Dr. Peter Atkins explains why we're nothing.
RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.
The correlation exists not because smart people have necessarily rejected religion, but because religion is the “default” position for most of our society.
Don't believe in the Man Upstairs? Atheists and agnostics want you to know that you're not the only one. And they've been spreading this message through a nationwide campaign that started last year. With the help of an umbrella organization called the United Coalition of Reason, local atheist groups have paid for billboards and other ads in about a dozen cities, including San Diego, Houston, Tulsa and New Orleans.
Science and religion both make claims about the fundamental workings of the universe. Although these claims are not a priori incompatible (we could imagine being brought to religious belief through scientific investigation), I will argue that in practice they diverge. If we believe that the methods of science can be used to discriminate between fundamental pictures of reality, we are led to a strictly materialist conception of the universe. While the details of modern cosmology are not a necessary part of this argument, they provide interesting clues as to how an ultimate picture may be constructed.
COLLISION carves a new path in documentary film-making as it pits leading atheist, political journalist and bestselling author Christopher Hitchens against fellow author, satirist and evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, as they go on the road to exchange blows over the question: "Is Christianity Good for the World?".
You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.
A funny wry look at belief in God in the USA...See what happens when a wealthy Englishman tries to find God on his journey from LA to New York.
Michael Newdow defends the constitution on Fox News.
During the debut of his new show on FOX News, Beck implied that Atheists don't represent Americans and should not be given any attention by the media.
Why are we here on earth? To Richard Dawkins, that's a remarkably stupid question. In a heated interview, the famous biologist insists that religion is evil and God might as well be a children's fantasy.
Friendly Rabid Athiests (Mostly)
There is no objective proof that any religion knows the truth about God. If there were such proof, most people on Earth would have converted to that faith long ago and all scientists would be believers. Spirituality thus is an individual affair. Proof of any metaphysical realities that exist will be subjective, not demonstrable to others. Every person has the right to pursue their own spiritual quest without interference, so long as he or she doesn't interfere with the rights of others.
Attractive Romanian girl breaks atheism down for a LA dude.
Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, has helped launch an atheist summer camp for children. Alongside the more traditional activities of tug-of-war, swimming and canoeing, children at the five-day camp in Somerset will learn about rational scepticism, moral philosophy, ethics and evolution.
For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference. But while there were a few laughs and some clowning for the camera, most left more offended than amused by the frightening way in which evolution -- and their life's work -- was attacked.
The hardback God Delusion was hailed as the surprise bestseller of 2006. While it was warmly received by most of the 1,000-plus individuals who volunteered personal reviews to Amazon, paid print reviewers gave less uniform approval. Cynics might invoke unimaginative literary editors: it has “God” in the title, so send it to a known faith-head. That would be too cynical, however. Several critics began with the ominous phrase, “I’m an atheist, BUT . . .” So here is my brief rebuttal to criticisms originating from this “belief in belief” school.
Like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens. What do you think of their work? I think they have naďve ideas about the importance of religion in the world. They just seem oblivious to the good that religion has done, and I guess one point in my book is how malleable religion is; it has the capacity for good, which tends to come out when people see themselves as having something to gain from peaceful interaction with other people.
How does an atheist prepare for death? This is a theme Diana Athill explores in “Somewhere Towards the End.” Her grapplings are impressive: “My own belief — that we, on our short-lived planet, are part of a universe simultaneously . . . ordinary . . . and incalculably mysterious . . . — does not feel like believing in nothing and would never make me recruit anyone for slaughter. It feels like a state of infinite possibility, stimulating and enjoyable — not exactly comforting, but acceptable because true.”
Science, ironically, is finding answers to the question of why evolution stands such a poor chance against religion. There is growing evidence that man, as a result of his brain, is wired to believe in higher powers, not just because of his fear of death.
From today's launch, two hundred of the buses will run in London, because the campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians "will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell … Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire prepared for the devil". Our rational slogan will hopefully reassure anyone who has been scared by this kind of evangelism.
At first blush atheist spirituality may sound like a contradiction in terms, but French philosopher Comte-Sponville makes a compelling argument for a profound dimension of experience that is god-free. His idea of spirituality also bears no small resemblance to Eastern spirituality, and the philosopher-author does not hesitate to cite great Eastern thinkers in this catalogue of references to great minds grappling with important questions. We can do without religion and without God, the author argues, but we can't do without fidelity and community. Comte-Sponville's humanism is deeply traditional, but the red flag atheist will undoubtedly affront religious traditionalists. That's unfortunate, because the author's style of arguing is civil and witty, unlike a lot of public discourse on this subject.
This is kind of a pet peeve of mine. Most people that say they are agnostic are really functional atheists, but they are making an epistemological argument to avoid confrontation and accusations of having faith or dogma
With biologist Richard Dawkins leading the way, many scientists today are locked in an unending match of whack-a-mole with Christian creationists, who insist that God created heaven, earth and humanity in its present form, and with disciples of intelligent design who want to expel evolution from its scientific prominence in public schools. If you've been following the battle, you might be inclined to believe that Americans are faced with a choice between believing in God and scientific fact.
I part company with many atheists in that I’ve always been interested in, and respectful of, spiritual and mystical experience. People have been having profoundly transformative experiences under the banner of mysticism for thousands of years. I just don’t think you have to believe any religious bullshit in order to have those experiences. You don’t have to believe that any book was dictated by the creator of the universe. All you have to believe is that the contents of your own mind are worth looking into by some means of introspection.
In this episode Ben Stein is taken to task over his inability to distinguish science from free speech. Stein claims that those who question evolution are discriminated against, whereas in reality this 'discrimination' is merely people getting held accountable for demonstrating their pathetic grasp of both the scientific method and scientific literature.
Following cultural studies, ethnography, and cultural anthropology, I believe it's important to understand the radically utopian impulses, unspoken yearnings, and unconscious desires that flicker through contemporary evangelical Christianity. Dawkins and Hitchens make short work of Christianity and all its bigoted, irrational works and ways, for which we owe them a debt of gratitude. But their analysis lacks subtlety, and their understanding of why so many are seduced by religion, especially in America, is millimeter-deep.
Why are Kirk Cameron, a preacher, and two self-proclaimed atheists coming together in a church this weekend? Because Cameron and preacher Ray Comfort claim that they "can prove the existence of God."
Can you prove, beyond all doubt, that you are a real living person, just as you perceive yourself to be, and not a disembodied brain in a mad scientist's laboratory being fed complex stimuli? You cannot. Is that a good reason to believe that you are just a brain in a jar?
Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity? And if scientists are able to explain God, what then? Is explaining religion the same thing as explaining it away? Are the nonbelievers right, and is religion at its core an empty undertaking, a misdirection, a vestigial artifact of a primitive mind? Or are the believers right, and does the fact that we have the mental capacities for discerning God suggest that it was God who put them there?
The concept of an afterlife is inhumane and immoral. Belief in the continuation of your "soul" or consciousness after death is wishful thinking. Belief in an afterlife devalues the one life that actually exists: this one.
I think its funny to note that while Jim Holt alleges the existence of some impeccably credentialed scientists who believe in an afterlife, he does not name them, cite them, or otherwise support this claim.
Where does this leave those who, while secular in outlook, still pine after immortality? A little more than a century ago, the American philosopher William James proposed an interesting way of keeping open the door to an afterlife. We know that the mind depends on the physical brain, James said. But that doesn’t mean that our brain processes actually produce our mental life, as opposed to merely transmitting it. Perhaps, he conjectured, our brains allow our minds to filter through to this world from some transcendent “mother sea” of consciousness. Had James given his lecture a few decades later, he might have used the radio as a metaphor. When a radio is damaged, the music becomes distorted. When it is smashed, the music stops altogether. All the while, however, the signal is still out there, uncorrupted.
If God does not exist, then what does? Is there good and evil, and should we care? How do we know what's true anyway? And can we make any sense of this universe, or our own lives? Sense and Goodness answers all these questions in lavish detail, without complex jargon. A complete worldview is presented and defended, covering every subject from knowledge to art, from metaphysics to morality, from theology to politics.
Writer of books & articles. Internet Infidel. Natural philosopher.
The Secular Web is owned and operated by the Internet Infidels, Inc., a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the Internet. In the words, of Paul Draper, naturalism "is the hypothesis that the physical universe is a 'closed system' in the sense that nothing that is neither a part nor a product of it can affect it. So naturalism entails the nonexistence of all supernatural beings, including the theistic God."
As a contributor to the Secular Web, one of the main web sites for skeptics on the internet,[5] Richard Carrier plays an important role in the online atheist community. When reports spread that Antony Flew had rejected atheism, Carrier engaged in correspondence with Flew to find out what happened and published an extensive analysis of the situation on the Secular Web assuring atheists that Flew believes only in a "minimal God"
Flew’s “conversion,” first reported in late 2004, has cast him into culture wars that he contentedly avoided his whole life. Although Flew still rejects Christianity, saying only that he now believes in “an intelligence that explains both its own existence and that of the world,” evangelicals are understandably excited. For them, Flew has become very useful, very quickly.
So if something appears as if it cannot be explained naturalistically, instead of invoking the supernatural, we should instead confidently wait for science to do its job.
6) If God explains nothing, then we should simply deny God’s existence.
A classic thread about does evolution and Darwinism lead to atheism.
An amateur video showing that accurately depicts how ideas about atheism and God clash in the home. Funny but ultimately sad.
Short essay on the possibility of an afterlife without God involved.
Richard Dawkins gives an impassioned talk about why Atheism is important.
Excellent speech by Douglas Adams addressing evolution, the belief in God and other theories of life.
Interesting interview with Christopher Hitchens about God.
Democratic atheistic organization that Hitchens endorses.
Dawkins answers the simple question, what if you're wrong with ease.
