Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
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To say nothing of the fact that “In desperate times, you’ll turn to God” is a stupid argument anyway.
In desperate times, I’d have my leg amputated to stave off gangrene, or let the EMTs send 10,000 volts of electricity through my chest to restart my heart. That doesn’t mean that one should go around lopping off limbs or sticking forks into outlets.
Sing from the rooftops: “Atheism is dead!”
http://www.conspiracycafe.net/forum/index.php?/topic/25104-atheist-apocalypse/page__pid__117856__st__0&
The deaths of my mother and brother CONFIRMED my atheism.
When ever a theist brings that up, just counter with:
Pat Tillman
Tillman left his NFL football career in 2002 (he turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals because he felt “he owed something to his country”) to enlist in the United States Army and served multiple tours in combat. No testimonial by witnesses (or family) has ever been presented that he lost his non-belief up to the time when he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on May 2004.
– Fastthumbs
drmab is spamming that link all over the internets. Do not want.
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I don’t think that the “you’ll believe when you’re desparate enough to stop thining rationally” is really the kind of argument a theist in their right mind would want to make.
It’s … desperate, shallow and unconvincing.
Would I like to believe in God? Sure. My father died last January. But I still have no proof. I can’t believe in any God or afterlife.
My father is dead, and I will never see him again. Does that hurt? You bet. But I’d rather be realistic about it, even though it hurts, than delude myself into thinking that he’s still “out there somewhere.” He’s not. When he died, he DIED. He’s GONE. And telling me, as my Mormon mother-in-law did, that I should “just change your mind about what you believe so you won’t feel so bad that he died” is a cop-out.
From all the funerals I’ve witnessed I’ve got to say I see the reverse happening. I see Xians turn away from god and their comforting beliefs. When I used to go to CCD I’d hear my teachers tell students how wonderful heaven is and how we’ll go there after we die. Then when one of their loved ones dies and goes to this wonderful place to be with Jesus they mourn. They mourn and weep like they’ll never see them again. I’ve noticed that even when I was a small child. I really don’t think they believe what they say they believe.