities due to a lack of exposure to them. Explicit atheism is defined as a conscious rejection of the existence of a god. Strong and weak atheism Strong atheism is defined as a type of atheism in which a positive assertion claiming the nonexistence of a god is made. Strong atheists would make the statement, "God does not exist." Weak atheism is defined...

By Ed Current

By Tasida The pastor at Laker Life, a bible study that I sat in on for a few weeks, has said more than once to me, "Sid, you are wrong. You know I love you, but you are wrong." Another lady who attends the Laker Life meetings has also said to me in passing, "Love ya!" And in Denver, where a local atheist group commissioned a billboard that reads, "Don't believe in god? You are not alone," one Pastor Willard Johnson commented, "We denounce what they are doing. But we do it with love, with gentleness, with decency and with compassion." I suppose I should feel blessed with all this freak'n love coming my way, but I don't. How could I possibly be against something as good as love? Well, I'm not. But unlike the word " God ", which could mean anything from the interceding tyrant of the Old Testament to a warm, fuzzy, amorphous blob of universal quasi-energy, the word "love" actually means something. Something impo...

Can We Ever Be Right About Right and Wrong? Sam Harris is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason , which won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, and Letter to a Christian Nation . His writing has appeared in Newsweek, Los Angeles Times , The Atlantic, The Times (London), The Boston Globe , The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. He is currently researching the neural basis of religious belief while completing a doctorate in neuroscience. He is also a Co-Founder and Chairman of The Reason Project .

By DocMike I don't know if it's the approaching holiday season, the global economic crisis, or just the fact that I'm getting a little older, but I've been feeling the pain of the world lately and I really want to do something about it. I'm a very fortunate person. I have financial security, a close family, lots of great friends, and basically everything I need and most of what I want in life. If I believed in a deity, I would certainly be thanking it for my good fortune. But since I'm a rational human being, I attribute it to hard work and lots of good luck! Anyway, I've been reading a lot lately about hunger and I really want to do something to help those in need. However, I don't like the idea of sending money to a religion-based organization. Now, I know many of them do a lot of good in this area. I won't try to take that away from them. But frankly, I don't trust them. I always wonder how much of my money is being spent to feed hungry people...

By DocMike I know I've done this one to death (excuse the pun), but I just love Leviticus !

The Return of Jephthah by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, By Neal Stone First off, Christians, don't give me the "That was the God of the Old Testament excuse," because in Heb 13:8 it says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." and in Malachi 3:6 it says "I the LORD do not change..." So God is never changing, and Jesus is also God in the flesh, so your excuse doesn't work here. In a recent post we heard a Christian call an atheist television show and engage in a conversation where the Christian went down in flames. A story is mentioned about a guy named Jephthah who sacrifices his daughter after promising God he would sacrifice the first thing to come out of his home, should he when a war. We are going to look at this passage and break it down. Let us keep in mind the according to Christians and the Bible , God knows the past, present and the FUTURE. So, everything that is about to unfold, God foresaw ahead of time. Judg...

A video by cdk007 To deny evolution is to deny a direct observation. It's like denying the sky is blue while refusing to look up. Truth is not a democracy . Don't teach ideas just because they are different; teach ideas because they are supported by evidence . Intelligence is awareness of ignorance. Stupidity is ignorance of ignorance. Think about it.

God, as played by Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty By The Ragged Trousered Philosopher I met god the other day. I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did you know it was god? Well, I’ll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise. Which is odd, because I’m still an atheist and we even agree on that! It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington. Got myself a nice window seat, no screaming brats or drunken hooligans within earshot. Not even a mobile phone in sight. Sat down, reading the paper and in he walks. What did he look like? Well not what you might have expected that’s for sure. He was about 30, wearing a pair of jeans and a "hobgo...

A Christian calls in to discuss morality on The Atheist Experience television show. The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin .

"Truth" (1870) by Jules Joseph Lefebvre By John Fraysse Thesis: The Truth Needs Little or No Defense Awhile back, I wrote a little snippet based on the premise that if religion is so important , it should also be simple to understand , easy to implement and ubiquitous in its application. I further submitted that since religions are not simple , especially the big three Abrahamic faiths , they either must be a) unimportant or b) untrue or, more than likely, both. Therefore, unnecessary complexity is a bellwether indicator of a false concept, religious Dogmas being prime examples. So, building on this line of thought, I think it also follows that if something is untrue but is being masqueraded as Truth, it will likely require much explanation . In fact, a method used by interrogators to detect lies in a witness or suspect is to note the length and complexity of their explanations. Long and complex explanations are, many times, strong indicators that the witness is tryin...

A video by ReligionIsACrutch

Image by jordi.martorell via Flickr By Neal Stone I have a Jewish friend who was going off about how the Koran actually had a verse about NOT to be a friend of a Christian or Jew. She took great offense. I have also had others concerned over Obama 's middle name and the fact he had Muslim influences in his life. Now first off, I am not defending the Koran or Muslin religion, nor am I supporting either. I state this for the Christians looking to twist my words and make it sound like I support terrorism. I don't! I just look at the FULL truth, not just the part that conveniently supports my beliefs. So here is the full, 100% truth. All religions have a bloody history: Catholics , Protestants, Israel, and so on. Just look at the list: The Spanish Inquisition The Crusades The Old Testament Even the history of America when our CHRISTIAN ancestors came here and proceeded to slaughter the Native Americans because we thought they were savages. Isn't it funny how people c...