Last week, I introduced you to John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser’s new debate-style book, God or Godless? I am now going to furnish you with a review. I commend Baker Books for sending me a review copy.
Category Atheism
More misery for atheists and secularists in Bangladesh (see this very moving interview I shared the other day). The country is going seriously backwards.
As AlJazeera reports:
Countries with the best standard of living are turning atheist. That shift offers a glimpse into the world’s future.
Religious people are annoyed by claims that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.
You´ve all heard the standard lies about the third reich being an “Atheist regime” and Darwinian evolution being a foundation for the Nazi race ideology. The funny (“funny” in a tragic way) thing about this is, that these claims are not only wrong, but that the exact opposite happens to be true.
You might well have heard about the plight of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh. I have signed a petition, and urge you to do so if it is still valid. Being persecuted (and yes, I mean this overused term) for nonbelief is simply outrageous in this day and age.
2012 Pew Research Results on American Religious Affiliation The Pew Research Center has released the 2012 results further marking the…
The excellent Russell Blackford, over at The Hellfire Club, here at SIN, has recently linked a fascinating account of post-genocide analysis.…
Podcasts are a really useful medium for learning about or engaging with topics because you can listen to them on the fly. In the last week, I have mowed the lawn, sharpened garden tools, walked to the shops, driven in my car, washed carpets and so on, all the while listening to counter-apologetics and biblical exegesis. My exciting life! Life, with only 24 hours in a day, has been, for many years, a series of opportunities to multi-task, to kill two birds with one stone.
I will soon be compiling a webpage here for the menu above linking to a superb list of podcasts and what have you.
vAs Katherine Don reports here.
This month at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a select group of students will show their humanitarian spirit by participating in the Bleedin’ Heathens Blood Drive. On February 12, they will eat cake to celebrate Darwin Day, and earlier this year, they performed “de-baptism” ceremonies to celebrate Blasphemy Day, attended a War on Christmas Party, and set up Hug An Atheist and Ask An Atheist booths in the campus quad.
So John Loftus, of Debunking Christianity, and who wrote what is still the finest book deconstructing the Christian position (Why I Became An Atheist whose second edition is now out) has a few books due out soon. I am excited about both, but particularly The Outsider Test For Faith (OTF), based on an argument which he has made his own. The OTF can be summed up as: The only way to rationally test one’s culturally adopted religious faith is from the perspective of an outsider, with the same level of reasonable skepticism believers already use when examining the other religious faiths they reject.
I was listening today to The Reasonable Doubts podcast and I had a really interesting discussion that made reference to…
Stand-up comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans will bring together a godless congregation in the Nave in St Paul’s Road, Canonbury for services – with wedding ceremonies and funerals for non-believers even on the cards.
The first atheist church in the country is set to open in Islington at the start of the new year.
Stand-up comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans will bring together a godless congregation in the Nave in St Paul’s Road, Canonbury for services – with wedding ceremonies and funerals for non-believers even on the cards.
Polly Toynbee at the Guardian has this to say:
As my term as British Humanist Association president comes to an end, a few words of advice to my successor, Jim Al-Khalili
‘If you’re not religious, for God’s sake say so,” we implored, and many did. Over a quarter of the population registered as non-believers: more might have done were the census question unambiguous about whether it meant cultural background or personal belief. My term as president of the British Humanist Association ends this month, but gladly I hand over to Jim Al-Khalili, the distinguished professor of physics, writer, broadcaster and explainer of science. With atheism as the second largest block, he will be in a stronger position to see that unbelievers get a better hearing.
Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the “intellectual elite” considered themselves atheists than the national average.
A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.
Wow. There have been lots on the Scouts recently as many SIN bloggers boycotted them this weekend for various reasons.…
Check this article out from The Washington Post. What annoys me is that even if you took this statement as a weak generalisation, it is still wholly wrong. I would hazard a guess that the overwhelming proportion of terrorists in the world are religious:
This is a hilarious video. I thought Bill O’Reilly was a tool before this. Now I think he is a total tool. With a cherry on top.
In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God–or risk 12 months in prison.
The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
Here is another account in my series of real-life deconversion stories. They are often painful, psychological affairs. John’s account is fascinating. Happy reading. The previous account can be found here.
This is a really interesting article from the Irish Times. The religious often claim things of atheism which muddy the waters of what atheism really is, and what secular values one can come to.