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I don’t think Christians are evil. But the Christian God is evil, and belief in him runs the risk of non-evil people embracing evil through lazy moral and intellectual concessions to things that do not deserve to be conceded. And the Problem of Evil settles it. The PoE came up on yesterday’s show, and in response to the show we got some correspondence from an atheist who’s having this very discussion with a Christian friend. As we see from the friend’s responses, theodicy isn’t so much an exercise in rebutting the Problem of Evil as making excuses for it. Read more

Today, Jeff and Martin (that’s me!) did the show as host and co-host for the first time in at least ten years! It was an absolute blast, we had a number of very good calls, and the technical glitches that occurred — no opening music or background graphic — kind of made the whole affair feel more authentically like things were ten years ago. (Said glitches happened because neither John nor Frank were in the control room today, leaving Shelly and the remaining crew to pull some mildly panicked double duty. That they got things eventually running smoothly was quite a feat.) Anyway, discuss and stuff.

Greta Christina noticed that I had posted an email last week with “Godless Perverts” in the title — as a reference to one of many attempted insults tossed out by one of our commenters. That post had little to do with Greta Christina’s regular meetup group, which is actually called “Godless Perverts,” so that seemed to have caused some confusion. But hey, being Godless is fun! Perversion can, apparently, also be fun! So since some of you might might actually like to look into these events, the following is a guest post from Greta. As one of the hosts/ organizers of the Godless Perverts event that was discussed here a few days ago, I feel like I should explain what exactly that’s about. The Godless Perverts are actually based in San Francisco, not Lawrence, KS. We host readings/performance events, social gatherings, and panel discussions looking at sex and sexuality from an atheist perspective: looking at the intersection of sex and sexuality with atheism, skepticism, materialism, science, etc., as well as looking at religion and sexuality from an atheist perspective. In April, we took the show on the road for the first time, and hosted a Godless Perverts Story Hour event at the Reasonfest conference in Lawrence. The name was chosen (a) to be funny and entertaining, and (b) as part of reclaiming the words “godless” and “pervert” — both of which get used as marginalizing words, to marginalize atheists and sexual minorities (kinky people, poly people, LGBT people, etc.). All of which makes it seem somewhat stuffy, so I’ll assure you that it isn’t: the Godless Perverts Story Hour readings/ performance events can get pretty wild. Good times. And I’m still scratching my head over the idea that our existence proves that atheism is unfalsifiable. m-/ -Greta Also as a reminder, Greta’s sexy new book, Bending, is available now in many convenient formats!

Aww, Ken Ham has his tighty whities in a twist. You know what I have to say to that? So I suppose you’ve all seen that mind-numbingly horrific and awful 4th grade Christian “science quiz” that’s been making the rounds on Facebook? The one that’s totally real, and that makes anyone operating at higher than a room-temperature IQ see red with rage for the way it’s poisoning children’s minds with miseducation that qualifies as outright intellectual abuse? Well, of course, to the microcephalics at Answers in Genesis, always looking for a chance to play the martyr, this is just more horrible abuse of Christians by those mean old intolerant atheists. The usual litany of cretinous, projection-heavy self-pity ensues. These secularists want to impose their anti-God religion on the culture. They are simply not content using legislatures and courts to protect the dogmatic teaching of their atheistic religion of evolution and millions of years in public schools. There is something else on their agenda: they are increasingly going after Christians and Christian institutions that teach God’s Word beginning in Genesis. Well, since you idiots already went there, fine, I’ll play. You’re damn right I’m intolerant. I’m intolerant of ideological lies being passed off to children in the guise of education, stunting their development and limiting their opportunities for the future. I’m intolerant of anyone who would shut down the natural inquisitiveness of a child’s wonderful mind with the corrosive ichor of dogma. I’m just as intolerant of what you teach as I would be if a child was taught Holocaust denial, or flat Earth “theory,” or the idea that ancient astronauts genetically engineered Adam and Eve from cosmic pixie poop…and for exactly the same reasons: it’s false, and stupid, and stupidly false! Stop filling kids’ heads with pernicious lies, and smart...
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Some rather pitiful attention seeker, using the YouTube username “HelpImSick”, has renamed his channel to “Matthew Dillahunty.” He is currently stealing and reposting ACA videos, and under several videos he has included this description: May 1st-31st Contest for 2013: Give a coherent explanation that God exists, that could actually almost convince me that God is true: I will reward the person with 2500$ for the most convincing argument, and I will announce the winner on the 31st. The 2500$ is not fake, it is for the most convincing argument, and I will announce the winner on the 31st. Opposed to the Creationist contest, I actually have an open mind. …Then he goes on to provide all the usual ACA contact info and links. The $2500 is absolutely fake. There is no contest. Neither Matt nor the ACA would throw that kind of money around in any case, nor would we fake a prize as a lame publicity stunt, just so we could claim that there is no winner and keep the money. Matt’s real YouTube account is SansDeity. Read more