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| Articles about Atheist |
| Thank God I’m an Atheist. | | 2008-07-13 00:00:00 | | One fine night, in the middle of the day,
two atheists knelt down to pray.
Hymn books opened upside-down,
in Top Hat n Tails, and their dressing gown.
The in-verse lyrics from the page,
sung happily with joyous rage.
Two old friends, first meeting each other,
(both my Grandad’s grandson’s sister’s brother.)
With sufficient humility, to make them proud,
in perfect silence, they roared out loud.
“All things dim and dutiful,
all tree cures smate and groll.
All things dense and blunderfull,
what good is a square ball?”
Cursed by the blessing,
and accepted by rejection.
As welcoming as Ebenezer,
( when it’s time to pass the collection.)
Thanking God for their disbelief,
from their heads up to their toes.
And then with Pious reverence,
they did pick each other’s nose.
These two brave cowards stand as one
In truth they are my father’s son.
You students of genealogy,
must unsurely disagree.
For my Grandad’s grandson’s sister’s brother,
Can be none other than…. | | By: GotPoetry - News for Poets. Place to Write. | | |
| | Third Generation Atheist | | 2008-07-09 23:38:00 | | (Via Tom)My grandparents (on my mother's side) arrived from Poland through Ellis Island during World War One, and immediately upon arrival had their names changed (by others) and dropped their religion (by themselves). They were Communists with a capital C and lived their whole lives devoted to the ideal of everyone contributing what they could to the common good. On my father's side, my grandparents paid lip service to a form of Reform Judaism but didn't observe any rituals or holidays. My father dropped his religion when he entered World War Two at the age of 18. My mother was raised Atheist. All four of their children were raised Atheist from birth.For me there has never been a question, and never been a problem. It's quite clear to me that religion stems from a massive failure of imagination - the inability to perceive the enormity of space and time or the tininess of individual creature-lives on any one particular spinning rock in space. I don't mind people believing what they lik | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | An Atheist's Creed | | 2008-04-28 09:35:32 | | By Mano Singham
In the course of writing many posts on science and religion and atheism, it struck me that I was tangentially making many statements about what I, as an atheist, believe. I decided to summarize those scattered thoughts into one coherent statement. Of course, I am not presuming to claim that all atheists subscribe to this statement. The creed is purely a personal one.
read more | | By: Machines Like Us - Science and Technology News | | |
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| Atheist soldier takes on the military | | 2008-04-26 11:42:48 | | No, he doesn't go around trying to convince other soldiers that God doesn't exist and no, he doesn't throw his disbelief in other soldiers' faces. Spc. Jeremy Hall just wants not to be harassed for his atheist beliefs.Hall has filed a lawsuit which includes Secretary of Defense Robert gates as one of the defendants. He says that the Christian religion is pushed on soldiers and that he has been passed over for promotion because superior officers believe that he would be unable to bond with those under him unless he believes in God.You can read more about it at the Topeka Capital Journal. Hall is based at Fort Riley, Kansas.Atom
| | By: Michaelann Land | | |
| | The testimonial of an atheist geek... | | 2008-04-09 12:25:00 | | (Via Rocky Oliver)I have been an "out of the closet", publicly avowed atheist for many years. But I didn't start that way. Being Southern I was raised, as most people are down here, as an evangelical Christian - my particular flavor was Southern Baptist. I even attended a Christian school for 2.5 years (middle of 5th grade through 7th grade). One of the important tenets of Southern Baptists, and Christians in general, is the concept of a "testimonial" - an explanation of your faith and how you came to be a Christian. You are encouraged to share your testimonial as a part of "witnessing" to others in order to tell them about Jesus and (hopefully) "save" them.I began to think about this, and realized that everyone - all of us - have a "testimonial". We all have a story of how we have come to believe the way we do. Some of us are still on the journey, and our testimonial isn't complete yet; while others amongst us are strong in our beliefs and convictions and, with the exception of some m | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | The (ir)Rational Atheist--More Vox Day | | 2008-03-30 02:07:08 | | Starting off chapter two, which is entitled “Defining Science,” is a brief description of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, unknown to most, but a troupe of traveling masochists (or so it seems) who represent his caricature of science. These little side stories can have more of an effect than the reader understands, though. Right off the bat, science is seen as either freakish or trivial due to the association with that particular experience of his. Because of this, I find it necessary to give you the actual definition of “science”: 1. a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws 2. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation… 4. systematized knowledge in general. 5. knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study. 6. a particular branch of knowledge. 7. skill, esp. | | By: The Atheist Response | | |
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| Story #57: "My atheist story" | | 2008-02-05 16:29:00 | | (Via Kevin Forbes)When I was a young man, I existed in that realm of what could be called "Sort of Christian." That is, I believed in God and Jesus, but I didn't study the Bible and I didn't go to Church.When I reached the age of fifteen, my family decided to become 'religious' and as a result I was brought to Church for the first time that didn't involve weddings or funerals. That summer I became a born again Christian. In that time I got to experience the joys of religious hypocrites. I eventually abandoned the idea of Church, which was the first nail in the religious coffin.Although I abandoned church, it would be much longer before I abandoned god. I lost my actual faith in the early twenties. I don't remember why I initially abandoned Christianity. It might have been my budding interest in Philosophy or my problems with depression. I do remember that it was for the wrong reasons-I abandoned Christianity because I was mad, not because I didn't believe in it.Floundering aroun | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | Atheist Divisiveness and Dogmatism | | 2008-01-10 05:19:05 | |
Lately, I've been realizing that, despite what I had come to believe, religion is not the biggest danger to society. Poor thinking is. Adherence to mindless dogmatism is. The self-serving desire to fit everybody into a mold, likely similar to your own, is. These traits are unfortunately not limited to theists.
Obviously, being a member of the Rational Response Squad puts me in a position to be critiqued and vilified by the people who possess the aforementioned character flaws, and recently I've been seeing it almost constantly. It literally pains me to see that so many who have managed to escape religion still cling to so many other similarly irrational ideas and use such blatantly poor logic-particularly if it involves us. Have we done some controversial things? Sure. Are we brash, loud-mouthed, occasionally immature, and possibly arrogant? Sometimes, yes. Have we made mistakes? Of course-show me one person who hasn't, and I'll show you a liar. Do we have conversations about sex, have ads all over the place containing visible cleavage (OMGZ!), and in general like to have some "old-fashioned" fun? Most definitely. Do you know why? Because atheists don't have to be stodgy intellectuals!
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| | Story #49: "Journey of an Atheist" | | 2007-12-17 11:07:00 | | (Via vjack, Part I)I've really enjoyed reading personal accounts from several atheist bloggers about their journey from religion to atheism (e.g., Steve Wild at Dailyspeech.net), so I figured it was time to share mine. If nothing else, it will be a good excuse for some self reflection around how I came to believe what I do.I was raised in the Methodist church by parents who were not particularly religious but who thought that it would somehow be good for me to be exposed to religion. They also attended church for the social networking, but the primary reason was that they wanted their child exposed to it.My earliest memories of religion involved fear. Like our primitive ancestors, I was afraid of the unknown. As a young child, just about everything is unknown. Added to this, I was a bit more neurotic than most. I prayed because I was afraid of what would happen if I didn't. Nobody really threatened me with hellfire and damnation; it was just the idea that if there was this invisible man in the sky with all these amazing powers, I better not disappoint him. My prayers were never about asking for crap I wanted and almost always attempts to prevent bad things from happening.Entering public school (on the West Coast) exposed me to a couple of new ideas. First, I learned that religion was something that was considered private. One did not generally discuss it or hear about it at school. This was very different from experiences I would have later in Mississippi, and it set me up to believe that everyone would regard religion as a rather personal matter. Second, despite the rather private nature of religion, the children generally assumed that everyone was Christian. This type of Christianity in no way resembled the evangelical freaks I would encounter later, but there was surprise and sometimes ridicule for the children who did not identify as Christian. Subtle as it was, the expectation that everyone would fit in did include religion. I had friends of all different Chr | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | Story #46: "The Making of an Atheist" | | 2007-11-11 13:05:00 | | (Via David Yanez, 12-14-2003)I’m writing this in response to several insinuations over the years that since I am an Atheist that I’m incapable of grasping how a spiritual person sees life and the bigger picture. Or that I’m incapable of grasping the idea that there exists something higher than myself or that there is something higher than man.I’ve even been accused of being an Atheist just for the sake of being different.Being an Atheist doesn’t mean one has abandoned their moral conscious or that they’ve lost the ability to feel compassion or wonder and amazement for life. Atheists are not unfeeling and single minded. The only difference between us is that you believe in a God and the Supernatural and I don’t plain and simple.This is my attempt to shed some light on what makes an Atheist or should I say one Atheist tick and to give people a better understanding of who we are. It is also meant to give hope to people who are without hope and who are contemplating suicide a | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | Story #41: "From Altar boy to Atheist" | | 2007-09-13 19:02:00 | | (Via Vince, Part I)Before I begin, a quick disclaimer. No, my religious world views were not shaped by Father Friendly Fingers touching me in my naughty spot, nor was I the victim of insufferable corporal punishment in Catholic school. The title of this post reflects that I was indeed an actual altar boy. Believe it or not, I actually had quite a positive experience in parochial school and I credit them with planting the seeds of my skeptical nature and logical reasoning abilities.Now onto the story of my fall from grace.I suppose to some extent I have always had serious misgivings about god. I was born into a catholic family and attended catholic school, but whenever I thought about god, it didn't make sense from the beginning. I was taught that god is an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving entity. He created the heavens and earth and all its life just for us and gave us dominion over it all. Wow, so far so good right? Here is where it gets a little weird. This wonderful god ha | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | Can an Atheist Disprove the Existence of God? | | 2007-08-17 00:08:06 | | Supposing a seven year old wrote an article about how Shakespeare was a bad writer. Of course, the 7 year old has not read anything by Shakespeare. But, he has read a few comics and, by his standard, the comics are much more likely to be good reading than Shakespeare. He has never tried reading [...] | | By: Online Business Alliance & Niches | | |
| | Story #30: "Atheist of the 1st Grade" | | 2007-08-15 18:57:00 | | (Via Captain Joe Kickass)Mrs Stone asked me to lead the class in The Pledge of Allegiance. Being an extroverted 6 year old boy, I jumped at the chance. Me, lead the Pledge? I was thrilled.Mind you this is no small task. Whomever leads the pledge has to stand in front of the class, place their hand over the heart, speak clearly and loudly, and most importantly not forget the words.I had practiced many times, for this, my big chance. I strutted to the front of the class as everyone stood and then faced my classmates."I Pledge Allegiance" came out loud and clear as did "to the Flag". An approving nod and smile from Miss Stone urged me to continue, and I did."One Nation" and then silence. Mrs Stone prodded, "under God" I just could not say it. I could not stand in front of these kids and say Under God. This is an OATH. I didn't believe in the bible stories my great aunt pushed on me, or the invisible "God" watching over my shoulder. Why not say "One Nation under Mother Goose" I thought, b | | By: Coming Out Godless | | |
| | Why can’t the USA put their faith in an atheist? | | 2007-08-12 21:56:27 | | Pete Stark has broken the ultimate political taboo, as he’s come out of the closet, the veteran San Francisco Democrat recently became the first member of Congress to openly declare himself to be… an atheist!!
By admitting he is not religious, Stark has, if nothing else, proven he has no ambitions for the presidency. In [...] | | By: Robs Place | | |
| | The Burden of Proof is on the Atheist | | 2007-06-05 16:28:54 | | Why worry about the burden of proof… why argue about the burden of proof when all you really plan to do is assert what you want to believe and call it true?
If he does, he may be saying only that he has as much right to take ‘God exists’ as basic as his critic does to take sense data or truths about the world as basic. Perhaps that is all Plantinga wishes to do. The upshot is then to claim that the believer and his critic are in the same boat. They agree on some formal account-that there are basic propositions and propositions derivative from them-but there is no way to adjudicate claims as to what propositions, materialiter loquendo, can function as basic. The skeptic is simply wrong if he thinks some version of empiricism is beyond dispute or, worse, that it is part of the formal theory.
Why the Burden of Proof is on the Atheist
Ah… yes, Plantinga– champion of the modern Biblical Irrationalist, ever the goto man for nonsense. And, of course, the ugly | | By: Hell's Handmaiden | | |
| | I am a Scientific Atheist | | 2007-05-24 18:02:23 | |
You scored as Scientific Atheist, These guys rule. I’m not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future.
Scientific Atheist
92%
Apathetic Atheist
58%
Spiritual Atheist
58%
Angry Atheist
50%
Agnostic
42%
Militant Atheist
33%
Theist
8%
What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
| | By: Agylen | | |
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