Thank God? Why?

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.

Best Argument Against the Existence of God = SHARKS!

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.

Belief not Indicative of Truth

"The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive."  — Sam Harris (On George W. Bush, Letter to a Christian Nation)

One thing that aggravates me, and which I hear a lot from religious people, is that I shouldn't criticize other people's beliefs. 


What they are really stating is I shouldn't criticize their beliefs. Or more specifically, I should just let them have their beliefs just because, and calling their beliefs delusional or stupid (i.e., challenging their beliefs) won't change the fact that they believe in whatever it is they believe.


Consider a recent comment I received from my dear Christian mother who posted it on my Facebook under public (as such it went out to all my family and friends and anyone who can read my Facebook, not that I mind, but notice the distinct message here):

"Quit being such poop head... Let people have their beliefs. They let you have yours. And yours are no stupider than theirs." 

Needless to say, because you believe something doesn't make that belief true. Nor does it make the thing you profess a belief in necessarily true. In fact, philosophy, psychology, and science have shown us that our beliefs are more often than not mistaken. 

Cosmology News: Black hole & Diamond Planet

There has been some interesting cosmology news recently.


A Japanese team of the Kiboo experimental module on the ISS and SWIFT captured the first photographs of a massive black hole swallowing a star in the Draco constellation. You can read the full article over at SpaceRef. 


Meanwhile, there is news of a diamond planet bigger than Earth orbiting a pulsar within our own galaxy (via The Daily Galaxy). 


In the words of Mr. Spock, "Fascinating."

How to Make a Christian Cry

A Christian friend of mine once asked me, and I'm paraphrasing, "As an atheist, what is the most knock down drag out argument against God you can think of?"

I initially answered, "Theological noncognitivism."

Billboard Wars = Hilarity

This one is just too funny, so I had to blog about it. It appears that McElroy Road Church of Christ, in Ohio, was fed up with all the atheist billboard campaigns being put up, and they decided to combat the "godless" messages with one of their own. Wait... what?

No kidding, this is what the sign actually says.

Now if your religious, you might not find the bald faced irony which is on display here, but apparently a lot of people did, because the Mid Ohio Atheist group had to make a statement that they were not responsible for the advertisement in any way. According to their official comment: 

While we certainly do agree with the sentiment expressed on the billboard- that there is no god, and that people should not believe everything they hear, we want to clarify that this is not our billboard.  It was not paid for by us in part or in the whole.  Nether were we involved in the design of the billboard.

Being the good sports they are, the Mid Ohio Atheists didn't forget to thank the McElroy Road Church of Christ for expressing their sentiments exactly.

Still, I find it hilarious that a Church would spend so much time and money, go through so much planning, to basically shoot themselves in the foot. I guess it just goes to show that many religious groups still don't actually know what it is atheists are arguing for.

Which I find both sad and funny. Sad for them, but funny for us atheists. 

But none-the-less, most atheists agree, if you want to be a good critical thinker, it is wise advice, "Don't believe everything you hear." 


It's the same as saying, question everything, and that's the heart of skepticism. 

At the same time, atheists fully agree that "There is no God." 

Which, when you think about it, it basically the same as stating God does not exist.

Great Christian advertising. I hope it stays up!

Is Atheism a Belief System?

I usually say that Atheism is not a belief system. That is, there is no positive claim within atheism which could lend to any particular system of belief. However, atheists need to be careful, especially those who say atheism is not a *belief (singular). In the past I too made the mistake of claiming atheism is not a "belief" in an of itself, but I have come to see that this reasoning is wrong. Atheism is, in fact, the belief that there are no gods.


Before you jump down my throat and try to explain Strong (Positive) atheism and Weak (Negative) atheism to me, let me inform you that I am not arguing about the definition of atheism, but rather, testing whether or not it fits the definition of what a Formal belief is. 


If we find that atheism does fit the definition of a Formal belief, then we must be willing to admit that it has the properties of a belief. As such, it is important to make the distinction based on what analytic philosophers have defined as a Formal belief.

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Most contemporary philosophers characterize belief as a “propositional attitude”. Propositions are generally taken to be whatever it is that sentences express (see the entry on propositions). For example, if two sentences mean the same thing (e.g., “snow is white” in English, “Schneeist weiss” in German), they express the same proposition, and if two sentences differ in meaning, they express different propositions. (Here we are setting aside some complications about that might arise in connection with indexicals; see the entry on indexicals.)

A propositional attitude, then, is the mental state of having some attitude, stance, take, or opinion about a proposition or about the potential state of affairs in which that proposition is true—a mental state of the sort canonically expressible in the form “S A that P”, where S picks out the individual possessing the mental state, A picks out the attitude, and P is a sentence expressing a proposition.

As such, Atheism appears to be a belief in the non-existence of God, the rejection of theism, and the proposition that God does not exist.