Tagged with religion

Back in the early 90s my dad brought home some "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do) pamphlets to put around the house. Even though I was still a Christian at the time, I thought it was a bit silly. It all seemed to be focused on things like whether someone said a swear word or showed a bra on TV, and I thought probably Jesus had better things to worry about. In the years after, I slowly lost my religion… and I still thought it was kinda silly and insincere: it seemed like Jesus and religion were only ever brought up to say sex was bad, justify hating gay people (I'm sorry, "hating the sin") or why abortion was always wrong. Not much else. So I just left it there in the past with everything else. ...

I stumbled across the list Top 10 Most Common Atheist Arguments, and Why They Fail and thought "I've not written about atheism for a while! Why not?!" ...

"So, you only believe in what you can see, hear, or touch?" It is a (somewhat derisive) phrase you might come across every now and again if you don't believe in the supernatural. It's inevitably followed up with something about believing in love, freedom, or subatomic particles. After all, the reasoning goes, if you don't believe in the supernatural because you can't see it, how can you believe in love, freedom, or subatomic particles? ...

PR rep 1: "We have a problem. We all know this great land of ours is a Christian nation, and we all believe our government should uphold Christian values, but there's a lot of people out there now who disagree. So, we're starting up a PR campaign to convince everybody. Now, how can we really let people know we are a Christian nation?" ...

You've lived in a quiet suburb in Michigan all your life. You like it there. You have many friends. Your son is on the high school football team. Over the years, there's been more and more Muslims move in, but that's all right: they're nice people and you get along just fine. Recently, the Muslim students began to outnumber the Christian population at your school, but again, that's all right: you're ok with that. Then school hired a new coach for the football team, and he's beginning to seem … not all right. ...

Every once in a while, something odd happens. Ok, I guess odd things happen all the time, but this is a particular odd thing. I'll be in a discussion with someone, and they'll absolutely insist I'm not an atheist. They are positive the term I should call myself is "agnostic". This usually happens right after I explain that I obviously can't be 100% certain and could hypothetically change my mind, given the right evidence. ...

Don't you hate it when someone who disagrees with you uses stupid arguments to support their position? Like "Yeah, well, if global warming is true, how come it's snowing outside?!" Or "If evolution is true and we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?!" ...

Me: God, how come my car wouldn't start today? ...

For a while I've wanted to take a peek at what the Unitarian Universalists were up to. I've been hearing about them for quite a while, and heard that they have many non-religious and non-theistic members. We're new in town and haven't met many people, so I was hoping that it'd be a neat way to hook up with some relaxed and interesting people. Also, they offer some kids' programs on religious education that would be great for my daughter, and a good place for her to play, do crafts, and meet other kids too. She seemed interested, especially in the "play" and "other kids" part. ...

In my adult youth (my 20s and early 30s), I was involved in my fair share of "philosophical" discussions. Some might say more than my fair share. Many of those discussions involved religion because it has been (and still is) such a force in the world. After coming to the conclusion that there probably were no gods, and stating so, those discussions often contained statements like: ...

In our neighborhood we don't get too many door-to-door religion salesmen, but they do happen by every once in a while. Recently it was the Mormons. Previously we've had Jehovah's Witnesses and various shades of evangelicals. Most of the time the encounter is very brief: I simply very politely tell them I'm not interested and/or don't have time, and send them on their way. But last year I hit upon a cool and funny idea: send them home with some of my literature. So… ...

Because Facebook shows you other people's likes, I came across this video, labeled 'Ukraine is saying "Yes!" to God. Again.' It was posted by a ministry that distributes Bibles throughout Eastern Europe. The video itself is harmless, just a bunch of random Ukrainians saying "Da" (yes), presumably in response to a question about God (the video never says it explicitly, for some reason). Nothing really to object to: I realize believers exist. But the Facebook comments… hoo boy… ...