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The claim that all value, whether moral or otherwise, requires a God is a familiar one. But what this claim either means or how it is supposed to be apparent to us is far from self-evident. The claim could mean something along the lines of a divine command theory interpretation of value according to which [...]
Archive for the ‘Religious Secularism’ Category
On The Incoherence Of Divine Command Theory And Why Even If God DID Make Things Good And Bad, Faith-Based Religions Would Still Be Irrelevant
September 29th, 2010 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Same Sex Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Secularism 
15 Comments »True Religion?
August 17th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Many a religious person defending her own religious beliefs will argue that a given politically, morally, or intellectually unflattering interpretation of her faith is simply not a true representation of her faith. While the question of who has the right or the adequate means to decisively determine with any rational clarity which competing interpretation of any [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, History, Judaism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Science, Science, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats 
Tags: Literalism, Philosophy of Science, Primitivism, Ronald Dworkin 12 Comments »Dying British Church Prone To Whining
August 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Johann Hari does a little pre-mortem dancing on the foreseeable grave of British Christianity: And now congregation, put your hands together and give thanks, for I come bearing Good News. Britain is now the most irreligious country on earth. This island has shed superstition faster and more completely than anywhere else. Some 63 percent of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Johann Hari No Comments »Towards Atheistic Religions (Or Away From Them, Depending On How You Define “Religions”)
July 13th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a rare occurrence, I am being taken to task for giving religion too much credit and atheists too little! Here are the offending paragraphs I wrote on Friday: I would say that various practices called religious, if stripped of all their dogmatism, traditionalism, literalism, and authoritarianism, can and do certainly coexist with and complement science [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Authority, Christianity, Christianity, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism No Comments »Why I Think Theistic Religion’s Psychological Grip Can Be Weakened Or Broken
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In a recent comments section, Gregory Wahl argued to me that religion is so deeply rooted in psychological needs, specifically the longing for immortality, that there is an inherent limitation to the ability of all my philosophical arguments to dissuade the faithful. As this line of reasoning goes, they do not believe for intellectual reasons [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophy Of Religion, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Sociology Tags: Atheistic Existentialism, Atheistic Nihilism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalist Nihilism, Healthy-Soul Religion, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nihilism, Nihilistic Existentialism, Sick-Soul Religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Values, William James 17 Comments »How Jon Stewart Dropped The Ball On The Faith And Science Quesiton (But How Religion Can Be Redeemed Nonetheless)
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Marilynne Robinson is the author of Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self (Terry Lectures). In the interview below from last night’s Daily Show she gives a standardly awful false choice between thinking scientific methods can answer every question on the one hand and accepting religious explanations of [...]
Bursting The Chains Of Monkish Ignorance And Superstition
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them [...]
Posted in Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Political Secularism, Rationalism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: Enlightenment Values, Founding Fathers Against Religion, Our Country's Founders, The Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's Last Letter No Comments »If I Could Read Only One Atheist Blogger, It Would Be…
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke …Richard Wade of Friendly Atheist, whose ”Ask Richard” column turns one fantastic year old today. It is a column by a retired therapist who gives atheists advice about atheistic parenting, the effects of one’s religious past on one’s present life and the way to go forward constructively in the future as an atheist, and, probably most [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Friendly Atheist, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Psychology, Psychology, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Social Psychology, Social Psychology Tags: Ask Richard, Atheist Family Relationships, Richard Wade 7 Comments »New Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard Affirms Her Non-Belief, Will Not Patronize Believers
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I love what she has to say and do not know why anyone, religious or irreligious, would prefer a faith panderer to this, even if the faithful politician was at least somewhat sincere: She says does not go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance. “I am not going to pretend a faith I [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Julia Gillard No Comments »Penn Jillette Again On The Difference Between Muslims And Christians In Taking Criticism
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I already highlighted Penn Jillette’s Vanity Fair interview in which he praised Christians for being better at taking criticism than Muslims, but this quote from his new Las Vegas Weekly interview, which I found via Boing Boing and Reddit, conveys his feelings as much as his thoughts, and those feelings are both depressing on the one [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Bullshit, Las Vegas Weekly, Penn and Teller, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Penn Jillette, Scientology 2 Comments »Contortions Of Catholic Philosophy: Eve Tushnet Argues Gay Sex Is Not OK But Sex Changes Are
June 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Tushnet’s moral choice for herself and for other gays is celibacy or gender reassignment. Of course for some people, specifically some of the transgendered, a sex change is entirely appropriate and preferable to gay sex because from a gender(rather than a sex) perspective, those who are pre-op transgendered and are attracted to members of their [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, LGBTQAA, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Sex, Teleology, Teleology 3 Comments »What Exactly Are We Supposed To Be Doing?
June 24th, 2010 Daniel Fincke You’re Not Helping responds to my defense of the Freedom From Religion Foundation: Camels with Hammers has posted a bit of commentary on the Do Nothings. First and foremost, they cry foul on us for unjustly misrepresenting the goals of the FFRF Wait, no, first and foremost, I agreed with You’re Not Helping that it is unfair to accuse [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: BP Oil Spill, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Louisiana Gulf Oil Spill, Louisiana Senate, Louisiana Senate Prayer Proclamation, Superstition, You're Not Helping No Comments »The Rise Of Islamo-Erotica
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke (Image: “God Is Great” by Makan Emadi) Betwa Shermer has a really interesting piece about Muslim artists in America who incorporate nudes into their art. Defenses of nudity in art as permissible by Islamic standards: The Lebanese-born artist, who now lives in New York, insists that the taboo stems from a conservative society and not [...]
Posted in Arts, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Islam, Koran, Photography, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: "God Is Great" by Makan Emadi, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Betwa Shermer, Columbia University, Erotica, Harper College, Iranians in America, Islamic Art, Islamo-Erotica, Khalid Al Tahmazi, Makam Emadi, Makan Emdai, Marilyn Monroe, Nada Shabout, Normandie's Hejab, Nudes, Paintings, University of North Texas, Zainab Bahrani No Comments »Confronting Conservative Christians With The Consequences Of Their Homophobia
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Last month there was a day of silence in schools to promote awareness of schools about the dangers gay students experience. In solidarity with their gay peers who are frequently bullied into silence, students were encouraged (by outside activist groups, not by schools themselves) to voluntarily refrain from speaking in school all day. Unsurprisingly, for [...]
Posted in Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Homophobia, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: "Hate The Sin, Bob Dutko, Bullying Of Gay Students, Love The Sinner", Religious Radio Talk Show Hosts, Talk Radio, Teege 17 Comments »Theocratic “Dominionist” Janet Porter Goes Down Swinging
June 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Janet Porter recently lost her radio program for her increasingly dominionist theology, which aims to further politicize Christianity and Christianize the United States government. It was Christians who opposed her and then Christians who fired her. In a new article comparing secularists to Nazis, she argues that her Christian enemies who oppose dominionism are the [...]
Global Peace Index Shows Least Religious Countries Among Most Peaceful, Highly Religious Countries Among The Least Peaceful
June 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Canterbury Atheist points out that the world’s top ten peaceful nations on the 2010 Global Peace Index are among the world’s least religious nations. CORRECTION: I should have written, among the world’s top ten peaceful nations are a high percentage of the world’s least religious countries, measured in terms of personal religiosity metrics (like reports [...]
Posted in Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: 2010 Global Peace Index, Afghanistan, Austria, Chad, Congo, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Global Peace Index, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Sweden 15 Comments »Thank God For The New Atheists?
June 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Reverend Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World thinks that the New Atheists are really the new prophets. The Infidel Guy Show interviewed him a couple weeks ago for an hour. In the audio, he argues that God is not [...]
U.S. Bishops Argue Employers Should Be Allowed To Consider Being Gay A Fireable Offense
June 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a letter addressed to the United States Congress people opposing ENDA, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act For the sake of clarity, permit us first to state two basic tenets of Catholic Church teaching on this issue. First, persons with a homosexual inclination “must be accepted with respect, compassion, [...]
Posted in Andrew Sullivan, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage, Separation of Church and State Tags: Anti-discrimination Laws, Discrimination, Employment Nondiscrimination Act, enda, H.R. 3017, Senate (S. 1584), United States Bishops No Comments »“I Prefer John Locke To Jesus Christ, I Prefer John Stuart Mill To Jesus Christ…I Prefer Jon Stewart To Jesus Christ”
June 2nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke If you missed Ayaan Hirsi Ali on The Colbert Report last night, make time to watch it now: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Ayaan Hirsi Ali www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News And in either case I also recommend from March 15, 2007, in which he hardly knows [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Fundamentalism, Islam, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report No Comments »On Secular Uses Of Hallowing Halls
June 1st, 2010 Daniel Fincke A federal judge has ruled that a public school cannot hold its ceremony in a church building: [Bridgeport-based federal judge Janet] Hall ruled that use of the church for graduation violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, even though some of the symbols were to be covered. Earlier this year, members of the Enfield Board of Education [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Featured, Religious Secularism, Secularism Tags: Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Bridgeport, Enfield Board of Education, Establishment Clause, Family Institute of Connecticut, First Amendment, Fordham University, Graduation Ceremonies, Janet Hall, The American Civil Liberties Union No Comments »Islam Needs An I-Pod
May 27th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The Amazing Atheist nails it (for the first five minutes anyway and then becomes rather hit and miss, missing the hardest on Ft. Hood): Your Thoughts?
Muhammad’s Worst Enemy
May 26th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Below is an intense and stark video from the usually much more sardonically off the wall DarkMatter2525, as his contribution to last week’s “Everybody Draw Muhammad” protest: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arts, Atheist Videos, Islam, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Videos, World Affairs Tags: "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day", 9/11, DarkMatter2525, Drawing, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Mohammed, Muhammad, Muse, Muse (the band), Osama bin Laden, Religious Death Threats, Terrorism No Comments »Are Noble Lies “Blasphemous”?
May 23rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Renegade Roman Catholic Andrew Sullivan is harsh with his condemnation of those who think we should “insincerely support religious faith because it is good for others or for society is”, calling this a “profound blasphemy” and cynical, and saying he respects us atheists and agnostics who outright reject faith more than both those noble lie [...]
Freethinking Islamic Scholars
May 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Amira Nowaira laments that well over a thousand years ago, Islamic scholarship had more room for rationalists than it seems to have today: Although many of those thinkers, according to Badawi, did not attempt to disprove the existence of God, they lashed out against the notion of prophethood and argued against the privileged position occupied [...]
Bill Maher Defends Contemporary Western Religion?
May 2nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Compared to the alternative… Some thoughts of my own on the pros and cons of religious moderates. Your Thoughts?
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