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Answering John Loftus: Is There an Atheist Community?

John Loftus, of Debunking Christianity, writes:

I want to briefly make the case that there is no atheist community. There are only atheist communities. There is likewise no atheist movement. There is only an atheist momentum. Atheists do not even share the same goals.

It’s a sound point, and I agree with several of his arguments, at least in the sense I believe he’s aiming. But it isn’t the only point, I don’t think. It will take me a bit to explain why: Continue reading “Answering John Loftus: Is There an Atheist Community?”

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… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands

A Facebook friend posted a link to this Slate article Free Willy: Should prison inmates have the right to masturbate?

I clicked over to it because it sounded funny. Not only did it turn out to be interesting, it touches on (you see what I did there?) a real point of human rights.

While you might think of masturbation as a sort of last refuge for the incarcerated—a truly inalienable freedom, given the happy proximity of the sex organs—that is not the case. In fact, a number of state prisons regard jerking off as a rule infraction.

The fight against the practice apparently has a long history: Continue reading “… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands”

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Help Me Pharyngulate (wait, can I say that?) This Poll

The Christian Coalition of America is

… conducting a nationwide survey of America’s politically active Christians so we can show the politicians and the media exactly where we stand on critical issues.

[ In case you have trouble connecting, the URL is http://cc.org/webform/2012_american_values_survey ]

[ Also, see Afternote 2/Warning at the end of this post. ]

And they want to make sure your voice is included.

I say we pitch in. After all, it doesn’t say only Christians, and nobody else.

And it’s not like the questions are politically loaded or anything. They’re all open, honest, think-your-own-well-informed-thoughts-and-answer-according-to-your-independent-conscience questions. No, really. Continue reading “Help Me Pharyngulate (wait, can I say that?) This Poll”

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Short Stack #8

By the second week of January, I’m going to register 200,000 hits on my blog. That’s more views than Salt Lake City has Mormons. I think that means I can start baptizing people posthumously as atheists.

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To my Christian friends: Yes, I’m an atheist, but that doesn’t mean I don’t celebrate or understand the true meaning of Christmas! Here, I’ll prove it: Merry Christmas! May Jesus come down the chimney and leave a quarter under your pillow for every one of your teeth! Continue reading “Short Stack #8”

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Puppies or Poison

I found this on Facebook. It was worth a mere chuckle at first, but then I started to really think about it. The more I thought about it, the more telling and terrible it became.

Take two groups …

One with a nightmare vision of the future, a vision of screaming and pain and merciless death, a vision of the end of human life on Earth. A vision that they LOVE, that they ardently WANT TO HAVE HAPPEN …

And the other with a vision of good things, of diseases conquered and lives extended, a vision of human reason and creativity, exploration and prosperity, a vision of learning to live with nature …

Who would you pick to live and work with? Who would you pick to help design YOUR future? The future that stands the better chance of bringing about the most positive experience for everybody and everything? Continue reading “Puppies or Poison”

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Ten Reasons I’m Glad I’m an Atheist

These are not necessarily the TOP ten reasons. Maybe they’re not even the ONLY ten reasons. But they’re ten pretty good reasons I’m glad I am an atheist.

1. Sunday morning. Or Saturday. Or whenever. I get to sleep in if I want to. And if I don’t want to – I almost never do – I can get up and do things I want to do, and not things other people expect me to do, in church or otherwise. I don’t feel that I have to be seen worshipping in order to be accepted as a decent person. Continue reading “Ten Reasons I’m Glad I’m an Atheist”

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Pat Robertson is a Lying Sack of Shit

Praying? Or taking a dump? Nobody knows for sure.

I have a certain amount of sympathy for most Christians. Because I believe that, no matter what they say and do, they aren’t really in full control of their thoughts and actions. Because of this powerful fear they’ve been taught, they’ve given over control of their lives to others, people they hope really understand how to live and act.

In fact, I feel this same way about great numbers of religious ministers. I can barely imagine how torturous it must be to not really know what’s true or not true, and to have to pretend to your flock that you know exactly what you’re doing and that you have every right to be there telling THEM what’s true and not true, what’s good and not good. Continue reading “Pat Robertson is a Lying Sack of Shit”