Comments

  1. Snarki, child of Loki says

    Atheist content is boring?
    Yeah, I guess it’s boring to talk about a big nothing.

    Maybe cosmologists could try it?

  2. StonedRanger says

    Its not the fault of the call in shows that theists have no good arguments, in fact thats kind of the point of the shows. I think the fact that you tube has become a source of income has contributed to the proliferation of these shows. Thats why you get the same callers, who call each of the many shows, sometimes dozens of times, and get their asses handed to them repeatedly. Thats what gets annoying to me. They dont get banned, they just keep babbling the same nonsense and the results are the same. There are some hosts I like because they do know what they are talking about. The other downside to me is the racists, anti gay, anti trans, anti whatever you got. These are theists (mostly christians) who are showing their true colors, and half the time the show isnt about religion or atheism, its christians trying to justify their hate because now they are saying out loud what used to be said on the QT. (Jesus, you paying attention? ) FWIW Im an atheist also.

  4. cheerfulcharlie says

    Mark 10:21, Luke 12:32-33, Luke 14:33, Luke 18:23, Matthew 19:20-21, Matthew 6:24-25

    The commands of Jesus. Sell all you have and give to the poor. Commands, not suggestion, not options. My hobby horse for this year. I have started emailing politicians who belly up to the microphone to bray we needs more Bible and more Jesus in America and especially our schools. OK. You show us how this following the commands of Jesus gets done. Walk the Jesus walk! Boring? Well, stuff like this got me booted from X.

    Luke 14:33
    33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that
    forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
    my disciple.

  5. says

    It’s not boring, exactly, but really atheism is hardly relevant anymore. The insane christian fanatics have thrown their dice hard in the current situation, and are going to be politically toxic for decades (which means they may go extinct) if they don’t win. And right now it looks like massive cheating and violence is their only path to success, and they won’t do that. And they won’t win, if they do.
    I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that christianity in the US is going to be either a government-mandated lip-service nobody believes in, or a dwindling minority of booger-eating goons nobody believes in. I hope you and I survive a decade to find out. If we do, it’s OK because I won’t remember anyway. But maybe someone will print this comment out and rub it in my face.

  6. Hemidactylus says

    For the most part atheism itself bores me to tears anymore. I kinda lean toward post-atheism: I no longer believe in God, now what? I’ve kinda moved on.

    The state-church issues people like Hemant Mehta focus upon are actually important, but even then I can only process just so much before tuning out.

    I’d rather gargle thumb tacks than listen to an atheist call-in show.

    I guess there are atheism adjacent topics that still interest me, like understanding why certain stories in the Bible came to be, as in the connection between the Noah flood story and a part of Gilgamesh. Or Gehenna as a trash dump/place of human sacrifice. Also the field of Terror Management Theory as a backdrop for maintaining and defending beliefs as immortality projects.

    All the previous excitement over New Atheism has dissipated, and I’m left with disgust with the likes of Dawkins and Harris. I’m ok with the cognitive philosophy of Dennett or the anti-Zionism aspect of Hitchens, but those are not quite relevant to atheism per se.

    Harris is shit on moral philosophy and his rantings on Islam are toxic. BTW Coyne is osculating the Iran war cause at WEIT and got miffed at his hero Andrew Sullivan last week for the latter’s negative views on Israel. Surprised he hasn’t called Sullivan an antisemite yet. The center-right WEIT dumpster fire is a good example of just how bad atheism can get.

  8. Hemidactylus says

    When he’s not using Islamist as a kneejerk label for Mamdani and calling him an antisemite, Coyne is adding Babylon Bee content to his blog now. It’s gotten that bad recently. Another Babylon Bee reference just minutes ago.

    I guess atheist call-in shows are not the worst expenditure of time. Bland but maybe less toxic than the above.

  9. birgerjohansson says

    Readers of the infinite thread know I am a fan of God Awful Movies, who dredge up films that are so bad they become funny.
    Use ridicule whenever possible.

  10. says

    I agree to the point that I didn’t even watch the entire video. I much prefer to hear knowledgeable people talk about what they know and like, so I mostly watch your biology videos.

  13. says

    I appreciate PZ’s insistence on critical, factual thinking instead of pushing and wallowing in purely wishful fantastic beliefs. I watched his video and his approach is not boring when viewed thoughtfully, even though it is not an attention grabbing, screeching, emotional appeal as is so common on the internet and in society in general. I agree that so much of what is shown on youtube and discussed on social media, on so many subjects, is endlessly repetitive to the point of being numbing and boring.

    I have mentioned this before. There is a significant difference between simple atheism and (secular) humanism. Members of our organization have spent endless hours studying, comparing and objectively, critically analyzing the various concepts put forward and the varying definitions of those two terms. We can only, rationally, conclude that atheism is just one element of humanism. Atheism is essentially a statement of negation, whereas humanism goes beyond atheism’s rejection of beliefs and fantasies of supernatural beings and incorporates positive ideas and actions. We espouse peace, honesty, caring, responsibility, humility and reject bigotry. The implementation of those characteristics of humanism in our crumbling society can be refreshing, interesting and lead to positive change. Even though it is on a tiny step by tiny step basis when compared to the massive, bludgeoning attempts to influence by those engaging in religious extremism and plutocracy.

  15. stevewatson says

    Eh, I think pretty much all possible theism vs. atheism arguments — both the stupid ones and the clever ones — have been made, umpteen times over, so how can it not be boring? As I complained here not too long ago, you’ve only to glance through a copy of Free Inquiry to see this demonstrated: there’s good and there’s original, but what’s good is not original and what’s original is not good (and a lot of it is neither). Not only is the “atheist movement” frequently bad on socio-political matters, it frequently sucks even at its own core mandate.

  16. Silentbob says

    @ 4 cheerfulcharlie

    Mark 10:21, Luke 12:32-33, Luke 14:33, Luke 18:23, Matthew 19:20-21, Matthew 6:24-25

    The commands of Jesus. Sell all you have and give to the poor. Commands, not suggestion, not options.

    Sorry, I’ve just come across this, and if you present this to Christians as “proof” they are required to sell all their possessions, they will rightly laugh in your face, mate.

    Let’s take them one by one:

    Mark 10:21
    Obviously a “suggestion” / “option”, not “command”.

    Luke 12:32-33
    This is from the sermon on the mount (“Consider the lillies” for Monty Python fans) and is simply saying not to worry about wordly possessions – no “command”.

    Luke 14:33
    Here’s the context:

    “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

    OBVIOUSLY, talking about giving up relationships and past associations not possessions.

    Luke 18:23
    This is the same “camel through the eye of a needle” story as before. Obviously a recommendation, not a “command”.

    Matthew 19:20-21
    The same story again. Dude this version literally says,”If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have”, with no suggestion the Jesus character expects anyone to be perfect.

    Matthew 6:24-25
    This last one is just the “one cannot serve two masters” bit. Nothing about selling anything.

    Dude. If I, a lifelong atheist can utterly eviscerate your supposed evidence of “commands” in the bible to own nothing – how do you think you’re going to fare against an actual theist?!

    Stop making atheists look like idiots.

  17. Silentbob says

    @ 4 cheerfulcharlie

    You’re also going to get your tail waxed by theists quoting contradictory passages like Matthew 26:

    6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

    8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

    10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, a but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Leave a Reply