Something From Nothing? August 13, 2007
Posted by Joe in Christianity, agnosticism, atheism, belief, freethought, religion, science, skepticism, theism.49 comments
In a recent email conversation with a Christian I was annoyed by his frequent assertion that atheism implied that at the beginning of the universe something had to have come from nothing. (Perhaps I am easily annoyed.)
“Does God Exist?” August 2, 2007
Posted by Joe in Christianity, agnosticism, atheism, belief, evidence, fallacy, freethought, god, logic, morality, religion, skepticism, theism.20 comments
Here are notes I made while reading William Lane Craig’s “Does God Exist?“
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Atheism does not imply meaninglessness.
Atheism does not imply lack of hope for a better future. (It does put the onus of making the future better on us.)
Even if there is a god there is no “deliverance from aging, disease, and death”. Even if there is an eternal afterlife in paradise we still age, disease, and die.
Humanism, a first look July 27, 2007
Posted by Joe in Humanism, atheism, belief, ethics, freethought, life, morality, politics, skepticism.3 comments
I do not wish to define myself by what I am not. This is my largest problem with the term atheist. It is a statement of something I do not believe, but really doesn’t say anything more than that. So I am seriously looking into Humanism for the first time.
If you have any experience or knowledge of Humanism, please share.
Funerals July 26, 2007
Posted by Joe in Christianity, agnosticism, atheism, belief, ethics, freethought, god, life, morality, religion, theism.1 comment so far
Funerals are often religious affairs. This is understandable considering how much religions tend to concern themselves with what happens after death. After all if there is no afterlife there isn’t much point in religion. The last two times I have been in churches it has been for funerals.
The last was a Catholic funeral for an uncle of mine. This was not so bad. The most interesting aspect was how medieval it all was. It felt like it could have been going on 600 years ago and little would be different expect the dress of the attendees. The church was aware that many present were not members and did not proselytize nor expect nonmembers to participate in religious rituals.
Strong vs. Weak July 13, 2007
Posted by Joe in agnosticism, atheism, belief, evidence, freethought, god, psychology, skepticism, theism.19 comments
Some atheists often separate themselves into two subtly distinct groups; the “weak” atheists and the “strong” atheists.
Weak atheism is defined as a lack of belief in any god or gods. They haven’t seen compelling evidence that a god exists so their default stance is not to form any god belief.
Strong atheism is a positive belief that there is no god. They have an actual belief that no god exists
