Archive for January, 2007
The Lonely Deity
It’s interesting to note that the concept of “God” has evolved from observations and exaggerations of nature into increasingly abstract concepts. By now, the whole concept is so broad and used in so many contexts that it’s difficult to know exactly what people are talking about when they talk about “God”.
The first religions, or at [...]
Filed under: christianity, religion, theism | Closed
13 Reasons Not to Believe in God
Friendly Atheist has posted a list of 18 Unconvincing Arguments for God. Lists are always fun. Here’s my list of 13 reasons not to believe in God. These aren’t proofs that there is no God, but rather arguments for why you shouldn’t believe in God. This list is far from exhaustive, and isn’t meant to [...]
Filed under: atheism, ethics, morality, philosophy, religion, superstition, theism | 47 Comments
C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia books and himself an atheist before turning to Christianity, criticized the idea that Jesus was a great moral teacher, but not divine, with the following trilemma:
Jesus was lying and knew it, so he was a liar.
Jesus was lying but believed what he was saying, so he was a [...]
Filed under: bullshit arguments, christianity, respect, superstition, theism | 12 Comments
PreacherMike has been reading Sam Harris and writes about “Christian Evidences” (found via The Paranoid Optimist). It’s nice to see someone arguing for religion without pretending that their arguments are anything other than statements of faith:
My central arguments for faith aren’t cosmological (”nothing comes from nothing”), teleiological (”there’s an intricately designed watch, so there must [...]
Filed under: atheism, christianity, religion, theism | 22 Comments
I’ve been talking about respecting people, but exactly who and what deserves respect? Let me start with the premise that we need a minimum level of respect for our fellow humans. This isn’t for philosophical reasons as much as pragmatic; society would never work if nobody had any respect for anybody else. It would be [...]
Filed under: atheism, dangers of faith, extremism, morality, philosophy, religion, superstition, theism | 7 Comments
This is episode two in this series in which I take a look at some common arguments that are used to convince you either that there’s a higher probability of there being a God than there not being one, or that you’re somehow better off believing than not.
The Anthropic Principle
The anthropic principle, in its weakest [...]
Filed under: atheism, bullshit arguments, philosophy, religion, superstition, theism | Closed
Skeptic Revamps $1M Psychic Prize. Now the regular run-of-the-mill cranks aren’t allowed to show off their incredible bullshit skills any more. James Randi’s Million Dollar Challenge gets revamped. The rules are revised to prevent totally unknown people from entering.
“We can’t waste the hundreds of hours that we spend every year on the nutcases out there [...]
Filed under: bullshit arguments, religion, superstition | Closed
How Does One Know God?
According to just about every monotheistic religion there is, God is too great for humans to comprehend. God transcends hard reality in a way we can only hope to do if we follow His word, and for Him nothing is impossible. Humans can’t even begin to imagine how great God is. In fact, some argue [...]
Filed under: atheism, philosophy, religion, theism | Closed
On False Dilemmas
Recently I’ve noticed a striking similarity between criticism of Israel, criticism of theists and criticism of atheists. They all seem to provoke responses based on false dilemmas. Note: I’m not talking about everybody, and I’m not talking about anybody in particular. It just seems like every time a public criticism of the country or groups [...]
Filed under: atheism, extremism, politics, religion, theism | 2 Comments
Common Misconceptions
Unfortunately, in any debate between theists and atheists, some nearly universal misconceptions pop up. No public discussion seems to be without at least some reference to these misconceptions, if only to point out that they are misconceptions.
Several of these misconceptions are about evolution. Many theists seem to think that by disproving evolution, they can prove [...]
Filed under: agnosticism, atheism, bullshit arguments, religion, superstition, theism | 6 Comments
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