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In reply to my defense of what is sometimes called “Evangelical Atheism” on my personal Facebook page, Greg Teed thinks my account comes “so close” to correct but argues that I missed something crucial: All good points, but there is a radical difference *in kind* between what atheists/skeptics promote and what the religious evangelical proselytizes. Sometimes [...]
Archive for February, 2011
Atheists Have Affirmative Positions On The Status Of Evidence And On The Standards Of Belief
February 21st, 2011 
Daniel Fincke Worshipful Experience Of God? Been There, Done That.
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke One Luke Muelhauser’s readers challenged him that all his pursuit of evidence just would not matter if only he would experience “believing in Jesus and God” for himself. In reply, Luke opens up about his emotionally intense experience of Christianity: Things went so well over the next year that I started to feel like quite [...]
Chris Christie On Seriousness About Entitlement Reform
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Is it possible to both be appalled at what Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin where there was no budget crisis before he introduced tax breaks the state could not afford earlier this year and yet still be sympathetic to Chris Christie’s gutsy approach to achieving fiscal solvency in a state otherwise headed for an [...]
RSA Animate Of Stephen Pinker, "Language As A Window Into Human Nature"
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Fantastic, insightful, and intuitively correct stuff about why we bother to use innuendos and other forms of indirect language where the literal meaning of what we are saying is undisguisedly clear: Thanks to Shane. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Evolutionary Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Language, Psychology, Psychology, Sex 
Tags: Alan Fiske, Anthropology, Awkwardness, Commands, Communality Relationships, Deniability, Dominance Relationships, Dominance vs. Communality Relationships, Emperor's New Clothes, Freedom of Assembly, Friendship, How Revolutions Happen, Indirect Communication, Individual Knowledge, Innuendos, Kin Selection, Mutual Knowledge, Mutualism, Negotiation, Overt Language, Reciprocal Altruism, Reciprocal Relationships, Speech Acts, Stephen Pinker, When Harry Met Sally, Workplace Awkwardness 
No Comments »Muslim Cleric Who Led Friday Prayers In Egypt Friday Supports Death For Apostates
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s show ash-Shariah wal-Hayat has an audience of 40 million. He is the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, is a trustee of Oxford University, and is considered a leading Muslim Brotherhood intellectual. He returned to Egypt from exile after the fall of Hosni Mubarak and led Friday prayers on February 18. [...]
The Saga Of Biorn
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Just last night a friend lamented that when it came to religion he wanted to raise his daughter Norse, but there were no good resources for kids. If only he had seen this (or, at least seen only its first 5 minutes and 30 seconds): Seriously though, Nietzsche would love this cartoon. Your Thoughts?
Poe or No Poe? "Heaven Sex"
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke I have been inspired to introduce a new series on Camels With Hammers which I am entitling “Poe or No Poe?” and which will run however frequently or infrequently as proves necessary. In “Poe or No Poe?” posts, I will offer you lunacy riddled statements from apparent fundamentalists and other extremists around the internet and [...]
Posted in Hilarious, Poe Or No Poe?, Religulous, Religulous, Sex, Unintentional Comedy, Unintentional Comedy Tags: Heaven 1 Comment »New Lykke Li Song "Love Out Of Lust"
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Good stuff: <a href="Wounded Rhymes, her new album, is out March 1. I can’t wait. Your Thoughts?
"Hell's Angel" (Christopher Hitchens's Documentary On Mother Theresa)
February 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I went looking for this documentary on the site just now thinking for sure I must have it here, but alas I was aghast not to find it. I may never have posted it. This must be rectified post haste. An oldie but a goodie from Hitch: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Prayer, Prayer, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism Tags: Christopher Hitchens, Mother Theresa 4 Comments »"If You Believe In God, You Have To Believe In The Devil"
February 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last summer there was a cheesy ad for the latest Exorcist film, and the tagline epitomized and exploited a key twist of twisted religious logic. The film’s tagline was “If you believe in God, you have to believe in the devil.” What’s the idea behind this?
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates Tags: Fundamentalism and Modernity 2 Comments »Daily Hilarity: This Party Took A Turn For The Douche
February 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Garfunkel and Oates have a new video for their hip hop classic: I love the video but far prefer the original version with its faster rapping: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Music Videos, Music Videos, Parody, Parody, Satire, Satire, Videos Tags: Garfunkel and Oates, This Party Took A Turn For The Douche No Comments »Sam Brinton On Coming Out At 10 And Going Into Aversion Therapy
February 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Can you say “religiously motivated child abuse”? via Feminist Philosophers. Your Thoughts?
Evangelical Atheism?
February 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke So we activist atheist types who like to be outspoken about our atheism and network with other atheists are often derisively called “evangelical” or “proselytizers”. In all cases, the irony is clear and in some cases there are allegations of hypocrisy attached to the claim that we aim to “convert” people. Is it right to [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion Tags: "Atheists Are Just As Bad As Religious People", Atheist Evangelism, Atheist Proslytizers, Christian Evangelism, Converting People, Deconverting People, Emotional Argumentation, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Persuasion, Evangelical Atheism, Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Evangelism Tactics, Irrational Debate, Proselytizing Atheism, Rational Debate, Street Preaching 15 Comments »I Am Interviewed About My Personal (Atheistic) Religiosity/Spirituality
February 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Through Facebook, I was recently contacted by an old friend from high school (who was actually the first girl to go on a date with me). She is working on her Master’s in nursing and has an assignment which involves interviewing people about their views on religion and spirituality, for the purpose of thinking about approaches [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Indie Music, Indie Music, Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Love, Love, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Music, Music, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophy, Religion, Religion, Secularism Tags: Eternal Recurrence, Eternal Recurrence of the Same, Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Stoicism No Comments »How Would Apostates, Adulterers, And Thieves Fare In A Democratic Egypt?
February 18th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Razib Kahn has a most disturbing chart: Kahn explains the above: On the x-axis you see the proportion who accept that adulterers should be stoned. On the y-axis you see the responses to amputation and apostasy. The red points are the proportion who agree with the death penalty for apostates, and the navy points those [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Law, Law, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs 3 Comments »The Clay Illustrations Of Irma Gruenholz
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke See more of her gorgeous work at Sweet Station. Your Thoughts?
Cheesus Toast
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Chris Rock On Obama-Era Hatred: Racism's One Last Temper Tantrum Before It Goes To Sleep
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke From an Esquire interview online now: SR: Like many nice Caucasians, I cried the night Barack Obama was elected. It was one of the high points in American history. And all that’s happened since the election is just a shitstorm of hatred. You want to weigh in on that? CR: I actually like it, in [...]
"To The Victims Of This Tragedy We Send Our Thoughts And Prayers" By Roy Zimmerman
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A satirization of Sarah Palin and what she represents: Of course, as it turned out there were no direct connections between Sarah Palin and Jared Lee Loughner. Nonetheless this is entirely valid criticism of the completely reckless conflation of guns with politics, self-righteous apocalyptic theocratic jingoistic religion, loose talk about revolution, and hyperbolic associations of [...]
Daily Hilarity: Benny Hinn: Dark Lord Of The Sith
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Thanks to Ben for the heads up. Your Thoughts?
Apostasy As A Religious Act (Or "Why A Camel Hammers The Idols Of Faith")
February 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In “The Three Transformations of the Spirit” in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and Nobody, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra describes the human spirit as successively taking three different forms: the camel, the lion, and the child. The transformations begin with the spirit of the camel, which Nietzsche characterizes as consisting of obedient, self-sacrificing, reverential, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: "The Three Transformations of the Spirit", Camels, Camels With Hammers, Nietzsche on the Camel, Nietzsche on the Lion, Thou Shalt Not Lie, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Truth, Truthfulness 13 Comments »Daily Hilarity: Tall Black Man At The Gym Could Be Next NBA Superstar
February 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Onion SportsDome Your Thoughts?
The Corruption Of Clarence Thomas?
February 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last night Rachel Maddow’s lead story, which is often the highlight of her show was a disappointing bit of smarmy partisan hackery as she wondered, with oh so much sincerity, why John Boehner was such a bad Speaker of the House. But then her reporting on Clarence Thomas was more interesting and worth calling to [...]
Faith Is Not A Virtue; Faith Is Gullibility
February 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are many virtues the religious have, even in distinctively religious forms which an atheist like I can appreciate specifically as religious virtues, but faith is not one of these virtues. It is a vice. And Matt Dillahunty’s video below features, especially in the last few minutes, an eloquent, passionate, personal explanation of what makes [...]
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