When I Deconverted: I Was Reading Nietzsche’s “Anti-Christ”, Section 50

October 30, 2011 By 10 Comments

In the posts Before I Deconverted: My Christian Childhood and Before I Deconverted: Ministers As Powerful Role Models, I have only begun to chronicle my deconversion story in detail. But since it was 12 years ago today that it happened, I will jump ahead in the story a bit and share with you the text from Nietzsche’s Antichrist (as [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Faith, Faith, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian 10 Comments

Don't Call Religious Believers Stupid (Tip 1 of 10 For Reaching Out To Religious Believers)

October 5, 2011 By 49 Comments

Back in February, I wrote my Top 10 Tips For Reaching Out To Atheists, designed to help Christians (and other religious people) engage atheists in ways that are respectful to them and honest with them and with themselves, and therefore hopefully fruitful for both sides. In a series of posts (fully listed at the end [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion 49 Comments

Islam, 9/11, and "True Religion" (Or "What Could George W. Bush Mean When Talking About True Islam?")

September 11, 2011 By 8 Comments

What did it mean when George W. Bush talked about Islam really being a “religion of peace” and argued that it was not to blame for the murderous actions of terrorists? Bush was (and is) a true believing Evangelical Christian. How could he argue for a “true” interpretation of Islam when Islam is a falsehood [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Faith, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Koran, Koran, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism 8 Comments

Internecine War At Freethought Blogs: Philosopher vs. "Redneck" Edition: Free Will And The Real World Smackdown

September 10, 2011 By 19 Comments

As far as I have noticed, there has not been a blog war between any of the Freethought Blogs (or, er, since we all moved here anyway) so I was a little trepidatious of going and picking apart the every word of a quick comment on one of my posts by my new favorite blogger, Hank [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Autonomy, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Ethics, Ethics, Faith, Faith, God, God, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Psychology Tagged With: 19 Comments

The "Moral Argument" For Free Will Is A Morally Troubling, Hypocritical, Faith Position

September 9, 2011 By 25 Comments

Many who believe that we have free will are what philosophers call “libertarians”. These are not necessarily libertarians in the political sense but in a metaphysical sense. Libertarians conceive of free will as incompatible with determinism. Their notion is that to the extent that our actions are determined by forces or factors which are beyond [...]

Filed Under: Autonomy, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Ethics, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tagged With: , , , , 25 Comments

What I Think About Faith And Religion

September 2, 2011 By 12 Comments

Yesterday, I wrote a post to orient readers to my views on how values can be matters of fact. This afternoon I wrote 6 more such posts, delineating my positions on a number of other key topics which can serve as introductions and reference guides (with links) to my thinking. They are on the topics of the [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Faith, Faith, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism 12 Comments

Santorum's Hypocrisy and Backwardness on Questions of Epistemic Authority

September 1, 2011 By 5 Comments

My thoughts:

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Law, Law, LGBTQAA, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Teleology, Teleology, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats, Videos Tagged With: 5 Comments

9 Vital Points About The Public Relevance of Political Candidates' Religious Beliefs

September 1, 2011 By 5 Comments

Last week, Bill Keller had a good piece in the New York Times in which he discussed the importance of “asking tougher questions about faith” to the presidential candidates and then offered to each of the current Republican candidates for president a set of specific questions, tailored uniquely to each candidate, about their faiths and their [...]

Filed Under: Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Faith, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Law, Law, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats Tagged With: , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Addressing Skepticism About Atheism's Value To Skepticism

August 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

In reply to my post last week about why atheism is important to advancing proper skepticism, Armchair Skeptic writes: You touch on some good points here. It would help, I think, if you start by defining what you consider to be “proper” skepticism; I didn’t really get a clear understanding of that from this post. [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion, Rationalism, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism 2 Comments

"And There Are No Christians In Med School"

August 30, 2011 By 5 Comments

I have an idea. In the future whenever you hear someone falsely say that there are no atheists in foxholes, don’t disagree with them. Don’t point out to them that this insults the bravery of countless non-theist soldiers by implying that without belief in God and an afterlife no one would ever courageously put his [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Divine Intervention, Divine Intervention, Examining Conceptions of God's Attributes, Goodness, Knowability, and Existence, Faith, Faith, God, God, Jesus, Jesus, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Prayer, Prayer, Problem of Evil, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Skepticism, Skepticism 5 Comments