As many of you know, I’m a bit of a video game fiend, and Ryan and I were talking about including more gaming into The Good Atheist. Unfortunately, this job doesn’t pay very well (cough), so we haven’t been able to actually do this yet. Well, it dawned on me that maybe some of you fans out there might be gamers too, and you’d be able to help find me a sweet deal on an Xbox 360 (with the PSN Network hacked and the price for the machine so high, we’ve had to pick only one system for now).

We’re also looking for some suggestions for games you would all like to play (preferably older ones since they cost less). We would prefer anything where the objective is to work in teams, but if not, it’s cool. Once we get enough people playing, we eventually want to give prizes away as well. It’s just one way I’m trying to merge my hobbies into more community fun.

*NOTE* It can’t be computer games as my laptop recently died and I’m using an old Pentium 4 with limited capabilities. Sorry.

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It’s quite unbelievable the amount of “Jesus Junk” there is out there. You’ve got to admire the way Christians attempt to bilk money out of their fellow believers. They’ve been at this for a while, so naturally there are few economic avenues they haven’t tapped. Here’s one that will make you both annoyed and depressed at the same time: Faith Baby!

Unique Christian Clothing for babies and toddlers.

Our exclusive collection of Christian Baby Clothing is trendy, and one of a kind. We are dedicated to providing our customers with exceptional service and quality assurance while maintaining simple and unique individuality in all of our products. Ideal for the creative baby shower gift, birthdays, specialty gift baskets, new arrivals or if you know someone who is struggling with infertility this would be a precious gift for their “hope chest”.

Finally an opportunity to let everyone know that your baby will be raised in a protective blanket of ignorance, courtesy of a religion that makes people slaves before a higher power. Wear your stupidity with pride, people!

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Check out these guy’s bogus statistics. 90% of European women want a manly man, and what’s more manly than a good old fashion beat-down when you get out of line, ladies? According to this sexist piece of shit, his god has honored all women with specific commandments not to beat girls in the face, lest they become ugly. See how awesome Allah is?

Also in the beating rulebook:
1) No cursing
2) No more than ten beatings
3) No breaking her limbs, no breaking her teeth or poking her eye
4) All blows must be chest level
5) No permanent marks

Beatings are only really a last resort, which means that if you get out of line, refuse to put out, burn the toast, or interrupts a man when he’s singing. See how fair everything is for you girls? Allah Akbar!

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Wow, how can anyone watch these clucking hens? Not only do I regularly want to punch Hasselbacks face through a wall for all the stupid shit she says, I also find their shrill voices as they talk over one another to be about as soothing as a jackhammer to the balls.

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A few weeks ago I posted a video of a debate between Sam Harris and William Lane Craig. The video made it clear that Craig is no dummy, despite believing in absurdities. He’s been particularly busy recently defending the faith, and one of his latest article tries to justify the genocide and infanticide in the Bible. It’s pretty messed up, actually:

According to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he directed them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land (Deut. 7.1-2; 20.16-18). The destruction was to be complete: every man, woman, and child was to be killed.

The command to kill all the Canaanite peoples is jarring precisely because it seems so at odds with the portrait of Yahweh, Israel’s God, which is painted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Contrary to the vituperative rhetoric of someone like Richard Dawkins, the God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of justice, long-suffering, and compassion.

We’ve obviously read a different book. God doesn’t strike me for one second as having any kind of compassion at all. He kills people for burning incense improperly. He commands his “people” to kill all the other tribes who happen to live around them. This whole “God is love” shit is a pretty recent phenomenon. Just ask Pope Innocent III.

According to the version of divine command ethics which I’ve defended, our moral duties are constituted by the commands of a holy and loving God. Since God doesn’t issue commands to Himself, He has no moral duties to fulfill. He is certainly not subject to the same moral obligations and prohibitions that we are.

In other words, if the commands that an all loving God sound evil, it’s only because good and evil are not really concepts he has to worry about, since he’s not applicable to his own moral laws. In other words, if god does something we consider evil, like command the Jews to slaughter innocent people, it only seems that way to us because we’re subject to moral laws, not god.

So the problem isn’t that God ended the Canaanites’ lives. The problem is that He commanded the Israeli soldiers to end them. Isn’t that like commanding someone to commit murder? No, it’s not. Rather, since our moral duties are determined by God’s commands, it is commanding someone to do something which, in the absence of a divine command, would have been murder. The act was morally obligatory for the Israeli soldiers in virtue of God’s command, even though, had they undertaken it on their on initiative, it would have been wrong.

Wow. So if I kill my neighbor, I’m committing an evil act. However if a voice in my head told me to do so, it’s kosher. Good to know!

God taught Israel that any assimilation to pagan idolatry is intolerable. It was His way of preserving Israel’s spiritual health and posterity. God knew that if these Canaanite children were allowed to live, they would spell the undoing of Israel.

Yeah, clearly little children who remember nothing of their parents equally stupid religious beliefs would have been a major threat. Better that they should all be smashed against rocks, right?

Moreover, if we believe, as I do, that God’s grace is extended to those who die in infancy or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation.

See, that’s the kind of ignorant shit that drives us crazy. You’re literally suggesting that they were in fact saved by being brutally murdered. That’s just fucking ignorant is what that is.

Don’t just take my word for it. Every atheist blogger out there has something to say about Craig’s inane statements. I strongly recommend Greta’s comments about it.

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When I think of someone famous taking off their clothing for money and more attention, it’s rare that I compare their actions to those of great revolutionaries. Of course, that’s probably because I live in a society that values freedom of expression, and where the female form isn’t something we like covered up (which is why winter sucks so hard). That’s why I had to take a few moments to appreciate the fact that a German Muslim actress named Sila Sahin has received death threats after posing nude for Playboy.

Her Turkish parents are apparently uber-conservative and called her all kinds of nasty names for doing what she wants with her own body.

“For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints. The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation.”

You know you’re on the side of good when you’re trying to defend a society that has citizens who feel liberated when they show people their naughty parts!

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This is for the hardcores who don’t mind listening to a 3 hour debate between 2 Muslim scholars and two atheist (I admit to listening to it in segments). Among the nonbelievers is Richard Carrier, who I’m still trying to get on the podcast. He’s been at this atheism thing for a while now, and tragically too few of you guys are aware of him.

Skip past the 2 minute intro song. It’s completely unbearable.

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Honestly, can we stop pussyfooting around this issue? I feel like I’m the bad guy here every time I have to tell some delusional sheep that his beliefs are unsound nonsense. The problem is made even worse when the person in question is actually educated. It would appear that no one is immune to dumb ideas. In the case of intelligent people, their own elaborate justifications create a kind of intellectual fog that blinds them to just how fantastically stupid their beliefs are.

Take this article in the Boston Globe called “He is Risen, the Faith is the Proof“, written by James Carroll. As you can guess from the title, it’s another piece of religious fluff, arguing that the faith of believers is really all the evidence you need to believe in something. It’s about as scientific as a road-runner cartoon, and like its cartoon brother, the act is getting a little tired.

What if there were surveillance cameras in the time of Jesus…If such videotape were to become available, and instead it showed nothing — would Christian faith thereby collapse?
Of course not. Why? Because the resurrection of Jesus is addressed not to a machine but to the eyes of faith. The example, though, demonstrates the modern fallacy — the way a post-Enlightenment religious imagination gets easily sidetracked into questions of “scientific’’ or “historical’’ proof.

In other words, you can easily get caught being full of shit if someone tries to address your beliefs by demanding evidence. Luckily, the solution (as always) is to credit people’s own blind ignorance for being far more consistent with their silly beliefs. The entire article is Carroll trying to wrestle with scripture, attempting to derive some form of sense out of the contradictory ramblings of the New Testament. The article attempts to argue that the “fact” of Jesus’ resurrection is irrelevant: because all of this foolishness is fueled by faith, no about of evidence would dissuade people from worshiping this guy.

His piece de resistance is even more idiotic:

As God creates ex nihilo in the beginning, so God creates at the end. Alpha and Omega. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus was not a suspension of the laws of nature, but a fulfillment of them — a personal event without being physiological, a real happening without being “historical.

Do they ever get tired of this kind of meaningless nonsense? Jesus didn’t suspend the laws of physics, he just took them to their natural conclusion, everybody! Fuck physics as you know it: the important thing is that a historically unconfirmed death led to a magical metaphorical resurrection. and thanks to all that stupidity, life now has meaning.

Resurrection is the word Christians have for this awareness. And why should it not have ignited the ancient world?

Yeah, it ignited quite a few fires, alright. The destruction of the Library of Alexandria or the torture and immolation of tens of thousands of women comes to mind. For someone who studied history, Carroll sure has a funny idea of the relative benefits of his religion, doesn’t he?

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Wow, I never knew that non belief was responsible for all the world’s problems! That’s according to the mayor of Suwannee, a county in Florida that still enforces prohibition (progressive, no?). He thinks that the biggest issue facing the world is the lack of belief in God:

There are those that don’t acknowledge the existence of God. Their souls are in mortal danger of being lost for eternity. These atheists, agnostics or non believers point to the injustices and tribulations that befall man. These are things of man’s doing, not God. The main point is that if people around the world truly had God in their lives, there would not be any of the things that atheists point to in order to discredit a belief in the Almighty. God is caring and loving. He is not a mean God. If people were to turn toward God and not away from Him, there would be a heaven on earth. God bless us all.

Yep, if everyone were to believe in the SAME god, a process that appears to require regular sectarian massacres, and internal inquisitions to discourage the religion from reforming, then the whole world would be a paradise! Except of course for women who are raped and need an abortion, or for people who just can’t seem to believe that all of the suffering in the world is really the result of man’s actions and not the cruelty of nature. Except for the terrible ignorance, bigotry and xenophobia that is characteristic of religion, Mayor Fuckface assures us that God will make a personal appearance once we’ve stopped praying to the myriad of entities that aren’t quite the right one.
(via)

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