Advocatus Atheist

My new book on Ignosticism as a philosophical defense for atheism is now available in paperback and for Kindle!  (Don't worry, all you ePub users, I'll be making it available for Nook later this week.) So if you want to purchase an early copy, just heave over to Amazon.com. Thanks! Ignosticism (Paperback) Ignosticism (Kindle) From the Back Cover What if the question “Does God exist?” proved to be meaningless? What if the very definition of “God” was incoherent? Could you still, in good conscience, believe in something if it was incoherent and meaningless? Would it even be possible to talk about an incoherent and meaningless thing meaningfully? If not, then what consequences would follow from this realization? These are the questions which the branch of philosophy known as ignosticism concerns itself with. Ignosticism: A Philosophical Justification for Atheism examines these questions and delves into the idea that “God” is a type of language-game. Taki...

Although correlation does not imply causation, there is something strange about ALL OF THESE correlating to the SAME significant area. And the SAME thing these areas having in common being RELIGIOUS belief. Something to think about.

I have a vegan friend online. Although I can understand going vegan as a health choice (an extremely good one at that), I find the moral consideration a bit more problematic. Take this quote for example: Being atheist without being vegan is a bit like staging a bank robbery and running off all excited because you found a quarter on the sidewalk outside. I understand the ethical consideration behind this. Factory farming and breeding animals for slaughter does seem rather inhumane. I can see why a highly empathetic person would seek to ban such practices. Still, I can't help but notice there are a few problems with making it strictly a moral issue. The first problem is clearly that losing religion and making the choice to stop eating meat (either for ethical or health related concerns) are not equivalent. It's a false dichotomy (a well known informal fallacy). Here's why. Many people do not reason their way out of religion. Religion simply falls by the wayside when...

A close friend of mine posted a question concerning her confusion regarding how to answer her child's astute observation and subsequent question, "Where is God?" Here's the screen cap I took (edited to protect the identities of my friends).  My answer began with "The truth." My assumption is that her child is just wanting to know where God is because everyone in her community simply takes for granted the existence of God. Meanwhile, the child, unable to detect this God that everyone is so fond of paying lip service to merely asks where is this person everyone talks about, all the doo-da day long, as if he were *actually in the room with them. Also, I was being somewhat sardonic in "the truth" being an agreement of the child's observation, there is no detectable God, so where the heck is he? Right? Kids aren't stupid, after all. But they can be misinformed and lied to by authority figures, and often times, thei...

Found this on Imgur , and it had me streaming with tears of laughter. It's too good not to share.

Dubai is an Islamic city in the  United Arab Emirates  and is turning out to be a rape capitol of Islam. What's truly shocking is this isn't to be totally unexpected. Islam is a belief system that seeks to dominate and control the woman. In countries that follow the Islamic Sharia laws, such as the UAE, extramarital sex is completely forbidden and an unmarried couple can be punished for kissing or even holding hands in public. Punishment generally involves imprisonment and flogging. In Islamic governed countries double standards abound, especially where men and women are concerned, and Dubai is the perfect example of this unfair belief system being enacted as a frightening reality. News has erupted with the unjust sentence of a 25 year old Norwegian rape victim, who has been sentenced with 14 months in prison for the crime of "being raped." Meanwhile her rapist gets off with an easy 13 months. It says a lot about the sense of justice of your culture when the cr...

[It was brought to my attention that the list in this article, along with some of the phrasing, was borrowed from an article by Nathan Hoffman originally posted on Creation Today. I apologize for the unsourced nature of some of the content of the article as I borrowed it from a friend's post--with persmission--from Facebook. I do not know whether my friend copied it directly or indirectly--but things get lost in transmission. Apologies to Nathan for any confusion. Please read his informative article] Now, a unicorn is not a real creature (obviously). This animal is totally fictitious. None of these creatures have ever walked the earth as far as we know, and no scientist has ever found a fossil of one. The only place unicorns exist are in fairy tales. However, unicorns are mentioned in the King James version of the Bible 9 times, in 5 different books, by at least 5 different authors: by Balaam, Moses, David, Isaiah, and even God himself in the book of Job. These are the verses...

I think you will all be pleased to lean that I am finally collecting my research and thoughts regarding ignosticism into a book. The book takes a look at ignosticism, which is a theological position, and uses it as a strong disproof for God as well as a strong argument for atheism. Some have suggested that ignosticism is different than atheism and agnosticism in that it doesn't consider the question "Does God exist?" relevant, whereas atheism and agnosticism do. As an ignostic-atheist, I have to say that ignosticism is a very powerful argument. Its premise is simple. Definitions of God need to be coherent. If they aren't, then they cannot be meaningful. Additionally, ignosticism holds that if the definition isn't at least falsifiable, such as saying God is "transcendent" then all you have done is define God in terms of God, which is circular reasoning, and therefore leads to an fallacy based definition of God who is transcendent because he is God, ...

Mark Twain's short  "On the Decay of the Art of Lying"  he tells a story about how he takes to task a morally righteous woman, who swears that she is honest and true, always, by revealing her lie about the efficacy of her child's nurse to properly care for the child. The child has since come down with a cold due to the nurse's negligence, and is in danger of catching pneumonia, thereby exposing the child is in imminent danger of serious sickness.  This revelation causes the sanctimonious mother rushing off to rescue her child from the incompetent nurse. All turns out well in the end. Except for the fact that, according to that devious Mark Twain, it was all just a lie.  According to Twain, ever critical of the brutal truth, he informs, "An injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie. Neither should ever be uttered." But he goes on to say, "No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our circumstances.... Jud...

This is by far one of the most important talks on parenting you'll likely ever hear. It's about how to raise your children to be thinkers. Dale McGowan's FREEOK 2013 talk explains why religious indoctrination is damaging to children and gives examples on how to avoid stifling a child's curiosity and, instead, nurturing their natural instincts to want to search for the answers. I highly recommend watching this video. And if you're not a parent, that's find too, many of McGowan's points about critical thinking can be applied to the self as well. Enjoy!

My poor blog has stagnated at 99 followers (i.e., readers) for six months now. Probably due to the fact that I stopped blogging regularly, so reader interest dropped off. But still, I dream of a day of making triple digits. I would feel so happy if I could reach 100 subscribers by the end of this month! It's the small things in life. Right? So, by all means, subscribe if you haven't. If you have, go out and tell a friend. We can do this. Thanks in advance! --Advocatus Atheist

Belief: Jesus (Christ) was a real historical figure, and I believe he existed.  He is also my Lord and Savior, the redeemer  of all humanity. I know it in my heart that he loves me. Evidence: There is little in the way of trustworthy or reliable evidence to show that Jesus (Christ) existed apart from a character in a story, therefore it is not rational to believe he existed minus any evidence to support that belief. He is no more real than the legends of King Arthur or Robin Hood. I am willing to change my mind, as long as the evidence supports that consideration. As human beings with thinking minds, we prescribe to a variety of sets of beliefs. Some of these beliefs are good beliefs (by good I mean justifiable) and some of these beliefs are bad ones (meaning probably invalid). My brother in blog Mike D. over at the A-Unicornist once informed me that the reason Christians often make really bad arguments is because they believe things for bad reasons. W...

Matt Dillahunty has quipped, and I am paraphrasing (from his interview on the Thinking Atheist): "Theology is something apologists do to make themselves feel smarter than they really are."