Advocatus Atheist

Watching the train pass below me as I crossed the bridge over the tracks today got me to thinking about the trolley problem. Basically, the trolley problem is a moral quandary in which the brain has a difficult time determining whether is it permissible to kill one person to save five, or let one live while knowingly allowing five deaths that could have been prevented. Scenario A, the first part of the problem, the trolley is barreling down the tacks toward five people who are unaware that they will soon be little more than smudges. Luckily, there is a fork in the tracks, and by simply pulling a lever, the trolley will divert onto a second set of tracks as it moves away from the five innocent bystanders. Low and behold, however, before you pull the lever you notice a single moron picking up pennies off the rails (he also happens to be deaf). Unaware that the train is coming his life would be terminated if you pull the lever. The choice is, do you pull the lever and save five pe...

All Your Smartz is Belong s to Me! Everybody has guilty pleasures. Mine happens to be watching B-movies. B rated movies are rated “B” because of their “badness.” As far as film making goes as an art, B-movies are the best of the worst. They have horrible scripts, bad acting, and usually generic special effects. Often times, however, they are so awful that they make you laugh out loud. Recently, I was pointed to an opinion piece posted on FoxNews.com which was so awful, so painfully ignorant, so utterly ridiculous as to constitute the best of the worst of news articles I have ever read. And I thought I would critique it here, if not to correct the misinformation, then as a way to show that given a little incentive, one can track down the truth and find the answers to the questions they have. Opinions are, as the saying goes, like assholes. Everyone has one. And like assholes uneducated opinions usually stink. Needless to say, the article “Does the Bible Matter In the 21 st Century” ...

--> I have a dear friend who is stuck in the quagmire of unreason and blinkered thinking we call America's Bible Belt, and due to forces outside of her control, has been forced to become one of the numerous closet skeptics afraid to voice her doubt for fear of negative peer pressure, of being ostracized by family and friends, and receiving undue scorn should she speak her peace of mind. Forced into silence by "Christian love." Ironic, don't you think? Regrettably, she would have to endure all sorts of ill will in her overly zealous community at the hands of insular minded and intolerant religious partisans if she should confess her "honest to God" thoughts and opinions or mention, in any way, her atheism. She still sings in the church choir, because she loves music and singing, but if she mentioned her real thoughts and feelings she's be kicked out and bullied. It's not fair -- but that's the power of group-think -- where everyone sees ...

I thought this would be good to share, so I'm re-posting it here.  Secular humanism From Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia Part of Philosophy series on Humanism (humanist philosophies) Happy Human Humanism (life stance) International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) American Humanist Association British Humanist Association National Secular Society Secular humanism Council for Secular Humanism A Secular Humanist Declaration Amsterdam Declaration Religious humanism Christian humanism Jewish humanism Buddhist humanism Related articles Ethical Culture Marxist humanism Deistic humanism Cosmic humanism Existential humanism Integral humanism Transhumanism Posthumanism Antihumanism Outline of humanism List of humanists History of humanism Renaissance humanism Humanism in Germany Humanism in France Humanist Manifesto Philosophy Portal ·  v   •   d   •   e Secular humanism is a...