Archive for Uncategorized

Pascal’s Wager

May 05, 2012 Comments Off by

So I’ll start by noting that this won’t be a comprehensive argument against Pascal’s Wager, but I intend to discuss two of my favourite points discrediting it. My motivation on this occasion is from watching too many videos of very stupid people, which is a pass-time I’m sure many of you do too. If you’re new [...]

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How To Design The Perfect Religion

Jan 16, 2012 1 Comment by

The idea of designing a religion is a fascinating one, due partly to the selection of motivations for doing so. One could hope to design a religion that would become widely popular and financially benefit its inventor. One could design a religion for the purposes of making a point: to tear apart the fabrication once [...]

Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology, Religions and other Belief Systems, Statements and Analysis, Uncategorized Read more

Why Doesn’t Personal Experience Count As Evidence?

Jan 10, 2012 Comments Off by

I dislike categorising people into only two groups, but the conclusions I will draw in this article I find to be independent of this particular distinction, hence let us consider the assuredly religious and the decidedly non-religious. Of the many traits that separate the two groups, one which appears to be crucial, and which arises [...]

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More Ambiguity On Belief

Dec 23, 2011 1 Comment by

A while ago, there was an article on this website called The Dangers Of The Word Belief. In the article, it was noted that the word “belief” is inconveniently ambiguous because in common speech it ascribes to a different meaning to in religious debate. But there is another obstacle which much be traversed to deal [...]

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More on anti–atheist bigotry

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off

I realise I’ve said a lot recently about anti–atheist bigotry, but there’s one other point I think it worth making about it. Association with atheism is so toxic in some regions attempts to avoid it enhance other forms of bigotry. In recent years a US high school refusing to allow same–sex couples to its prom [...]

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What theists and atheists have in common, even where different types of theists don’t

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off

In a previous post I explained ways in which those who seek to exemplify religious tolerance are often still guilty of anti–atheist bigotry. Therein I gave an example of a reason moderates may feel they have more in common with religious extremists than they do with atheists; at least the religious extremists are religious. Anyone [...]

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The stealth bigotry of “religious tolerance”

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off

For centuries people have held prejudices against and discriminated against those of other religions or other sects in the same religion. Extremists, fundamentalists, literalists – call them what you will (these terms are not quite synonymous) – are especially liable to do this. There are people who call themselves “religious moderates” who, for all their [...]

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The trouble with debates

Oct 21, 2011 1 Comment

William Lane Craig’s request that Richard Dawkins debate him in Oxford was refused on a number of reasonable grounds. Dawkins has a prior engagement that same night in London, considers Craig insignificant and unsophisticated as a religious thinker compared with those Dawkins has debated and those he has had to decline purely on grounds of [...]

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The only poison in the church is that book on the lectern.

Jul 23, 2011 Comments Off

I have this instant just returned from my first visit to a Christian church in several years. I have only been into churches about eight or nine times in my life, normally for the purposes of listening to or playing in concerts. My reason for going on this occasion was to have a go at playing the [...]

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A New Category of Atheism: Super-Positivism

Jul 16, 2011 1 Comment

Quite often in debates, someone arguing against religion will get criticised for only highlighting the bad points, or the bad people, noting that this is a generalisation. Occasionally this gets turned around on the atheists. Sometimes it gets turned around in a silly way, such as mentioning dictators who were atheists. But it is also [...]

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The Religious Are Immune

Jul 12, 2011 2 Comments

To diseases and viruses, because God protects his children? Of course not. However plenty of religious people are immune to reason and are immune to disbelief. This is the defining basis as to why religion persists in modern times, it’s because at the end of the day they still want to believe in God. In [...]

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The Divisive Nature Of Religion – The “Us and Them” Mentality

Jul 10, 2011 Comments Off

Human beings possess the remarkably ability to always divide into two groups, or indeed, merge into two groups. Take rivalries between groups of people based on location for example. If there’s competition between two villages, they won’t get on. But as soon as you introduce a second pair of villages in competition with the first [...]

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Positive and Negative Assertions

Jul 10, 2011 Comments Off

One of the foundations of the thinking required to produce atheism, is the distinction between positive and negative assertions. In order to properly understand these concepts, we’re need to define them. To get our foot in the door, let’s take the typical examples of positive assertions within the subject matter. “I believe that there is [...]

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Religious Phrases – Should We Be Offended?

Jul 04, 2011 Comments Off

There are an assortment of religious phrases in common parlance in the English language, normally referencing god, and normally sprouting from Christianity, such as “oh my god”, “god bless you”, “dear lord” and the like. One of the most annoying side-effects of atheists using these phrases, is that strong but stupid anti-atheists tend to pick [...]

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Authors Wanted!

Jun 27, 2011 Comments Off

Atheism Network is looking for enthusiastic and talented individuals to write for our website. If you’ve got strong, interesting, or original views on atheism then we want to hear them, and so do our readers. Add a comment to this post with your name and email address and we’ll send you further instructions.

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Taking God Out Of Religion

Jun 26, 2011 Comments Off

I always see it as a shame, that in the modern world, instead of churches we build nightclubs, and instead of cathedrals we build football stadiums. As much as I dislike religion, I do still appreciate the art, music, literature, and in this case architecture, that it inspires. Perhaps it could be added to the list [...]

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God Should Not Be Trusted!

Jun 24, 2011 Comments Off

Let’s begin by assuming that God does exist. This has two fundamental implications: firstly, a supernatural entity exists and it possesses supernatural power; secondly, a supernatural entity can talk to human beings and interact with the universe. This doesn’t bode well for humanity. The reason being: there is no way to prove that God isn’t [...]

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Should We Vote For Religious Politicians?

Jun 19, 2011 Comments Off

In recent years, the personal life and opinions of leading politicians has become increasingly important to many voters. I’ve never liked this trend. Many seem to think that unless a politician is married, they can’t possibly understand what it’s like and so can’t possibly meet the needs of married couples. In response to this, most [...]

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The Fundamental Misunderstanding Of Atheism

Jun 12, 2011 Comments Off

It is highly apparent, when trawling through the videos on the internet, that there is one common underlying factor that is present in almost all debates, interviews, and outbursts on the subject of atheism. The religious often use certain words in either very different, or very vague manners to those who are more questioning of [...]

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New Link Categories

Jun 08, 2011 Comments Off

We’ve decided to split our links into two categories: the optimism-crushingly stupid and the inspiringly intelligent. We wanted to be able to link to the websites of idiots to provide a bit of entertainment for readers, but didn’t want to put them in the same category as the good websites. If you know any hilariously [...]

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