Freethought Blogs. Skeptic's Annotated Book of Mormon. Tuesday Afternoon — Tuesday Afternoon. LDS (Mormon) Stake Presidents Blog. The last son of Joseph Smith understood the power of doubt | The Political Surf. The following was written in the late 19th century by a young man familiar with the two Mormon churches: The Utah LDS Church and the Midwest Reorganized LDS Church founded by Joseph Smith III: “’Except you believe, ye shall be damned’ is the first proposition in the church.’ … In art, in science, in every department of life, intelligence is never required to give credence to or act upon any proposition unless it is capable of demonstration, actual demonstration, or it is based upon apparrent (sic) fact, apparent even though their causes and mode be hidden.
But in religion another basis is acted upon and we are expected to believe and stake our salvation upon this belief. … The seeker for salvation must first believe and the vital object, salvation or damnation, hangs thereon. This is absurd.” The author was David Hyrum Smith, the youngest son of the slain LDS prophet, Joseph Smith. Young Smith’s ideas could be dismissed as heresy or apostasy by rigid believers. Why I Am Not a Christian.
Richard Carrier Introduction The Top Four Reasons I Am Not a Christian Are... 1. God is Silent 2. God is Inert 3. The Evidence is Inadequate A Digression on Method Hero Savior of Vietnam 4. Christianity Predicts a Different Universe Origin and Evolution of Life The Human Brain Finely Tuning a Killer Cosmos The Original Christian Cosmos Conclusion Introduction A fellow freethinker by the name of John Ransom engaged me to compose a statement of why I am not a Christian. John and I also shared the same experiences in another respect: when their dogmatism meets our empiricism, slander is not far behind. There is nothing I can do for such people. This essay will never convince Christians who have locked themselves inside a box of blind faith like this.
I shall assume here that C.S. If this is what Christianity is (and most Christians appear to believe so), there are four major reasons why I do not believe a word of it. The Top Four Reasons I Am Not a Christian Are... 1. 2. Replace "Jesus" with "The Wizard"... fun game! Email By Guest Author: Thomas Birdeno Here’s a fun activity! Take any bible story and replace the word “Jesus” with “the Wizard”. It’s makes for a great fantasy story with magic that kids and adults will love. Here’s my version of the “We Are Legion” story. Do it yourself with any ol’ Jesus story and share with others! When the evening came, after teaching all day by the sea and in the house, the Wizard saw that the crowds of people were still pressing around him, and there was no time for him to rest.
So they took the Wizard into the boat, and began to row across the Sea of Helcar. The Wizard awoke, rose up, and looked out upon the sea. They came to the land on the eastern side of the lake, which was sometimes called “the country of the Gadarenes.” The spirit within the man cried with a loud voice, “What have I to do with thee, Wizard? The Wizard saw that this man was troubled more even than most men who had evil spirits in them. THE WIZARD AND LAZARUS by Thomas Birdeno. Jainism. Jainism /ˈdʒeɪnɪz(ə)m/, traditionally known as Jaina dharma, is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings and emphasizes spiritual independence and equality between all forms of life.
Practitioners believe that non-violence and self-control are the means by which they can obtain liberation. Currently, Jainism is divided into two major sects —Digambara and Śvētāmbara. The word Jainism is derived from a Sanskrit verb Jin which means to conquer. It refers to a battle with the passions and bodily pleasures that the jaina ascetics undertake. Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world.[2] Jains traditionally trace their history through a succession of twenty-four propagators of their faith known as tirthankara with Ādinātha as the first tirthankara and Mahāvīra as the last of the current era. Origins[edit] Pārśva, the traditional predecessor of Mahavira is the first Jain figure for whom there is reasonable historical evidence. Literature[edit] Z A C F I N G E R. Military Religious Freedom Foundation | The Constitutional Conscience of the United States Military.
Talkatheist.org - Chat with an atheist! Why I Am an Agnostic (Robert G. Ingersoll) The Works of Robert G. IngersollDresden Memorial Edition (IV, 5-67)HTML, Editing by Cliff Walker Why I Am an Agnostic.1896 For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Environment is a sculptor -- a painter. If we had been born in Constantinople, the most of us would have said: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. " As a rule, children love their parents, believe what they teach, and take great pride in saying that the religion of mother is good enough for them. Most people love peace. The Scotch are Calvinists because their fathers were. It is claimed by Christian historians that the religion of a nation was sometimes suddenly changed, and that millions of Pagans were made into Christians by the command of a king. Belief is not subject to the will. Like the most of you, I was raised among people who knew -- who were certain.
They not only knew the beginning, but they knew the end. All who doubted or denied would be lost. ASR 2006 April: Table of Contents. Come and get me, al-Awlaki!
Brillient89 comments on Anyone else absolutely HATE this? The God Who Wasn’t There. Former fundamentalist Christian Brian Flemming places the core concepts of his former religion under the microscope in a documentary that attempts to do for religion what Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me did for the fast-food industry. In his bold quest to seek answers to the difficult questions that few are willing to pose, Flemming is joined by Deconstructing Jesus author Robert M.
Price, renowned historian Richard Carrier, and The End of Faith author Sam Harris. From the ignorance of many contemporary Christians as to the origin of their religion to the striking similarities between Jesus Christ and the deities worshipped by ancient pagan cults and the Christian obsession with blood and violence, this faith-shaking documentary explores the many mysteries of the Christian faith as never before. This documentary argues the "mythicist" case in the historical Jesus debate. Watch the full documentary now. Agent00funk comments on As an atheist, do you think it's weird to meditate? Ebon Musings: A Ghost in the Machine. A Ghost in the MachineThe existence of the soul Part 1: Introduction / Where is the Soul Hiding? Central to many religions, both Eastern and Western, is the doctrine of dualism: that there is a non-material essence called the soul that inhabits and animates our bodies and is the cause and the source of consciousness, personality, free will, thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, memories, the sense of self - in short, everything a person thinks of as "I".
Theists typically believe that the soul survives the physical death of the body and goes on to whatever comes after death, be it an afterlife in Heaven or Hell or reincarnation in a new body. I am an atheist because I have found no evidence that leads me to believe that the supernatural claims of any religion are true, and the notion of the soul is no exception. Until recently, this prediction was difficult to test, but modern scientific innovations have thrown light on the subject.
Each lobe performs a variety of functions. Pure Amnesia.