Occasionally, I give talks about the eBay auction and my book to various groups.

I talk about the auction itself (“No, I did not sell my soul“), the aftermath (“Kirk Cameron, what happened to you?“), and the various ways atheists can get our message out to a larger audience (“Step one: Don’t be mean“).

Earlier this month, I spoke to the Humanists of West Suburban Chicagoland at a unitarian church in Naperville, IL.

Below is a brief excerpt from that talk. In it, I refer to the moment I decided to auction my church-going time on eBay and the initial media reaction to it. Hope you enjoy!

(Thanks to Joanne Reid for producing the video and Jack Sechrest for putting the event together.)


[tags]atheist, atheism, eBay, church, Christian[/tags]

The American Jewish University hosted authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe to discuss the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society.

You can watch the full video here.

Steve Padilla, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, moderated the informal debate and wrote about the event. He excerpts a few snippets of the dialogue. Like this bit:

To this Harris observed: “The one thing to notice is that the dialogue between science and religion has gone this way: It . . . has been one of relentless and one-directional erosion of religious authority.

“I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. Now, you can think of an uncountable number of questions that run the other way: Where we once had a religious answer and now the authority of religion has been battered and nullified by science and by moral progress and secular progress generally. And I think that’s not an accident.”

Many religious claims, Harris added later, “are at odds with science. The belief that Jesus was born of a virgin may be a cherished claim by most Christians. It is also a claim about biology. That is why you can’t keep science and religion apart.”

Wolpe, rabbi of Sinai Temple, then prompted one of the biggest laughs of the night. “I don’t want to spend my night defending the virgin birth,” he said. “It’s not a claim about biology. It is a claim about natural laws, which themselves are an article of faith.”

“That’s a very slippery and dangerous slope,” Harris interjected.

Wolpe, undaunted, added that it’s an article of faith to say that natural laws can’t be altered. “There’s no reason why a Christian can’t say that the laws of biology have been suspended once in history,” he said.

By that reasoning, Christians can claim anything they want. To me, it sounds like a slam dunk for Harris.

Here’s the end of Padilla’s piece:

But it must be noted that both men received respectful applause, and both fielded pointed but polite questions from the audience.

Harris’ logic and eloquence probably did not persuade anyone to abandon his or her faith. And it’s unlikely that Wolpe’s heartfelt comments moved anyone out of Harris’ camp. But conversion wasn’t the point.

The atheist and the rabbi shared their views with grace and passion and often humor. Each man tossed out an occasional barb, but no one threw a bomb, much less a punch. When all was done, they chatted amicably backstage.

And that, perhaps, was the real lesson of the night.

What is with reporters trying to balance a debate at all costs?

Nightline did the same thing (with very similar words).

Both claimed that the real victory was getting the two sides (atheists and theists) to talk in the first place.

That’s not a very difficult achievement.

It’s more of an achievement to get the audience members to listen to both sides of the debate when most of them are used to hearing just one side.

It’d be a real victory if either side learned anything from the opponent.

I don’t get the sense that that happened in either scenario.

Frankly, watching a bulk of this debate, Harris dominates it. I didn’t pick up much from Wolpe other than the typical theistic soundbytes that atheists have heard many times over (such as the argument that Stalin/Mao/Pol-Pot were atheists so atheism must be wrong). Harris answers these claims as well as he can. I got the feeling that Wolpe didn’t care for any of the explanations. He just went on to the next soundbyte.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

The Christopher Hitchens Surprise:

1 Bottle Scotch whiskey: Johnnie Walker Black Label preferred
20 Cigarettes
An empty scotch glass
1 Bottle Grecian Formula
1 Live Christian infant

Using the scotch glass, empty the entire contents of the scotch, one glass at a time, into your mouth, occasionally smoking an entire cigarette in less than a minute. Muss your hair and apply some Grecian Formula to it, not enough to actually dye your hair, just enough to make it smell like you have. Make the infant smoke one of the cigarettes in front of its parents and their priest, then eat it raw. The flavours of baby, scotch, and lung cancer, mixed with the smells of smoke and bad hair products will make you bitter enough to hurl insults at Mother Teresa.

Serves one.

We have Reed to thank for that gem.

You can find this and plenty of other atheistical recipes (including the Baby Burger below!) at The Atheist Cookbook.

(via Unorthodox Atheism)


[tags]atheist, atheism, God is Not Great[/tags]

First watch this video:

It’s not a ghost.

You know how I know it’s not a ghost?

Because ghosts don’t exist. And there’s probably a more likely explanation.

Of course, this is CNN. They wouldn’t want to do any actual investigation now, would they? They’ll just find the most idiotic, gullible people they can find and have them make up some crazy explanation for what they just saw.

Now, let’s look at what a random person can do with a bit of time, no spelling or grammar ability (illuminted?), and a lot of skepticism:

That makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?

(Thanks to Kiev for the links!)


[tags]atheist, atheism, skeptic, Blue Gas Station Ghost[/tags]

The latest Humanist Network News rounds up the year’s biggest stories pertaining to Humanism and freethought in general.

Feel free to compare the list to HNN’s top stories of 2006.

Seems to me like there were a lot more positive stories to report this year…


[tags]atheist, atheism, Humanism[/tags]

The Tri-City Herald (Washington state) has a front-page story today about atheist Fernando Aguilar. The article is called “A belief in the here and now”:

This guy’s incredible.

Aguilar, 55, of Walla Walla, is a civil engineer and his work has taken him to some of the most dangerous places in the world. He’s been to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once since 2003, helping to build water systems, hospitals and schools.

He’s also done relief work in Southeast Asia and volunteered in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

…

Aguilar says no two atheists hold exactly the same views because atheism isn’t a belief system. It’s simply a way of describing someone who doesn’t believe there’s a God.

For Aguilar, that’s the only take that makes sense. He’s an engineer, and he understands what he can measure and prove.

He believes that when you die, your mind and consciousness die too. That urgency gives his life meaning.

He tries to be a good partner to Yvonne and a good father. He has a daughter in college and son who’s a teacher, and he beams when he talks about them.

He tries to help other people when he can. That’s what he believes in.

…

Yvonne told a story about when Aguilar was in Iraq he didn’t pray to God when the mortar rounds were exploding around him. He turned to a friend and asked if she needed help.

How amazing is that.

I sent a note to reporter Sara Schilling thanking her for the terrific article. If you’re able, please do the same! Her email address is at the bottom of the article.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

After seeing yesterday’s list of supposed Christian Bashing in 2007, Felicia asked an interesting question: What would the list be for atheists?

What were the highlights (or rather, lowlights) of atheist bashing in a year when atheists were actually in the spotlight more than ever before?


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

If you’re like me, whenever you read Landover Baptist Church, you wonder if it’s true or not…

I’m just kidding.

It’s made up. You know how I know it’s made up? Because they $%&#ing say so.

But Cross Nation wants to make sure you know there’s a difference:

This section is dedicated to detailing the many misrepresentations of Fundamentalist Christianity found at the satirical website known as Landoverbaptist.com or Landoverbaptist.org. The “Terms of Use” link at the bottom of the homepage of Landoverbaptist.com/.org does have a disclaimer acknowledging that Landover Baptist is fictitious, yet no effort has as yet been made by either critics or the website itself to show the disparities between fact and fiction.

So they created a chart… because you’re too much of an idiot to tell when Landover is making stuff up.

Here’s just one example (reprinted, as is, from cross-nation’s site):

It’s more comical to read the lines Cross Nation doesn’t want you to misunderstand.

Like this one from Landover Baptist regarding race:

“We’ve got races of funny looking people on this planet because demons were running around, humping’ humans back in Genesis!”

Or this one about vegetarians:

They are weak heathens, worshipping other gods.

Cross Nation provides Fundamentalists’ real beliefs on those topics. Believe it or not, Fundamentalists actually think people of all races are equal and vegetarians are just fine, too.

Shocking.

(via The Great Realization)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]