It's "A" Week on Facebook!

March 17, 2012 By 6 Comments

All this upcoming week (March 18-24), it’s time to sport this beautiful “A” for Atheist (or another of your own or another’s devising). in celebration of “A” Week! “A” Week is a chance for atheists to proudly make our non-belief known to our friends and families. I have a special fondness for “A” Week (as [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: , , 6 Comments

My Interview With "Whatever Whatever Amen"

March 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A week and a half ago I had a blast being interviewed by Amy Childs (pictured above) for her podcast Whatever Whatever Amen. You can listen to our conversation here. Below is her description of our conversation topics: Freethought blogger and philosophy professor Dan Fincke talks with me today about all kinds of stuff, like…How attending a [...]

Filed Under: About This Blog, Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Personal Leave a Comment

You Glance Out Your Window and See a Shackled Black Slave and a Slavery-Justifying Bible Verse. What Do You Think?

March 12, 2012 By 57 Comments

I am surprised that even having read Sikivu Hutchinson’s detailed and eloquent denunciation of the American Atheists’ billboard featuring a vividly depicted bound African American slave beneath a Bible verse endorsing slavery, a fair amount of people still don’t seem to understand quite what was so wrong with it. So, below the offending picture, I’m [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Racism Tagged With: , , , , , , 57 Comments

Contra de Botton: Religions Are NOT To Credit With Universalistic Humanistic Values

March 12, 2012 By 6 Comments

Alain de Botton’s chapter on community in his book Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion is filled with half-baked thinking. After one-sidedly disparaging modern social life from numerous selective (and sometimes specious) angles, he goes on to model really effectively how not to try to learn from religion (Kindle Location 189):

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Jesus, Jesus, Judaism, Judaism, Koran, Koran, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Virtues, Virtues, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights 6 Comments

Against American Atheists' Slavery Billboard

March 12, 2012 By 28 Comments

In a superb new post, Sikivu Hutchinson, at Black Skeptics (on Freethought Blogs), explains in illuminating detail so much of what is wrong with the incredibly irresponsible and offensive ad the American Atheists put up in Pennsylvania using the picture of a bound slave and a Bible verse supporting slavery (Colossians 3:22), which was aimed [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Racism Tagged With: , , , 28 Comments

Alain de Botton on Meeting Strangers

March 11, 2012 By 56 Comments

I am reading through Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion one chapter at a time and blogging my responses as I go. In the beginning of his chapter on Community (specifically the subsection “Meeting Strangers”) de Botton paints with pretty prose a picture of profound alienation between people in the [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion Tagged With: , , , , , 56 Comments

Why I Bother Writing About the Boring Question of Whether Religious Beliefs Are True

March 8, 2012 By 43 Comments

Alain de Botton has caused a stir in the atheist blogosphere, and particularly here at Freethought Blogs, with his new book Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion. More specifically he caused waves with his article on CNN , which is heavy on selections from the book, and which begins as [...]

Filed Under: Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism Tagged With: 43 Comments

Against The Religiously Lazy Defenders of The Pious

March 4, 2012 By 8 Comments

Religious moderates and liberals come in many stripes. In this post I want to talk about a couple of related kinds of religious moderates or liberals and why they irk me. In order to do that, I want to draw some distinctions that I do not think I see anyone else making but which it [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates 8 Comments

New Atheism Is A Moral Movement

February 27, 2012 By 12 Comments

Last night I argued that when fundamentalist religious people, out of an inflated sense of privilege, demand that no one never offend them, that atheists should challenge the moral rightness of the fundamentlists’ specific, hypersensitive, unwarranted feelings of offense. I argued we should do this rather than indiscriminately defend the right to morally offend people [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Politics, Politics 12 Comments

Why Don't All Theists Uncertain of God's Existence Call Themselves Agnostics?

February 24, 2012 By 21 Comments

Richard Dawkins was debating the Archbishop of Canterbury when this happened: There was surprise when Prof Dawkins acknowledged that he was less than 100 per cent certain of his conviction that there is no creator. The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, who chaired the discussion, interjected: “Why don’t you call yourself an agnostic?” Prof Dawkins answered [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Richard Dawkins 21 Comments