Advocatus Atheist

"Man has not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled them after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears, and organs of speech. Each nation made its gods and devils speak its language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history, geogrpahy, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the people. No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him." --Robert G. Ingersoll It's that last line which is so pertinent, so true, so revealing. No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him.

Sad news, I am afraid. As some of my readers know, I live in Japan. My city is called Kumamoto. Yesterday, a religious man took his mentally ill daughter to a monk to have an exorcism performed. The exorcism is part of a water cleansing ritual where a person is dowsed with water. The water is usually from a natural waterfall, but a makeshift waterfall device, sort of like a manual pump rigged to flood gate showering device, is available for ritualistic purposes. The process entails having water poured down onto you from about three meters. I've seen this practice done in real life at a beautiful scenic outdoor location with a beautiful waterfall. During the occasion I witnessed this ritual, the gathering only consisted of monks cleansing themselves. They would jump under the water, let it pelt them, and then scream chants. The idea is that the weight of the water, along with the cleansing properties (i.e., washing oneself clean), will wash evil spirits out of the body. Now, if

Religious Epistemology Series Part 1 Ignosticism: Theological Noncognitivism Introduction Belief in God, or some form of transcendent Real, has been assumed in virtually every culture throughout human history. The issue of the reasonableness or rationality of belief in God or particular beliefs about God typically arises when a religion is confronted with religious competitors or the rise of atheism, agnosticism, and theological noncognitivism, i.e. ignosticism. Ignosticism Ignosticism is the theological position that every other theological position assumes too much about the concept of God. Ignosticism holds two interrelated views about God. They are as follows: 1)      The view that a coherent definition of God must be presented before the question of the existence of god can be meaningfully discussed. 2)       If the definition provide is unfalsifiable, the ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the question of the existence of God is meaningless. In ot

I tip my hat to Ahab over at the Republic of Gilead for reporting on New Apostolic Reformation preacher Lou Engle, who envisions the Biblical Nazirite vow as a transformative spiritual discipline. What I want to report on is the insanity of this guys language. Not so much his beliefs, which are radical enough, but which are hard to discern from the language being used. Her is an excerpt from the sermon, at around the 6:36 mark, Engle states, "Let your children burn and go for the flame." Now, if you're not a Christian, or religious, or from America, then I am afraid this sentence makes little to no sense at all. In fact, it carries with it subtle and frightening undertones of sacrifice. Although most people will understand he is merely speaking metaphorically, the very phrase "let your children burn" is just, even by religious language, a poor choice of words. Much of the sermon is like this. For example, Engle thinks "Daniel is a prototype for L

"Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!" (Conan the Barbarian) Once again, a Christian posted something of a religious nature on their Facebook. This time about the power of prayer. I sent a link to a great article by Tim Kent talking about why religious people continue to believe prayer works even after it's been completely blown up and invalidated.  This was enough to get me in trouble. 

Nowadays I see Christians deconverting en masse. About a year ago I posted this trend from a Gallop poll, to which a Christian promptly replied that atheists shouldn't put all their trust in Gallop polls. True enough, but following the trends are a good way to predict the likely outcome of any given cultural change. Yet I look around today, and it seems more and more are walking away from the faith and never looking back.

I know it's a repeat, but it's an important point. Hitler and the Nazi party were technically (and formally under Nazi regulations and laws) a Christian entity. They weren't pretending to be Christian--they were for all intents and purposes--one of many crooked branches of Christianity. In fact all of Germany was a Christian nation, before and after Hitler. As controversial as it is though we must keep in mind that the ties between Christianity and Nazism are quite strong, and impossible to ignore. 1) Hitler was raised a devout Catholic, attended Catholic school in a Benedictine cloister in Lembach , and even sang in the church choir; 2) The Nazi party prescribed to Positive Christianity (as Point 24 in the Nazi Party Program indicates) and held to an age old Christian tradition of Anti-Judaism; 3) The Nazi plan for Jews is nearly identical to Martin Luther’s seven-point plan to rid the  world of Jews in his (extremely sinister) essay On the Jews and Thei

Imagine you are in your vehicle traversing a very tall bridge. You are driving at night and the road is dark, and suddenly a freak accident! A stray bird from the raling doesn't get into the air in time, and before you know it, it's thud! Startled, you slam on the brakes, but just then your tire blows out, causing you to veer violently into the guard railing on the bridge. Due to the speed you were traveling, the antiloc brakes, now glowing orange embers, aren't enough to stop you from crashing through the gaurd. Luckily, however, it was enough to stop your vehicle from shooting over. Instead, you are stuck, teeting on the precopice, staring down an impossible drop.

Sharks have to be like the strongest argument against God ever.  That's right, you heard me, sharks. Just ask yourself, what kind of *all loving God creates a blood thirsty, razor blade like saw toothed monster fish, a veritable killing machine none-the-less, and puts it right dab smack in the middle of where we all like to swim, boat, and have a leisurely time at the beach with the family.  Hell no! Sharks are proof that God doesn't exist. At the very least it proves God hates you . Sharks he's fine with. Don't blame the messenger for pointing it out. Blame the damn sharks.