Dangerous Talk

Dangerous Talk is an atheist/progressive daily blog discussing the three most dangerous topics of polite conversation: Religion, Politics, and Sex. Our goal is to fight back against Religion and push for a more free and rational society.

Go to Dangerous Talk.

Camels With Hammers

The main foci of Camels With Hammers are contemporary ethical paradigms, normative theories, moral psychology, secularism, Nietzsche interpretation, general philosophical education for non-specialists, commentary on politics and other current affairs from philosophical perspectives. Additionally, the blog is concerned with being part of the project of creating a constructive atheism which can be a force philosophically, culturally, and, where appropriate, politically. The blog also occasionally reviews and promotes independent film and music. Occasionally more mainstream music and films are of interest—but usually that’s when Tom Petty, Batman, or Spider-Man are involved in said music or films.

— I encourage non-specialists in philosophy to use this blog as a place to try their hand at serious philosophical debate, to seek clarification of obscure philosophical terms or concepts that are stumbling block to their participation, and all around to use this blog as a place to learn philosophy. Please read more of how I view the educational potential of the blog in this post I wrote on the subject.

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Good to see an unashamedly philosophical blog. Any others out there please let me know.

Natural Born Atheists

An interesting short article from the Proud Atheists blog. Not merely a rant about the lunacy of the Pentecostal church with its unwavering message of "you're going to hell!", but picks up on the idea that there are people just born unbelievers. Religious indoctrination starts at such an early age that it is very difficult to investigate how, or even whether, the average human goes through phases of religious thinking and development. From the comments, there are a few out there who do not recall lapsing from any religion but rather have always been faithless skeptics.

As some religions would dearly love to find some 'God spot' in the brain, thereby connecting us mere mortals to some alleged metaphysical eldorado, so they wish to claim that we are all 'wired for God', thereby adding yet another lame metaphysical proof of God's existence. I mean, if you find a door then it must lead somewhere - building a door on a brick wall is slightly surreal but does evolution include such aesthetic pranks? I'll come back to this door in a minute.

So are people born with a natural sense of religion or are they just indoctrinated into their parents' cult? There are some for whom belief is just not part of the program. I, for one, do not recall ever believing the stuff spoken by priests. Not only did the words not mean anything but I saw how people behaved in both church and outside it and, apart from the rampant hypocrisy, I was left bemused as to what exactly they were doing. Kneeling down in a gesture of prayer was easy to imitate but what was going on in their heads?

I suspect - or perhaps hope - that most young children go through a process of thinking through who they are as their brain goes beyond learning how to walk and starts to focus on where to walk to. I also think parents do their kids an injustice by not listening to what they try to tell them about life, the universe and their dreams. I do recall having an intense period in which it was very important for me to figure out who I was, what was it that made me conscious of being me, and so on. I had nothing that could be called 'faith' in any great gig in the sky. I was the doubting Thomas - show me! However, the revelation that eventually appeared was very interesting and best described in Buddhist terms as naked awareness - a kind of atomic consciousness. Unfortunately, I knew nothing of Buddhism at the age 6 or 7 but I did know that such experiences were not part of the Catholic canon. My natural born faithlessness grew into a conscious rejection of the whole racket. Not only was Christianity wrong (people are wrong about many things all the time, it's called learning) but it was actually a lie, which struck me as a more serious charge.

So coming back to that door. The attempt by some religions to distort neuroscience into locating some God-terminal in the brain has already started. The structure of our mind is a fascinating and important area of research, both from a scientific and personal point of view. The structure of our deepest and most basic part of the mind is normally left unconscious and yet in some individuals under some circumstances it does manifest. Such experiences are often life-changing and hence should be treated with respect. In my opinion, the delusion propagated by religions is not the delusion of such experiences but in the mind-map propagated to explain such experiences. The mental door is not a gateway to a metaphysical deity but the opening up of previously secret areas of our mind.

Are we, in the end natural born fideists or atheists? We are undoubtedly conscious. We can choose to open those doors and explore our consciousness - explore what it means to be human - or we can get faith and close all those doors, lock them up and throw away the keys. Thankfully, those keys can always be found again if one starts to wonder about those locked doors.

The Secular Thinker

The Secular Thinker is a blog about many things, mainly politics, society, philosophy, and religion, written from the perspective of a secular atheist. My goal when creating the blog was for it to become a place of discussion, a source of information, and a small step in the very long journey towards truth. The internet brings many people together, and I think that though debate and argument, those people can come to a better understanding of the world. Alone, we can accomplish little, but together, the possibilities are boundless. We live in a society where so much of the world's population believe in some sort of supernatural being, and, knowingly or otherwise, these beliefs influence daily interaction. I believe the in the potential of humanity to achieve greatness, but this pursuit is so often hindered by the presence of religion. I would like The Secular Thinker to become a place of education, information, fact-finding, debate, argument, discussion, understanding, contemplation, and cooperation that will ultimately lead us in the right direction to creating a better world for ourselves and each other.

Angie The Anti-Theist

AngieTheAntiTheist.blogspot.com is my blog about dangerous cults in America, faith healing, medical neglect of children in the name of prayer, and my general views on religion and atheism. It's also where excerpts from my upcoming book "Exodus from Zion" appear. This book details my life growing up in a faith healing cult, Home in Zion Ministries, with it's founder, my grandmother, Carol Balizet.

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Should be interesting! I've met people who have had close dealings with cults: one was being terrorized by one; and another was trained to abduct and deprogramme cult members (which somehow never seemed to make anybody happy!)

"Why I Write This Blog"

I write this blog because losing my religion was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I want to share that with people. When I finally got critical thinking, and really allowed myself to challenge everything I believed and loved, and hold it all to the same standards of reason and evidence - that’s when I really came alive as a person. I was finally willing to accept the universe, however it was, and live the best life I could here and now, in reality. That’s a wonderful thing, and when you encounter something wonderful you want to share it with people.

This is not me but Common Sense Atheism speaking.

I write this blog because I because I really enjoy this stuff. I enjoy the search for truth. I enjoy finding out where I’m wrong, or where I’m ignorant, or where I’m right. And I enjoy these topics, too. The questions of God and meaning and morality are some of the biggest questions one could ask, and it’s pretty epic to make some progress in finding the answers.

Read the whole post, and the comments.

Common Sense Atheism

What do I mean when I say atheism is “common sense?”

I do not mean that religious people are stupid. Believers can be doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, philosophers, entrepreneurs – some smart folks.

Usually when someone says, “It’s common sense!” he really means “This is the way I think about it; isn’t it obvious to everyone else?” That’s not what I mean by common sense. I’m going to argue for atheism using your common sense; the way you already think about most things in life.

See, believers have two ways of thinking. In most situations, they think with the same logic as most people do: this is our “common sense.” Tell a believer that the bank stole his money, or that an ancient book says you can heal disease by dancing around a fire, and he will ask for evidence. That is common sense.

But believers think in a different way about their religious beliefs. This is “special thinking.” A believer reads in his religion’s ancient book that a man walked on water and rose from the dead, and that is enough for him to believe.

The whole point of my book is this: If a believer applies his special thinking to any other area of life, it becomes clear how irrational that special thinking is. And if he applies common sense to his religion, it becomes clear how irrational that religion is.

Go to Common Sense Atheism.

Ad Absurdum

The blog of Bjorn and Jeannette, a freethinking couple in Saint Paul, MN.

Much of the blog is about the activities in Minnesota with links to the Minnesota Atheists, the largest and most active atheist organization in the state.



Go to Ad Absurdum.

Aces Full of Links

A blog written by Dr Momentum. Includes all sorts of stuff, like politics, economics, science and mathematics, some humour and random thoughts and comments from an atheist perspective.

Go to Aces Full of Links.

A-Deistic

Let us be clear, we are atheists opposed not to mild-mannered deism or theism, but to the menace to logic, knowledge, and humanism that has been promoted by fundamentalists and the Religious Right.

Christian apologists repeatedly demonstrate that it is insurmountably difficult to develop a worldview free of philosophical tension when one begins and ends all thinking with an inculcated-a-priori assumption of the existence of supernatural agencies.

This blog, then, is an appeal for rational thinking.

Go to A-Deistic.

Daily Atheist

The intentions with this blog is to provide Atheists with useful content from various sources. We can all ramble about religion in a blog, but I think our ramblings become better with more facts. And also, I need to be inspired to ramble so I'd rather just present the news! (I do ramble a lot on forums though!)

Well, I decided to gather all the good and important stuff I come across here as safekeeping for myself and for everyone else. What's important and not important is not always so easy to say, although I tend to like science and the occasional good argument. I also have a fetish for statistics.

Some articles fall outside of what consider most pressing to post here, and since Google reader has a real nice "share" button and a page where my shared items go, I have decided to use it when I see stuff I like. You can of course subscribe to it.

Being Norwegian, I occasionally come across good articles in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish so I've set up a Scandinavian blog too at Dagens Ateist.

Go to Daily Atheist.