Greetings on Thanksgiving Day!  I think we in the West can be thankful for being able to express our opinions freely, without being arrested for them. All opinions are welcome on this blog.  Personally I am thankful that the rationalists among us are at last fighting back against superstition and ignorance of science. The rise …
Continue reading ‘Let us give thanks for rational thought’ »
Disbelief now rivals the great faiths in numbers and influence. Never before has religion faced such enormous levels of disbelief, or faced a hazard as powerful as that posed by modernity. How is organized religion going to regain the true, choice-based initiative when only one of them is growing, and it is doing so with …
In a book review in the Times Literary Supplement of September 14th, Emmanuel Sivan says that warfare is a major precept of Islam, but a collective, not an individual one. The community, or part of it, has to be engaged in combating non-believers; it isn’t up to self-appointed small groups. Jihad is essentially offensive and …
How have the so-called “Christian” conservatives managed to monopolize “values”, morality” and the “family”? I am a values voter. I believe in honesty, integrity, consideration towards others, and civilized discourse among those who disagree. I couldn’t care less what people do in the privacy of the bedrooms as long as it doesn’t affect my children …
60 % of British men, 50% per cent of women and 20% of primary school girls are expected to be obese by mid-century, and this will cost 45 billion pounds a year if nothing is done. Come on, Libertarians, do you think this is acceptable, and if not what would you do about it?
A recent poll from the First Amendment Center shows that a whopping 55% of Americans believe that “The Constitution establishes a Christian nation.”
The Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas of Elijah Ministries passes on a warning from God to the people of San Francisco: “The tragedy of New York and the disaster of New Orleans are merely first fruits of the many woes that will devastate San Francisco and send shockwaves throughout California, America, and the world. God stands …
Google for Epicureans and you find a host of websites talking about food and over-indulgence. You can’t blame the people – they have been brain-washed by centuries of propaganda. Epicureanism means living simply and prudently, with self-control and moderation. It means seeking simple pleasures, those that satisfy natural and necessary desires, chief of which are …
The rantings of the "religious" right are simply power play, a way of bullying the rest of us. They are as hypocritical and as corrupt as the rest of those seeking power. Epicureans, stay clear!
A Newsweek survey showed that creationism, or a variant thereof, was the belief of 48% of Americans. Only 13% chose evolution as their explanation for human development. 61% of all Americans think that Genesis is literally true, rather than a (rather fetching, if simple) explanation put forward by primitive and ignorant people for the creation …
Continue reading ‘The Meaning of God to Americans, part 2’ »
For those who don’t know, these are some of the key things every rapture-ready Christian is promised when the Rapture arrives, which could be any minute now. This is precised (without comment) from www.raptureready.com/soap/heaven.html 1. There will be no more sin.2. You will not be subject to the laws of physics but will be able …
In 1861 John William Colenso, Anglican Bishop of Natal, was translating Genesis into Zulu, and began to doubt the literal truth of the words he was translating. On further study he began to doubt the historical truth of all the first five books of the Old Testament. Much was newer than originally thought, the law …
Disbelief now rivals the great faiths in numbers and influence. Never before has religion faced such enormous levels of disbelief, or faced a hazard as powerful as that posed by modernity. How is organized religion going to regain the true, choice-based initiative when only one of them is growing. And it is growing by means …
“Maybe it took less mental effort than Altran realized to hold belief in God in one’s mind. Maybe, in fact, belief was a default position for the human mind, something that took no cognitive effort at all.” New York Times magazine, March 4th, 2007 “Why we believe – how evolutionary science explains belief in God.” …
Corinthians Chapter 14, 34-35 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 35. And if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for …
