Monopoly on Marriage

Apr 03, 2012 Comments Off by

Sometimes people wonder why atheists, homosexual or not, take an interest in the equal marriage debate. The response is simple: the opposition to equal marriage frequently originates from religious beliefs. The argument which presently seems to dominate the debate is over who has the right to define marriage. This word ‘define’ is not one we [...]

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Two new series of posts, on religions’ faults and student atheist et al societies

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off by

I hereby announce two new series of posts I will be making in the near future. In one, “Faiths in the Firing Squad”, I will go through the world’s extant religions in descending order by size, explaining succinctly (but hopefully without unduly simplifying the issues) why there is more to be critically said about those [...]

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

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off by

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 by

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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Atheism and autism (and why theists bring it up)

Oct 30, 2011 4 Comments

Before I launch into this post it is only right I acknowledge having Asperger Syndrome, as it makes me an example of the sort of correlation evidence is beginning to uncover (and at this stage could well be wrong about), and which some theists have already become crowing about. There has been an occasional suggestion [...]

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Labelling children

Oct 30, 2011 Comments Off

Richard Dawkins has brought our attention in recent years to how wrong it is to automatically label young children with the religion of their parents. “That is/you are an X” are the two formulations this error takes. The problem is, just as there’s only so young one can be if one can form one’s own [...]

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Fear of Atheism

Oct 04, 2011 Comments Off

On this site we sometimes review phrases which people have typed into search engines and turn them into articles. This article is one such case. Until one hears this title, it doesn’t necessarily seem obvious. It would be correct to say, that there are certainly some people in the world who fear atheism. The important point [...]

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Fashionable Atheism

Sep 20, 2011 Comments Off

It seems the favourite catchphrase of the patronisingly religious, particularly now with the rise of new atheism, to call atheism fashionable, trendy, or cool. This is just another way of stating the same condescending remarks as the infamous line “I used to be an atheist, but now …”. It is so revoltingly arrogant and dismissive. [...]

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The Archbishop of Canterbury – Church of England Battling The Coolness of Atheism

Sep 20, 2011 Comments Off

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/09/20/church-of-england-battling-%E2%80%98coolness-of-atheism%E2%80%99-archbishop/

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Is it possible to be atheist and extremist?

Sep 20, 2011 Comments Off

Clearly in order to answer this question we’re going to need to define extremism. Extremism is a relative description. One thing is extremist with respect to another. To label something extremist is to state that it is very different compared to the average. One could suggest that it is as different as something could possibly [...]

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Atheism and Science

Sep 20, 2011 Comments Off

Even the religious are starting to notice that one of the natural philosophical partners to science, is atheism. Bizarrely, this seems to confuse some religious people, as though they weren’t expecting it. Any atheist will tell you, that atheism is the only logically valid philosophy with regards to the existence of gods. It is the [...]

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Another Couple of Atheist Logos

Sep 17, 2011 Comments Off

You can read about the original design of this symbol here: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/08/atheism_symbol.php

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“I Used To Be An Atheist …”

Sep 17, 2011 Comments Off

This is a common opening line used in arguments by the supposedly newly religious. It’s nonsense and here’s why. Firstly, there’s no reason why it is true. It could easily be just a persuasive technique aimed at bullying the other person into submission by suggesting they are behind in their thinking. Religious people like to [...]

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The Atheist Logo

Sep 17, 2011 Comments Off

Whilst it is probably preferable that atheism is not institutional, since this removes one more similarity to religion, there is a range of symbols that are used to represent the general principles or the movement. The most popular seems to be the red letter “A” emblazoned on a black background. Here are six copies of this symbol in [...]

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Posters

Sep 02, 2011 Comments Off

 

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William Lane Craig Knows He’s Wrong

Aug 23, 2011 1 Comment

If you’ve watched more than one debate with this man then you’ll start to notice a pattern. He will always start his argument by defining atheism, rather than letting the atheist define themselves. It is in this definition that he tries to win over the audience and make himself seem terribly clever. He always defines [...]

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Are Atheists More Intelligent Than Theists?

Aug 23, 2011 Comments Off

This is a misleading question because it suggests that a person’s philosophical standpoint is always an accurate and reliable indicator of someone’s intelligence. Through consideration of the arguments and evidence for and against the existence of most definitions of gods, there is only one reasonable conclusion that a person can come to: we simply cannot [...]

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The Ongoing War

Aug 06, 2011 Comments Off

Atheism has been around for a long time. Depending on how particular one is, and one’s definition of atheism, it could be said that atheism has been around forever, since before human beings, there was no religion to speak of. But there is clearly an atheist movement, recently fuelled by the rise of new atheism. [...]

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Why So Patronising?

Aug 05, 2011 Comments Off

On many videos of debates, discussions, question and answer sessions and so on, it can sometimes be seen that a religious person will descend to the level of insults and offensive commands to try and enforce their point. A small number of people seem to like pressuring other people into agreement with fear or amateur [...]

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Too Much Nonsense

Jul 19, 2011 Comments Off

This particular video doesn’t seem to have accrued as many views as one would expect, given the nature of the topic and the way it’s discussed. It has a mind-implodingly high density of arguments which don’t follow on from the previous one, which either makes it hilarious or depressing, depending on one’s outlook. The first [...]

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