Why religion causes brain damage

Bertrand Russell's Jug

Steve Weinberg on God.

How to remain Christian.

Dear Believer:Why Do You Believe?

The standard questions but slickly and movingly presented.

Avampirism

This is what religion looks like . . . 

"The Unbelievers" - 2013

How to talk to a Christian

"If you wake up tomorrow morning and think that saying a few Latin words over your pancakes will turn them into the body of Elvis Presley you're said to be out of your mind. If you think the same thing about a cracker and the body of Jesus you're just a Catholic."

Football and stamp-collecting.

"Although it is true that 'absence of belief' in supernatural agency is functionally equivalent to 'belief in the absence of supernatural agency', theists concentrate on the latter formulation in order to make atheism a positive as opposed to a privative thesis with regard to theistic-subject-matter-related matters; this is what makes theists think they are in  kind of belief football match, with opposing sets of beliefs vying for our allegiance. What is haappening is that the theists are rushing about the park kicking the ball, but the atheists are not playing. They are not even on the field; they are in the stands, arguing that this particular game should not be taking place at all.

The correct characterisation of the opposition between theism and atheism is therefore this: the theist has existential beliefs, metaphysical beliefs, of a certain distinctive kind; and the atheist does not share them, and therefore does not even begin to enter the domain of discourse in which these beliefs have their life and content. Rather to use a by now familiar simile, but it exactly captures the point - atheism is to theism as not-collecting stamps is to stamp collecting. Not collecting stamps is not a hobby. It says nothing about the non-stamp-collector's other hobbies or interests. It denotes only the open-ended and negative state of not-collecting-stamps. To think of non-stamp-collectors as theists think of atheists, stamp collectors would have to think that non-stamp-collectors  have stamp interests of (so to speak) a positively negative kind; that they share their own obsessions and interests about stamps but in reverse, for example in the form of hating stamps, deliberately doing stamp-related non-stamp-collecting things, and the like."  

from "The God Argument" by A C Grayling.

Through these Godless Eyes

 "You take your faith. I'll take my parachute. See you at the bottom of the cliff"

Bill Maher on religion.

"Religious people aren’t afraid of other religious people.  Oh sure, sometimes they  kill and hate them.  But they don’t fear them.  They only fear the atheists, because we’re the only ones not clapping during Peter Pan. Because religion is kinda like a conga line.  If one person doesn’t join in, you see yourself through their eyes, and you realise you look like a schmuck."

The Arrogance of Atheism

Theism: the belief that 13.7 billion years ago some atemporal, immaterial. but omnipotent, omniscient & omnipresent entity created a Universe of a 100 billion galaxies, containing 70 sextillion stars and 10^24 planets just so that after a time interval of 13.695 billion years a particular life-form could evolve on one of the planets to sing the praises of said entity. . 

Atheism: The belief that this is probably not true. 

Bibleheads

"Biblehead" is a very apt name for a particular type of religious nutter that atheist bloggers will be very familiar with. They use the bible as a substitute for rational thought, and have convinced themselves that a crushing response to sceptics is provided by quoting lengthy tracts, often with little relevance to the subject under discussion. They simultaneously seem have blinded themselves of the provenance of the bible; of its long, long history of oral transmisson, translation, editing, selection, so that, whatever the literary merits of the modern version they happen to be familiar with, it  bears little resemblance to whatever Moses thought God had said or to what Jesus himself said, if he existed, and that is by no means certain

The bible is simply a distillation mostly by 'chinese-whispers' of  the myths and superstitions of nomadic bronze-age goatherds who lived short, fear-ridden, violent lives, that bibleheads have indoctrinated themselves to believe has some relevance to the modern era. Any good that has come out of it has been filtered out by the developing humanity and rationality of the intervening generations.

So having a book handed to you with the explanation that it contains everything you need to know is very comforting, allowing you to believe that you are far more in control of your scary world than you would be otherwise. It's delusional, but for most people not being hit by lightning, or succumbing to infectious diseases, or being killed by natural disasters, there is no reason to believe otherwise. And those exceptions, well, they can be rationalized away too, simply by referring to this book.

With such a handy dandy guide to life, you really don't need to even think about or acknowledge your real ignorance.

Crucifixion nonsense

A long but very rewarding debate.

Why fight religion?

The Young Atheists' Handbook

Growing up in a strict Muslim community in south-east London, Alom Shaha learnt that religion was not to be questioned. Reciting the Qur'an without understanding what it meant was simply a part of life; so, too, was obeying the imam and enduring beatings when he failed to attend the local mosque. Shaha was more drawn to science and its power to illuminate. As a teen, he lived between two worlds: the home controlled by his authoritarian father, and a school alive with books and ideas. In a charming blend of memoir, philosophy, and science, Shaha explores the questions about faith and the afterlife that we all ponder. Through a series of loose lessons , he tells his own compelling story, drawing on the theories of some of history's greatest thinkers and interrogating the fallacies that have impeded humanity for centuries. Shaha recounts how his education and formative experiences led him to question how to live without being tied to what his parents, priests, or teachers told him to believe, and offers insights so that others may do the same. This is a book for anyone who thinks about what they should believe and how they should live. It s for those who may need the facts and the ideas, as well as the courage, to break free from inherited beliefs. In this powerful narrative, Shaha shows that it is possible to live a compassionate, fulfilling, and meaningful life without God.

The British Humanist Association would like to put a copy of The Young Atheist's Handbook (Reviews Here) in every secondary school library in England and Wales.
This means raising the funds to buy, package and post copies. and so make it available to students to read if they so choose.

Many young people are brought up in the faith of their family, without ever really having the chance to choose for themselves. School is where we go to learn how to ask questions. Making the book available through school libraries is a good first step in educating young people so that they can choose to exercise their freedom of choice. 

The costs over-all are heavily discounted thanks to Biteback Publishing, for each book to be packaged and sent to a secondary school library.

If you would like to help this BHA project there is an easy way of donating online through this JustGiving page. And please tell your friends and family about the campaign if you feel able. 

Militancy

It is possible to be a militant antitheist, as was Christopher Hitchens. It is no more possible to be a militant atheist than it is to be a militant non-stamp collector. ~ A C Grayling

Jim Jeffries . . .

. . . Australian, atheist, blasphemous, stand-up comic. Need I say more?

Atheist SuperBowl Commercial

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski, 1920 – 1994, was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the ambience of his home city of Los Angeles and marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. In 1986 Time called Bukowski a "laureate of American lowlife". (Wiki)