by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY (NPR)

This is the first in a series of stories on losing faith.

Teresa MacBain has a secret, one she's terrified to reveal.

"I'm…

This is a marginally edited letter to a friend in response to a video link he had sent me.

Hey mate,

(Want to favorite it, retweet it? Here’s the original Twitter link.)

Right, because the only explanation is “god did it”, and when god’s motives seem fishy, it must be god’s “mysterious ways”.  *facepalm*

via…

Sat Apr 28, 2012 08:20 AM ET 

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THE GIST

• An algae-eater that lives in a Norway lake is declared one of Earth's oldest living organisms.
• The single-celled creature evolved about a billion years ago and would be human's remotest relative.…
  
  
  
  

The naturalist understanding of morality asserts that we have evolved empathy as an impetus to cooperation. Combined with personal experience, empathy leads most of us to a "Golden Rule" sense of morality. From experience, I know what hurts me: with empathy, I know the same things likely hurt you too. Experience and empathy is all we need to decide most moral matters. "Do unto…

Thank you for sending me 27 tweets trying to save my soul, which i don't have from hell which does not exist upon being judged by a god that isn't there. Wanting me to go to a heaven, which does not exist is a nice though. It still bewilders me what i would do with 72 virgins, and would they stay virgins afterwards? How long would it be before all 73 of us would be bored by each other? Eternity can be a very long time you know.…

a frustrated young individual

born of the late 20th century

sat down in their favorite cafe

buried in a borough of the big apple

with cigarette in hand &

a little memo book---

with coffee & cigarettes following each other

one after another,

they began to write down the most ridiculous ideas

that they could muster,

entailing what would happen in the distant future.

after making a good amount of…

have you heard the shit festering

about the robot prostitutes in the making?

heard the christians & republicans

whining their way into a “debate”

about the moral concerns that might come about

as a result of having a robot do

what an exploited, sex trafficked individual

might once have?

see, if robots start doing the street corners

or dancing in the cubbies in Amsterdam,

there might not be the chance for any…

I have been reading with some amusement the moralizing coverage in the US press of the Secret Service/US Military Colombian Prostitution Scandal. I have tried to distill what I have read into a spoof news article that from my perspective sums up the issues here:

Secret Service Colombian Prostitution Scandal 

The Colombia prostitution scandal widened Tuesday as it emerged that Secret Service agents and military personnel brought back at…

goodbye

net neutrality

goodbye

the so-called “land of the free” online

goodbye

free exchange of ideas &

the ability to speak out against the wrongs of the empire &

the coalesced corporate whores that have lured you into the grasp

via social

like the Ghostbusters sucking the specters

down

down

down

into the trap---

for the scum on the hill want to make sure your hands are tied…

PETA does a contest every year for the cutest vegetarian alive or whatever. I always voted and stuff, but never entered it. So for some odd reason, I felt compelled to join it. PETA encourages the contestants to post contest on facebook and stuff to get more votes for yourself. But, I don't have a facebook, twitter, tumblr, stickam, or anything else that all the kids my age have. So I thought I'd post it here. I know it doesn't exactly relate to atheism, so for that, I apologize. But it was…

while waiting in line at a bank,

a television hoisted in the upper corner of the room

has anderson cooper’s television show on &

a woman is testifying that during her

near death experience,

she acquired the ability to speak

telepathically

to both aliens & angels---

she looks right into the camera when she says it

with all the “faith” in the world

gleaming out her

beady

little

idiotic glow…

[The following is crossposted from here:  http://letreasonreign.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/open-letter-to-christians-2/]

Dear Christian,

Yes there they go again.  Some…

hi, i am a new member to this site and have some questions about after life.

it all started  a year a ago and accumilited over time and lots of thinking. over the time of a year my grandfater had part of his right ear cut off, found meloma in his lungs, colon cancer and also 7 brain turmors. one night really stood out, when he said " well at least i know that when i die i will go to heave with my brother who was killed in an airplane accedent and to see my parents again. its helpfull…

I found this in my collection of articles, but for the life of me I don't remember who wrote it.  A very relateable article nonetheless!

What it feels like to be an Atheist

I've always been an atheist, I know nothing else. From my earliest memory of considering the question, I'm talking maybe age three or four, I was skeptical as hell. The God stories just didn't add up. I'm amazed everyday of my life that everyone isn't an atheist like me. But…

think of all the stupid holidays that

western civilization celebrates---

everything from christmas to valentines,

all holding rituals that require one to

cough up the bucks & perpetuate the

empire &

the riches in this one plot of land

aren’t even given to all of its occupants,

so imagine how stupid these holidays are

to those who live outside the empire,

whose own lives having nothing to do with us

at all,…

You know, I may be out of line dragging CISPA into this thread, but personally I think the entire internet needs to know about it; from porn sites to 4chan and everything in between. This is the next in a long, potentially inexhaustible line of "Internet Killing" bills. Unlike its parents, SOPA and PIPA, CISPA is a bill that allows the government to spy on you through your computer. They can log your ISP, wherever it goes, and…