Thursday, December 10, 2009

Belief

Believe It

Monday, August 24, 2009

Sam Harris Chat With Bill Maher

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

To the Moderate Religious

Moderate Christians (as opposed to fundamentalists) do not believe that the Bible is necessarily a literal account of historical events. To them, such things as Adam and Eve, Noah, etc. are just stories meant to convey an overall message.

In a video called The Four Horsemen, Sam Harris made a great point. He said that Moderates never admit to how they came to stop taking these stories literally. How is it that they came to be moderate? They have lost faith in the literalism of the text. Just as atheists have no faith in the whole of it.

How can they criticize atheists for not believing in the Bible, when they themselves have stopped believing in it to some degree?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

No Need for Bibles

Christians really only half-heartedly gesture toward the Bible as the foundation for their beliefs.

There are countless beliefs, practices, and ceremonies that have nothing to do with the Bible. From dates of religious holidays to making the sign of the cross, religion is about MAN's ideas and traditions. The older, the better. For some reason, antiquity has great merit to modern man.

When people say "ancient manuscript" or "ancient remedies" it is often to imply that they are somehow better, because they are old. As if ancient man was so much wiser than modern man.

That is sad, because the very opposite is true. Next time someone uses the term "ancient" make a mental effort to realize that "inferior" could be used in its place.

Back to the main subject of this post. Religion gains it's strength and reputability mostly on the basis of how many other people believe it. It doesn't even matter what the religion professes, if everyone around you claims to believe it's true, you automatically have the tendency to go along with them.

Imagine for a second that everyone around you had no belief in the Bible, and treated it as nothing more than mythology. Nobody went to church, or said prayers, or celebrated the religious holidays, except for you.

That fact alone would cause you to seriously reconsider your religious convictions, wouldn't it? If everyone looked at you like you were crazy for believing the Bible, I guarantee your belief system wouldn't last long.

So my point is that religious faith has nothing to do with the Bible, or any spiritual "truths" or divine inspiration. It has solely to do with the sheer volume of people who believe.

And THAT's why religions WANT you to believe. That's why they proselytize belief; why belief is SO important. The MORE who belief, the stronger everyone's belief becomes.

A shared belief acts as validation where no real validation can be found.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Proof That America Was Not Founded On Christian Beliefs

In a treaty of peace between the U.S. and the subjects of Tripoli of Barbary, the following is written:

Article 11: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation.

Good Quotes About Religion

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
--Steven Weinberg

"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof."
--Christopher Hitchens

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason"
--Benjamin Franklin

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
--Edward Gibbon

"Where knowledge ends, religion begins."
--Benjamin Disraeli

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."
--Isaac Asimov

Friday, January 23, 2009

James Randi Is The Man

And once again, great minds think alike.

Religion Is A Virus

In this article, Tufts University professor, Daniel Dennett, describes how religion is like a virus.

Key points:
  • Religious ideas survive and thrive using a process similar to natural selection
  • Religious tenets have been adopted to help ensure survival of the belief--such as: believing without proof (faith) is a virtue, humans shouldn't question God, etc.
  • Religion gives it's followers a powerful placebo effect
  • Atheists should not cater to, or tolerate religion.
  • Religion is on the way out.
I believe religion is indeed on the way out. The internet helps in this, as it enables truth and logic to expose the silliness and irrationality of ancient beliefs.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Shame on Religion

Some ask, "Why dispute religion when it does no harm?"

Well, there are many instances where the false beliefs of religion do cause harm.

Here's one example:

A man who is (by all outward actions and appearances) a good person, loses a child in a terrible accident. Being a religious man, he cannot understand why a loving god would allow such a terrible thing to happen to him.

The only way that others can justify this to him, is by telling him that God has his reasons.

Now, more terrible things happen to this fellow. His house burns down, he loses his job, etc.

Now his fellow believers are starting to think that God's reasons are to punish this guy for something! So on top of all the misery being suffered by this guy, he is now looked down upon by his peers as being unclean!

A real life example: when New Orleans got wiped out by hurricane Katrina, many religious fools blamed it on the lifestyles of those living in New Orleans! The holier-than-thous believed the poor people of New Orleans got what they deserved!

This is one small example of why religion should be opposed, and not just tolerated.

More than any other thing, religion breeds hatred.

Miracle on the Hudson

A plane that crash landed in the Hudson river is being hailed as a miracle, because nobody died.
First of all, nothing miraculous happened. An uncommon event? Yes. With a good outcome? Indeed. But were any laws of physics broken to support a claim for the miraculous? No.

Isn't it funny how, when something good happens, it is so easy to explain how and why God works? Yet when something terrible happens for no apparent reason, believers are forced to say that God works in mysterious ways that nobody can understand.

How can you have it both ways? Either God is reasonable, and you understand Him, or He isn't and you don't.

A reasonable person should be able to see what is going on here: it's simply rationalizing in order to support an illogical belief system.

One cannot logically attribute good events to God because it makes sense (it makes sense to save people from harm!), and at the same time claim that God's ways cannot be understood (where was He on 9/11/01?).