What do people mean when they say that they're "spiritual, not religious"? (I hope this hasn't been addressed already)

Is there a relevant distinction, or have they simplified an old idea? 

Of course, science is not the enemy of religious faith. Sanity is. (ichbindaswortistich)

Over the ages, all religious pretensions, regardless of the respective faith of which they may have originated, have been disproved beyond any reasonable doubt. The earth is not flat but a sphere. The earth revolves about the sun, not vice versa. The earth is not the centre of the universe but a tiny planet in only one of myriads…

My interactions with some Atheist has lead me to believe that many put more emphasis on showing how "smart" they are instead of being "smart."  I can see why Christians and other "Theist" who haven't figured out that superstition ain't the way, get turned off by "uppity" folk who seem to talk down to them because their reference is usually a 2000 year old book filled with contradictions.  The Atheist I know, especially many of the white ones, are trapped into a techno intellectual mode that…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrnMYg62boM

This is a very sick and cruel thing that happened. I can't understand why people would hate someone this much.

I'm soooo NOT trying to take away from what happened to this poor girls mother, but one thing that caught my attention was what she said around…

Yep! Here we are!

Remember to follow the Think Atheist Radio Show on Twitter and Facebook for show news and features plus Sunday School links throughout the week! I've started a feature called Bookmarks on the Think Atheist Radio Show Blog, posting some thoughts on all…

Why Is It Not Enough.

Just To Be A Good.

And Decent Person.

Why Must We Also Be Subscribed To A God.

I Treat People With Respect.

And Kindness.

I Don't Go Out Of My Way To Cause Other People To Feel Bad.

Why Is Being Good.

For The Sake Of Being Good.

Not Good Enough For Some People?

Why Must We Accept Jesus.

And Accept God.

Why Do We Need Them In Order For Our Goodness To Have Any Sort Of Value.

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the…

This is my response to an article I once found in my mailbox when I got home from a long day at work. I posted it in the wrong section and forgot to “blog” it until now. I am still awaiting a reply from them. Yeah, I know it will never arrive but I never let a chance go by to help a Christian become a better one!!! You can read it here first and then my response. They claim to be Catholic. Yes, I could just bin it but I always feel compelled to question them, especially when it sounds so…

It is sometimes argued that only the religious could really comprehend religion and that, therefore, the irreligious ought to abstain from criticizing religion or religious beliefs. In other words, a peculiar worldview can only be fully understood from within and should thus be criticized only from within.

This argument can easily be refuted by a reductio ad absurdum. If it were true that peculiar worldviews could only be comprehended by those…

the once-believer in “god”

had been wallowing in the feeling of being all alone

in a world in which every contact that they had

was based on a work of fiction full of characters

on the basis of whom

millions throughout history

have sacrificed their lives

in order to get a reward

be it the myth of “heaven”

or 72 virgins---

this once-believer dragged along these dogmas

that had been beat into their head since…

(If you would like to visit my blog or would like to read this posting in its original formatting:  Josephine)

On Network Norwich and Norfolk there is an article by a certain Mr James Knight in which the author claims to show that ‘there almost certainly is a God’.[1] As becomes evident soon, however, Mr Knight is definitely mistaken. I shall have to make only a few remarks so as to show you why.

First, point (7) of Mr Knight’s article demonstrates his misconception of mathematics. Mathematics is not something found in nature. Instead, it is a tool invented by…

I Have Been Doing A Bit Of Thinking.

And I Wonder Why Believers Get So Upset.

When An Atheist Says.

"There Is No God" or "I Don't Believe In Your/A God"

And It Occurs To Me.

They Are Not Getting Upset.

Because We Are Questioning Their God.

They Are Getting Upset.

Because We Are Questioning Them.

Their Intellect.

Their Logic.

The Way They Look At The World.

And The Universe.

So It's All About…

Happy Atheist Blog

Great piece in the Huffington Post today..Posted: 03/20/2012 5:10 pm

Victor Stenger, Physicist, PhD, bestselling author

The following article appeared in the March 17, 2012 "God issue" of New Scientist.

The party line among scientists -- believers and nonbelievers alike -- is that science and religion are what Stephen Jay Gould called "non-overlapping magisteria." In 1998 the US National Academy of Sciences…

Confusion, it starts with some prick mouthing off. You know he is wrong and so you step up to set him right.

You quickly lay out your argument with finesse and poise, a salvo to baffle and tantalize the mind. When the next thing you know he is arguing the meaning of your words and telling you that you must be crazy for believing all that.

Taken aback but not one to back down you settle in for the fight with an uneducated fool. Laying it down like a well versed poem, you point…

Last week I had my 7th graders listening to a podcast on This American Life about kidnapping for ransom and the guest who worked for a K+R firm said that one of the ways to survive a kidnapping in Mexico is to ask your kidnapper for a bible because it creates a relationship between you and the abductor (because of the Catholic nature of Mexico) . After the podcast one of the students raised her hand and said, "Well that doesn't make sense at all. Why would the kidnapper want to give you a…

New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: January 11, 2012

They have tried letter-writing, petitions and a lawsuit, all to no avail. So now the Christian congregations that are weeks away from…