Documenting the Nones

February 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

Richard Dawkins explains the reasoning behinds his recent efforts to find out just how seriously British citizens who identify as Christian take their faith: Some years ago, a colleague was admitted to hospital and a nurse came over to her bedside to fill in her personal form. “Religion?” “None.” Later, my colleague overheard a pair [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Politics, Politics, Richard Dawkins 2 Comments

TOP Q: What Does It Most Decisively Mean To Believe, Disbelieve, or Lack Belief?

February 23, 2012 By 47 Comments

Believing and not believing are not simple things. There are ways to cognitively believe, disbelieve, and refrain from believing. But functionally there are ways to effectively act as though one believed, disbelieved, or refrained from believing. There are at least two broad kinds of avowed atheists who take two distinct kinds of stances on the [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Why I Am Not A Christian Tagged With: , , , , , , , 47 Comments

Sex and "Spirituality"

February 23, 2012 By 10 Comments

Casey: Sigh, Pat. It seems like there is nowhere in this culture we can escape the pernicious influence of religion. Pat: What are you thinking of in particular? Casey: I’m thinking of the way that even some of the most “sex-positive”, taboo-breaking, kink-celebrating, sexually liberated people I know still cannot enjoy the pure physicality of sex [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Love, Love, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Paganism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Sex, Skepticism, Skepticism, Wicca Tagged With: , , , , , , , 10 Comments

Is It Just A Mystery Whether God Exists?

February 16, 2012 By 71 Comments

Robin: Jaime, what bothers me about your atheism is that it’s so dogmatic. You claim to know there is no God. That’s so arrogant. Jaime: Yes, I claim to know there are no gods. But I don’t claim it dogmatically or arrogantly. I claim it based upon the fact that the evidence is overwhelmingly against [...]

Filed Under: Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, God, God, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 71 Comments

No, Not Everyone Has A Moral Right To Feel Offended By Just Any Satire or Criticism

February 15, 2012 By 56 Comments

4 Misconceptions About the Nature of Offense Here are four common sense assumptions about giving and taking offense that I think are fundamentally mistaken and which atheists need to argue against: “You have every right to be offended, but you don’t have the right to censor others just because you’re offended.” “You cannot blame people [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Free Speech, Free Speech, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Satire, Religious Satire, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , 56 Comments

Hell As The Absence of God

January 29, 2012 By 86 Comments

Robin: I know you don’t want to hear it, but Jesus loves you, Jaime. Jaime: Yes, yes, a man who either never existed or who is long dead and rotted by now loves me—and will torture me in hell forever if I don’t worship him, of course. Robin: He just wants you to love him but [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, God, God, Jesus, Jesus, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: , , 86 Comments

Can Utilitarians Properly Esteem The Intrinsic Value of Truth?

January 22, 2012 By 37 Comments

The Obvious Intrinsic and Instrumental Values of Truth It is prejudicial and fallacious to assume that the world is an inherently just place and that all the traits we idealize as virtues will always lead to the best possible outcomes. So if we are to be honest and realistic in assessing those traits which are [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Metaethics, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , 37 Comments

Gnu Atheists, Meet the Gnu Muppet

January 22, 2012 By 12 Comments

Are the Gnu Atheists in the market for a theme song? I can’t speak for the Gnus—camels (like me) are apparently not gnus as I just learned from the gnu in this video, who spelled out this point quite explicitly. Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism 12 Comments

The Author of The Cranston High School Prayer Outraged

January 14, 2012 By 22 Comments

This week, Jessica Ahlquist and the ACLU won their court case against Cranston High School West in Rhode Island. The school was ordered to immediately remove a banner containing an official school prayer addressed to “Our Heavenly Father” and ending in “Amen”, which hung over the school gymnasium as an unambiguous endorsement of the Christian [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tagged With: , , , , 22 Comments

Tyler Cowen, Socrates, and How To Be Suspicious of Stories

January 11, 2012 By 3 Comments

This is a funny, insightful, and thought provokingly paradoxical 16 minute must-see talk from Tyler Cowen, wherein he talks about the dangers of both believing and telling ourselves stories and narratives. He details numerous of the ways that stories exploit and exacerbate our cognitive biases. I won’t repeat his numerous gems below but to explore [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion 3 Comments