Look around the world and notice the pressure put on people to just put faith into whatever the local belief system happens to be. This is especially true (currently) in Middle-East Muslim culture, so I'm most interested in hearing back from them, in particular.

It's not just Muslims who put peer pressure on their own society to practice faith, as almost all religions are a product of local peer pressure. So my question still applies (to various degrees) to every religion.

I…

(Via XKCD)

Certainty is born of our best traits and sustained by the worst. Curiosity and wonder are the building blocks of all knowledge. When we learn about our world, our lives are enriched and the worth of our existence grows exponentially. We find meaning in the madness and it makes life worth living.

The mere…

If you've read my earlier blog posts, you know that I don't believe in god, but one of my current jobs is directing music at a small Methodist church.  It's so interesting just how your perspective on a church service changes once you remove belief in god: things that previously seemed quite ordinary now seem absolutely ludicrous.  I mean, there are the obvious things: the Lord's Prayer, prayer in general, the scripture readings (yesterday, no joke, we actually read aloud Psalm 14, which…

one big topic that comes up in theist vs atheist debates is who does the responsibility of proof fall to?

does it fall to the creationists to prove that god DOES exist?

Or

does it fall upon those who do believe that god does NOT exist?

AND, can you give your reason(s) why?

I personally think that it is the creationists responsibility to prove god's existance BECAUSE: throughout the entire history of science, science has only ever proven the existance of…

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…

I've had a relatively good life. I was never abused, impoverished or homeless. I was born with loving parents, who raised me in a Baptist household. They were missionaries for years and I was a child, impressionable and naive. I was raised on a diet of the usual well-minded christian brainwashing. But my story only becomes applicable 2009.

Till I was 15, I coasted. Sure I prayed occasionally, went to church with my parents, believed in Jesus as the lord and all that, but I…

 Previously, I discussed the idea that we can now definitively show that there was no single couple from which all of humanity descended, and discussed a few points made by ProfMTH, namely that Paul references Adam in same way he references Jesus. To me, this seemed a clear and inescapable contradiction to a foundational principle of Christianity, since Paul is obviously wrong in referencing Adam. Now this assertion faced…

Ardent Atheists Emery Emery and Heather Henderson talk with comedians, actors and friends about atheism, deism and the effects of religion on us all. Guests of the show are a mix of atheists, agnostics, deists, scientists, humanists and the occasional god-loving, scripture-quoting crusader. Discussions are deeply impassioned, mostly respectful and always funny.

Ep 027 - Carlos Alazraqui Lost His Wife When Fred Stoller And Brought John Over.…

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you’re all having a great day. Despite a rather shaky start to the day, everything is now going well and I just read a great article inThe Vancouver Sun, titled …

My wife, like me, is an atheist (thank god!).  When her dad was dying the last thing he asked her was to accept jesus and go back to church.  She told him she couldn't do that (my wife is a stickler for the truth).  My reaction was to say: you should have just agreed, it would have pleased him, comforted him, made him happy, and done no harm, since when he was dead he'd never know anyway.  She said that if she had done that she'd feel guilty, and would feel compelled to at least try, though…

Growing up I never had the same longing for a higher power. I was forced by my parents to follow a particular religious rituals and they would bore me. I would go through the motions of doing the religious rituals. In my late teenage years in the college when I ran through the tough times I found solace in praying for higher power. It was very comforting to pray for a higher power and have all my trouble transfered, one who would help me get through the college and…

This is a chapter from my new book…

As I will argue, below, if a prerequisite of “true” Christianity is to follow Jesus, then nobody is a true Christian. The very reason for this also reveals our tacit acknowledgement that religious morality is subordinated to our innate human morality.

Nobody in their right mind, Christian or not, would fully obey Jesus. Do you know any Christians who abandon their worldly goods and rely on God to feed, clothe and shelter them? Of course not! But that's what Jesus…