What beliefs create peaceful behavior and deal with the discord of religion? Here’s the answer. Part of a series on truth. There’s no getting around it: Everybody has an exclusive set of beliefs. Moralists look down their noses at unbelievers as filthy, undisciplined misfits. Secularists snub religious people as psychopathic nut jobs. And pragmatists demand we shed our religious beliefs when…
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Pragmatist argue that it’s necessary to check our religious beliefs at the door when we debate issues. Unfortunately, that can’t work. Part of a series on truth. Richard Rorty, the leading American philosophical pragmatist–who I wrote about in The Problem with Your Personal Testimony post–argues that when you come to the public square to debate issues like…
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In which I write a very nice letter to my friend, the skeptic. Dear Skeptic, I apologize for not writing sooner, but I wanted this to be a meaningful response. Not one kicked out in an hour. See, you level–like many others before you–a serious accusation at Christians that’s worth a deliberate, thoughtful reply. A…
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“What does the meaningless, value-absent creed of humanism have to offer? It might surprise you. Part of a series on truth. One of the reasons I’m enormously disenchanted with humanism is due to it’s inevitable, blissful slide into subjectivity. I mean blissful in two senses: 1. It changes without much fuss or notice. 2. And…
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Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series. John Loftus was a philosophy instructor at a secular college when he decided to walk away from Christianity. It wasn’t easy. The only thing Loftus had known since he was 18 was learning, teaching and defending Christianity. During that time he had chased several divinity degrees and a…
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Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series. When Luke Muehlhauser was 19, he got depressed. He confesses he probably got depressed because all he did was work at Wal-Mart, download music and watch porn. Mind you, Muehlhauser is a pastor’s son. Born and bred under Christian parents, education and church services. His struggle was honest…
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Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series. Robert Madewell is an atheist living in Northern Arkansas in the United States. He was raised as an evangelical Christian and even had an interest in the ministry. However, in the process of asking questions and reading the Bible, he found Christianity to be false and rejected the…
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UMass professor of philosophy Dr. Louise Antony confesses two distinct drawbacks to being an atheist. During her closing statement at a 2008 academic debate on the , Dr. Louise Antony made a startling admission: She said there’s a heavy price or two to pay for being an atheist. Heavy Price One First, Antony said that an…
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Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series. Hemant Mehta, blogger at and author of , is probably best known for putting his . Before then he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where he graduated with honors in both Mathematics and Biology. He is now earning his Masters in Math Education at DePaul University. While at U of…
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This is my way of learning how to speak clearly and compellingly to non-believers. Ever wonder what God might write if he wrote you a letter? Or what a Unitarian Universalist raised by a park ranger dad thinks of God? Maybe you’d like to hear a 23-year-old former Christian-turned-atheist rake weak arguments–whether theist or atheist–through…
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