Bullshit!!

The very definition of atheist is the absence of belief in a deity.  I haven’t been writing to this blog, nor have I been very active on Twitter for the past month, however I have been trying to keep up to date on anything atheist-related with my daily Google Alerts. Almost every email I get seems to have a link to some faith-based post trying to get their point across that it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a believer. I’ve seen many articles and comments that seem to conclude that since science doesn’t have all the answers with respect to the beginning of the universe or evolution then God must exist.  Bullshit!!

All of those arguments stem from the logic (I use the term loosely) that since science doesn’t have all the answers there must be only one answer – dog (sorry, feeling a bit dyslexic today).  Since when does anybody need science to conclude one way or another the existence of god. Yes, I do have complete faith in unbiased science and I am a firm believer in evolution.  However, neither of those has anything to do with my disbelief in a sky god. My lack of belief is based solely on the fact that there has been nothing in my life that has ever indicated that there is a higher power at work. There is no solid proof for god.  The Bible is bullshit and there is nothing that would indicate otherwise.

It’s called personal belief for a reason – it’s personal.  Therefore, keep it out of schools. Keep it out of government.  And, most of all, keep it out of my face.

Chris.

These guys are definitely the four best known atheists in the world. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett sat down a couple of years ago to speak about their views on religion, god, atheism and a whole lot more in an unmoderated setting. The result was two hours of excellent video. I have re-posted the full two hours below in two parts. If you have the bandwidth (who doesn’t these days), I would recommend watching the videos in HD.

The Four Horsemen (Hour 1)

Hi all.

I have added blog.christophercain.ca to The Atheist Blogroll. I have added a marquee of all members of the Atheist Blogroll to my sidebar. Please take a look at it – you’ll find hundreds of like-minded intelligent and analytical thinkers.

The Atheist Blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Chris.

This podcast was recorded on March 17, 2009.  Seth MacFarlane was a guest of Adam Carolla’s.  They discussed their views on god, religion and atheism.

Source: http://www.adamcarolla.com/

Source: atheistcartoons.com

I used to believe (and still do) that the Twitter service was a bullshit tool that let some unknown schmuck let everyone know that he just shared a cup of tea with his grandmother and had impure thoughts about her when she bent over to pour his tea for him.  Honestly, does anyone care what some random fuck does on a day to day basis? Early this summer I decided to create a Twitter account to see what all of the commotion was about.  Regardless of how stupid I thought the service was, I was definitely interested in it since all I started to hear on a regular basis was references to Twitter (in blog posts, newscasts, articles, etc.). At the time I thought Twitter was used for random 140 character updates that nobody would ever read.  This is evident in my very first tweet.

Upon creating my Twitter account I needed to provide a user name. Just months before this I had begun to explore atheism and had “come out of the closet” (so to speak) with respect to my disbelief in god amongst my family and friends. I had decided on atheist as my user name. I was told that that user name was already in use and I couldn’t use it. Wanting to keep the term atheist in my name I decided on atheist77.  I was born in 1977 and thought it was a good fit. I thought this would be my first and last post on Twitter.  However that was about to change.

Within a few days I had received an email that vjack and DenyReligion were now following me on Twitter. I had decided that since they were following me I would follow them.  I then proceeded to read their current posts.  It was at this point that I began to find more atheists on Twitter and quickly began following like-minded individuals who in turn followed me. Even though I still believe that Twitter is a service for the douche bags of the world (i.e. – see @glennbeck), I have been introduced to an entire community of people who share the same views as me with respect to secularism, agnosticism and atheism. I have met and regularly converse with many amazing people.  I consider all of them to be my friends even though we have never met face-to-face.  These are great people who help me to feel comfortable being an atheist in a religious world.

I’d love to link to all of them here, but there are to many to name. Monica over at Unleashed has done an excellent job compiling a master list of amazing tweeple to follow and interact with.  I could not have created a better list myself. Another amazing person is Zip Zink who keeps an atheist #FollowFriday list up-to-date on a weekly basis.

To all of my Twitter friends – I love you all.  Thank you for the friendship, intelligent conversations and support. Each and everyone of you is amazing.

Sincerely,

Chris (atheist77).

I just read a post over at The Atheist Experience that gave me a good laugh.  It’s a skit about atheist and a theist discussing the possibility of a leprechaun in a box in front of them. A little past half way into the skit they are joined by an agnostic.  This reminded me of a conversation that I had with my brother and his girlfriend last week.  The content was different, however the interactions between us were almost identical. There was no theist in our conversation, but the continuous back and forth between the atheist and the agnostic was very close to that of my brother (the agnostic) and his girlfriend and I (the atheists).

I have reprinted the skit below.  However, you can click here to visit the original post created by it’s author.

A very sturdy looking box rests on a table as two men walk up to it…

Theist: That box has a leprechaun in it.

Atheist: I don’t believe that…why do you?

Theist: I heard him talking.

Atheist: I don’t believe that either…in fact, I have no evidence that leprechauns exist.

Theist: Well, either there’s a leprechaun in the box or there isn’t, right?

Atheist: Right.

Theist: So it’s 50/50…and since I heard him talk, I’m sure that there’s a leprechaun in there.

Atheist: Either there’s a leprechaun in the box or not, but that doesn’t mean the odds are 50/50.

Theist: Of course it does.

Atheist: Actually, it doesn’t, but could you offer some evide…

Theist: Hang on! He’s just told me that if you don’t believe he’s in there, he’ll chain you to a tree after you’re dead and stick his shillelagh up your ass for 10,000 years!

Atheist: Um, wow, but I was asking if you could offer some additional evidence beyond your claim that you heard him. I didn’t hear him say that, by the way.

Theist: Well, you’re not listening hard enough.

Atheist: Ok (listens)…noth…

Theist: Give it TIME! You’ve got to sincerely WANT to hear him…

Atheist: If he’s in there, I’d like to know it…I’ll keep listening.

Theist: Did you hear that?

Atheist: Nope, nothing.

Theist: You’re either lying or you’re so closed minded that he’s not letting you hear him.

Atheist: Not letting me? Leprechauns can choose who can hear them?

Theist: Of course! He could open this lid, show himself to me…and you’d never see it, you’d think the box was closed the whole time. They’re MAGIC!

Atheist: Well, do you have any evidence for any of this? I mean, I’ve never seen a leprechaun…I have no reason to think they even exist and every time you tell me how to prove it, the tests fail.

Theist: No, YOU fail. It worked for me.

Atheist: (Motions toward a handful of people to one side) Well, there are other people here who have tried this…and it failed for them.

Theist: Yes, but these people (motions toward a huge group off to another side) heard it. In fact there are WAY more people over here who will tell you they heard it.

(The Atheist moves off to ask them a few questions.)

Atheist: I talked to some of them…they all have a slightly different take on this. Some say it’s a leprechaun; others say it’s a fairy; still others say it’s a goblin. They don’t all describe the same voice and they apparently have conflicting messages that they claim came from inside the box. Most of them simply said that they knew other people who claimed to know what was in the box.

Theist: Ah, yes! There’s actually a troll in the box with the leprechaun. He sometimes pretends to be the leprechaun, or a fairy, or a goblin in order to fool those other people – but you’ll notice they STILL heard something.

Atheist: Yes, some say that, but others don’t.

Theist: Well, that troll sometimes blocks the sounds so people can’t hear it.

Atheist: So, how do you know, when you hear the leprechaun, that you aren’t hearing the troll?

Theist: Don’t be absurd! The leprechaun is my friend; he makes sure that I only hear him.

Atheist: But how can you be sure…if you think there’s a troll there too, who pretends to be a leprechaun…how can you know? Maybe there’s ONLY the troll and he’s just fucking with you.

Theist: Now you’re just being thick. Look, there’s a box, right?

Atheist: Yup.

Theist: Now why would there be a box here unless there was something in it?? There MUST be something in it, right?

Atheist: No, the box could be empty.

Theist: No it couldn’t, or there’d be no reason for the box to exist! Boxes are for holding things. We all know that.

Atheist: So you’re claiming that the box could not possibly be empty?

Theist: Correct.

Atheist: And you don’t see that as a flawed premise?

Theist: No, and it’s confirmed by the fact that I heard a leprechaun.

Atheist: How did you hear him?

Theist: He talks to me telepathically.

Atheist: Oh, so you didn’t mean to listen with my ears, you meant listen with my mind?

Theist: Your heart.

Atheist: That doesn’t listen…

Theist: Your metaphoric heart!

Atheist: Ok…but that guy says he heard it with his ears.

Theist: He’s wrong…he’s hearing the troll.

Atheist: But I don’t even hear the troll.

Theist: He’s blocking you.

Atheist: Ok…how do you know all of this?

Theist: The leprechaun told me.

Atheist: Ok, so you’ve made appeals to magic, telepathy, leprechauns, trolls and non-empty boxes….you’ve offered no evidence. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you.

Theist: Don’t forget the shillelagh!

Atheist: Right… and you’ve made threats about things that’ll happen after I’m dead – when there’s no evidence that there’s any ‘me’ to experience anything after I’m dead. I just don’t believe your claim.

Theist: What if you’re wrong? Isn’t that a lot to risk? He says he’s got a pot of gold for you if you believe…isn’t that worth believing?

Atheist: Look, even if I could make myself believe, which I can’t, why would I want to do that? If there’s no leprechaun in there, then I’ve wasted the opportunity find out what’s really in the box. And if he wants me to follow his instructions…

Theist: Oh, he does…I’ve written them down for you, here…

Atheist: (Looks at the list) Then I’ll have wasted time doing things that…does that say “Do not eat poo”?

Theist: Yup…great rule, isn’t it?

Atheist: Yeah, but what about “Drop money in the box”

Theist: He’s got needs too…pots of gold don’t grow on trees.

Atheist: I thought he was magic.

Theist: He is…but, well, the money is so we can tell other people what the leprechaun wants.

Atheist: Why doesn’t he tell them?

Theist: He could, but…well, he will, if they’re open too it. Some, like you, are fooled by the troll.

Atheist: Why doesn’t he get rid of the troll.

Theist: It’s a mystery, but we’re sure he will eventually.

Atheist: Anyway, if this isn’t true, then I’ll have wasted a lot of time and money on something false…only to avoid a threat that wasn’t real.

Theist: Yeah…but what if you’re wrong.

Atheist: Ok…look, I’m done. I do NOT believe there’s a leprechaun in the box.

Theist: How can you be sure?

Atheist: I’m not, but I don’t believe there is.

Theist: How can you say there’s no leprechaun in the box!

Atheist: I didn’t…I said I don’t believe there is one.

Theist: Same thing.

Atheist: No it isn’t…however, now that I’ve considered and rejected your claim…

Theist: Don’t do it!

Atheist: I’m willing to say that I actually do believe there is no leprechaun in that box.

Theist: NO! You’re making an irrational claim…you think you know everything?!??!

Atheist: No, I’m not claiming that I’m absolutely certain that there’s no leprechaun in the box…but I actually believe, to some degree of certainty that there isn’t…because if there were, I’d expect there to be some evidence to support it, and investigations keep coming up empty. I’ll be back with some tools…we’re going to open that box.

Theist: You can’t open the box.

Atheist: Why not.

Theist: You just can’t, it’s impossible.

(Another person walks up)

Agnostic: He’s right. Neither of you know what’s in the box. You’re both equally absurd to assert that you DO know.

Atheist: I didn’t assert that I’m absolutely certain, I simply stated what my belief is…and it’s based on the evidence, or lack thereof

Agnostic: Don’t be silly…you’re just as dogmatic as he is.

Atheist: I’m not dogmatic about this at all – I’d just like to open the box and find out.

Agnostic: The box is impervious.

Atheist: How do you know?

Agnostic: Um, well, I don’t…it just seems impervious.

Atheist: Really, do you have other impervious things to compare it to?

Agnostic: Well, um, no…but I’m sure it’s impervious.

Atheist: If you’ll forgive me, as we’re essentially on the same side in that we reject his assertion…

Agnostic: I don’t reject it, I don’t reject anything

Atheist: Do you accept his claim?

Agnostic: I don’t know.

Atheist: You don’t know whether you accept his claim?

Agnostic: No, I mean I don’t know if he’s right or not.

Atheist: Well, neither do I, but that’s not what I asked.

Agnostic: The box is impervious

Atheist: Well, you sound just as dogmatic about our inability to know as he does about his private communications with the leprechaun

Agnostic: Now you’re just being rude

Atheist: Look, I’m going to open this box

Agnostic: Silly atheist….

(The atheist manages to drill a tiny hole in the box…)

Atheist: Look, it’s not impervious! I’ve got a hole here. We may eventually be able to investigate this in more detail.

Theist: You switched boxes!

Atheist: No, this is the box.

Agnostic: It’s STILL impervious; your little hole doesn’t give you enough information to support your claim.

Atheist: I can continue to investigate…and so far, there’s no evidence to support the theist’s claims.

Theist: You switched boxes!

Atheist: No I didn’t.

Theist: Then, um…he’s hiding. He needs you to believe without seeing him, so he’s hiding.

Atheist: That makes no sense.

Theist: The troll has created an illusory hole that is providing you with false information about what’s in the box!

Atheist: /sigh

Agnostic: That might be possible, I really couldn’t say.

Atheist: No, I bet you couldn’t.

The theist walks away, to tell other people about the leprechaun in the box.

The agnostic tries not to be anywhere near either of them, while secretly keeping an optimistic eye on the atheist’s activities.

The atheist goes about his life, occasionally finding new ways to investigate the box, but he tries to enjoy his life while preventing the theist from ruining it by imposing the leprechaun’s rules on everyone.

Chris.

Atheism is not a belief system nor a religion. I am fed up listening to people say that it requires a certain amount of “belief” to be an atheist or that atheism itself subscribes to it’s own tenets and values and that establish it as a religion. I know it has been said millions of times before, but atheism is only a personal stand that there is no god, deity or higher power. Nothing more.

I hold an atheistic view. I believe there is no god. There it is – the “B” word. I believe there is no god because there hasn’t been a single instance in my life to convince me otherwise – no experience, no fact – all fiction. My use of the word believe is accurate. I cannot prove nor disprove there is a god, therefore my belief is based on the evaluation of evidence (or lack thereof) and as a result is the most logical response when I pose the question “is there a god?”. Belief, in the religious context, is completely different. Those who believe in a deity need no irrefutable evidence at all to conclude that a god exists (to answer those of you who will no doubt bring it up, the Bible IS NOT a valid source of proof). That in itself constitutes belief based on superstition, stories and nothing more.

One mistake I see a lot of atheists make is they feel a need to defend their position. The onus is not on the atheist to disprove god – it is the responsibility of those who insist there is a god to show us the proof and evidence of such a beings existence. In a court of law (at least in the Western world), it is the responsibility of the prosecutor to prove the defendant’s guilt. A declaration has been made that an individual is guilty of a crime and it is therefore the job of the person or party who made that declaration to prove it so. It is not the duty of the accused to prove his or her innocence. Obviously there is much that can be said for either side of this analogy, however the point I am attempting to make is that when you make a bold declaration about anything, it is YOUR job to convince me that you are right and that your argument is logical and sound. It is not up to me to prove you wrong.

You may ask where I am going with this. On a daily basis I see and read debates between theists and non-theists that get way out of hand. They usually start calm and then escalate into childish name calling. If atheists truly understand what it means to be defined as an atheist, they would see no need to defend themselves. It should be as simple as – “Based on the lack of irrefutable, non-corroborable evidence the theistic community has presented to date, there is nothing you can say that will persuade me to believe in a higher power.” Or better yet, don’t respond at all. It weakens the atheist position when we get into these petty arguments. The passive response will always win the argument. When you start to get all heated up and feel the militant need to defend your position that is the point at which you have started to build up atheism as a belief system.

I agree that it is frustrating living in a world that is ruled by fairy tales and possessive & misogynistic “gods,” however at least we are dedicated enough to weed through the bullshit without getting caught up in the emotions and attacks of those who will needlessly continue in their attempt to convert us heathens to “the dark side.” Stay strong my atheist friends. We have a long, up-hill battle ahead of us, but the truth will always prevail. And remember – remain calm and focused. Let’s leave the childish name calling to…….the children.

Chris.

I found this great video at Atheist Hit Squad’s Posterous. It’s a clip from Ricky Gervais on Creationism with a chapter-by-chapter (not quite – but close enough) breakdown of The Book of Genesis from the Bible.

Chris.