Oh, Catholics... Some of you never fail to entertain disgust me.

Made aware of its existence by bigots on Twitter, I recently came across an article at 'catholicstand.com' entitled 'Contraception: A Psychological Prostitution'. So here's that...

It began with a quote:…

"My friends joke that I am a coconut: brown on the outside, but white on the inside." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

I wrote a post fairly recently for the Rationalist Association's blog (soon set to be in New Humanist…

Last Tuesday was a good day. Peter Singer gave a lecture.

I'd been looking forward to it for some time, early on securing a place on the Facebook first-come-first-served waiting list just to be sure of a seat. Of Singer, I knew…

"I find it astonishing and depressing that many people who lead their lives according to the ideas and rules laid down in these books have not read them" - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

You may have guessed it, but faith often has a lot to do with religious belief. Strip even the most 'educated' theological argument down to its core, and what you're often left with is 'we just don't know - therefore God'.

The 'we…

It was a simple question…

But then this happened:

(At least chickens have an excuse, eh?)

I learnt a lesson that day:…

"I once met a Texan who bragged that he had only ever read one book from cover to cover: the Bible" - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

I've read the Bible; and if I'm honest, the prospect of having it come along with me, by default, to a celebrity/music-filled island is, to say the least, a little disappointing.

Don't get the reference? I'll explain... Desert Island…

"Despite not believing in God, and not believing in an afterlife where I might be rewarded or punished for my behaviour, I try to be a good person. That's the most any of us can do." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

It's a favourite argument of the Theists: 'How can you be good without God?'

Even supposedly 'enlightened' Theologians (mean?) like William Lane…

For all practical purposes, I am an Atheist. I lack belief in a God (or gods).

It is that, and only that, with which I can confidently say that I share with other Atheists. We're a diverse group.

While there certainly are trends, we're all…

"Nothing that has happened in my life since [I learned of my mother's death], nothing I believe and nothing I know, can provide consolation. This is why I suspect that I am in some way predisposed not to believe in God, because God is the only thing that could have provided solace... If I had felt that there was an afterlife, believe me, I would have killed myself then and there to join her." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's…

Disclaimer: I may not necessarily wholeheartedly stand by everything written below, but it's not like I'm not allowed to poke fun once in a while...

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It doesn't take long on the internet, or in real life, to come across this old chestnut:

'Atheists are so full of themselves, thinking they're right all of the time... So much smug certainty, so much confident piss-taking, so much inconsiderate hate-speech I can't help but…

I have always been a humanist, really. But it’s only recently that I've made the effort to ‘get involved’ with humanism more actively.

At my secondary school I now run an ‘Asking Questions Club’ – “a space to discuss, with rationality, empiricism, and all-round critical thinking in mind”, reads the poster, “absolutely everyone welcome” – which has been going well.

More and more, I am also making the effort to attend lectures, talks,…

The other day, I got a question from a friend...

"Did you really say that you 'respect people too much to respect their beliefs', or something?"

So here's how that went (more or less):

"I did, yes. Kind of." I replied, grinning. "It's a quote from a guy called Johann Hari actually; 'I respect you as a person too much to respect your ridiculous beliefs' is what he said, I…

To what extent can a religious believer actually argue their faith, reasonably? Not very far, it seems to me.

There are two quantities to consider here, by which all human beliefs can relate back to: Faith and Evidence.

Let's look at the first. Faith, by its very definition, is 'belief without evidence'. It is a gut feeling, and it cannot be proven wrong. Why? Because, for…

Disclaimer: all quotes from the AHS Convention are para-phrasings, not direct.

I've just been, yesterday, to the National Federation for Atheist, Humanist, and Secular Student Societies' conference in Conway Hall, London. The AHS are a group wholly facilitated and supported by the - perhaps more familiar - British Humanist Association, and the day involved many high-profile…

You'll likely all have heard this argument at some point. It's a classic.

Outlined rather well by http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm, it goes something like this:

"(1) Person X, a well-known atheist, was morally inferior to the rest of us.

(2) Therefore, God exists."

It's just poetic, isn't it?

So... Assuming Hitler was an…

"I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist." - Bertrand Russell

Atheism, I find, is often misunderstood. To a significant number of people, it is seen as a firm belief that God does not/cannot exist - meaning it's 'just as bad' as religion itself. This is wrong.

Calling Atheism a belief…

This week, on Tuesday 5th of February, MPs in England voted in favour of a bill named the "Marriage (Same Sex…

Before I start, I'd like to introduce this all new (yet not original) post format.

In light of a series of interesting comments on the last post (Why Tolerate Intolerance?), I've decided to dedicate the occasional (slightly more humorous and ranty) 'rambling' to methodically picking apart sentiments expressed in the comment section of this blog which don't sit with me too well. I think it's only fair that if…

“Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.” - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

A while ago, around December, I went to have Christmas dinner at my Mother's parent's house. After the food, crackers, and hats were all finished with my Grandmother leaned over the table, rested a hand on my Mother's arm, and said - completely out of the blue - "I brought you up to respect other people's beliefs."

Now, as this somewhat hushed and accusatory utterance was so…