I’ve been wondering for the past few weeks, given a bunch of blogospherics that’s happened recently, why it is that it’s so hard for people who have come to grips with their lack of belief, to actually tell people about it?
Continue reading “Why is it so difficult to “come out” as an atheist?”
This is how people come to atheism — not through indoctrination, not through reinforcement, but through critical thinking. Make no mistake, this is why theists want to control the schools. They are afraid of people who ask “why”, because forcing a child to think critically about the things they believe unquestioningly is indeed the most effective way to plant the seed of doubt and bring them around to rationality.
Tangent: looks like I have to come into work for an overnight. Whee. La roue tourne.
I’ve sat on this for a while, as I’ve had quite a bit on my plate lately, and I don’t want to go out of my way to give Zdenny a bigger stage than he already has. Yet, I link to him because he quote-mined me here to make a larger point about science as dogma and Christ as science (no, seriously). He’s definitely right about one thing — this line of argumentation gives me a headache, one for which only a good long rant can serve as ibuprofen. Especially since they’re the ones who consistently conflate atheism with scientific naturalism.
Zdenny has 22 comments in a holding pattern at the moment, and I continue to anxiously await any sort of reasonable attempt at re-earning his commenting privilege — though I’m starting to think it’s a lost cause, and I should simply let him languish in his holding pen. However, many of the things he’s posted are so utterly laughable or enraging, that I figured I should share it with you, gentle reader. If you have no stomach for this sort of thing, I strongly advise you not click “continue reading.”
Some jokes are only funny to us heathens. It’s a “shared experience” thing. I’m sure you have some very clever jokes about Deuteronomy or Numbers or 2 Kings, but I’m not terribly interested. Anyway, for the godless out there looking for a laugh, here you are.
It’s crazy how similar Jesus and Satan are, depending on your perspective.
Here’s a comic where Ratzinger outlines all the cruelty that’s atheism’s fault. Oh, and an evisceration of Ratzinger’s “atheist blah blah Stalin Mao etc” canard can be found right here, which isn’t so much funny as it is awesome.
PZ’s review of the Creation “Museum” is finally up. And it’s a humdinger. Whatever “humdinger” means.
Remember, Jesus Loves You. Except when he doesn’t. And his dad thinks you’re a shit. Also, he is his dad.
For any conversation you have with a young-earth Creationist, this image is a must-have. I mean, it’s the only way to reconcile some of the freakish things they believe.
I want this t-shirt. What do you think, is it subtle enough to get away with wearing at work?
And finally, Neil de Grasse Tyson weighs in on Stupid Design — which isn’t just the lexographical inverse of “Intelligent Design,” it’s actually what you see when you open your eyes and look at the universe.
While I deal with a recalcitrant computer, here’s some interesting links for you to read.
DanJ follows up on the “moderate theist” vs “fundamentalist” schism as touched on in my last post, and asks a number of uncomfortable questions of them.
Ben Stein got EXPELLED from the New York Times for being involved with that shady credit report scam company. My heart bleeds.
Chuck Norris apparently hates atheists for trying to change the fundamental nature of America, since both the pledge and the motto contain “God” — oh wait, both of those were changed less than 60 years ago, during the Red Scare.
Richard Dawkins has an interview with John Mackay. Mackay is a fundamentalist who has made up a series of lies and has been able to espouse them without paying a shred of taxes on his income for 20 years. Zdenny shows up in the comments to miss the point. Hilarity ensues.
Good news, everyone! There’s no such thing as atheism or secularism! We’re all just idolators! No more need for great rifts and differing approaches, now we can all just worship a golden calf or something.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, a huge survey of nearly 6000 people (that’s one for every year the Earth has existed!!1) shows that atheists and other freethinkers are more satisfied with life than religious folks. It is also covered here, where the focus is on our bright shiny Colgate smiles.
Also, here’s a tiny taste of the crazy that is waiting to be sampled over at the Creation Museum.
Update: Last minute addition to the reading list, Lou FCD had also weighed in on the “moderate theist” thread, started over at Almost Diamonds, for which my “obstacles” post from yesterday was a direct continuation. If I had known at the time that he’d posted this, I definitely would have linked it directly, because it’s incredible. I absolutely adore posts that make their points by linking individual words to examples from history, there’s something fun about ctrl-clicking as you’re reading to open each link in a new tab. Reminds me a bit of an advent calendar, only with civil rights activism as your candy.
To try to distill what everyone’s saying over at Almost Diamonds, where a post on how deferential atheists need to be in society today ended up spiraling out into a larger discussion (as such conversations are wont to do) on whether reasonable theists are getting caught in the crossfire, the problems here as I see them are fourfold. This was originally going to be a comment in that thread, but it grew to mammoth proportions so I figured I needed a larger stage for it.
Continue reading “The obstacles in the atheist civil rights movement”
This question was asked by an audience member at about 116:20 in the Hitchens v Turek debate posted yesterday: “If there is no god, why do you spend your whole life trying to convince people that there isn’t? Why won’t you just stay home?”
The audience member who posed this question was clearly on the side of Turek through the debate — applauding him heartily, crossing his arms and giving not a whit of applause when Hitchens spoke. It could be that he said “why WOULDN’T you just stay home”, he was not miked and the question was slightly unclear. However, I strongly suspect it was posed as an imperative as above, and if it wasn’t, I also suspect the questioner would not take offense at this characterization.
Continue reading “Why don’t atheists just shut up and stay home?”
Here’s a collection of interesting links found on the interweb tubes, most of which I’ve discovered by following the Twitter feed for #atheism. A bunch of them have come from elsewhere in the blogosphere, but there’s so damn many on my reading list that I figured I might as well just post them all and let you figure out their origins. Frankly I’ve already lost track.
There’s a ton of stuff to read here… grab some coffee (since atheists, and especially atheist goats, can’t live without coffee!), take your time, and enjoy!
First, from his stand-up routine Animals, he discusses the “alternative” to evolution that he found one day. “Oh, by the way, if a snake comes and talks to you, he’s a lying little shit…”
Later, in an interview, he asks a killer question: “if there IS a god, why did he make me an atheist? That was his first mistake. Well, the talking snake was his first mistake, but…”
Genius.
