Imagine a philosophy that regards human life as worthless and cheap, where adherents are told to kill others who did not share their beliefs, and where huge segments of the population are kept ignorant and subservient. Well, you don’t need to use your imagination; this type of philosophy already exists, and it has a colorful name: Islam.

Pakistan was the scene of more violence today as a market in Peshawar was hit with a powerful bomb that killed at least 80 people and injured another 200. It’s one of the worst attacks in the country’s history, and you can guess what bastards were responsible for bombing a market filled with women and children: why it’s the Taliban, of course!

It must be pretty easy to murder innocent women and children when you have the powerful shield of faith. It must be why religion is such a useful tool to enslave the minds of poorly educated idiots; no one has to consider the consequences of their actions when they think God is on their side. Congratulations of murdering so many people for your precious invisible sky-deity; he must be so proud of you!

Also, please fuck off and die. Thanks.

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It’s weird to admit that I am in almost complete agreement with Joseph Farah of World Net Daily over the issue of Conservapedia’s attempt to remove the “liberal bias” of the Bible. Their desire to remove Jesus’ supposed “softness” on crime, and disdain for money is particularly telling of their general philosophy. There are plenty of Christians that absolutely hate that whole “easier for a camel to go through the eyes of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” passage. Some people really do love money, and it’s quite clear in the New Testament that Jesus really isn’t a big fan of it.

Of course, Farah and I don’t see eye to eye about the relative worth of the King James Version, but I’d rather be stuck with that sadistic filth than a version that’s even less charitable. At least it’s good to know that not everybody on the conservative side has totally lost their marbles. Maybe there is hope for these people after all…

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The hilarious thing about Intelligent Design is that it explains absolutely nothing about the natural world. It’s proponents would have us believe that nature is so complex that only the power of a God (let’s not beat around the bush here) could possibly account for the existence of even the most basic forms of life. Because this hypothesis is built on the “God in the Gaps” argument, there is no need for any ID proponent to try and seek “proof” of their claims. So long as science can’t answer everything, they will continue to try and erode the public’s confidence in one of the most rigorously tested Theories in science: evolution.

Well, it just got a little harder for these idiots to try and undermine science: researchers at Yale University believe that they have discovered how Mitochondria (which provides energy to our cells) evolved from a free-living bacteria to one of the most critical components in our bodies. It’s a big step forward for science, and another blow for ID morons trying to pretend they understand the scientific method.

A discovery like this should be the final nail in the Intelligent Design coffin, but since there are still so many things we need to discover, there will always be those that seek to insert God in there somewhere. These poor, desperate fools want their mythology to be true so badly that they are willing to try and destroy science to accomplish their goal. They are not harmless fools, but rather enemies of science and reason who seek to return us to the Bronze Age out of the stupid conviction that “scientific naturalism” leads to moral and ethical decay (this despite the fact that wars, crime, and conflict is historically at an all time low).

If you want to believe in your precious God, then you’re free to do so; just don’t try to bring him into the laboratory where people are actually trying to get work done, thanks.

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Personally I’m pretty sick and tired of religious individuals commenting on atheism when they have absolutely no idea what it means to not believe in God. Let me assure you, religious readers, that I am not an atheist because of an abusive or absent father (an idea so insultingly wrong that I usually choose not to dignify it with an answer). I am also not an atheist because of some secret hatred or spurning from your religion. I simply believe that the world has no need for your services, and I’m tired of your logically unsound accusations that atheism is a religion.

If your interested in hearing another baseless attack from a prominent religionist, here is science fiction writer Orson Scott Card making the common claim that atheism is a faith based belief, just like Mormonism. What is obviously missing in his tirade is any form of proof concerning his own beliefs. Card claims that atheism is somehow faith based, since we have “faith” that science will explain everything about the Universe. Card’s somehow fails to realize that science isn’t so much a belief as it is a process of learning about the natural world (I guess you can write science fiction without really “getting” it). I trust that the Earth revolves around the Sun, but this trust is only made possible because of the amount of scrutiny and work that has gone into understanding just how this is possible (see gravity if you’re confused). If I was to ever doubt the truthfulness of this claim, I can study it for myself.

Let me make this as clear as possible to avoid any further confusion: Religion makes claims that are demonstrably false. Human beings are not born of virgins. Horses do not fly up to heaven. Deceased persons cannot be resurrected. And of course, in the case of Mormonism, Native Americans are not descendants of Jews, men do not live on the moon, and do I even need to mention how stupid magic underwear really is?

Card makes the same annoying claim that atheist cannot disprove God, and yet he has nothing to offer in the way of actual proof that his religion has any idea what they are talking about. At least when a person is making a scientific claim, the burden of proof is always on the person making that claim, not on others to disprove it. This may seem like a simple truth, but to believers, the concept of the burden of proof is reversed. The actually think that we need to disprove their childish interpretation of the Universe. The tenets of their religions were quite literally plucked from the imagination of their specific prophets, who had little if any regard for such trivial things as “evidence”. Why should I be surprised that there are no requirements in religion to make proof a necessary part of belief?

I hate to rain on everyone’s parade here, but in terms of defensible cosmological positions, there are few as sound and reasonable as atheism. We simply refuse to believe in the personal Gods of religions simply because every single one of them is incapable of providing a single shred of evidence that suggests that their claims are real. In fact, their very belief system requires human beings to abandon the natural instinct to demand for proof in favor of “faith”: believing in something despite evidence to the contrary. This speak volumes as to the intellectual honesty of believers.

I know that there are many who think that their theological positions are researched, intelligent and logical. They are sadly mistaken. The simple fact is that all religions discourage intellectual honesty. At their very core, they demand that adherents surrender reason and logic in favor of mystical and supernatural interpretations of natural phenomenon. While some take a literal approach to this (like Christians that think deadly storms are the result of an angry god), others have adopted the natural understanding of science while rejecting the inevitable conclusion that the processes of nature and the Universe do not require a supernatural guardian to function. Their intellectually lazy conclusion is to include God in the gaps, which is the only way many of them can cope with the fact that as our understanding of the world improves, it becomes all the more obvious that religious claims are basically primitive mythologies that are the moral homilies of ancient storytellers. Nothing more.

Orson also believes in the popular claim that histories greatest monsters have all been atheists, and that the non belief in God must somehow make people evil. Although I won’t deny that Stalin, Mao and even Hitler had little respect for religion, believing in God does not make someone righteous, just as not believing in God does not make a person evil. There is no philosophy in the world that guarantees proper moral behavior, though there are some ideologies that are more susceptible to corruption than others. It is why, as a society, we have continued to refine out ethical and moral understanding far beyond the crude teachings of religion. We no longer tolerate stoning, slavery, rape, genocide, and cruelty; something that would be impossible if the texts of Islam, Christianity and Judaism are ever taken literally (which in some countries are). Our modern morality actually requires believers to create a practical, 21st century approach to their belief. It isn’t the other way around for obvious reasons.

Since I know I have quite a few believers that sometimes visits the site, I want to state the unpopular reality that the basic reason why all Western countries have a separation of church and state is because of how scary religious people are. Seriously. When even a few of you get in power, you create frighteningly unjust laws; your followers would gladly incarcerate people that simply defame their religion in some way. Do you think that is an adequate response to something as basic as freedom of speech? For a long time now, we have understood the simple truth that ,so long as societies were dictated by religiously motivated individuals, we would never be free to discuss radical ideas that would change the very fabric of society. We live in a world made possible only be wrestling power out of your hands.

The civilized and reasonable chose to do it in a bloodless way; the Declaration of Independence is so unique and wonderful specifically because it managed to lay out the creation of a state without making religion a crime, and where no persecution of those once in power is possible. They effectively managed to remove the ability of religions to interfere with government operations. The evidence for just how shitty the world is when you guys take control can be found in all theocratic countries. Would Orson like to live in a place where religion is mandatory and invasive? I highly doubt it.

You might still think that religion is something valuable to human development, but there is no indication that human beings are any more or less moral without it. What atheism says that scares you to your very core is that not only do we not need your services to understand the natural world (which most of us have abandoned a while ago) or to govern our politics; we also don’t need you to raise functional, moral citizens. Can someone please explain to me what’s left?

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I used to be a huge online dater. Let’s just say that it was insane enough that in the span of 2 years, I went on over 150 dates. So when I say I’m an online dating expert, I’m not joking.

I tried out every major dating site, but the one I purposely stayed away from was eHarmony. I generally found that their philosophy of being able to “pair” people up was deeply flawed, and at the heart of it, it has extremely conservative attitudes about relationships in general. They were sued a few months ago for actively discriminating against homosexuals, and were hilariously forced to provide that service now. Why any self respecting gay man would try and use eHarmony is beyond me, but I digress.

The latest bullshit coming out of that website is an article about why people cheat. Apparently, if you aren’t religious you lack the morality not to cheat on your partner. That’s according to “Dr. Gian Gonzaga”, who like all eHarmony employees tows the religious line. I personally find it unsurprising that the good doctor provides absolutely no references, and includes the ubiquitous phrase “studies have shown”. Yeah, I’m sure they did, Doc. Forget the fact that divorce rates are actually lower for atheists and agnostics; these guys think that religion is some kind of marriage panacea. It isn’t. Get over it.

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Remember this guy? He keeps appearing all over the place, trying to pimp his book, “The Atlas of Creation”. It’s really just a glorified picture book with a shitload of inaccuracies, lies, and just plain old ignorance.

I normally try and ignore the words and pronunciations of unmitigated fools and liars, but the amount of bullshit coming out of this Adnan Oktar is simply too much to bear. Here is one of his interviews for the Tehran Times, no doubt a highly respectable newspaper…

“Darwinists attempt to equate the violence and terror they themselves nurture and grow with Muslims. But this is inconsistent, because I have exposed it as a ruse. Darwinism is the root of terrorism, whereas Islam is the antidote to it. Islam is a religion of peace and love. Allah says in the Quran that “it is better for you if you forgive,” even those who commit murder.”

Muslims are generally unaware where the troubles are coming from. People in the world as a whole are unaware of the essence of the matter. When I investigated it I saw that Darwinism lay at the root of all this suffering, trouble, violence and pain as there would be no materialism without Darwinism. Darwinism is essential for materialist philosophy and without materialism there can be no communism, fascism, imperialism, savage capitalism, nor immorality nor terror. These are all inter-related, but because people are ignorant of that, they fail to grasp the importance of the intellectual struggle against Darwinism.

So, basically he claims that the Theory of Evolution is somehow responsible for imperialism, communism, and fascism. How can he prove this insane claim? Well, he can’t, obviously. He just says he’s “done some research”. Any man who wears a white leisure suit and has such a finely trimmed beard has to be a serious scientist, right?

I’ve always hated how these religious guys try and pass the blame for the action of their fellows on other people. This jackass is claiming the terrorists are somehow motivated by atheistic materialism. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense now, does it? Look at your own religion, Oktar. It’s not exactly the paragon of peace and stability. If you bothered to actually do research you’d find that much of the violence in the Middle East is caused by doctrinal schisms in the Islamic faith, and not be any actual influence from the secular West. Stop blaming others for the shortcomings of your religion, and try being honest about something for once in your life.

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As some of you may know, I decided to invite all of you to share their stories about being an atheist. I hate to admit it, but my own story is just not that interesting. Atheist parents and their wisdom to let me chose for myself what I would believe made my the man I am today. But not every atheist life is as plain. I think there are compelling stories that have yet to be told, and this new section is intended to help you connect with others that have had similar experiences. Here is Jack’s story:

My story may be unique in its particulars, but is quite similar to how most atheists experience their religious acquaintances. My first experience with Christian Evangelicals who vigorously proselytize was my freshman year in college attending Elon University. I am a senior at the moment. At the time I was an apathetic Catholic and had little interest in pursuing my faith, but I was quite interested in making friends and not feeling lonely.

One day I was playing volleyball with some random people and a girl came up to me and extended an invitation to attend “Intervarsity.” She said “it was a lot of fun.” I naturally agreed because well, who doesn’t like to play sports and socialize? Mistakenly, I interpreted “Intervarsity” to mean sports due to the “varsity.” O how naive and malleable I was then. I arrived at the building, winded my way through the hallways and eventually arrived at the destination, and to my surprise it was not a sports club, but rather a time in which people could worship Christ…..Needless to say, I was rather surprised and felt rather sheepish. I said to myself, “It’s ok, this is not a foreign environment to me, I am a Christian.” Despite me saying this to myself, I quickly found out that these people were not like me. They enjoyed watching homemade videos they made about Bible quotes and loved to sing weird songs they made up about Christ. At Catholic mass there was none of this. Afterwards, one of my acquaintances came up to me and asked if I wanted to participate and join them on their beach retreat. At this time, I wanted to expand my borders and consented. I consented in part to my latter reason but also to certain extent peer pressure. To a lonely or semi-isolated freshman at college, it is a nice feeling to be accepted and have “friends.” Christian groups take advantage and manipulate these feeling and give freshmen a “friendly” environment but then mold and “brainwash” them. It is malicious, malignant practice and does violence upon impressionable and vulnerable people.

Fast forward to the beach retreat, and before leaving I was conflicted on how I felt. At first I was looking forward to it, I might be able to rekindle my faith as a Catholic despite their very Protestant practices and worship, but I could not help a feeling that this group was different in someway. They acted bizarrely that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was soon revealed to me at the retreat. After the excruciatingly 4 hour ride to the beach, we made presentations that somehow exalted Christ. Some made raps, others did a play, etc. Afterwards, I had an interesting conversation with one of the student leaders. After graduation, he intended on traveling to Eastern Europe to convert people there because they held mystical beliefs such as black magic. It was his job to help them apparently. I remember that many of the people there fawned after him, flattering him that he was such a good Christian as if he was a celebrity. Silly indeed. The next day we played what amounted to random silly games that had nothing to do with religion. For instance, we cross dressed and did relay games on the beach. (On a side note, I refused to do so and was looked down upon. Why would I want to wear women’s clothing in front of people I do not know?) We were broken into teams of 10, there were over 70 people at the retreat! We competed against each other, and did pointless things like carrying eggs with a spoon to the finish line. Furthermore, we had to run and carry a balloon without using our arms. I will spare the reader the rest of the inane details, but the point has been made. These Christians were little toddlers that enjoyed puerile fun.

Obviously the real Christianity part came when we went into our little groups and talked about our Christian faith. I said that I was trying to rekindle it, as I really was, but this retreat in fact retarded its growth. Yet I will never forget what one girl said as it struck me as fundamental and scary. She stated that she could not wait to reach heaven’s doorstep to worship and pray in front of God for eternity and that this retreat helped her realize that. Wow….Just let that sink in, simmer a bit, ponder it, and then shake your head in disgust. It’s ok, I did that as well.

Finally as the weekend was coming to a close, all the people went onto the beach for a service and prayer. Some went into the water with friends to have a special prayer session, as if they were going to get closer to god. Others listened to the pastor and received communion, the little meaningless wafer. I abstained because as of then, I knew I did not believe in the same god as them and this experience would begin my ascent to atheism and my rejection of faith.

Afterward, I stopped going to the meetings. My “friends” I had made there started to call me or stop by to see if I was “ok” and why I was not going to Intervaristy. I told them it wasn’t for me, and that their practices and ways of worship were not mine. I wish I could of have told them in a stronger tone, but as of then I was not a confrontationalist (pardon my neologism). Little by little my faith dwindled away to be only supplanted by my interest in philosophy and history. Only then did I actively begin to reject the idea of god and believe in humanity rather than some metaphysical being to tell me how to act. I am a slave to no one, and certainly not to a god that can be called loving and damn people to hell. I will dictate how I act. A god can’t ride my back unless it’s bent and I have damn good posture. (I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a bad joke)

If anyone has any questions about my experience email me at duderino102@gmail.com

Don’t forget to share your stories by emailing me at jacobfortin@gmail.com

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Alright, I’ll start of by saying that I’m always skeptical of any study that finds any major distinctions between human beings as a result of their religious belief. I simply see no compelling evidence that religiosity makes you more or less moral. Still, it’s quite satisfying when a study comes out that throws cold water in the faces of religious pundits who think their flocks are incapable of immoral action.

A study was conducted of nearly 30,000 high school students in the US, and it found that 83 percent of private and religious schools had lied, cheated or stole, compared to 78 percent in non-religious public schools.

Now beyond the shaky conclusion you can reach from this survey, it’s also worth noting that about a quarter of the students admitting to lying to at least one or two survey questions.

It’s interesting to note that the vast majority of these students felt a high self image when it came to ethics. They felt that they were able to distinguish right from wrong more than their counterparts. This study seems to indicate that none of these students should feel any level of pride at their respective morality, nor should they feel morally superior to anyone else. They are just as flawed as everyone else; perhaps more so.

In the end, I don’t think this study can conclude that religious people are more likely to cheat that their non religious counterparts. What we can lament is the fact that these kids think of themselves as highly moral when their ethical conduct demonstrates the opposite trend. It’s too early to throw our hands up in the air and declare that society is on the verge of collapse. I would argue, however, that schools should be doing more in he way of teaching ethics, logic and philosophy to offset the obvious ethical ignorance of these kids. I’m sure they aren’t bad people, but it would appear that a religious upbringing does nothing to make people better citizens.

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