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Category Archives: Atheism

Atheism | Topics | Christianity Today

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And then I shared it with the man the government sent to kill me.

Virginia Prodan / September 23, 2016

What life was like for unbelievers long before Christopher Hitchens and company arrived on the scene.

Timothy Larsen / August 22, 2016

I had no untapped, unanswered yearnings. All was well in the state of Denmark. And then it wasnt.

Nicole Cliffe / May 20, 2016

How I learned to see my unbelieving husband through Gods eyes.

Stina Kielsmeier-Cook, guest writer / May 19, 2016

What we really need, says Kevin Seamus Hasson, is a different understanding of the God our nation is under.

Interview by Matt Reynolds / March 18, 2016

(UPDATED) However, survey also finds Trump is one of few candidates who doesn't have to be religious to be deemed great.

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra / January 27, 2016

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed Joy Davidmans worldview, too.

Abigail Santamaria / August 18, 2015

And everything else. How I learned hes an all-or-nothing Lord.

Craig Keener / May 20, 2015

Nancy Pearcey equips believers with tools to expose error and promote truth.

Richard Weikart / April 10, 2015

Planting in Highly-Church Areas; Atheists Believe in Heaven; Alex and Brett Harris

Ed Stetzer / November 24, 2014

End of Mideast Christianity?; Atheism in China; Exercising Power and Wise Boundaries

Ed Stetzer / November 19, 2014

Inside my own revolution.

Guillaume Bignon / November 17, 2014

But question remains: Will IRS agree with DOJ that atheists count as 'ministers of the gospel'?

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra / November 13, 2014

Sarah Bowler on what she's learned about God from unbelievers.

Ed Stetzer / October 16, 2014

Bart Campolo's departure from Christianitysome reflections about faith and (our) families.

Ed Stetzer / September 30, 2014

The temptation of utilitarianism.

Amy Julia Becker / September 12, 2014

Humanists say LifeWay Research was biased, but both polls are helpful

Ed Stetzer / September 5, 2014

IRS and Atheists; Getting Fired from Your First Pastorate; Transformational Churches

Ed Stetzer / August 12, 2014

New survey finds even liberals largely favor Christians over other types of marriage partners.

Kate Tracy / June 17, 2014

How the realm of make-believe can bring us toward God.

Rachel Marie Stone / June 10, 2014

What a Kentucky court ruling implies for a high-profile Wisconsin challenge to the clergy housing allowance.

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra / May 21, 2014

For the UK writer, Christianity must first make sense in the realm of lived experience.

Interview by John Wilson / April 3, 2014

NYT's 3 Worst Corrections on Christian Holidays; 3 Questions for Managing Your Boss; Who are the "Nones"?

Ed Stetzer / April 2, 2014

Are Evangelicals Bad for Marriage?; Is Atheism Irrational?; Great Teammates

Ed Stetzer / February 17, 2014

Were confused by one California pastors year without God.

Laura Turner / January 9, 2014

Pentecostals and Charismatics; Life Apart from God; Ted Turner and Heaven

Ed Stetzer / November 21, 2013

City Density; Bias Toward Action; Atheist Megachurches

Ed Stetzer / November 18, 2013

Despite outpouring of support, a few fellow students remain critical of atheist senior at Northwest Christian.

Timothy C. Morgan / November 12, 2013

(UPDATED) Legal challenge to pastor tax break takes 'fascinating turn.'

Jeremy Weber / August 19, 2013

A new study highlights important differences between nonbelievers. But they have many things in common, too.

George Yancey / August 12, 2013

Willow Creek; Young Atheists; Kingdom of God; Beth Moore on The Exchange

Ed Stetzer / June 10, 2013

I tried to face down an overwhelming body of evidence, as well as the living God.

Jordan Monge / April 4, 2013

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield / February 7, 2013

Susan Jacoby's biography of Robert Ingersoll mistakes a likeable fellow with a second-rate mind for a "freethinking" hall-of-famer.

Timothy Larsen / January 29, 2013

Children are statistically significant factor in church attendance by atheist scientists.

Melissa Steffan / January 2, 2013

U.K. group would offer alternative 'Scout Promise' that removes reference to God.

Melissa Steffan / December 18, 2012

In my questions for God, I'm like my kids. Sometimes sincere in my doubts. Sometimes whiny, repetitive, insistent. Often not even asking God directly but allowing my doubts to protect me from talking to God, or listening to God, at all.

December 10, 2012

Leah Libresco announced her conversion Monday after lengthy exploration of morality on her blog.

Jeremy Weber / June 19, 2012

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Atheism | Topics | Christianity Today

Quotes About Atheism (1444 quotes)

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Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night.

Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. Its us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world.

Was Rorschach.

Does that answer your Questions, Doctor? Alan Moore, Watchmen

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Quotes About Atheism (1444 quotes)

How many gods? | Atheism | Fandom powered by Wikia

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How many gods don't you believe in?

Those above are just a small sample of gods and goddesses you don't believe in.

It may be of interest to atheists to know how many gods they don't believe in. Let's call the number N.

There are a lot of issues in determining N.

It is estimated that there are 6,700,000,000 people currently living on the Earth and the total number of people who ever lived is 102,000,000,000 (102 billion or 102 thousand million depending on where you come from). It could be argued that everyone's idea of god is different, so this is N. Or, at least, this could be used as an upper bound for N, except that many people were (or are) polytheists. However, if we accept there would be (sometimes quite large) groupings of people with essentially the same religious beliefs, this would lower the estimate for N.

If these two effects roughly cancel each other out, then N = 102,000,000,000 may be a good starting estimate.

Adherents.com claims to have figures for 4,200 religious groups currently existing on Earth.

Using the ratio of current population to the total number of people who have ever lived, we get an estimate of 63,000 religious groups throughout human history. (Only Homo sapiens' religions are being considered. It may well be that other hominids believed in god or gods, but it would be pure guesswork to estimate the number of gods they believed in.)

The modern dominant (that is, have the most adherents) religions are monotheistic, but they are few in number. Wikipedia lists 309 Hindu deities. The ancient Hittites claimed to have 1000 deities in their pantheon. So for a rough estimate of the average number of deities per religion, we'll take the average of these 3 figures, giving 440 deities per religion.

This gives an estimate of N = 28,000,000.

For monotheists, the number of gods they don't believe in will be N-1, which, of course, will be very close to N. If the estimate above is correct, then (in some sense) atheists and monotheists only differ by 0.000036% in their beliefs.

In fact, working to 2 significant figures, even for the ancient Hittites this figure is the same.

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How many gods? | Atheism | Fandom powered by Wikia

Bill Mahers bigoted atheism: His arrogant shtick is just as ugly as religious intolerance

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You know what you call someone who makes sweeping generalizations on billions of people based on the extreme actions of a few? A bigot. Bill Maher, for example, is a bigot. And if youre a fan of his smug, dismissive shtick, youre a bigot too.

On Fridays Real Time,Maher, who has been openly atheist his whole career but has been increasingly vocal against organized religion in recent years, squared off against Fareed Zakaria, who gave a powerful rebuttal to Mahers reiteration of the Islam is the motherlode of bad ideas assertion. My problem with the way you approach it, Zakaria said, is I dont think youre going to reform a religion by telling 1.6 billion people most of whom are just devout people who get some inspiration from that religion and go about their daily lives I dont think youre going to change religion by saying your religion is the motherlode of bad ideas, its a terrible thing. Frankly, youre going to make a lot of news for yourself and youre going to get a lot of applause lines and joke lines. Instead, he urged, Push for reform with some sense of respect for the spiritual values. And on behalf of Muslims, Christians, Jews and anybody else who prays to somebody sometimes, let me just say, thank you.

As the threats of terrorism and right-wing Christianity have risen in the past few years, Mahers aggressive brand of atheism also popularized by the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris has gained a strong following among a certain type of self-professed intellectual. Maher has famously said, Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who dont have all the answers to think that they do which is pretty funny, given the know-it-all arrogance of the anti-religion big leaguers like Maher himself. As Zakaria very eloquently pointed out, that stance has given Maher more power and reach than hes ever had in his long career. But whatever you believe or dont, if youre selling blanket intolerance, you dont get to call yourself one of the good guys. You shouldnt even get to call yourself one of the smart ones.

Im a Christian, which in my urban, media-centric world is basically equivalent to self-identifying as a hillbilly. It also means that I have to accept that I apply the same word to myself that a lot of hateful morons do. But on Sunday at my little neighborhood church, our priest delivered a sermon in which he said, I cant understand how in places like Indiana, people are using Christianity as an excuse to close their doors, when we should be welcoming to everyone. Guess what? Thats faith too. I am also keenly aware that in other parts of the world, people are being murdered for a faith that I am privileged to practice openly and without fear. And anyone, anywhere, who is openly hateful to others for their religion is part of a culture that permits that kind of persecution to endure.

Heres what I would like Bill Maher and his smug, self-righteous acolytes to understand. There are literally billions of individuals in this world who are not murderous, ignorant, superstitious, hatemongers, who also happen to practice a religion. Billions of people who I swear to God have no investment in forcing their beliefs on Bill Maher. Right here in the U.S., there are millions of my fellow Christians who are strongly committed to the ideals of the Constitution, and who dont want to live in a theocracy any more than they do.

I recently had a conversation with an atheist friend who asked why, knowing all I do of the wrongs committed by the Catholic Church, disagreeing as strongly as I do with many of its positions on womens rights, LGBT equality and reproductive justice, I continue to stay within it. And my reply was that this is where I feel I can do the most good. I am not a disinterested party. Im a citizen of my church and Im going to continue to demand better of it. I dont, however, want to sell it to anybody else. You dont have to believe in God or however else you may define the concept of something else out there. I dont have all the answers to life, the universe and everything; Im just trying to get through this plane of existence in a manner thats philosophically satisfying and guides me in the direction of not being a selfish jerk. Thats it. All I ask all that many, many, many of us who practice their respective religions ask is that you conduct yourself with respect and compassion and a spirit ofcoexistence, and well do the same. I ask that you not make assumptions about the vast majority of the worlds population based on your own need to feel good about yourself and how smart you are. Like Zakaria says, youre not going to bring about reform that way. And as Maher and his ilk prove, you dont need a religion to be in the business of spreading hate.

The rest is here:

Bill Mahers bigoted atheism: His arrogant shtick is just as ugly as religious intolerance

Bill Mahers bigoted atheism: His arrogant schtick is just as ugly as religious intolerance

Posted on by

You know what you call someone who makes sweeping generalizations on billions of people based on the extreme actions of a few? A bigot. Bill Maher, for example, is a bigot. And if youre a fan of his smug, dismissive schtick, youre a bigot too.

On Fridays Real Time,Maher, who has been openly atheist his whole career but has been increasingly vocal against organized religion in recent years, squared off against Fareed Zakaria, who gave a powerful rebuttal to Mahers reiteration of the Islam is the motherlode of bad ideas assertion. My problem with the way you approach it, Zakaria said, is I dont think youre going to reform a religion by telling 1.6 billion people most of whom are just devout people who get some inspiration from that religion and go about their daily lives I dont think youre going to change religion by saying your religion is the motherlode of bad ideas, its a terrible thing. Frankly, youre going to make a lot of news for yourself and youre going to get a lot of applause lines and joke lines. Instead, he urged, Push for reform with some sense of respect for the spiritual values. And on behalf of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and anybody else who prays to somebody sometimes, let me just say, thank you.

As the threats terrorism and right wing Christianity have risen in the past few years, Mahers aggressive brand of atheism also popularized by the likes of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris has gained a strong following among a certain type of self-professed intellectual. Maher has famously said, Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who dont have all the answers to think that they do which is pretty funny, given the know-it-all arrogance of the anti-religion big leaguers like Maher himself. As Zakaria very eloquently pointed out, that stance has given Maher more power and reach than hes ever had in his long career. But whatever you believe or dont, if youre selling blanket intolerance, you dont get to call yourself one of the good guys. You shouldnt even get to call yourself one of the smart ones.

Im a Christian, which in my urban, media-centric world is basically equivalent to self-identifying as a hillbilly. It also means that I have to accept that I apply the same word to myself that a lot of hateful morons do. But on Sunday at my little neighborhood church, our priest delivered a sermon in which he said, I cant understand how in places like Indiana, people are using Christianity as an excuse to close their doors, when we should be welcoming to everyone. Guess what? Thats faith too. I am also keenly aware that in other parts of the world, people are being murdered for a faith that I am privileged to practice openly and without fear. And anyone, anywhere, who is openly hateful to others for their religion is part of a culture that permits that kind of persecution to endure.

Heres what I would Bill Maher and his smug, self-righteous acolytes to understand. There are literally billions of individuals in this world who are not murderous, ignorant, superstitious, hatemongers, who also happen to practice a religion. Billions of people who I swear to God have no investment in forcing their beliefs on Bill Maher. Right here in the US, there are millions of my fellow Christians who are strongly committed to the ideals of the constitution, and who dont want to live in a theocracy any more than they do.

I recently had a conversation with an atheist friend who asked why, knowing all I do of the wrongs committed by the Catholic church, disagreeing as strongly as I do with many of its positions on womens rights, LGBT equality, and reproductive justice, I continue to stay within it. And my reply was that this is where I feel I can do the most good. I am not a disinterested party. Im a citizen of my church and Im going to continue to demand better of it. I dont, however, want to sell it to anybody else. You dont have to believe in God or however else you may define the concept of something else out there. I dont have all the answers to life, the universe and everything; Im just trying to get through this plane of existence in a manner thats philosophically satisfying and guides me in the direction of not being a selfish jerk. Thats it. All I ask all that many, many, many of us who practice their respective religions ask is that you conduct yourself with respect and compassion and a spirit ofcoexistence, and well do the same. I ask that you not make assumptions about the vast majority of the worlds population based on your own need to feel good about yourself and how smart you are. Like Zakaria says, youre not going to bring about reform that way. And as Maher and his ilk prove, you dont need a religion to be in the business of spreading hate.

See the article here:

Bill Mahers bigoted atheism: His arrogant schtick is just as ugly as religious intolerance


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