Archive for January, 2009
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Friday, January 30th, 2009
I am always interested in constructive criticism, on anything that I write. Tonight, I looked at the reviews that users have given my articles…
I had many positive reviews, but here are 3 out of the 4 negative reviews that my Azeusism article got on Stumbleupon (the 4th was just a stream of profanity):
Quirken: Over 99% of the world’s population is “azeusist” these days. And nobody would ever use that term in a serious conversation anyway.’
The reason the argument works is that because almost everyone “these days” is azeusist, therefore every atrocity was committed by an azeusist. The term could be used in any conversation serious enough to think that atheism causes things like genocide. Especially if using the term gets the point across clearly and quickly.
rikuboshi: The religiously inclined could use this to their advantage in an argument as well, you know.
I do not know. I cannot imagine the way that this argument would be advantageous to the religiously inclined. Perhaps someone can help me with this one?
droe82: From the page: “End of argument.”
Anyone who feels that they need to proclaim that their statement is the end of an argument is an intellectual coward. As far as I’m concerned, you might as well start sucking your thumb.’
Right… I was just making clear where the ridiculous argument ended and when I started talking again. He must be thinking that I was making the Azeusism causes atrocities argument for real — and somehow missed the “Find the flaw in the following argument:” bolded headline that began the argument.
Then of course there is the note that was left on my site that said the argument was flawed because Zeus does not exist.
That is not the flaw, by the way.
Tags: Argument
Posted in Announcements | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
What if you believe that you should get your morality from the Torah (Old Testament of the Bible)? What possible consequences could result from such a belief?
By MATTHEW WAGNER
former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu “ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.”
Perhaps this is just because the Rabbi has some kind of personal vendetta — he couldn’t possibly back up the ruling using religious texts that there is “ABSOLUTELY NO MORAL PROHIBITION against INDISCRIMINATE KILLING of CIVILIANS”, right?
Wrong.
“[He] … cited the biblical story of the Shechem massacre (Genesis 34) and Maimonides‘ commentary (Laws of Kings 9, 14) on the story as proof texts for his legal decision. … he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life.”
When people take their magic book to be absolutely essential in knowing how to deal with moral situations, they may actually believe what it says. Religious beliefs like these are not harmless delusions that a person tells himself when dealing with a personal tragedy. They are policy influencing beliefs that justify things like “indiscriminate killing of civilians.” Rabbi Eliyahu gives us another perfect example of why it matters what people believe!
Tags: Bible, Gaza, Morality, Mordechai Eliyahu, Old Testament, Torah
Posted in Negative Religious Influence | 1 Comment »
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Not believing in Zeus has been the cause of almost every single major atrocity of the past several thousand years.
Mass murder. Genocide. Ethnic cleansing. Wars. Bad behavior in general.
Witch trials — Azeusists.
Crusades — Azeusists.
Holocaust — Azeusists.
Hitler — Azeusist.
Stalin — Azeusist.
Mao — Azeusist.
Pol Pot — Azeusist.
Mastro Titta (executed 516 people … for the Catholic Pope. Seriously.) — Azeusist.
Jim Jones — Azeusist.
Also, in modern times, almost every serial killer has been an Azeusist.
Jeffrey Dahmer — Azeusist.
It is patently ridiculous to split up the various atrocities into two camps; theist and atheist sponsored atrocities. Having Crusades on one side, and Stalin’s adventures on the other makes no sense when there is an obvious theory that explains both atrocities.
Why aren’t more editorials written into the newspapers with this kind of reasoning?
If not believing in god has caused a bunch of atrocities, some effort should be made to figure out which god that people don’t believe in has caused the most atrocities!
Personally, I think I make a rather strong case for Azeusism being the major cause of pain and suffering in this world.
As I mention in the new article here: If a person can discover exactly what’s wrong with this argument, he has discovered what is wrong with the “atheists have caused more murder than the Catholic church.”
Tags: azeusism, Genocide, History, Mass murder
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
You may remember that I wrote a few weeks back about the 8 year old who could not legally get divorced from her 58 year old husband. I had a couple (not many) comments about how blaming the religion for the Sharia based ruling that the court gave was incorrect. I found this amazing because the article clearly stated that the court ruled based on their religious books AND I quoted from the relevant Hadith citing Mohammad’s example.
Now the top cleric in Saudi Arabia has weighed in on the matter and given his thoughtful religious declaration about young girls marrying older men.
Turns out he has read his religious texts and believes them to be a good way to live.
The debate over the practice of men marrying children in Saudi Arabia was back in the spotlight this week, with the kingdom’s top cleric refusing to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.
…Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in remarks quoted Wednesday in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. “A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her.”
… “We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls,” he said, according to the newspaper. “We should know that Shariah law has not brought injustice to women.”
Sharia law is explicitly based on religious texts that say that these things are allowed.
So as I wrote before in my “Why I engage in religious debates…” essay:
In Islam, Mohammad’s life is the best example of how to lead a virtuous life. How he lived his life is to be emulated by faithful Muslims. It is blasphemous to suggest that Mohammad’s moral example could be improved upon. This leads to some tragic modern day occurrences.
The Sahih al-Bukhari is the most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths which records the life of Mohammad. It has passages like the following (the link is to the specific quote in the USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts):
HADITH: Sahih al-Bukari — Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88: Narrated ‘Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Mohammad consummated his marriage with a nine year old.
If people honestly believed that this kind of behavior is the highest morality that we could even aim for, what effect could this kind of thinking have in the real world today?
We have the answer — the head cleric of Saudi Arabia has, once again, declared that Sharia Law not only allows children brides, but is proud of that fact.
Tags: child brides, islam, religious debate, Saudi Arabia
Posted in Negative Religious Influence, islam | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
I just read this rather depressing SodaHead.com question and responses titled: If the day comes here in America that believing in Jesus Christ meant having your head cut off would you die for Him?
And, of course, there are plenty of people very eager to let themselves be killed “for their savior” — I’m more interested in the answers to this question:
Believers who would die for your faith; would you let nonbelievers die for your faith as well?
In fact, I joined the website so that I could ask that question.
I will post a bit later after the question has had time to float for a bit.
Of course, to all the people would would let 2 nonbelievers be killed so that they could get by without renouncing their faith; I would like to ask a few further questions:
How high would that number have to be for you to renounce your faith?
If 100 nonbelievers were killed? 1000?
What if they were believers?
What if it was every human on the planet?
There comes a point where the answers to these questions become overwhelmingly disturbing…
Tags: Christianity, martyrdom
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
A common argument given for belief in Christianity is the “Who would die for a lie?” argument.
I have posted a new essay that gives a response that is unique from the other criticisms of this rather lame argument. Let me add that there are tons of valid criticisms of this argument, but I hope that you find my version an interesting alternative.
Response to: Who would Die for a Lie? — A Christian cannot simultaneously claim to live in a world of demon possession and exorcisms; a world where angels proclaim messages to shepherds and disciples — and a world where naturalistic explanations are the only available ones to explain the behavior of people.
As always, I’m interested in knowing your thoughts on the essay!
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
My first article to give an explicit ‘What NOT to do’ along with a ‘What TO do’ correction has been posted with analysis:
The essay is: The Word of Zeus
The essay adds yet another tactic (Make an extremely forceful point by letting the weight of the point fall on you — and the person will not get defensive), and involves several Bible verses (including one that is the focus of the Ridiculous Ending to the Gospel of Mark essay.
Let me know what you think — and more importantly — if you try this (or any other) approach please report back the successes or problems that you had!
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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