I love it when I am having a relatively rational discussion with a Christian and then the Christian starts to go off about demons, witches, and warlocks. It is a facepalm moment that reminds me that “relatively rational” is still batshit crazy.
Category Religion
I was dropping my son off at pre-school this morning and one of the other parents had a car with a bumper sticker that said something along the lines of, “Dear God, why do you allow so much violence in schools? I’m not allowed in schools. – God”
Religious believers send missionaries all over the world, they go door-to-door, they have pamphlets, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. They are out there trying to “save” non-believers and make us believers. But then they get offended when atheists start to spread the facts about reality and try to de-convert religious believers.
I usually tend to agree with Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist on most things, but sometimes he says something that I disagree with. Recently, he said something that I really disagree with and quite frankly find bizarre. As part of his part of his Atheist Voice series he answers the question, would you want to live in a world where everyone is an atheist. Here is the video:
There really is no nice way of saying this but religion really is an embarrassment to humanity. I just have a hard time believing that the majority of the people on this planet are willing to suspend the use of logic, reason, and the scientific method in favor of ancient myths that are ridiculous, self-contradictory, and immoral. Why would anyone belief such absurd stories from people who thought the world was flat over the actual scientific understanding of our modern world complete with testable evidence.
Yes, A Christian actually told me that atheists take the Bible too literally. I burst out laughing because as an atheist, I don’t take the Bible literally at all; I take the Bible factitious!
One thing about religion that I always found damning is the way religion has warped the minds of parents when their children leave the faith. More than anything else, this speaks volumes about the cruelty of religion. That is why I think it is important to tell these stories so that others can bear witness to them.
Last night Richard Dawkins was on the Daily Show and has once again demonstrated why I am not a fan of his television appearances in America. Maybe he does better with a British audience, I don’t know, but when it comes to American audiences, he just doesn’t do a good job.
What or who was instrumental in your de-conversion? This to me is an interesting question for a few reasons. First, I’m fascinated by why people believe what they believe and why or how they lose those beliefs. Second, knowing what was instrumental in people’s de-conversion could help in de-converting others. Third, I have no real frame of reference for this question.
There are a lot of great books written by atheist authors over the past few years. While I can’t say that reading any one particular book was the key to my own de-conversion from Judaism to atheism, I have heard from a lot of fellow atheists about how this book or that really got them thinking critically about religion and lead to their de-conversion. None of those books are going to be on my list.