I am an atheist. I used to be a Christian, and then I read the Bible, thought about it, and left Christianity. Soon after that, I examined the concept of “the supernatural” and became an atheist. Hearing my story would probably be interesting to some people, but apart from some minor variances, it’s no different from the stories of thousands of other “de-converts.” Most atheists are well versed in the logic necessary to rid the mind of religious delusions. What I want to discuss in this essay is the number of theists who fully comprehend the same logic, and yet remain theists. Clearly, this phenomenon should be of great concern to the freethinker who would like to see friends, family, and society in general rid themselves of the poison that religious thought injects into culture.

To begin with, let us briefly examine the reasons that people follow religion. Some people are afraid of death, and gain comfort from the belief that they will not really die. Others want some truth to help explain the pain and suffering they or their loved ones experience. Many people attend church for social reasons – Christianity is, after all, the biggest social group in the country. Many people accept Jesus into their hearts because they’re afraid of hell. Obviously, there are also many people who firmly believe that they have spoken to God, witnessed a miracle that only God could have performed, or felt a “presence” they believe to be the Holy Spirit within them. All of these reasons, and many more, would be listed if you took a poll of believers.

GO SCIENCE!!

When the atomic bomb was first used in war, it killed thousands of civilians, maimed many more, and sickened hundreds of thousands, eventually killing untold numbers from after-effects. The long term effects of mid-air H-bomb testing are almost incalculable to human, plant, and lower animals. After the last series of mid-air tests in Siberia, radioactive dust was detected in major metropolitan centers in the westernmost reaches of Europe.
The use of the A-bomb also saved countless thousands of lives. At the time the bomb was delivered, the United States was planning an all out offensive against the Japanese mainland. The cost in American lives was to be staggering, but it was considered a worthwhile risk. Some estimates put the potential death toll at 40-45%. This was going to be an offensive with close to half a million soldiers participating. You do the math.

Hambydammit is a jack of many trades and an avid reader with background in philosophy, logic, psychology, music, and business.  He was a Christian until his early 20s, and has been an atheist activist for over a decade.

Many of the works in this section are still under construction.  Be sure to check the bottom of the page, as many of these essays have child pages.  Argument and Debate is a 7 part series (It will hopefully grow soon).  You can link to the next installment at the bottom of each page.

Thanks for reading.

Evidence. The heart of any debate. The deciding factor in court. The raw material for argumentation. What is it? What is it not? This essay is designed to help the reader learn to categorize evidence, rank its strength, and critically examine opposing evidence.

Evidence, strictly speaking, consists of facts, opinions, and actual objects. This seems clear enough at first glance, but it's important to understand a couple of things about facts and opinions. We all know the saying, "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one." This is normally used to say that a particular opinion is not pertinent to a conversation, but it gives an impression that is incorrect. All opinions are not of equal value. In matters of speculation, the opinion of a scholarly expert is far more valuable than that of an untrained novice. This is why you see "expert witnesses" in court as opposed to "Run of the mill every day witnesses." (Of course, the debate over whether or not all expert witnesses are actually experts is a totally different matter. This essay assumes that experts are what they claim to be.) Opinions do, in fact, have a place in debate. It's not always about fact, and sometimes, preponderance of opinion is a crucial issue. We will explore this more later.

I got this from an email I get from crosswalk.com. It was a very interesting take on Mother Teresa and wanted to share it with you all. I feel this would at least intrigue many of you seeing as many of you seem to share similar views.

A Suffering Servant: The Letters of Mother Teresa
Chuck Colson
BreakPoint

August 29, 2007

For the first time in more than 30 years, Mother Teresa graces the cover of Time magazine. But unlike the 1975 cover that hailed her as a living saint, this week’s cover titillatingly trumpets, “The Secret Life of Mother Teresa.” The subtitle declares, “Newly published letters reveal a beloved icon’s 50-year crisis of faith.” NBC led the TV pack with serious questions about her faith.

THE MASTER CLEANSE MEME

Lemonade enthusiasts seem to consistently fail to explore the reasoning, let-alone science, behind a diet confined to water, lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, salt, and herbal laxatives. There are few calories present in these ingredients, so there's no question a person subsisting on this will lose weight during their fast. But is it fat or muscle they're losing? They take it for granted the claims of detoxification are valid, anecdotally supported by excessive mucous in both their mouths and in their waste. But why suppose this is a built up “toxin” rather than, say, a by-product of the laxative or their cayenne-irritated organs? People seem to blindly accept the methods, and also seem genuinely surprised by the weight loss resulting from their malnutrition: as though it were confirmation that this is the correct way to starve. It takes a heroic lack of curiosity not to wonder how this motley hodgepodge of kitchen detritus had ever been assembled. Personally, I'm waiting for an updated version involving canned pumpkin pie filling, cigarette butts, yellow mustard and baking soda.

"Why are all atheists so angry?"

I hear this question all the time. In fact, my Rambo-Kitty avatar is partially inspired by the question. Anyway, today I was reading an article about the debate between Sam Harris and Rick Warren, and was struck by Warren's statement, "I've never met an atheist who wasn't angry."

My first reaction was denial. Many atheists, myself included, are happy most of the time. My atheist friends are great fun to hang out with. We laugh and joke and drink beer, and hardly ever mention religion.

My second reaction, I confess, was anger. How dishonest of him to try to discount atheism by labeling us all as angry malcontents! This is exactly why people like him make me angry!

Goats sacrificed to fix Nepal jet

A goat. File photo

A goat offering is a holy act for Hindu devotees

Nepal's state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft.

Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport.

The offering was made to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company's planes.

The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong.

Hello, my fellow heathens. For the rest of the month I will be posting on a regular three a week schedule, I may continue this trend next month, we'll see how it goes. So on every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday the newest editions will be up. Some of you may have noticed the counters at the bottom recently, with that I've been keeping track of how many and what days readers have been loging in to read the newsletter, and the aforementioned days seem to be the most popular, counts on Friday and Sunday being especially high. However, the reason for the newly placed regularity is two-fold. The other reason is to better manage my time, since I will be going on vacation from the 19th to the 28th, and there is much to do in the interum in preparation. In the time I will be gone, there will be no newsletter posts (I'm sure you can all manage, lol) so I encourage you all to browse through the previous editions, as I'm sure there are many of you who haven't seen them all. While I'm gone, any questions, contributions, or comments you have will be fielded by my good friend and helper Adrian (a.k.a. Skeptictank, a.k.a. Freudian slip n' slide). Regulars to the chat room are probably familiar with him already.

Thanks for reading, if you have any comments or suggestions you can reach me directly HERE. Or on Myspace HERE.
Stay rational,
Jack
and the RRS MI team

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So, coming into this week, we had a couple of different articles nearly finished. Both were impeccably researched, finely nuanced stances on topics we knew would be of interest to the many cultured scholars in our audience.

But then we heard that a Dutch lunatic built a giant replica of Noah’s Ark, so we decided to just rip on stupid people again. If you would have preferred something a bit more elegant, please address your complaints to wild-eyed-loony-of-the-Lowland-Countries Johan Huibers.

Huibers, a Biblical Literalist, says that, based on his faith in the Covenant of the Rainbow signed, sealed, and delivered by God after the “last” Flood, he isn’t concerned about Holland being flooded again—which is ironic, considering that, at the rate the polar icecaps are melting, Holland is in fact actually going to be flooded in like… we don’t know, three weeks or something—but instead built the Ark to renew waning Dutch interest in Christianity.