Putting Social Brain Mechanisms To The Task Of Figuring Out Unknown Natural Phenomena

Last fall, Wired reported on a study published last fall (“Neuroanatomical Variability of Religiosity.” By Dimitrios Kapogiannis, Aron K. Barbey, Michael Su, Frank Krueger, Jordan Grafman. Public Library of Science ONE, Vol. 4 No. 9, September 28, 2009) which finds religious people have extra activity in the neurological brain regions indispensable for social intelligence: Brain scans [...]

The Thing That Made The Things For Which There Is No Known Maker

Strictly deriving belief in the Christian God logically from the problem of where everything comes from: It’s amazing how the problem of how something comes from nothing leads to so many obvious and unavoidable truths, isn’t it? Your Thoughts?

Sundaily Hilarity: Interview With God

Your Thoughts?

The Christian Logic Of Power, Pride, Humility, Free Will, Original Sin, And All-Consuming Divine Narcissism

Pride has traditionally been disparaged by Christianity as not only a vice but as the chief vice and gone so far as to recommend humility as one of the highest virtues for a human being. The theological reasons for this begin with the way that traditional Christianity understands human beings primarily relationally, as in an [...]

True And False In Adam And Eve

Yesterday I replied to Mary Midgley’s article out this weekend, which claimed that evolutionary theory does not refute Genesis since Genesis was not meant to be a literal description of how God made the world. In reply I revisted remarks and videos that I posted last fall which overviewed the ways that even if we [...]

How Genesis Is Not Only Literally False, But Metaphorically False

Mary Midgley argues that only the views of fundamentalist literalists are refuted by the fact of evolution: Appeals to evolution are only damaging to biblical literalism. Certainly the events described inGenesis 1 are not literally compatible with what science (from long before Darwin’s day) tells us about the antiquity of the Earth. But this is not [...]

“In My Mother’s House, There Is Still God!”

Johnson Brown explains: This scene is from the 2008 TV remake of the 1961 film, A Raisin in the Sun (an adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s play). “In my mother’s house, there is still god!” In this version, they left out the best line: “All the tyranny in the world will never put a god up [...]

Disambiguating Faith: How A Lack Of Belief In God May Differ From Various Kinds Of Beliefs That Gods Do Not Exist

Yesterday on Friendly Atheist there was a vigorous debate in the comments section about whether there is a real and important difference between claiming one lacks belief in God (or gods) and outright claiming that there is no God (or gods).  Here is a nice formulation of the argument that the distinction is an irrelevant [...]

God Would Understand

What if, against all odds, there really is this omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient, and all-loving God the Christians claim and I were to meet it on a Judgment Day?  The YouTuber “Theoretical Bullshit” expresses, and even advances a bit, own thoughts on the matter: Thanks to Mary and Shay for the find. Your Thoughts?

Teeth: Proof There Is No God

Or something like that.  Bewarethelizards42 makes the case that teeth are imperfectly designed: Your Thoughts?

Is Belief In Love Like Belief In God?

Roger Friedland finds an interesting correlation between the two kinds of belief and examines its possible causes and implications: We found that belief in God has no impact on young people’s sex lives. College virgins are no more likely to believe in God than non-virgins. Even those who took a virginity pledge are not sexually [...]

Daily Hilarity: God’s Moral Framework

DarkMatter2525 takes on the 10 Commandments hilariously, insightfully, and vulgarly (warning NSFW language): Your Thoughts?

If You Know The Bible, You Know It Is Riddled With Clear Contradictions

NonStampCollector provides a hilariously fun, rapid-paced, guide to biblical contradictions through a cartoon quiz show.  This video is, in short, a great resource which every Christian should take to heart and every atheist should memorize and have available for making the case against biblical credibility as in any way divinely guaranteed: Here’s a handy list [...]

Earthquakes Explained: Promiscuous Girls The Cause

We so often hear religion is not incompatible with science because “science can’t tell us everything”, with the implication being that religion can tell us what science cannot.  This must be one of those things we need religion to explain to us, not how earthquakes happen but why they happen and how we can prevent them! [...]

On Reading Biblical Texts “In Context”

NonStampCollector came back with a new, typically solid, video during my virtual hiatus from blogging: Your Thoughts?

Atheist’s Wager

Atheist’s Wager provides sums up what I think the real wager would be were there any likelihood that a hell-threatening monotheistic God existed: I propose as my answer to Pascal’s wager, two choices and two outcomes. The choices come down to theism (of any religion, not just Christianity) vs. atheism. The outcomes include going to [...]

Thorough Refutation of Pascal’s Wager in 6 Minutes

From Qualia Soup and Theramin Trees. Just turn off the volume because there is none of Qualia Soup’s normal soothing narration but instead some truly horrendous music. Your Thoughts?

Daily Hilarity: Mr. Deity and the Quitter

It might be just me, but this is one of my favorite episodes in a while: Your Thoughts?

Divine Serial Killer

Dwindling In Unbelief provides a full chart of all biblical claims of divinely sanctioned killings, replete with death totals and links to blog posts discussing the details of most of them.  A handy resource. Your Thoughts?

God Cites “Moving In Mysterious Ways” As Motive For Killing 3,000 Papua New Guineas

The Onion has full coverage of God’s remarks here and of Jesus Christ’s recent decision to hire an associate christ here. Your Thoughts?

Andy Thomson on Why We Believe in Gods

Your Thoughts?

Daily Hilarity: Accu-Wrath Forecast

A great, older Bill Maher bit I only just discovere: Your Thoughts?

Daily Hilarity: Mr. Deity’s Promised Land

The new Mr. Deity, brilliantly exposes the insanity and moral repugnancy of a certain allegedly “good” “divinely inspired” book of “moral guidance” from a “good God”: Your Thoughts?

The Logistics Of Noah’s Ark

A really terrific video from DarkMatter2525 which spells out the numerous impossibilities involved in the Genesis flood story: Daniel Florien has helpfully typed up the major points for easy reference here. Your Thoughts?

Daily Hilarity: Death’s Complaints

The really funny new Mr. Deity is below. And this time the now regular plea for donations at the end has some moments that are even funnier than the episode.  It’s all really hilariously done. Your Thoughts?