Image by Cody Simms via Flickr By Jeffrey Amos The biggest reason I am an atheist is that I grew up evangelical and later rejected evangelical Christianity – that is the topic of my blog and will be overlooked here. But evangelical Christianity rejected doesn't imply atheism; in my case, non-Christian theist to deist to agnostic to atheist took from April '08 until October '08. Here, I will cover my reasons for being an atheist rather than an otherwise undecided non-Christian. Atheism: What it Means I need to first clarify what I mean by “atheist.” I don't believe in a God of any kind, or even see the existence of one as plausible, therefore I am an atheist. I don't claim to know for certain, and I can't prove God doesn't exist. I'm not an atheist in an absolute certainty sort of way, which is what some people still use it to mean. Oftentimes, the definition of a word has a subliminal effect on how we think. Take the word “discipline,” for inst...

Image by Caio Basilio via Flickr by Astreja It's been over a year and a half since I wrote My Ex-timony Heaven, Hell and My Bodhisattva Vow . In the interim, a few noteworthy things have happened to My belief stricture, uh, structure. I've shifted ever so slightly, from agnostic theist to agnostic atheist . "Whaaat?" you exclaim. "Theist to atheist is not a 'slight shift'." Well, it was for Me. Even at the height of My ecumenical polytheistic woo-woo, speaking ex officio in full Springy Goddess regalia (White linen robes, bag of hand-carved runes, snifter of Green Chartreuse liqueur, and razor-wit-sharp Clue-By-Four), I remained open to the possibility that maybe... ...Just maybe... ...The gods exist only in the human imagination. Oddly enough, that admission instantly made those gods more accessible to the imagination. I can't prove to you empirically that the Parking Gods provided that great spot at the mall last Saturday afternoon. I...

Make up your own Bus Slogan at http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/ . Related articles by Zemanta Atheist bus: 'Sleep in on Sunday morning' adverts banned (telegraph.co.uk) Atheist Bus Poster Campaign Spreads to Spain and Italy (friendlyatheist.com) -UK: Atheist Bus Ads? (answersforthefaith.com) The Atheist Bus Campaign (atheistwisdom.blogspot.com) Atheist bus ads roll in London today: massive success (boingboing.net)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife By Valerie Tarico Reprinted from the Daily Kos . Most Americans who have any media access whatsoever know that last week a California woman with six prior children gave birth to octuplets . The details surrounding the birth ( six prior kids, solo unemployed parent, in vitro implantation of eight or more embryos, probable millions in taxpayer expenses ) are so extraordinary that they have provoked a normally taboo public conversation about whether childbearing can be immoral. Progressives rarely use the words moral and immoral. We’re too sophisticated for that. If some poor sod starts talking about truth and virtue or right and wrong or-- gods forbid-- good and evil, we get nervous and become, ahem, tolerant. It’s like bring up spirituality in a room full of atheists(who otherwise might be perfectly willing to talk about ethics and love and service and finding some meaning that transcends the boundaries of our small individual lives.) Occasionally we ...

Ricky Gervais on " Inside The Actor's Studio " talking about his atheism.

Image via Wikipedia By Neal Stone Are you looking for a great deal? Want to change your life forever? Then come down to Neal's Used Car Emporium and check out our super lineup of Crhistler Cars. Such as the ever reliable BY BLE. The BY BLE will change your life forever. What ever your heart desires, what ever your situation the BY BLE is the car for you. It not only comes with a lifetime guarantee, but is totally FREE! That's right I said FREE! This car can be yours at no cost to you. So come on down to Neal's used Car Emporium today and get your life going! Later that day... Neal: Why it looks like we have a customer. Welcome son and how can I help you? Customer: Well I saw the ad and I want a BY BLE. Is it really free? Neal: Why yes it is and it will change your life forever. And you don't have to do a thing but just ask. And the best part is there are no catches or conditions. Just come as you are. Customer: Really?! How so? Neal: Why it will make...

Image via Wikipedia By Valerie Tarico Atheists are arrogant. Who hasn’t heard it? Arrogance is just one of their repellent qualities, of course. They are also ungenerous, cold, lonely, untrustworthy, amoral, and aggressive. You shouldn’t leave them around children. When I spoke last week to a group called Seattle Atheists , the organizer positioned me far from the door, and I speculated aloud about whether I should be worried for my safety, given what we know about atheist ethics. But the most common accusation hurled against atheists is that they are insufferably arrogant. In my experience, this accusation is rarely about a specific encounter: I was talking with Joan, my atheist neighbor down the street last week and do you know how I was treated by that insufferable witch?! No, it is more like a mantra. In Seattle, there’s a chain of hamburger joints called Dick’s. People who find themselves on the topic of hamburgers will say, “Dick’s is great” almost as an opener, before they move ...

Image via Wikipedia By Lance_ec I was just watching the movie " The Golden Compass " and was intrigued by the use of the word Demon (Daemon?) for the spirit of a person that walks along side them in animal form. My kids raised their eyebrows when they first heard it in the movie, since they were already familiar with the negative Christian use of the word. So I looked the term up on Wikipedia, and a few other places and found a whole slew of differing ideas regarding demons from Greek , Roman and other mythologies . Mostly they seem to be something between divine and mortal. Some were good demons that helped and advised people, others were more of a hindrance. This is not really all that unexpected, as people attempted to make sense of the random events of the world and attribute these events to some intelligence that they assumed was moving behind the scenes. It also makes more sense to the ancient mind than a single god, since the random events of daily life are too s...

Image of Sam Singleton Sam Singleton , Atheist Evangelist, Sets Forth New Naming Protocol for Atheists, Believers, and Agnostics Can’t nobody tell Brother Sam nothing about the abuse gets heaped on atheists every day. I’m a goddamned authority. I figure I get abused as much as about anybody short of Brother Richard Dawkins himself. But you don’t have to be any full-time professional God slayer to feel the cold sting of stigma that comes with proclaiming yourself an atheist . There isn’t a one of us that hasn’t been talking to someone and, having divulged our atheism, gotten the look, the one that says You might as well just save your breath because I quit listening back when you dropped the A-bomb. Even Brother Sam can see why so many atheists are casting about for a tag that isn’t so off-putting to the believing class. As for me, I personally do not give two shits. The believing class can accept me as I am or kiss my atheistic ass. But some atheists dislike the way the word itself de...

By DocMike Do you have a guy like this at work? Many Christians feel the need to save the rest of the world, whether we like it or not. Why can't they just leave us alone?

Image by DClemm via Flickr By Valerie Tarico Rick Warren , author of The Purpose Driven Life and founder of one of the country's most successful mega-churches was chosen to give the invocation at the Obama inauguration for the same reason Sarah Palen was chosen as McCain's running mate: as a valentine to Evangelicals . Warren represents the kinder, gentler side of Evangelicalism, what many people like to think of as the Evangelical mainstream. He belongs at some midpoint between Jim ( God's Politics ) Wallis on one hand, and Fred (" God Hates Fags ") Phelps. Theologically, Warren has managed to steer clear of the worst excess of Prosperity Gospel - the God-wants-you-to-be-rich message that has made Joel Olsteen rich indeed. He acknowledges institutionalized injustice as a moral issue and thinks its OK for Christians to care about our planetary life support system. For those looking desperately for someone to embrace--for a way to build bridges between fu...

The entire history of life and the cosmos rolled into under 10 minutes. Video footage used from several educational documentaries. Music includes: American Beauty Soundtrack - Thomas Newman - Any Other Name A perfect circle - Imagine

More Nature Videos at 5min.com Watch evolution unfold before your eyes in this creative video featuring fish, amphibians , reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals, and primates .

A video by the University of Southern California College Center for Religion and Civic Culture Jared Diamond , professor of geography at UCLA , received the Pulitzer Prize for non- fiction in 1998 for Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies . In 1999, he received the National Medal of Science . His most recent book is Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004). Professor Diamond argues that religion has encompassed at least four independent components that have arisen or disappeared at different stages of development of human societies over the last 10,000 years. This lecture is approximately 80 minutes long.

SAIU trip to the Creation Museum from Secular Alliance on Vimeo .

Submitted by Roan7995 Gott Mit Uns translates to God is with us . All the photos starting around 3:45 link Nazism and Christian icons/ language. Pause the video and look if you don't see how. Some in the academic sphere may consider a Reductio Ad Hitlerum argument to be in poor taste, but I think it gets the point across when there is such abundant evidence to support it. The first song is a cover of the Undersea Palace theme from Chrono Trigger that I made. If you want it, shoot me a message. The 2nd song is Hell Bent , by Kenna . Check out the video for it. Religious Affiliation of U.S. Presidents http://adherents.com/adh_presidents.html United States Constitution, Article VI, section 3 Denial of Equal Rights to Religious Minorities and Non-Believers in The United States, B. H. HARTOGENSIS, Yale Law Journal , vol. 39, pp. 659-681 http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a... The Encyclopedia of Unbelief by Gordon Stein Related articles by Zemanta Jesus, we are yours!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife By Brother Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist When believers send this kind of crap to Brother Sam, God invariably drops what he’s not doing and annotates it so it can be taken down word for word. Just as surely as Brother Sam employs an amanuensis, so too does God, and that’d be Brother Sam. And Brother Sam hopes he’s not telling tales out of school, but if you ever heard some of God’s messages directly you’d understand why his children have such difficulty with language. As for the crap folks send in, and the aforementioned annotations, Brother Sam lets the human errors stand, but feels obliged to clean up God’s work out of respect for what he used to be back before he turned out to not exist. You shoulda seen him then, slaughtering babies, drowning just and unjust alike, all manner of plagues― Brother Sam has color coded the parts. Brother Sam Believer/Crap Sender God Barber Why God Allows Pain (blue parts sic ) This wa...