atheist/ agnostic stuff
Religion / Atheism
Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain: Scientific American
Mind & Brain :: Mind Matters :: May 31, 2011 :: :: Email :: Print A study links life-changing religious experiences, like being “born again,” with atrophy in the hippocampus By Andrew Newberg Religion changes the brain. Image: Roger Branch The article , “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion.
Why I Criticize Religion - Sam Harris http://www.facebook.com/ScienceReason ... Why I Criticize Religion - Sam Harris @ Big Think (Part 1).
Good With God? - Global One TV
Christianity (2.1 billion people ): A cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father will torture you forever if you don’t make him your invisible friend and master so he can save your soul from an evil force unleashed on the world when a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Islam (1.5 billion): Allah sent an angel to an ancient desert shepherd to tell him that thousands of angels keep lists of every good and bad thing each human does, and that when Allah sees fit he will magically reanimate all the dead bodies everywhere and judge them, sending to hell all those who lied, didn’t worship him, or charged interest on loans. Nonbelief (1.1 billion): You shouldn’t believe weird shit unless there’s evidence for it, so magic powers, magic incantations, magic wishes, magical realms, and magical invisible persons probably don’t exist.
A Quick Study in Comparative Religion
Delightful Quotes
Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god. ~ Jean Rostand I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~ Stephen Roberts
Azeusism has caused every major atrocity in modern history!
It happens far too frequently -- the lame atheism has caused more atrocities/death than Christianity/Islam/whatever argument. This means that a compelling response has not been found. If you are talking to a Christian who makes that argument, consider making the following argument. If he can discover exactly what's wrong about this argument, he has discovered exactly what's wrong with his own argument.
"Divine Fury" by Sabina Nore. Traditionally speaking, most religions were especially hostile towards women. While some atheists consider themselves as spiritual people, most do so because they haven't yet found the appropriate "label" for themselves. Atheism is, simply put and by definition, the belief that there is no God nor divine presence.
Atheism ~ Discovering Spirituality
Invisible Pink Unicorn
A depiction of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in the style of a heraldic animal springing The Invisible Pink Unicorn ( IPU ) is the goddess of a parody religion used to satirize theistic beliefs, taking the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink . [ 1 ] She is a rhetorical illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics as a contemporary version of Russell's teapot , sometimes mentioned in conjunction with the Flying Spaghetti Monster . [ 2 ] The IPU is used to argue that supernatural beliefs are arbitrary by, for example, replacing the word God in any theistic statement with Invisible Pink Unicorn . [ 3 ] The mutually exclusive attributes of pinkness and invisibility, coupled with the inability to disprove the IPU's existence, satirize properties that some theists attribute to a theistic deity . [ 4 ] [ edit ] History The Invisible Pink Unicorn logo used to depict atheism
Russell's teapot , sometimes called the celestial teapot or cosmic teapot , is an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making scientifically unfalsifiable claims rather than shifting the burden of proof to others, specifically in the case of religion . Russell wrote that if he claims that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, it is nonsensical for him to expect others to believe him on the grounds that they cannot prove him wrong. Russell's teapot is still referred to in discussions concerning the existence of God . [ edit ] Russell's argument
Russell's teapot
The Flying Spaghetti Monster ( FSM ) is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism , a movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. [ 3 ] Although adherents state that Pastafarianism is a genuine religion, [ 3 ] it is generally recognized by the media as a parody religion . [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was first described in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes. [ 6 ] In that letter, Henderson satirized creationist ideas by professing his belief that whenever a scientist carbon dates an object, a supernatural creator that closely resembles spaghetti and meatballs is there "changing the results with His Noodly Appendage".
Flying Spaghetti Monster
Nine bullets fired from close range ended the life of Salman Taseer last month, making the Pakistani governor the latest high-profile victim of religious violence. Taseer had the audacity to publicly question Pakistan's blasphemy laws, and for this transgression he paid with his life. Taseer joins a list of numerous other high-profile victims of militant religion, such as Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas abortion doctor killed by a devout Christian assassin in 2009, and Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker whose provocative movie about Islam resulted in his being brutally murdered in 2004. With this background, it is especially puzzling that the American media and public still perpetuate the cliché of so-called "militant atheism."
The Myth of Militant Atheism
Jean Meslier Jean Meslier (15 June 1664 [ 1 ] – 17 June 1729) was a French Catholic priest who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism . Described by the author as his "testament" to his parishioners, the text denounces all religion . [ edit ] Life Jean Meslier was born in Mazerny in the Ardennes .