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Religion / Atheism. Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain: Scientific American. 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. The study, published March 30 in PLoS One, showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious groups as well as those with no religious affiliation. It is a surprising result, given that many prior studies have shown religion to have potentially beneficial effects on brain function, anxiety, and depression. A number of studies have evaluated the acute effects of religious practices, such as meditation and prayer, on the human brain.

A smaller number of studies have evaluated the longer term effects of religion on the brain. Such studies, like the present one, have focused on differences in brain volume or brain function in those people heavily engaged in meditation or spiritual practices compared to those who are not. Good With God? - Global One TV. God is Imaginary - 50 simple proofs. Get one thing straight. . . - Lone Atheist, Lone Star State.

A Quick Study in Comparative Religion. Delightful Quotes. Abacaxigod.jpg (1024×683) Www.thealmightyguru.com/Atheism/Images/BibleContradictions-ReasonProject.png. 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. Find the flaw in the following argument: Azeusism, or not believing in Zeus, has been the cause of almost every single major atrocity of the past several thousand years. Mass murder. Witch trials -- Azeusists. Crusades -- Azeusists. Holocaust -- Azeusists. Hitler -- Azeusist. Stalin -- Azeusist. Mao -- Azeusist. Pol Pot -- Azeusist. Mastro Titta (executed 516 people ... for the Catholic Pope. Jim Jones -- Azeusist. Also, in modern times, almost every serial killer has been an Azeusist.

Jeffrey Dahmer -- Azeusist. Why aren't more editorials written into the newspapers with this kind of reasoning? Evil Bible Home Page. Atheism. "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. Some atheists define it as a lack of belief in a God or deity, while others discover that the proper "label" for them would actually be agnostic, rather than atheist.

In the words of Penn Jillette, a US-American comedian, illusionist and writer: "Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. Here is an article by Ricky Gervais, an English writer, comedian and actor on how he went from "God-bless" to God-less in one afternoon.

Further reading. Invisible Pink Unicorn. 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] History[edit] The Invisible Pink Unicorn logo used to depict atheism The concept was further developed by a group of college students from 1994 to 1995 on the ISCA Telnet-based BBS.

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. Concepts[edit] Russell's teapot. 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. Origins of the analogy[edit] In an article titled "Is There a God? " commissioned, but never published, by Illustrated magazine in 1952, Russell wrote: In 1958, Russell elaborated on the analogy as a reason for his own atheism: I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist.

The burden of proof argument[edit] Flying Spaghetti Monster. 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 describe Pastafarianism as a genuine religion,[3] it is generally seen 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".

History Internet phenomenon Positions Creation Afterlife Pirates and global warming. Atheist-cartoon-1-550x708.jpg (JPEG Image, 550x708 pixels) - Scaled (90%) The Myth of Militant Atheism. 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. " We hear the disparaging term "militant atheist" used frequently, the unquestioned assumption being that militant atheists are of course roaming the streets of America.

But this reflects a double standard, because it seems to apply only to atheists. Atheism. Jean Meslier. Jean Meslier Jean Meslier (French: [melje]; also Mellier; 15 June 1664[1] – 17 June 1729), was a French Catholic priest (abbé) 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. Life[edit] Thought[edit] In his most famous quote, Meslier refers to a man who "...wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests. Equally well-known is the version by Diderot: "And [with] the guts of the last priest let's strangle the neck of the last king Voltaire's Extrait[edit] Various edited abstracts (known as "extraits") of the Testament were printed and circulated, condensing the multi-volume original manuscript and sometimes adding material that was not written by Meslier.

Meslier's significance[edit] For the first time (but how long will it take us to acknowledge this?) Get one thing straight. . . - Lone Atheist, Lone Star State.