A Dictatorship Of Relativism?

July 3, 2010 By 3 Comments

BBC Radio 4 analyzes the pope’s catchphrase, “a dictatorship of relativism”, used for describing the secular West.  Here’s the program description: The idea that no one has a monopoly on the truth seems to be fixed in the modern Western psyche. But it’s an idea that is under attack. Pope Benedict claims that we are [...]

Filed Under: Authority, Authority, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Culture, Cutural Criticism, Cutural Criticism, Ethics, Ethics, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Tom Rees On Why Loss Of Faith Might Be A Two Generational Process

July 2, 2010 By 6 Comments

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study this February revealed that less than one fifth of all American adults under 30 report regular church attendance.   But they still also overwhelmingly claim belief in God.  Tom Rees thinks that despite their beliefs, their abandonment of the pews may indicate that a multi-generational secularization [...]

Filed Under: Evolutionary Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Social Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociobiology, Sociobiology, Sociology, Sociology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Prejudice

July 2, 2010 By 5 Comments

Here’s a reflexively smarmy, condescending pat on the head to the members of a maligned minority group: I once stayed in a black person’s house when I went to another place for a few days. It was interesting experience to go to an African American’s house because the black person housed us, fed us, treated [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Prejudice, Religion, Religion Tagged With: 5 Comments

What Would Happen If Christians Crashed Atheist Groups?

July 1, 2010 By 10 Comments

Mike Adams is bitter that the Supreme Court ruled against a Christian student group which claimed to have a legal right to discriminate against gays, despite its University’s non-discrimination policy. Adams wants Christian students to join secularist groups where (he assumes) they would be just as unwelcome as (we all know) unrepentant gays are in [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Religion, Religion 10 Comments

Beyond Agnosticism: More Details About How I Know Various Kinds Of Gods Do Not Exist, Based On Scientific And Philosophical Reasons

June 30, 2010 By 6 Comments

While I agree with, and vigorously defend, the notion that there is an important difference between lacking a belief in gods (as an agnostic atheist) and believing there are no gods (as a gnostic atheist), I also think that atheists should not, based on the best available scientific evidence and philosophical arguments, merely lack belief [...]

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, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Examining Conceptions of God's Attributes, Goodness, Knowability, and Existence, Featured, God, God, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Skepticism, Skepticism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tagged With: , 6 Comments

Mike Kaplan On Religion

June 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

Pretty funny stuff.  His response to the homophobic argument lie that homosexuality doesn’t exist in the natural world is perfect: Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Comedy, Comedy, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Religion, Religion Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

Daily Hilarity: Children’s Guide To Religion

June 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

Thanks to Das for the hilarious find: “Sometimes I think God drinks my tears and pees them back on my life.” Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Christianity, Christianity, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Islam, Islam, Jesus, Jesus, Judaism, Judaism, LGBTQAA, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church 2 Comments

New Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard Affirms Her Non-Belief, Will Not Patronize Believers

June 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

I love what she has to say and do not know why anyone, religious or irreligious, would prefer a faith panderer to this, even if the faithful politician was at least somewhat sincere: She says does not go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance. “I am not going to pretend a faith I [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs Tagged With: 2 Comments

No, I’m Not An Atheist By Faith, Here Are My Arguments.

June 29, 2010 By 35 Comments

Yesterday Ron Rosenbaum aggressively attacked atheism and defended agnosticism in Slate. He starts out with the familiar charge that atheists have “faith”. But faith in what? Atheists display a credulous and childlike faith, worship a certainty as yet unsupported by evidence—the certainty that they can or will be able to explain how and why the [...]

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, Atheism, Cosmology, Cosmology, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Physics, Physics, Religion, Religion 35 Comments

Evangelicals Revise Their Strategies For Relating To Serious Atheists

June 28, 2010 By 6 Comments

It is clear from my personal experience that nearly all Christians throw out the evangelist playbook when they deal with me.  I suspect I’m not the only one of the growing demographic of serious and self-assured atheists that they are approaching differently.  Aaron points me to this article which gives me a little hope for [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Featured, Religion, Religion Tagged With: , , 6 Comments