Atheist Bible Reading and Forum

EricJames Borges

2012-02-01T10:19:00.000+11:00

The Daily Mail reports 19-year-old Eric James Borges killed himself on January 14 following his family issues, as well as the typical years of torment at school.

He revealed the exorcism story in an "It's Get Better" video that he put on YouTube in the weeks before his suicide, saying "'I was raised in an extremist Christian household... My mother knew I was gay and performed an exorcism on me in an attempt to cure me. My anxiety, depression, self-loathing and suicidal thoughts spiked."

At a memorial service last week in the San Joaquin Valley, California, one friend read from his suicide note:

My pain is not caused because I am gay. My pain was caused by how I was treated because I am gay. To my friends you gave me life and love, never think this was your fault...To Lady Gaga, you have been a fearless relentless proud LGBT advocate.

Ironically, Borges interned at the Trevor Project, which is a group designed to intervene and help gay kids who are thinking about suicide.[source]

Warren Buffett is anti-catholic because he....

2012-01-27T17:42:00.000+11:00

Warren Buffett is anti-catholic because he

1. has spent a fortune funding radical abortion organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood
2. comment that the rich should pay higher taxes
3. has given hundreds of millions over the years to anti-Catholic front groups
[according to source]

No wonder catholics keep their treasure in the Vatican and refuse to share with the needy.

Is this billboard offensive?

2012-01-19T12:28:00.000+11:00

No, I do not think so.

Yes, human exists is the combination of a lot of chances and it is better we understand this.

If there is one thing needs to be changed, it would be the word 'believes". Atheist does not believe. The position of atheism is because there is not sufficient evidence to support the other position (that god exists). The evidences of we being here by an accident are abundant, just take a course in cosmology and evolution biology - a proper course, I mean.

Senseless murder

2012-01-18T20:27:00.000+11:00

Click on the title which will lead you to a graphic burning of witches. How can anyone do this to another human being?

Maddness

2012-01-15T16:27:00.000+11:00

The blackman was insane, but the Catholic Priest was no better. Where is all the science, where is our understanding of our position in the Solar System and the Universe?

"According to biblical record...." the worse evidence for believing in such nonsense.

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus

2012-01-15T12:06:00.002+11:00

Please watch till the end of the video!

2012-01-12T21:40:00.001+11:00

There is finally a relgion I can whole-hearted support - Kopimi

2012-01-12T21:18:00.000+11:00

Swedish authorities have granted official religious status to the Church of Kopimism, which claims it considers CTRL+C and CTRL+V to be sacred symbols, and that information is holy and copying is a sacrament.

According to the Church of Kopimism website, church services consist of "kopyactings," whereby the "kopimists" share information with each other through copying and remixing.

Bertil Kallner of Sweden's Financial and Administrative Services told the Swedish newspaper Gagens Nyheter that a religious community could "basically be anything."

"What's important is that it is a community for religious activities," he said.

Still, it took the Church of Kopimism three tries over the course of a year before members were able to formalize their way of praying or meditation so that they could be recognized as an official religion. [source]

Hypocritic double standard - William Lane Craig

2012-01-09T13:51:00.001+11:00

Abstinence FAIL

2011-12-27T22:09:00.000+11:00

[source]

Holy Smoke

2011-12-27T21:59:00.000+11:00

Believe in me - send no money
I died on the cross, that ain't funny
But my so-called friends they're making me a joke
They missed out what I said like I never spoke
They choose what they want to hear - don't tell a lie
They just leave out the truth as they're watching you die
Saving your souls by taking your money
Flies around s**t, bees around honey

Holy smoke, holy smoke
Plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke yeah
Making holy smoke

Jimmy Reptile and all his friends
Say they going to be with you at the end
Burning records, burning books
Holy soldiers, Nazi looks
Crocodile smiles just wait a while
Till the TV Queen gets her make-up clean
I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the s**t you're in

Holy smoke, holy smoke
There's plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke yeah

Holy smoke - smells good

They ain't religious but they ain't no fools
When Noah built his Cadillac it was cool
Two by two they're still going down
And the satellite circus just left town
I think they're strange and when they're dead
They can have a Lincoln for their bed
Friend of the President trick of the tail
Now they ain't got a prayer 100 years in jail

Holy smoke, holy smoke
Plenty bad preachers for the Devil to stoke
Feed them in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making holy smoke

Holy smoke

The 6 Moral Dealbreakers of Christianity

2011-12-24T11:21:00.000+11:00

Book Review: Interview with Gods

2011-12-24T10:47:00.000+11:00

If you read this book as a novel, the plot is too simple - a group of friends (members of a non-political, non-violence ecologically focused group called One Planet) were contacted by "External Consciousness". In order to protect the information these people got, the USA secret service killed them all.

The "meat" of the book is the five chapters presented as the interviews with External Consciousness by these members of One Planet. If read as fiction, it is dry. Basically, it is External Consciousness explaining how a higher intelligence has designed the "biomatrix" - the biological system on Earth, the developments and so on. If read as science, well it is non science! The first interview is about the creation. Poised as a description of how Universe has evolved and how life on earth has evolved, the chapter is full of voodoo promoted by people such as Deepak Chopra.

I would not recommend reading this as fact or science. I would not recommend reading as novel too.

Also published on Random Walk in Learning

Any act done by an atheist is superior to an act done in the name of god

2011-12-22T15:03:00.003+11:00

Christians, don't watch this!

2011-12-21T19:38:00.002+11:00

Hitchens Has Risen

2011-12-21T12:39:00.000+11:00

News has been spreading that Christopher Hitchens has risen from death after reportedly died three days ago. Here is the evidence.

If you do not believe what I have said, why you would believe in the old books claiming Jesus has risen from the death?

22 Comments From Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-17T11:33:00.000+11:00

22 COMMENTS FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS from Twelve Books on Vimeo.

Humanity has just lost one of her most honest critic

2011-12-16T21:07:00.000+11:00

Christopher Hitchens words live on.

Saudi Woman Beheaded for 'Sorcery'

2011-12-15T12:32:00.000+11:00

Hyprocritic double standard

2011-12-15T12:17:00.001+11:00

Video: Crucified Santa skeleton is decapitated
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

To XMAS And Beyond!

2011-12-14T12:36:00.002+11:00

The Autobiography of a Secular Humanist

2011-12-14T12:23:00.000+11:00

by V.N.K. Kumar

Some quotes below:

I became more and more convinced that god must have many psychological problems, even if we asssume that he exists. For one thing, he seems so insecure. He demands worship from everyone — praising him, pleading for money, requesting relief from illness. Why should an omnipotent, omniscient & omnibenevolent being need this flattery if he is omnipotent and solicitation for help if he is omniscient & omnibenevolent (He should know who needs what kind of help at which time, shouldn’t he?). Perhaps, I reasoned to myself, this makes him feel powerful, which shows his inferiority complex and insecurity. Secondly, he goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. So even if hypothetically we assume that he exists, I felt that he doesn’t deserve my respect and adoration.

I found out through Comparative Religion that every religion thinks it is true. But I concluded that all 10,000 + currently alive religions cannot be true simultaneously, though they can all be false simultaneously. I discovered the difference between science and religion. When knowledge is inadequate, science poses a question, but religion proposes a belief.

So it seemed to me that God was rapidly losing his job as an explanation for things we don’t understand.

However, the biggest advantage to believing in god(s) — apart from the comforts of believing in everyday protection in this life, and immortality for self & Ultimate Justice for people who have deliberately hurt us, in the afterlife – is that you don’t have to unnecessarily tax your brain cells to learn & understand anything worthwhile about the origins of the Universe, life & humans — no physics, no biology, no geology, no paleontology, no anthropology, no evolutionary psychology, no neurotheology, no comparative religion, no nothing. Most of the religious people do not have any in-depth knowledge of these subjects and also have not cultivated the art of logical & critical reasoning and hence lull themselves into a sense of self-complacency thinking that their puerile religiosity is unquestionable.

I confess I wanted to learn & understand and didn’t mind the effort required . And so I ended up as an atheist cum secular humanist.

Science and religion

2011-12-13T11:06:00.001+11:00

Genesis 22 as told by Louis CK

2011-12-10T15:22:00.000+11:00

Another USA republican ad

2011-12-09T14:48:00.000+11:00

Will USA survive till 2025?

2011-12-09T13:54:00.002+11:00

While I disagree with Pat Buchanan's notion that America is founded on a Christian value and it will be the Christian value to hold America together, the signs of the collapse of USA are too obvious to anyone. It is strange that those within USA cannot see it coming. You may buy the 4-hour audio book via the Amazon link or download here.

Financially, there are two problems:
(1) 15 Trillion government debts which is about 100% GDP of USA, and with about another 55 Trillion (present discounted value) of committed medicare and social securities in the pipeline.
(2) The trade deficit has been increasing and there is no sign of reversal. We all know that a household cannot get out of trouble by more borrowing, ditto for a country.

However there are some good news. Of the 8 Trillion, only 8% are in foreign ownership. That means if USA government defaults, if won't be a foreign power forcing her to do so. Of the 55 Trillion debts for the future, a large trunk is related to healthcare. At present, USA is spending, per capital, twice as much as the average of developed countries (the next 4 highest spenders average USD4000 per capital verses USA's UDS8000) [source], adapting any other country's healthcare system will save the government at least half of the CBO debts.

Socially, there are
(1) large inequalities of income
(2) overblown healthcare expenses
(3) declining performances of the educational system [some sample data]
(4) delusional public wishful thinking that a god may save you

Politically, the current system is completely corrupted.

It is dominated by warmongers. USA is currently engaged in two wars (that we know of) and maintaining a huge number of military bases oversea . The defense spending (should be called the aggression budget) is larger than seven of the next highest spenders combined. How could a population of 5% (globally) spend 46% of global total military expenses? How could it be sustainable?

In China, just an example, if a government official is found corrupted, s/he may be executed. While I do not condone corruption and capital punishment, at least symbolically, the government is against corruption. The USA political system has now corrupted to the point that such bribery has been legalized to be called "lobbying". Occupy Wall Street movements has been calling out loud and clear than citizens demand cleaning up the corruption and put Wall Street in check. Has any political leader acknowledged the cry and at least commence a dialog?

This brings me to the reason I am writing this post. Here is a potential occupant of the White House. What are the issues he focused on? People going to church? Gay marriages?

Here is a response I approve.

and this is a most appropriate one to the stupidity of USA's possible future "leader".

To remain strong, the first step is to acknowledge that USA is weak now. Do some evidence-based researching and come up with some good policies to help USA citizens to get back up on their feet, make a decent living and rebuild from the ground up. There is no god and hence there will be no divine help anytime soon. To fund the rebuild, get the tax rates back to the 1950's to the 1960's. I want to see USA back on her feet not only because I have three sisters and mothers in USA (as legal citizens), I hate to see those desperately clinging to power use the horrible weapons of mass destruction to her own people or to some other countries. USA has a lot WMDs and still refuses to be scrutinized by neutral international bodies! The collapse of an economy and/or a country is going to be bloody and painful - for everyone.

Liz Heywood and her story

2011-12-09T10:24:00.001+11:00

A guest contributor posted the following story at Friendly Atheist

The last day of my childhood was Saturday, November 22nd, 1975. I was thirteen years old.

I galloped my horse through the woods, then I rode my bike to a friend’s house and we ran together all afternoon. I’d had no injury, but that night my left knee swelled like a melon; by bedtime I could barely walk. In a matter of weeks, so much pus was draining from my knee and running down my leg that my parents put a cookie sheet underneath to catch it. Within a month I was bedridden — and stayed that way for almost a year. Another six months in a wheelchair left me a teenager with a fused, hideously deformed leg and emotionally crippled by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yet I never saw a doctor. I never received any medical treatment. I was a third-generation Christian Scientist living in Lexington, Massachusetts, within twenty miles of the Mother Church in Boston. My parents treated the sudden infection in my knee the same way they treated every illness: by having a Christian Science practitioner pray. Christian Scientists believe that mortal life is unreal: they believe that understanding the spiritual universe created by God results in physical healing. All injuries and illnesses are treated this way — from paper cuts to cancer.

The year before, in 1974, federal regulations were enacted by the Nixon Administration that protected the rights of parents to choose religious treatment for their children even if it meant denying them urgently needed medical care. In 39 states and the District of Columbia, these exemptions are still in place even though in 1984 the Reagan Administration stopped mandating that states exempt parents from charges of religion-based medical neglect.

Years later, my bone disease was identified as osteomyelitis, a strep infection that can settle in a joint. While serious complications can develop, immediate treatment with antibiotics can result in a good outcome. But my family saw my swollen, stiff knee as a mortal illusion to be corrected through prayer. About five weeks from the onset, my leg began to drain an alarming amount of pus. My mother called a Christian Science practical nurse to help care for me — a nurse trained by the church in strictly non-medical methods and forbidden to diagnose disease or dispense medicine.

And I believed only prayer could help me: I never expected or even wanted medical treatment. I was bedridden for ten months in 1976. I lost weight. I couldn’t bear to have my mother hug me — the slightest motion was agony. I sensed I might die. Some nights, I was afraid I wouldn’t die. I was fourteen years old.

My school, friends and neighbors were aware I was seriously ill and being treated with prayer. At times I screamed in pain, but none of the neighbors investigated. Only the mother of my best friend was concerned enough to call a lawyer but was told it was unlikely that I could legally hospitalized. As a last-ditch effort, my friend’s mother sent an ambulance to our house. My mother told me afterward the driver said someone [was] having a baby.

This faith-based medical neglect hid me in plain sight behind the respectability of Christian Science, under the radar of politically correct religious tolerance. Even when they feared for my life, my parents seemed incapable of choosing medical help. By Christian Science policy, a practitioner may refuse to pray for clients who receive medical care, and my parents were terrified that hospitalizing me would lead to my death. Though I had a phone by my bed on those nights I cried, it never occurred to me to call anyone except the practitioner.

I outlasted the disease. My leg was scarred to the bone and my knee fused at an angle of about eighty degrees. But my school never asked for details when I finally lurched back to class on crutches after eighteen months, wrestling with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, claustrophobia, and panic attacks. Eventually I dropped out of high school.

Orthopedic specialists were unable to replace my fused knee. By the time I reached my forties, my foot and ankle had deteriorated until I could barely walk. Three years ago today, February 26th, 2007, I chose an above-knee amputation.

I remember clearly the agony and anguish I felt as a child. I remember that no adult stepped forward to end it. The law authorized my parents’ decision to leave me untreated, and the sanction of the law discouraged others from doing what is right. But refusing to act on the pain a child feels is criminal.

It is my sincere hope that my story will inspire the Obama Administration to realize that federal regulations must be amended. States that wish to receive federal funds must be required to remove these religious exemptions in their child abuse laws. My case is not unique: children today are in danger. Despite the abuse inflicted upon these children, most states are unable to pursue civil or criminal proceedings. The need to protect innocent children who are being hurt by these laws is urgent and immediate. When states aren’t required to document or classify cases of religion-based neglect — much less remove children from homes where this kind of abuse occurs — the consequences are completely unethical and morally unacceptable.

War on Christmas Daily show with Jon Stewart

2011-12-09T10:11:00.002+11:00

The Daily Show
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A new record of insanity

2011-12-09T10:06:00.000+11:00

Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance

The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

And since men are not supposed to serve women, these food items are not likely to be available... sigh!

Australian sentenced to 500 lashes in Saudi Arabia.

2011-12-09T10:01:00.001+11:00

Sharia law is in action again. Blasphemy is a no victim "crime" and it is only in barbaric countries that free speech is suppressed like this.

re: Apologies and Forgiveness

2011-11-30T14:35:00.000+11:00

Please read the original post before reading my comment below.

OK, you have read the post, go ahead continue reading...

My position of moral is that one should avoid making mistakes. When mistakes are made, one has to live with the consequences of the mistake. The right to forgive and move on is not with the wrong-doer even in face of a sincere apology. Whether the victim agrees to forgive is completely moral independent. That's the point I beg to differ with Alonzo Fyfe:

I believe all of the elements of a sincere apology have been met. From this, the only legitimate option is to accept that apology. Refusing to do so is unjust. Refusing to do so because one holds GelatoGuy personally responsible for a culture over which he has no control compounds the injustice.

PZ has the absolute right to refuse to accept an apology even if the apology was given sincerely. PZ was hurt and if PZ decided to live with the memory of such a hurt and refused to forgive, it is nothing immoral. Hurt was done - although the pain might have subsided.

Is culture to blame? May be and may be not. Culture is a co-creation by all the participants of the culture. The GelatoGuy may be gullible and may have fallen victim to the culture in which he was brought up. He could blame the culture AND then learnt to change the culture. But he did make a mistake and I commend him with the courage to apologize.

Forgiveness is the path for the victim to move on. The wrong-doer did the damage and has to face up with consequences - including consequences that some will not accept the apology.

While I encourage victims to forgive, but the assertion that not accepting a sincere apology is immoral is itself immoral.

Questions for the Catholics...

2011-11-29T09:57:00.001+11:00

Pedophilia Priesthood

2011-11-29T09:54:00.002+11:00

Faith Healing is evil

2011-11-26T10:11:00.002+11:00

ABC Nightline: The Atheist and Her Brain - Margaret Downey

2011-11-24T11:01:00.002+11:00

Was Linda Katechi sincere?

2011-11-23T14:22:00.003+11:00

As the Chancellor of a University, was she naive enough to believe that police would not use inappropriate force? If yes, she did not deserve to be the Chancellor. If no, she did not deserve to be the Chancellor.

Hindsight is always prefect. But the moral call, which is the critical attribute of a leader, is not to commit wrong so that hindsight would be unnecessary. That's the leadership. Has Lida Katechi demonstrated sufficient leadership to remain as the chancellor of any university?

As the police retreat, was it clear who were on the moral high ground? The cowardice of the police was in plain sight. When it was a few students, they used excessive brutality. When they were out-numbered, they just retreated and could not stand up for what they were supposed to do in the first place.

cross posted to Random Walk in Learning

What can USA citizens do?

2011-11-23T12:24:00.001+11:00

I left Hong Kong after witnessing what had happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989

Now this is happening to USA citizens [source]:

Has the government overstepped the rights of citizens? Is the brutality towards peaceful demonstrators justifiable? Are there government officials condemning the police violence [read this to understand what the pray really is.]? What has a free society become?

What we should be thankful for?

2011-11-23T12:18:00.000+11:00

Compare this

with this very limited view

This distorted christian view is damaging the world.

GelatoGate

2011-11-23T11:43:00.004+11:00

I have been following the saga of the bigoted gelato guy story unfolded remotely in the comfort of my home in Melbourne Australia.

Now that the flame has died down a little, let me throw in my observation.

Andy, the gelato's owner took down the sign only after putting it up for a short time (according to the apology issued by Andy) at the meantime the above photo went viral and his store's online rating crumpled. There are basically two camps on the atheist blogosphere - those did not accept the apology (PZ and JT) and those did (Jen and Hemant) as noted by Adam Lee

To me, an apology should be accompanied by a behavioral change to rectify the wrong. So my question is "Has the store owner demonstrated an understanding of what was the wrong and made an effort to rectify the wrong?" Another question is what is the motivation of the apology?

If the atheist community did not have the leverage of lowering his store online rating, would he issue the apology?

Of course, we can only guess at what actually was in his mind and we are not thought police. From his latest apology, Andy was also offering a 10% to customers in this week - oh, that said a lot of what was going on in his mind. To me, apology not accepted. His motivation is whitewashing and damage control. As JT Eberhard put it, he should have said something along the following lines.

Bigotry is unacceptable. Offense is not the same as breathing life into prejudice. Punishing somebody for disagreeing with you or thinking your beliefs are silly is immoral. Making a donation that will actually help make the world a better place rather than inviting us to patronize your business for an insignificant discount.

Another point I would like to raise is the immoral concept of the Christian forgiveness. The immoral teaching that one can forgive oneself and move on is absolutely wrong. The offended has the right to forgive and move on, but the offender doesn't have any right to forgive himself/herself. When a wrong is done, it is done. There is nothing that can be done to undo the wrong. Remorse is the first step to recovery and to become a better self. Understand what was wrong and make positive steps not to offend again. We can learn from mistakes only when we are still in school (an artificial environment created to tolerate mistake to happen without serious consequences). In life, mistake is mistake. One has to live with the consequences of any mistake. In this case, I cannot see any sign Andy would be doing to become better. He has not started the first step.

Atheist Fundamentists

2011-11-17T17:28:00.001+11:00

If there is a form of atheism which could be labelled as fundamental, I would be a card carrying member of such a group. The fact is that there is no such thing as fundamental atheists which some like to claim there is. By definition, atheism is the position that there is no sufficient evidence to support a belief that there is a god. Atheism does not have canonical texts which every atheist must study and adhere to. No, such text does not exist and there is no fundamentalist in this aspect.

As for assuming the position of the opposition in a debate, many do take the initial assumption that the opposition is a fundamentalist. If the opposition found such position is absurd and/or not his/her position, many are happy to adjust the assumption accordingly. Obviously arguing against a fundamentalist position is much easier - the level of absurdity are just low hanging fruits. The position of "sophisticated" liberal theist may be trickier. They typically use convoluted word trickery to avoid facing the absurdity head-on and most would have been practicing such mental gymnastic for sometime already.

In many of the debates I have watched, almost no theist managed to define god. That makes a fuzzy target to aim the argument. One way to nail them down is to make them acknowledge the god in question is the god described in the old testament.

The difficulty is those new-age theists who believe in a really fuzzy imagination and acknowledge that the bible may be wrong. Many of them are actually logic-illiterate - unable to reason with sound logic. Hitchens treatment to these are really entertaining.

As for the accusation of "evangelistic" nature of some more out-spoken atheists, I would say this. I, as an example, felt the pain of the failure of education to educate modern citizens and enable them to get rid of the shackle of religious bondage. I am applaud to the continuous abuse parents subject their children by indoctrinating young minds with myths (myths are OK, but it is NOT OK to say myths are true.), superstition and threaten them with hell. That is unacceptable. A child is NOT a property of the parent. A child is a human being - may still be dependent at the moment, but nevertheless is a human being with the right to make up his/her mind about what kind of stupid ideas s/he wants to believe in WHEN s/he is OLD ENOUGH to decide. Baptizing a child or allowing children into church should be crimes punishable by law.

Here is the response of Daniel Dennett on William Lane Craig (a typical apologetic liberal theist, I suppose). Mine is here.

Religion is not only a crutch for many people, it's also what crippled them in the first place.

2011-11-17T11:47:00.002+11:00

[source]

Q&A - Holding the Pope to Account for Catholic Child Abuse

2011-11-17T10:44:00.000+11:00

Torture and American Mind-set

2011-11-16T11:21:00.000+11:00

I am an Australian and I do not follow American election news closely. So I will take the following quote from Atheist Ethicist as accurate:

Two Republican candidates for President - Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann - said in a recent debate that they do not consider waterboarding to be torture and would return to the practice of waterboarding prisoners if they were President.

Two Republican candidates said that they opposed waterboarding - Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman.

A number of people raised objections to waterboarding and torture following the debate, almost all of which can be put into two categories:

Category 1 - It makes America look bad.

Category 2 - It doesn't work. [Alonzo Fyfe]

Fyfe correctly pointed out that these were "stupid reasons to oppose torture." As he explained adeptly, a simple application of moral golden rule (do not do what you would not want other to yourself) would have come to the conclusion that torture of prisoners are not acceptable. These political "leaders" would be happy to send other's children to battlefield but not theirs. When other's were tortured, they do not care. The lack moral stance of the leadership of USA is an indication of the inevitable fall of this nation. Mere military strength can only get a nation this far. Roman Empire collapsed because it ran out of captives to enslave. For USA to be relevant in the future, a quick turn-around is needed, but I cannot see any coming anytime soon. This is not good.

Get rich scheme

2011-11-15T09:37:00.000+11:00

If you want to get rich, starting a church in USA is easy and quick.

The New Tithe from Justin Wilson on Vimeo.

A message from god

2011-11-13T11:09:00.002+11:00

Catholics are very TOLERATE.

2011-11-12T10:52:00.000+11:00

Compared with the response from Muslims, it is so much more civilized.

Honestly, "I fail to see the problem with ants on some magic action figure." [quote from DoctorE]

Morgan Freeman's faith

2011-11-11T23:43:00.001+11:00

The voice of moral justice and reason

2011-11-11T23:35:00.005+11:00

To Hitch

2011-11-11T23:20:00.000+11:00

To a great man with courage and conviction, reason and logic. Cheers, Mr. Hitchens.

Life and not-life

2011-11-10T16:35:00.002+11:00

A FUNERAL FOR DEAD GODS

2011-11-09T15:47:00.000+11:00

Obedient Wives Club

2011-11-09T11:44:00.000+11:00

A typical corruption of moral values by religious stupidity

This probably explains why clergyman remain hopelessly confused over the proper use of condoms

2011-11-08T18:38:00.002+11:00

Moral

2011-11-07T16:39:00.000+11:00

They're Very Smart, These Scientists

2011-11-07T10:51:00.000+11:00

God bless America!

The Daily Show
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Typical religious mentality

2011-11-07T10:29:00.003+11:00

Amazing Christian Muslim debate

2011-11-06T15:10:00.000+11:00

Dave Hunt Vs Shabir Ally

Whose version of fairtale is truer?

Cosmological argument

2011-11-05T13:53:00.001+11:00

William Lane Craig argues that we have good reason to believe that the universe had a temporal beginning, and that the Big Bang theory shows this. What that means is that the Big Bang theory, which in popular culture is presumed to be an atheistic theory, is actually embarrassing for atheism, since it agrees with the Bible that there WAS a beginning. [source]

Let's put aside whether Craig would agree to the above (I think he would), the problems with the argument are:

1. Layman's understanding of Big Bang Theory should be that at the Big Bang, it was a singularity. That is we have no physical means to know what was before the Big Bang. Stephen Hawkings have recently established that Big Bang will spontaneous appear under the law of Quantum Physics. Universe is not caused. Ignoring the latest understanding and cherry picking of Science to support a view is a logical fallacy.

2. The bible may be right at one thing - the universe has a beginning. That does not imply the rest of the bible is also correct. Take the sequence of creation as an example. The bible is complete wrong. To judge a claim to be right or wrong, we depend on evidence to support that claim. A lucky guess is just a lucky guess. Nothing special.

Craig maintains what whatever begins to exist, must have a cause of its existence, and since the universe began to exist, the universe has to have something other than itself cause it to exist. On the other hand, God, according to the definition, never began to exist, so he needs no cause of his existence.

1. The claim that "what whatever begins to exist, must have a cause of its existence" needs evidence and proof. To prove this statement is wrong, I only need ONE counter example. Here it is. From Quantum mechanics, we know that radioactive exists. The instance at which a radioactive nuclei decays cannot be predicted. We can only have statistical laws about radioactive decay. This is an example of event without a cause. If this event has a cause, we would understand precisely the moment when the cause is satisfied and would trigger the decay. Heisenberg uncertainty principle implies that it is impossible to know the cause and hence the event is strictly uncaused. Of course, the second counter example would be the appearance of our universe.

2. By definition god does not need a cause is another example which I could use to disprove the claim that "whatever begins to exist, must have a cause of its existence". God, if exists, has existed. There is no obvious reason, except by the trickery of words, to define it as needing no cause. The fact is that we do not know whether god exists because of a cause. This would need to the recursive situation of a god' creator and ad infinite. This is an obvious logical impossibility. Either god exists without a cause OR god does not exist. This argument does not exclude the possibility that the god in our definition does not exist.

"You Atheists Have No Hope. What Keeps You Alive?"

2011-11-05T11:40:00.000+11:00

My question to the Christians. Since god is waiting for you, why don't you kill yourself and meet it earlier?

Thought crime

2011-11-04T17:39:00.000+11:00

The following is from the Banana man - dumb as usual

In a hate crime, one is punished not just for committing a specific crime against someone, but for his supposed thoughts toward that person. If a man beat up a heterosexual, for example, he would deserve one sentence. But beating up a homosexual, if it could be proved that he once expressed a negative attitude toward homosexuals, would get him a substantially increased sentence. Also, students who mention wishing for the death of a teacher or fellow student are taken seriously and punished. They could merely mention it on Facebook or in texting, for instance, and immediately be in trouble—because it shows the intent of the heart, even if they are not actively planning it.

What have been listed in the above are actions. No one knows anything about anyone's private thoughts. Once that thought has gone out, it is no longer just a thought and one has to be responsible for what has gone out of his/her head. The issue is not only "thought crime" which are not detectable, it is also about "crime without victims". Pointing out the stupidity of someone's is not a crime as long as that stupidity can be demonstrated. For example, it is really stupid to believe that a loving god would need to sacrifice itself to itself to forgive itself from creating human eating a forbidden fruit before that human knew what is good and what is bad. I hold that thought for a long time. No one would know. As I put it down, I have to face the consequence of the above words - which I am prepared to defend why I really think that is a stupid belief.

Islam is a TOLERATE religion

2011-11-04T12:15:00.000+11:00

Deepak Chopra - follow up

2011-11-04T11:54:00.000+11:00

Deepak Chopra and Bill O'Reilly

2011-11-04T11:47:00.000+11:00

What a combination!

A Priest mocks creationism

2011-11-03T14:38:00.002+11:00

Famous Atheist

2011-11-03T14:35:00.000+11:00

I went to a church concert

2011-11-03T14:25:00.001+11:00

I knew what was going to happen last Saturday, but I went along to support one of our friends who was singing. The most impressive point to me is the amount of immoral messages that were mixed into the lyric, the whole shit about Jesus dying for our sin etc. One of the song is about eternal life and of course it must be via blind faith in Jesus that anyone can have eternal life. Not that I want to live forever, but if there is any chance of extending our healthy life span, it won't come from religion, it will come from Science.

The cells in our body divide time and again. During such division, the copies may be corrupted by radiation or the chemicals that are in our bodies. Cells have several strategies: repair the damage, give up the ghost (the new cell) or stop dividing. Those cells which stopped dividing are called senescence. Recently, scientists have discovered by removing senescence cells in mice, these mice have an extended healthy life span - not longer life span! [source]

I don't have faith in science. I trust only evidence. This is early work and its application to human are tens of years away. But as human knowledge progress, the use of religion is getting less and less. Seriously, has religion passed its used-by date? I certainly think so.

Extraordinary things require extraordinary evidence

2011-11-02T13:51:00.003+11:00

If you are to learn only one thing today, learn this: Extraordinary things require extraordinary evidence

Please ask yourself this. If you meet someone today who claimed that he has just risen from death, what kind of evidence would you require to believe in his claim?

Miracles for Sale

2011-11-02T13:35:00.000+11:00

Faith-healing couple sentenced to more than six years in prison

2011-11-02T13:29:00.000+11:00

While I have full sympathy to children whose parents needed to go to jail, the message should be clear to all parents. Voodoos, or prayers, do not cure diseases. Letting imaginary guy in the sky into one's life is delusional and have bad consequences. It is a shame that the Public Prosecutor did not think he should also target the church - which is the real culprit in cases like this.

Just war theory

2011-11-01T19:03:00.002+11:00

Victor Reppert suggests that the "just war theory" was invented by Christian,

Has anybody noticed that, before Christianity, nobody ever dreamed that there were some things you couldn't do to noncombatants and defeated nations. If you conquered in battle, then the people belonged to you to kill, rape, or enslave as you saw fit. What the ban on, say, the Amalekites does is remove the last two options.

As I pointed out in one of the discussions, the just war theory was invented by Christians. Not secular humanists.

This may be true in his corner of the world, the Chinese has been promoting winning without war. When an inevitable war was fight and won, the winning side should not kill or hurt the people conquered. [The Art of War, Sun Zi, 2nd century BC] This idea originated from Confucius and Lao Zi 4th century BC.

Advocating genocide, in any measure at any time and place, is barbaric and the bible has plenty such examples. No wonder when the Christian discovered new world, the indigenous were mass murdered. The few remaining indigenous people Australia and America are examples. In Africa, they capture the black as slaves.

Bible morality

2011-11-01T14:08:00.000+11:00

I know using bible to be the foundation of moral is immoral, but just in case you are not sure, have a look:

God so loved the world that he sent Darwin to explain it

2011-10-30T11:45:00.002+11:00

[source]

Is The Bible Still Relevant Today?

2011-10-29T15:46:00.000+11:00

I hope it were Christopher Hitchens instead of Richard Dawkins attending this BBC One debate. Dawkins is just too polite and gently that he has not gotten the message across strongly.

If you want to claim the decency of modern western civilization as coming from the bible, you cannot discount the same cultural teachings were the basis of genocides that European conquerors inflicted on lesser advanced cultures everywhere they went.

Atheist Calls Religious People 'Idiots' On British Debate

2011-10-29T13:40:00.000+11:00

Pointing out a fact (that religious people are idiots) is not silly nor rude. This society has given those claiming to have the truth an unfair privileged position which they do not deserve. Blind faith is blind, dangerous and totally unproductive. We should get rid of the dogma that these people holding unsupported belief as somehow clever or intelligent. The fact is that they are not. Their logic does not work!

After posting this, will I get the same kind of comments directed to Kate Smurthwaite

Christianity is immoral

2011-10-28T19:46:00.002+11:00

Where does moral come from?

2011-10-28T10:34:00.000+11:00

The bible contains good things and bad things. The fact that you do not follow many of the commands in the bible, the fact that you can cherry-pick means that there is something outside of the bible to guide you. That's your moral, a result of your upbringing, social influence and possibly your reading of works from great minds.

Are atheists morally inferior to believers? Certainly not. In fact, many atheists can think though this question of moral and come to a concrete conclusion on how we should behave. Statistically, the USA prison system is under-represented by atheists indicates that atheists are in generally more law-abiding.

Good man does good thing and evil man does evil thing. For a good man to do evil thing, it takes religion.

Dear Apologetic...

2011-10-27T15:03:00.001+11:00

Dear Apologetic,

I like to discuss with you why I think your apologetic position about the bible is untenable.

The bible is either
A. literally true,
B. metaphorical, or
C. partly literal true and partly metaphorical.

You obviously do not take position A because of the various contradictions in the bible to our best observed facts.

If your position is that the bible is metaphorical, then you have to also take the position that god in the bible is also metaphorical and hence you are just an atheist like me - who do not believe in the existence of the bible god.

The interesting part is of course the position that some parts of the bible is true and some is metaphorical and you believe that god exists - that's the true part at least. Think about this: How can *anyone* distinguish between metaphorical parts and truths in the bible? The bible itself does not expressively say which part is metaphorical and which part is not. We need an *external* agent (meaning evidence outside the bible) to determine which part is true and then the rest is metaphorical.

Now show me, using evidence besides the bible and derivative works from the bible that the bible god exists. Over the past 2 centuries, no one has even been able to do so, else we would not still be discussing this thing.

Without any evidence to show that the bible god exists, what would be the most *simple* conclusion one can draw?

Yours,

An atheist

Religion is a cancer

2011-10-27T10:53:00.001+11:00

Religious killed children

2011-10-27T10:51:00.000+11:00

See the report at youTube.

Avoid at all cost to books like this:
To Train Up A Child

Where is God when there is a need?

2011-10-26T12:08:00.000+11:00

Let me assume that god exists

2011-10-25T17:14:00.001+11:00

There are some arguments put forth by the theists that god exists. See e.g. here Let's assume that god exists, now HOW do you know that "that god" is YOUR god. Specifically, how can you show that the bible authors have special privileges to access god and the words as recorded in the bible is a fair and true description of god.

On the contrary, if the bible is truly a faithful record of god, then it should contain no error, no ambiguity, no falsehood and immense insight which human-kind will find enlightening and amazed. The sad fact is that the bible is littered with error, falsehood and nothing is enlightening or amazing. The bible is more a compilation of deluded men trying to stitch together a story which may sound reasonable. The historical background of the bible writers (that a special class of parasites on the Jews people) and their inter fighting to amass power and influence is everywhere. The current version is a poor attempt of stitching together several contradicting versions in an attempt to please the majority. The tactics depended on the illiteracy of the common people at the time. Common people could not read the book nor remembered every details of the book. So contradiction in plain sight could be ignored.

For any person to have a mental capability to think and to believe in the incoherent stories, this is an illustration of the failure of current education system.

I am a creationist

2011-10-24T18:26:00.002+11:00

Moses is a terrorist

2011-10-24T18:24:00.000+11:00

Spain: The Stolen Children | European Journal

2011-10-22T22:41:00.000+11:00

and from BBC and the program

Morality from the bible

2011-10-22T11:20:00.002+11:00

Crimes commited by the Churches

2011-10-21T15:45:00.000+11:00

RC Church have committed many crimes throughout its history of existence - crusades, inquisitions, torture in the past. More recent crimes includes hiding child molesting priests from justice, stole babies (both in Australia and Spain)

PsiCop asks

And how long will it take the Catholic Church to admit its criminality, apologize for it, and make amends?

Unfortunately, unless we, common sane, people unite together and drag the monster out to face justice, it will never admit anything wrong as long as it is able to do so. Meanwhile, if we continue to let insanity rule, we shall see more crimes being committed.

If I am a boss...

2011-10-21T11:05:00.000+11:00

If I am a boss looking for someone to do some manual tasks, I would not mind how s/he thinks, what and what not s/he believes in as long as s/he is physically capable of doing the tasks.

If I am a boss looking for someone to do some tasks which involve logic, evidence-based reasoning, I do not care if the applicant is physically disabled as long as s/he is capable of thinking logically based on evidence. A religious applicant automatically disqualified him/herself by believing in an imaginary friend who looks after everything.

If I am a voter and there are candidates who want to be leaders making many decision for me, a candidate publicly announces his/her religion affiliation has just disqualified to get my vote. If s/he truly believes in an imaginary friend in the sky, s/he is mentally not capable of leading the country. If s/he does not truly believes in god, but pronounces that s/he is to "buy" vote from the religious, then s/he is not honest and I cannot trust his/her ability to make decision unbiased.

Finally, justice may prevail

2011-10-15T12:11:00.000+11:00

For the first time in the US, an actual member of the Roman Catholic hierarchy has been indicted for his role in a priestly-pedophilia scandal. - source

The Catholic Church and the priests working in communities outside of Vatican are not outside of the law of the countries in which they commit any crime.

Bishop Finn is accused of neglecting to report abuse that occurred as recently as last year — almost 10 years since the nation’s Catholic bishops passed a charter pledging to report suspected abusers to law enforcement authorities.

Full force of the law should be applied to those committed horrible crimes, especially against innocent children.

Burden of Proof

2011-10-14T11:05:00.002+11:00

Qi

2011-10-13T11:33:00.000+11:00

Watch this video, do you agree with the existence of Qi?

America's 5 Favorite Ways to Ignore Jesus

2011-10-13T10:55:00.002+11:00

Religion to coexist?

2011-10-11T16:25:00.000+11:00

This is a christian propaganda. See if you can find out what's wrong with it.

Answer: (highlight the following white space to see.)

Christians have traditionally killed many non-christians - check your history re; crusades and inquisition. So saying the Christian poses not threat to the others is completely rubbish.

Religions bound people into cages with arbitrarily doctrines based on poor imaginations of people many years ago. Human is ONE species and we are mutually interdependent. We coexist regardless of religion. We kill each other when religion becomes the dividing line. We do not need religions to coexist. We need no religion to coexist.

What kind of atheist am I?

2011-10-11T16:11:00.000+11:00

Austin Cline described the work of George H. Smith about the term critical atheism.

Explicit atheist sees no reason whatsoever for believing in a supernatural being because of the failure of theism to provide sufficient evidence of it.

Strong Atheist would say "The existence of a god is impossible" after examining the absurd or contradictory concept of god. Just like a "square-circle" does not exit. God is a logical impossibility.

Noncognitive atheist whose position is that until "god" is well defined, there is no discussion possible. An example would be to discuss the existence of "unie" before someone defines what is "unie".

I think I am a strong atheist, at least to the religions related to the Abrahamic god. After reading the bible, I have concluded that the god in the bible was a monster and luckily it does not exist.

Iranian actress sentencd for a role she played in a film

2011-10-11T15:36:00.000+11:00

VIDEO: Iranian actress sentenced for role

The film in question is My Tehran for Sale. The story line (from IMDB):

Marzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically. At an underground rave, she meets Iranian born Saman, now an Australian citizen, who offers her a way out of her country and the possibility of living without fear.

When religion trumps reason...

2011-10-11T09:21:00.000+11:00

They say their religious sense of modesty is offended by the sight of the girls and their families passing their homes on their way to school, even though the families themselves are also from an orthodox community. BBC

See the video here.

It is not barbaric to cut off someone's hand surgically

2011-10-10T21:49:00.000+11:00

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. - Matthew 5:29 - 30

Are we going to see surgically removing eyes from the Bible-believing Christians?

Bonus: Woman's stoning

Pascal Wager

2011-10-10T15:57:00.002+11:00

Quotes

2011-10-10T11:15:00.000+11:00

The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles command, what rogues teach, and young children are made to learn by heart. - Voltaire

I believe in the religion of reason - the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world. - Robert. G. Ingersoll

Baker's wager

2011-10-06T17:03:00.004+11:00

Did Jesus die for Klingons too?

2011-10-05T12:02:00.000+11:00

If 100 YEAR STARSHIP program is a part of the Star Trek story, it would be most appropriate for a professor Weidemann to append to the fiction another fiction.

"the death of Christ, some 2,000 years ago, was designed to save all creation.

However, the whole of creation, as defined by scientists, includes 125billion galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy.

That means that if intelligent life exists on other planets, then Jesus or God would have to have visited them too, and sacrificed himself equally for Martian-kind as well as mankind.

The alternative, posits Weidemann, is that Jesus chose earthlings as the single race to save and abandoned every other life form in the galaxy."

Believers are getting more and more creative when science discovers more and more about the myths which are not substantiated by evidence.