Friday, May 31, 2013

Ludwig Feuerbach

My only wish isto transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, devotees of prayer into devotees of work, candidates for the hereafter into students of the world, Christians who, by their own procession and admission, are “half animal, half angel” into persons, into whole persons.



Ludwig Feuerbach

Robert G Ingersoll

We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves.



Robert G Ingersoll

Is that Evidence that God exists ?


Is that Evidence that God exists ?

Daily Atheist Quotes


Daily Atheist Quotes

Sexy Atheist Quotes

 












































#1: Angelina Jolie

Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), actress and director. Won an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globes. Known for roles in Girl, InterruptedLara Croft: Tomb Raider and Changeling, to name just a few.


In September 2000, The Onion A.V. Clubasked celebrities “Is There A God?”


Angelina Jolie: “Hmm… For some people. I hope so, for them. For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn’t need to be a God for me.”



#2: Mira Sorvino 

Actress. Won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress her role in Mighty Aphrodite. She is also known for her performances in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Attack on Leningrad and Multiple Sarcasms.


In a 2007 interview with GQ magazine, Mira stated, “When you are a Christian, your law is laid out for you in codified form. You can have some kind of debate about this or that, but basically you’re supposed to accept God’s will. There is no argument about whether there is a definitive right and wrong. And once you know this law, nobody else can be right unless they agree with you. And so you wind up with, ‘You are wrong. You are mistaken. You are sinning. You are in error.’ I find that extremely restrictive and impossible.”



#3: Julianne Moore

Actress and author. She has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is known for roles in Short Cuts, The Big Lebowski and Far from Heaven.


On Inside The Actors Studio:


Host: “What would you like to hear God say to you at the pearly gates?”


Moore: “Well…. I guess you were wrong, I do exist.”



#4: Janeane Garofalo

Satirist, comedian, writer, actor, political activist. She has had TV roles on News Radio, The West Wing and The Larry Sanders Show, among many others. Her films have included The Truth About Cats & Dogs, MatchMaker and The Laramie Project.


Janeane frequently discusses her atheism, including in the past on her former radio talk show and on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and has said: “The Bible, I’ve said it before, is a beautifully written work of fiction.”



#5: Adrianne Curry

Model and actress. She was the first winner of the reality television series America’s Next Top Model.


Tweeted: “I am more agnostic. I do not believe in organized religion, nor do I think the human mind capable of the complexity of reality.”



#6: Annika Sorenstam

Professional golfer (until 2008). While playing as a professional, she won 90 international tournaments, including 10 majors.


Was quoted in an article conducted in her native Swedish as saying: “I believe in the good message that’s found in religion. But I doubt there’s someone up there above the clouds running the show.”



#7: Kari Byron 

Co-host of the TV program MythBustersand host of Head Rush.


Said in an interview with Suicide Girls: “I am an atheist, but I don’t begrudge anyone for whatever belief systems they hold.”



#8: Nigella Lawson

Journalist, food writer and broadcaster. She has written the books How to Eatand How to be a Domestic Goddess and has had successful cooking shows on the UK’s BBC Two and Channel 4, as well as Food Network’s Nigella Feasts.


Told The Times (UK) (and quoted onWikipedia): “I was brought up an atheist and have always remained so. But at no time was I led to believe that morality was unimportant or that good and bad did not exist. I believe passionately in the need to distinguish between right and wrong and am somewhat confounded by being told I need God, Jesus or a clergyman to help me to do so.”



#9: Asia Argento 

Italian actress, director, singer, writer and model. She won awards for her roles in Perdiamoci di vista! and Compagna di viaggio, as well as an award for directing. She has written novels and magazine articles, and appeared in online outlets and music videos.


In an audience Q+A session, Argento answered a question about her religious beliefs by saying: “God is a concept by which we can measure our pain. I just believe in me. Yoko and me. And that`s reality. The dream is over. What can I say?”



#10: Eva Green 

Actress and model. Her films include The Dreamers, Kingdom of Heaven and Casino Royale.


She told Total Film magazine: “I have no religion. I wasn’t raised that way, and I have no




Sexy Atheist Quotes

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Arthur C Clarke

“One of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s entire history may be that morality was hijacked by religion.”



Arthur C Clarke

What do you teach your children


What do you teach your children

Inception Meme


Inception Meme

Kurt Vonnegut

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile



Kurt Vonnegut

On free will

 


Regardless if you hold a hard or a soft (i.e. compatibalist) determinist stance on free will, or regardless if we presuppose that the universe is/isn’t deterministic at all, something exists that we, for simplicity’s sake, can call “X”.


“X” is an action performed by an agent in accordance with the agents thoughts, beliefs and intentions. For example: Jen desires a glass of water, so she gets herself a glass, fills it with water and drinks it. She acted according to her desires, thoughts, beliefs and intentions, and she did so regardless if you believe her thoughts were themselves causally determined or not (and, by extension, that her action was as well).


My point with this is that I feel* as though the debate between soft and hard determinism lies in whether or not “X” is the same thing as free will (or “liberty”). And I honestly don’t know what stance to hold. On the one hand, the compatibalist account of free will doesn’t seem to be what normal people think of when they imagine free will. But on the other hand it seems like the Humean account of liberty is the only coherent one (compared to a libertarian account) – or rather that in a deterministic universe, this is the only type of free will that it makes sense to talk about (and that it indeed makes sense to talk about it).


Perhaps it’s as the late Christopher Hitchens said, “…yes, I think we have free will. When asked why I think so, I’d have to take refuge in philosophical irony and say, because I don’t think we have any choice but to have free will.


*yes, this is what I feel the debate is about. I haven’t studied the literature on hard vs. soft determinism especially extensively, so perhaps (probably) it’s far more difficult (and ontologically different) than that.



On free will

Frank Sinatra

There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion and I’ll show you a hundred retrogressions  Remember, they were men of God who destroyed the educational treasures at Alexandria, who perpetrated the Inquisition in Spain, who burned the witches at Salem. Over 25,000 organized religions flourish on this planet, but the followers of each think all the others are miserably misguided and probably evil as well.



Frank Sinatra

Eric Idle - Separation of Church and Planet

I believe in separation of church and planet



Eric Idle - Separation of Church and Planet

Nigella Lawson


Nigella Lawson

What Does Religion Mean to Me ?

What Does Religion Mean to Me ?


Never Reaching Your Full Potential As A Human Being.



What Does Religion Mean to Me ?

Thursday, May 16, 2013

9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting And the Answers



Some questions make atheists feel second-class — and make you look like a jerk for asking them.





May 14, 2013  |












Asked of Hispanic-Americans: “Are you in this country legally?” Asked of gays and lesbians and bisexuals: “How do you have sex?” Asked of transgender people: “Have you had the surgery?” Asked of African Americans: “Can I touch your hair?”


Every marginalized group has some question, or questions, that are routinely asked of them — and that drive them up a tree; questions that have insult or bigotry or dehumanization woven into the very asking. Sometimes the questions are asked sincerely, with sincere ignorance of the offensive assumptions behind them. And sometimes they are asked in a hostile, passive-aggressive, “I’m just asking questions” manner. But it’s still not okay to ask them. They’re not questions that open up genuine inquiry and discourse, they’re questions that close minds, much more than they open them. Even if that’s not the intention. And most people who care about bigotry and marginalization and social justice — or who just care about good manners — don’t ask them.


Here are nine questions you shouldn’t ask atheists. I’m going to answer them, just this once, and then I’ll explain why you shouldn’t be asking them, and why so many atheists will get ticked off if you do.


1: “How can you be moral without believing in God?”


The answer: Atheists are moral for the same reasons believers are moral: because we have compassion, and a sense of justice. Humans are social animals, and like other social animals, we evolved with some core moral values wired into our brains: caring about fairness, caring about loyalty, caring when others are harmed.


If you’re a religious believer, and you don’t believe these are the same reasons that believers are moral, ask yourself this: If I could persuade you today, with 100% certainty, that there were no gods and no afterlife… would you suddenly start stealing and murdering and setting fire to buildings? And if not — why not? If you wouldn’t… whatever it is that would keep you from doing those things, that’s the same thing keeping atheists from doing them. (And if you would — remind me not to move in next door to you.)


And ask yourself this as well: If you accept some parts of your holy book and reject others — on what basis are you doing that? Whatever part of you says thatstoning adulterers is wrong but helping poor people is good; that planting different crops in the same field is a non-issue but bearing false witness actually is pretty messed-up; that slavery is terrible but it’s a great idea to love your neighbor as yourself… that’s the same thing telling atheists what’s right and wrong. People are good — even if we don’t articulate it this way — because we have an innate grasp of the fundamental underpinnings of morality: the understanding that other people matter to themselves as much as we matter to ourselves, and that there is no objective reason to act as if any of us matters more than any other. And that’s true of atheists and believers alike.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This is an unbelievably insulting question. Being moral, caring about others and having compassion for them, is a fundamental part of being human. To question whether atheists can be moral, to express bafflement at how we could possibly manage to care about others without believing in a supernatural creator, is to question whether we’re even fully human.


And you know what? This question is also hugely insulting to religious believers. It’s basically saying that the only reason believers are moral is fear of punishment and desire for reward. It’s saying that believers don’t act out of compassion, or a sense of justice. It’s saying that believers’ morality is childish at best, self-serving at worst. I wouldn’t say that about religious believers… and you shouldn’t, either.


 


2: “How do you have any meaning in your life?” Sometimes asked as, “Don’t you feel sad or hopeless?” Or even, “If you don’t believe in God or heaven, why don’t you just kill yourself?”


The answer: Atheists find meaning and joy in the same things everyone does. We find it in the big things: family, friendship, work, nature, art, learning, love. We find it in the small things: cookies, World of Warcraft, playing with kittens. The only difference is that (a) believers add “making my god or gods happy and getting a good deal in the afterlife” to those lists (often putting them at the top), and (b) believers think meaning is given to them by their god or gods, while atheists create our own meaning, and are willing and indeed happy to accept that responsibility.


In fact, for many atheists, the fact that life is finite invests it with more meaning — not less. When we drop “pleasing a god we have no good reason to think exists” from our “meaning” list, we have that much more attention to give the rest of it. When we accept that life will really end, we become that much more motivated to make every moment of it matter.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: What was it that we were just saying about “dehumanization”? Experiencing meaning and value in life is deeply ingrained in being human. When you treat atheists as if we were dead inside simply because we don’t believe in a supernatural creator or our own immortality… you’re treating us as if we weren’t fully human. Please don’t.


3: “Doesn’t it take just as much/even more faith to be an atheist as it does to be a believer?”


The answer: No.


The somewhat longer answer: This question assumes that “atheism” means “100% certainty that God does not exist, with no willingness to question and no room for doubt.” For the overwhelming majority of people who call ourselves atheists, this is not what “atheism” means. For most atheists, “atheism” means something along the lines of “being reasonably certain that there are no gods,” or, “having reached the provisional conclusion, based on the evidence we’ve seen and the arguments we’ve considered, that there are no gods.” No, we can’t be 100% certain that there are no gods. We can’t be 100% certain that there are no unicorns, either. But we’re certain enough. Not believing in unicorns doesn’t take “faith.” And neither does not believing in God.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: The assumption behind this question is that atheists haven’t actually bothered to think about our atheism. And this assumption is both ignorant and insulting. Most atheists have considered the question of God’s existence or non-existence very carefully. Most of us were brought up religious, and letting go of that religion took a great deal of searching of our hearts and our minds. Even those of us brought up as non-believers were (mostly) brought up in a society that’s steeped in religion. It takes a fair amount of questioning and thought to reject an idea that almost everyone else around you believes.


And when you ask this question, you’re also revealing the narrowness of your own mind. You’re showing that you can’t conceive of the possibility that someone might come to a conclusion about religion based on evidence, reason, and which ideas seem most likely to be true, instead of on “faith.”


4: “Isn’t atheism just a religion?”


The answer: No.


The somewhat longer answer: Unless you’re defining “religion” as “any conclusion people come to about the world,” or as “any community organized around a shared idea,” then no. If your definition of “religion” includes atheism, it also has to include: Amnesty International, the Audubon Society, heliocentrism, the acceptance of the theory of evolution, the Justin Bieber Fan Club, and the Democratic Party. By any useful definition of the word “religion,” atheism is not a religion.


 


Why you shouldn’t ask it: Pretty much the same reason as the one for #3. Calling atheism a religion assumes that it’s an axiom accepted on faith, not a conclusion based on thinking and evidence. And it shows that you’re not willing or able to consider the possibility that someone not only has a different opinion about religion than you do, but has come to that opinion in a different way.


5: “What’s the point of atheist groups? How can you have a community and a movement for something you don’t believe in?”


The answer: Atheists have groups and communities and movements for the same reasons anyone does. Remember what I said about atheists being human? Humans are social animals. We like to spend time with other people who share our interests and values. We like to work with other people on goals we have in common. What’s more, when atheists come out about our atheism, many of us lose our friends and families and communities, or have strained and painful relationships with them. Atheists create communities so we can be honest about who we are and what we think, and still not be alone.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This is a total “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” conundrum. Atheists get told all the time that people need religion for the community it provides: that persuading people out of religion is cruel or futile or both, since so much social support happens in religious institutions. Then, when atheists do create communities to replace the ones people so often lose when they leave religion, we get told how ridiculous this is. (Or else we’re told, “See? Atheism is just another religion!” See #4 above.)


6: “Why do you hate God?” Or, “Aren’t you just angry at God?”


The answer: Atheists aren’t angry at God. We don’t think God exists. We aren’t angry at God, any more than we’re angry at Santa Claus.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This question doesn’t just deny our humanity. It denies our very existence. It assumes that atheists don’t really exist: that our non-belief isn’t sincere, that it’s some sort of emotional trauma or immature teenage rebellion, that it’s not even really non-belief.


And honestly? This question reveals how narrow your own mind is. It shows that you can’t even consider the possibility that you might be mistaken: that you can’t even conceive of somebody seeing the world differently from the way you do. This question doesn’t just make atheists mad. It makes you look like a dolt.


7: “But have you [read the Bible or some other holy book; heard about some supposed miracle; heard my story about my personal religious experience]?”


The answer: Probably. Or else we’ve read/heard about something pretty darned similar. Atheists are actually better-informed about religion than most religious believers. In fact, we’re better-informed about the tenets of most specific religionsthan the believers in those religions. For many atheists, sitting down and reading the Bible (or the holy text of whatever religion they were brought up in) is exactly what set them on the path to atheism — or what put the final nail in the coffin.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: As my friend and colleague Heina put it: “‘Have you heard of Jesus?’ No, actually, I was born under a fucking rock.”


Are you really not aware of how dominating a force religion is in society? In most of the world, and certainly in the United States, religion is impossible to ignore. It permeates the social life, the economic life, the cultural life, the political life. We’re soaking in it. The idea that atheists might somehow have come to adulthood without being aware of the Bible, of stories about supposed miracles, of stories about personal religious experiences… it’s laughable. Or it would be laughable if it weren’t so annoying. Religious privilege is all over this question like a cheap suit.


8: “What if you’re wrong?” Sometimes asked as, “Doesn’t it make logical sense to believe in God? If you believe and you’re wrong, nothing terrible happens, but if you don’t believe and you’re wrong, you could go to Hell!”


The answer: What if you’re wrong about Allah? Or Vishnu? Or Zeus? What if you’re wrong about whether God is the wrathful jerk who hates gay people, or the loving god who hates homophobes? What if you’re wrong about whether God wants you to celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday? What if you’re wrong about whether God really does care about whether you eat bacon? As Homer Simpson put it, “What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder!”


Why you shouldn’t ask it: There are so very many things wrong with this question. It even has a name — Pascal’s Wager — and I’ve actually written anentire piece on the many things that are wrong with it. But I’ll stick with two for today, the ones that aren’t just logically absurd but that insult the intelligence and integrity of both atheists and believers:


a) Are you really that ignorant of the existence of religions other than your own? Has it really never occurred to you that when you “bet” on the existence of your god, there are thousands upon thousands of other gods whose existence you’re “betting” against? Are you really that steeped, not only in the generic privilege of all religion, but in the particular privilege of your own?


b) Do you really think atheists have so little integrity? Do you really think we’re going to fake belief in God… not just to our families or communities in order to not be ostracized, but in our own hearts and minds? Do you really think we’re going to deliberately con ourselves into believing — or pretending to believe — something that we don’t actually think is true? Not just something trivial, but something this important? Do you really think we would pick what to think is true and not true about the world, based solely on which idea would be most convenient? How does that even constitute “belief”? (And anyway, do you really think that God would be taken in by this con game? Do you really think that what God wants from his followers is an insincere, self-serving, “wink wink, I’m covering my bases” version of “belief”?)


9: “Why are you atheists so angry?”


The answer: I’ve actually written an entire book answering this question ( Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless). The short answer: Not all atheists are angry about religion — and those of us who are angry aren’t in a constant state of rage. But yes, many atheists are angry about religion — and we’re angry because we see terrible harm being done by religion. We’re angry about harm being done to atheists… and we’re angry about harm done to other believers. We don’t just think religion is mistaken — we think it does significantly more harm than good. And it pisses us off.


Why you shouldn’t ask it: This question assumes that atheists are angry because there’s something wrong with us. It assumes that atheists are angry because we’re bitter, selfish, whiny, unhappy, because we lack joy and meaning in our lives, because we have a God-shaped hole in our hearts. The people asking it seem to have never even considered the possibility that atheists are angry because we have legitimate things to be angry about.


This reflexive dismissal of our anger’s legitimacy does two things. It treats atheists as flawed, broken, incomplete. And it defangs the power of our anger. (Or it tries to, anyway.) Anger is a hugely powerful motivating force — it has been a major motivating force for every social change movement in history — and when people try to dismiss or trivialize atheists’ anger, they are, essentially, trying to take that power away.


And finally: The people asking this question never seem to notice just how much atheist anger is directed, not at harm done to atheists, but at harm done to believers. A huge amount of our anger about religion is aimed at the oppression and brutality and misery created by religion, not in the lives of atheists, but in the lives of believers. Our anger about religion comes from compassion, from a sense of justice, from a vivid awareness of terrible damage being done in the world and a driving motivation to do something about it. Atheists aren’t angry because there’s something wrong with us. Atheists are angry because there’s something right with us. And it is messed-up beyond recognition to treat one of our greatest strengths, one of our most powerful motivating forces and one of the clearest signs of our decency, as a sign that we’re flawed or broken.


*****


The list of questions you shouldn’t ask atheists doesn’t end here. It goes on, at length. “How can you believe in nothing?” “Doesn’t atheism take the mystery out of life?” “Even though you don’t believe, shouldn’t you bring up your children with religion?” “Can you prove there isn’t a god?” “Did something terrible happen to you to turn you away from religion?” “Are you just doing this to rebel?” “Are you just doing this so you don’t have to obey God’s rules?” “If you’re atheist, why do you celebrate Christmas/ say ‘Bless you’ when people sneeze/ spend money with ‘In God We Trust’ on it/ etc.?” “Have you sincerely tried to believe?” “Can’t you see God everywhere around you?” “Do you worship Satan?” “Isn’t atheism awfully arrogant?” “Can you really not conceive of anything bigger than yourself?” “Why do you care what other people believe?”


But for now, I’ll leave these questions as an exercise for the reader. If you understand why all the questions I answered today are offensive and dehumanizing, I hope you’ll understand why these are as well.


If you want to understand more about atheists and atheism — that is awesome. Many of us are more than happy to talk about our atheism with you: that’s how we change people’s minds about us, and overcome the widespread myths and misinformation about us. But maybe you could do a little Googling before you start asking us questions that we’ve not only fielded a hundred times before, but that have bigotry and dehumanization and religious privilege embedded in the very asking. And if you do want to know more about atheism, please stop and think about the questions you’re asking — and the assumptions behind them — before you do. Thanks.




9 Questions That Atheists Might Find Insulting And the Answers

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Words that christians Misuse


Words that christians Misuse

Marcus Cicero


Marcus Cicero

Both are full of BS


Both are full of BS

Albert Einstein


Albert Einstein

God is not an explanation


God is not an explanation

HL Mencken


HL Mencken

God is not an explanation


God is not an explanation

Marlon Brando


Marlon Brando

Dave Matthews


Dave Matthews

Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson

John Adams


John Adams

Winston Churchill


Winston Churchill

Bill Maher


Bill Maher

Demosthenes


Demosthenes

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Gregory House


Gregory House

Gregory House


Gregory House

Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine

Bertrand Russel


Bertrand Russel

Think outside the Book


Think outside the Book

Ludwig Feuer


Ludwig Feuer

Religions get Lost like People Do


Religions get Lost like People Do

John Adams


John Adams

Martin Luther


Martin Luther

Joseph Heller


Joseph Heller

Peter Walker


Peter Walker

Stephen Hawking


Stephen Hawking

Lanning K.V


Lanning K.V

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Carl Sagan


Carl Sagan

Christopher Hitchens


Christopher Hitchens

Madalyn Murray O’Hair - I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years

“I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years. You outlawed them from the universities, or any teaching careers, besmirched their reputations, banned or burned their books or their writings of any kind. Drove them into exile, humiliated them, seized their properties, arrested them for blasphemy. You dehumanized them with beatings and exquisite torture, gouged out their eyes, slit their tongues, stretched, crushed or broke their limbs, tore off their breasts if they were women, crushed their scrotums if they were men, imprisoned them, stabbed them, disemboweled them, hung them, burnt them alive. And you have nerve enough to complain to me that I laugh at you.”


—Madalyn Murray O’Hair



Madalyn Murray O’Hair - I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for 1500 years

H.L. Mencken

“It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities.”–H.L. Mencken



H.L. Mencken

Mark Twain


Mark Twain

Not one follower questions the silliness of it

“The only miracle I can find in religion is that not one follower questions the silliness of it”–Baron Von Knifty



Not one follower questions the silliness of it

Bill Nye


Bill Nye

Athiesm

“Atheists teach people in the developing world to dig wells instead of praying for rain. They provide reliable contraception to the mother at her wits’ end trying to raise 8 children rather than telling her to thank god for the ninth.


Only the inadequate still believe in god. They lack the ability to make the leap from faith to evidence based intellectual thought and evidence based conclusions. Faith actively prevents you from seeking real answers. None of gods exist outside the realm of the human imagination. To believe in something that is not true is a lack of self respect.


Atheists find the coincidences that led to our existence amazing, and the way the natural world around us has evolved utterly incredible. There is awe and wonder in the material world which when described lucidly exceeds that previously described by religion- and it is obviously a place in your heads you go to draw strength, inspiration and find intrinsic meaning.”– Imtiaz Hussain Mahmood.



Athiesm

Chrales Bukowski


Chrales Bukowski

Edomnd de Goncourt


Edomnd de Goncourt

Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine