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Did you know they have gay people at Bob Jones University too? Libby Anne has the scoop. My own über-fundamentalist alma mater, Grove City College, has gay people too. They even started a rainbow alliance group, one even named after our campus’s iconic “Rainbow Bridge”. I interviewed the brave founder of the group, Jesy Littlejohn, last [...]
Archive for the ‘Religion and Science’ Category
They Have Gay People At Bob Jones University Too
February 25th, 2012 
Daniel Fincke TOP Q: What Does It Most Decisively Mean To Believe, Disbelieve, or Lack Belief?
February 23rd, 2012 Daniel Fincke Believing and not believing are not simple things. There are ways to cognitively believe, disbelieve, and refrain from believing. But functionally there are ways to effectively act as though one believed, disbelieved, or refrained from believing. There are at least two broad kinds of avowed atheists who take two distinct kinds of stances on the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Why I Am Not A Christian 
Tags: Atheist Identity, Beliefs, Cognitive Dissonance, Explicit Beliefs, Explicit Beliefs vs. Functional Beliefs, Functional Beliefs, Implicit Beliefs, Lacking Beliefs 
47 Comments »Sex and “Spirituality”
February 23rd, 2012 Daniel Fincke Casey: Sigh, Pat. It seems like there is nowhere in this culture we can escape the pernicious influence of religion. Pat: What are you thinking of in particular? Casey: I’m thinking of the way that even some of the most “sex-positive”, taboo-breaking, kink-celebrating, sexually liberated people I know still cannot enjoy the pure physicality of sex [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Love, Love, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Paganism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Sex, Skepticism, Skepticism, Wicca Tags: Pagan Sex, Physicality of Sex, Physiological vs. Spiritual, Religious Sex, Rituals and Sex, Sex and Spirituality, Sex: Physical vs. Spiritual, Spirituality 10 Comments »Examining Some Alleged Divine Attributes
February 21st, 2012 Daniel Fincke Jaime: Okay, so why do you believe that your god is a good explanation for the universe? Robin: Because everything that exists needs an explanation and the universe is no exception. Jaime: But then why doesn’t your god need an explanation? Aren’t we just headed for an infinite regress unless you just admit that something doesn’t need [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion Tags: Classical Theism, Divine Attributes, Divine Simplicity, Divine Timelessness, Eternal, God, God's Timelessness, Immutability, Temporality and Eternality, Theistic God, Timeless 23 Comments »Occupy Heaven
February 20th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Mr. Deity’s captives beloved subjects are unsatisfied for a number of reasons: I examined arguments that hell is God’s favor to those who just don’t want to be with him in my post Hell as the Absence of God (a fictional dialogue between my characters Jaime and Robin). Although I think there are ways to [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Parody, Parody, Religulous, Religulous, Satire, Satire Tags: Downsides of Immortality, Free Will, Free Will and Evil, Hell as a Choice, Hell Is Unfair, Mr. Deity, Occupy Movement Parody, Personal Relationship with God, Scientology, The 1%, The 99% 2 Comments »Colbert Takes On His Church’s Demands For Exemptions From Health Care Law
February 19th, 2012 Daniel Fincke The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive Colbert’s remark about Bishop Bucks struck me as eerily like a comment on Camels With Hammers from someone named Lyra the week before:
Posted in Hilarious, Political Satire, Political Satire, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Satire, Satire Tags: Catholic Exemption from Affordable Care Act, Conscience Exemptions, Contraception Debate, Rick Santorum French Revolution, Rick Santorum Guillotine, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church on Contraception, Stephen Colbert 2 Comments »The Argument from the Bible in the Briefcase
February 18th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Last night James Croft attended a lecture by famous Christian apologist (and Oxford Professor of Mathematics), John Lennox. James was struck by the especial susceptibility of the American audience to emotional appeals, which led them to give a charming but intellectually shallow, evasive, and unoriginal defense of belief a standing ovation: This shows us something [...]
Libby Anne on Growing Up Fearing The Rapture
February 18th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Libby Anne details some of the anxieties she and others felt growing up as true believers in the rapture: I was very afraid the rapture might occur and I might be left behind. One morning when I was ten or twelve I woke up and couldn’t find anyone in the house. Before I realized that [...]
Is It Just A Mystery Whether God Exists?
February 16th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Robin: Jaime, what bothers me about your atheism is that it’s so dogmatic. You claim to know there is no God. That’s so arrogant. Jaime: Yes, I claim to know there are no gods. But I don’t claim it dogmatically or arrogantly. I claim it based upon the fact that the evidence is overwhelmingly against [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, God, God, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tags: Agnostic Theism, Believing by Faith, Can We Know There Is No God?, Dogmatic Atheism, Faith vs. Knowledge, Gnostic Atheism, God and the Mystery Excuse, God is a Mystery, Is God Just A Mystery?, Knowing There Is No God, Metaphysics, Mystery, Mystery vs. Pseudomystery, What is a mystery? 71 Comments »No, Not Everyone Has A Moral Right To Feel Offended By Just Any Satire or Criticism
February 15th, 2012 Daniel Fincke 4 Misconceptions About the Nature of Offense Here are four common sense assumptions about giving and taking offense that I think are fundamentally mistaken and which atheists need to argue against: “You have every right to be offended, but you don’t have the right to censor others just because you’re offended.” “You cannot blame people [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Free Speech, Free Speech, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Satire, Religious Satire, Virtues, Virtues Tags: "You Have The Right To Be Offended", Andy Drennon, Denial of Atheists From Gelato shop, Gelatogate, In Defense of Blasphemy, Moral Rights, Offense as a Moral Category, Offense As Value Judgment, Religion, Religious Offense, Satirizing Religion, Skepticon IV, Values Perceptions 54 Comments »The Vagina Ideologues
February 14th, 2012 Daniel Fincke It was nice to see Jon Stewart finally have a chance to weigh in on last week’s absurd push from the Catholic Church to win the exemption from the law requiring employers to provide health insurance that covers contraception: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The [...]
Posted in Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Comedy, Comedy, Politics, Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Satire, Satire, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Catholic Church Demands Contraception Exemption, Catholic Privilege, Catholics and Obama, Contraception, Obama's Affordable Care Act, The Daily Show 8 Comments »Kirk Cameron Gapes Admiringly At Monuments
February 13th, 2012 Daniel Fincke That seems to be the central motif of Kirk Cameron’s new propaganda film about the founding of America, Monumental.
Support Hamza Kashgari However You Can
February 13th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Maryam Namazie has been on top of the story of Hamza Kashgari, a 23 year old Saudi journalist whose life is on the line after he tweeted the following on Mohammad’s birthday: “On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to [...]
Posted in Atheism, Islam, Islam, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Death Penalty for Apostates, Freedom of Expression, Hamza Kashgari, Islamic Violence, Religious Freedom, Religious Violence, Saudi Death Penalty for Apostates, Violence against atheists 1 Comment »The Catholic Church Wants Women Pregnant Against Their Wills
February 11th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Before this week, I never thought particularly hard about the way the Catholic Church wants to enforce its policies against contraception. I think my default assumption was that they wanted Catholics to assent to such policies freely and without coercion, as matters of shared belief and conscience. The thought actually never crossed my mind that [...]
Kidnapped for Christ
February 10th, 2012 Daniel Fincke A trailer for a documentary about a Christian discipline camp in the Dominican Republic. One of the kids is there because he’s gay (natch). via End Hereditary Religion.com Your Thoughts?
PROOF of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
February 9th, 2012 Daniel Fincke As Universe Today puts it: A new computer simulation is showing Earth’s magnetosphere in amazing detail – and it looks a lot like a huge pile of tangled spaghetti (with the Earth as a meatball). Or perhaps a cosmic version of modern art. Read much more about what it means for our planet to be tangled in [...]
Religious Privilege and Grievance-Based Catholic Identity Politics on Full Display
February 7th, 2012 Daniel Fincke In a column last week, Melinda Henneberger criticized the Obama administration’s refusal to exempt the Catholic Church from requirements it provide for its employees health insurance which would cover birth control at organizations it runs which have secular functions. The column is an extraordinary exemplification of religious entitlement, identity politics, and anti-secular, anti-democratic demands for [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Feminism, Feminism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Rape, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: Affordable Care Act, Bart Stupak, Birth Control, Catholic Identity Politics, Catholic Voters, Conscience Exemptions, Faith and Politics, Grievance Politics, Liberal Protestant, Melinda Henneberger, Obama National Prayer Breakfast, Obama's Faith, obamacare, Religious Rights, Religious Tests For Office, Reproductive Rights, Ressentiment, Secularism 11 Comments »“What Are The Limits of Church Authority In the Public Sphere?”
February 5th, 2012 Daniel Fincke This is part 2 of a debate with Roman Catholic theology graduate student named Mary. In part 1, we introduced and began to debate the topic of whether or not universities, hospitals, and social agencies run by the Catholic Church should be exempted from laws requiring employers to provide their employees health insurance that covers [...]
Posted in Abortion, Abortion, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Bio-Medical Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Feminism, Feminism, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Law, Law, LGBTQAA, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: 1st Amendment, Affordable Care Act, Conscience Exemptions, Discrimination Against Gays, Free Exercise, Freedom of Religion, Gay Rights, Health Coverage For Gay Spouses, Mary C. Young, Pharmacists Rights of Conscience, Relig, Religious Discrimination, Reproductive Rights, Roman Catholic Adoption Agencies Refuse Gay Adoptions, Roman Catholic Charities, Roman Catholic Church 55 Comments »“Should Catholic Employers Be Exempted From Paying For Health Insurance Covering Contraception?”
February 5th, 2012 Daniel Fincke If you were reading Camels With Hammers regularly before we made the move to Freethought Blogs, you would have frequently been treated to the long, insightful, and vigorously argued comments of my friend Mary. Mary is a Roman Catholic and is politically liberal in many (but not all) respects. We met when I was a [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Feminism, Feminism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: 1st Amendment, Affordable Care Act, Catholics and Obamacare, Conscience Exemptions, Discrimination, Freedom of Religion, Mary C. Young, obamacare, Obamacare and Contraception, Religious Discrimination, Reproductive Rights, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Universities 48 Comments »Patton Oswalt on Arguments Against Gay Marriage
February 4th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Pretty hilarious: From Patton Oswalt’s Finest Hour. In the same show he is as funny as can be on romantic comedies and on “gay friend” tropes in movies. The DVD is coming soon. (Thanks to Leanna for the video.) Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, Homophobia, Homophobia, LGBTQAA, Religulous, Religulous 4 Comments »God and Goodness
January 30th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Robin: Look, I get it, Jaime. As an atheist, you think that God’s wisdom is foolishness, that God’s righteousness is wickedness, and that the bloody death of Jesus on the cross is hateful and ugly rather than the epitome of love and beauty that Christians like I think it is. The Bible makes it very [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Authority, Authority, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, God, God, Metaethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Of Religion, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Rationalism, Religion, Religion Tags: Divine Command Theory, God and Goodness, God's goodness, Theological Voluntarism 26 Comments »Hell As The Absence of God
January 29th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Robin: I know you don’t want to hear it, but Jesus loves you, Jaime. Jaime: Yes, yes, a man who either never existed or who is long dead and rotted by now loves me—and will torture me in hell forever if I don’t worship him, of course. Robin: He just wants you to love him but [...]
Posted in Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, God, God, Jesus, Jesus, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tags: God as Goodness, Goodness, Hell as Absence of God 84 Comments »Can Utilitarians Properly Esteem The Intrinsic Value of Truth?
January 22nd, 2012 Daniel Fincke The Obvious Intrinsic and Instrumental Values of Truth It is prejudicial and fallacious to assume that the world is an inherently just place and that all the traits we idealize as virtues will always lead to the best possible outcomes. So if we are to be honest and realistic in assessing those traits which are [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Metaethics, Metaethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Atheism and Truth, Atheism and Value of Truth, Consequentialism and Truthfulness, Faith in Truth, Moral Perfectionism and Truthfulness, Relative Value of Truth, Truthfulness, Useful Religious Fictions, Utilitarianism and Truthfulness, Value in Lying, Value of Falsehood, Value of Truthfulness 37 Comments »Make Muhammad Your Facebook Profile Picture, Get Kicked Out of School?
January 17th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Jen McCreight has an enraging summary of events: [Rhys Morgan] chose that photo [as his Facebook profile] to stand in solidarity with the University College London’s Atheist, Secular, and Humanist Society. The group was caught in a firestorm after someone complained about the image being used to promote their pub social and school officials ordered them to [...]
Posted in Atheism, Islam, Islam Tags: Freedom of Speech, Rhys Morgan, Rhys Morgan threatened with expulsion 9 Comments »Now A Muslim Extremist Terrorizes The Audience, Not Just The Speaker
January 17th, 2012 Daniel Fincke The New Humanist recounts a chilling, appalling, infuriating story: Yesterday evening, a talk on “Sharia Law and Human Rights” organised by the Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society at Queen Mary, University London, had to be cancelled after threats of violence. The talk was due to be given by Anne Marie Waters of the One Law [...]
Posted in Islam, Islam, News, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, World Affairs, World Affairs 5 Comments »
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