What a year for me.

I'm sure the rest of the world had it's ups and downs, it was one of those years where I simply couldn't avoid the news (no matter how hard I actively try to) and I am a worse person for it.

So I am told.

My atheism became very personal to me this year. How could it not be? Family and friends alike have accused me of moral inferiority because I don't bow to imaginary friends.

Religion truly offends me, but I don't try to start arguments, I just…

most people trouncing round the empire

walk with a sense of respect built by

the accumulation of things,

built by the constant reassertion of one’s

personality publicly,

pronouncing themselves a

functional

social

being,

as defined by these terms alone---

and the western world raps its head against the brick wall incessantly this way into a completely successful sense of oblivion.

but for those…

A while back I got into a discussion by email with an ex-colleague of mine.

When we worked for same company he used to show me a number of handouts about "The Decreasing Speed Of Light", "The Age Of The Earth" and at the time I hadn't thought much about it (I was much younger, much less experienced, then). He presented himself as someone with a fairly balanced viewpoint and seeming to be asking what I thought rather than claiming any validity. He seemed to be superbly educated, ultra…

After Ben posted this video and it got featured on the Yahoo! Front Page, people all over Facebook, or at least my friends on Facebook, showed their support by posting "Do You Believe In Angels Or God? I Do♥" on their status. Or simply "I Do".



Now, I think the video is worth watching.



I just want to know what your opinions are on this subject.

Both on Ben's afterlife experiences…

I work at the Melbourne Zoo and yesterday this guy with his family came in with a Melbourne School of Theology student card so I was obliged to give him a discount because of that.

I'm not happy giving students of theology discount just because they're a student. If everyone received concessions just because they studied the philosophy of imaginary beings, someone can genuinely believe in anything and get a discount for it. But I can't say that on Facebook can I! So I have to go with…

A copy of a post I posted at my own website, Geekanology ... I know I'm preaching to the choir but someone here may enjoy it :)

A Message For Those Who Think I’m In Some Way Wrong

I am an atheist and, quite frankly…

I replied to a thread a bit ago and told a story about my experience in the late 1970s/early 1980s in dealing with aggressive xians from penecostal megachurches - both adults and teens. Here's the story I told...

I became an "out of the closet atheist" in High School, in suburban/rural GA (well, at the time it was ;) ). There was a group of us "geeks" who were into politics, heavy…

sitting across from each other

the vain artist insists that what they are doing

has never been done before

that what they have just created is something truly

original

that which brings with it no remnant of prior influence &

therefore no credit to be given to anyone else---

the arrogant intellectual

masturbates alone to the ideas they have &

like style nazis they goosestep with pointing fingers

insisting to us all…

Despite the group's hefty representation, it has rarely been included in anti-prejudice efforts -- even in the face of mounting evidence that atheists and other "nones" are frequently ostracized.

Susan Jacoby, who writes as the "Spirited Atheist" for the On Faith column of the Washington Post, leaves us with her final article about the need for a political movement to help define atheists in the United States. She writes:

Looking back on my five years as a contributor to “On Faith,” I see a great paradox in the progress of American secularism: The numbers and visibility of atheists and secularists in the United States have increased but their political and social…

Prior to my profound experience that I am about to share, I was already most comfortable with the term "atheist" but still struggled with defending myself against religious bullying.

Pregnant with my third child, I was determined to manifest a painless birth experience. My prenatal journey began with a hypnosis session where my sub-conscious mind was given an opportunity to view labor and birth differently.

The unasssisted home birth of my son was not only painless, it was…

What makes religion stick around in a world that should have grown out of it long ago?

Fear:

                People fear death, people fear opposing their friends and family, and people fear being alone and having to fend for themselves in such a big, bad world.  Religion exists because in a time with very little explanation for why things were the way they were, people began making up stories to try to explain it all.  As human knowledge and scientific discoveries began…

Islam is the religion of peace? This Christmas day in Nigeria the religion of peace demonstrated that it carries this line of reasoning:

1. Sharia law would be good for our country,

2. Sharia law has not yet be implemented so therefore,

3. We must commence killing and terrorizing to demonstrate just how peaceful our religion makes us.

In total 27 people were killed and dozens more injured as a series of bombs aimed the ‘enemies’ of the religion of peace were detonated…

the man lay dying &

like many men before

he was suddenly surrounded by an

intervening troupe

whose mission it was to make him

like them

“before it was too late”---

now,

whether or not “too late,”

is a measurable amount of time,

outside the obvious notion that

one’s death is one’s death,

all she wrote, etc. etc.,

understand that there are those

that believe there is a life beyond…

So over the holidays my sister and her husband come from out of state to visit with Mom and the rest of us. During that time we had a private discussion about theism and my lack of participation. Then my sister says "I really wish you would stop talking to Mom about your atheism. She loves you and can you imagine her hell that she won't see her boy in the afterlife because of your belief." I was a little annoyed that she made a comment like that. So now I am stuck between a rock and…

What is the fascination with "Christmas Miracles?" Is this simply ignorant reporters searching for a catchy headline in order to draw readers to their story or is there more to it? It seems that always around Christmas the number of divine interventions increases. These alleged "miracles" make the headlines and perpetuate the silly notion that God has somehow stepped maneuvered in on the affairs of mere mortals and made something a little better.

But here's the rub: most of the time,…

So I was surfing youtube today, which included the usual cast of characters: Thunderf00t, Lawrence Krauss, Phil Hellenes, etc. And then, despite my better judgement, I decided to read the comments on a video. Of course, there wasn't anything of substance, but I did encounter a claim against science (not even "for god") that I hadn't come across before.  In a nutshell, the claim was this:  1) Scientists fall on both sides on whether global warming is natural or caused by people, 2)…

A common tactic that I have seen religionists use is the claim that Atheism is Nihilistic. The basic premise is that living this life with no purpose just to have it end is a waste and that simply hoping for more gives meaning and purpose. I reject that argument and propose that living life for a deity, especially if one does not exist could be made into a cartoon and substituted for the definition of Nihilism. 

I ran across a quote today that got me thinking about this. "Isn't it…

I was seeing this girl who was kind of odd; she had pen nibs instead of nipples.

During sex she'd write things in blue all over my duvet. The first night she wrote: The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals, he shapes it with hammers and forges it with his strong arm: he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no

The second night she wrote: water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line, he marks it out with a…

369 years ago, 25th of December 1642, in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England, was the birth day of one of the greatest men ever to live on this tiny speck floating thru the cosmos. Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian, has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived." Unfortunately, his birthday has been obscured by worship of fables and irrationality.…