Can Atheists Be Spiritual?

I am slowly finding like-minded bloggers who feel the need to express what they believe in, in addition to the assertion that they have no belief in god(s).

Here’s a gem written by David Garnet over at Glittering Muse.

If we are to attract more people to atheism and the humanist worldview, we need more of this kind of writing.

July 30, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

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Seth MacFarlane Likes to Piss Off Southerners

The creator of Family Guy is one funny dude.

MORE AT ATHEISTNATION.NET

July 30, 2008 · Filed Under funnier than hell

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One Atheist’s Perspective on Prayers

With the scare I had over my son becoming a diabetic, I had a number of friends say they were praying for Christopher and my family.

I know some atheists take a really hard line on anything to do with religion - including prayer (e.g. “I don’t want anyone praying for me”) whereas I’m softer on the whole thing. As a “Dawkins” atheist, I know all about the argument that there is a slippery slope between the average, well-meaning, good Christian, and wacky fundamentalists. However, I am not quite as militant about the former kind simply because I don’t think they are bad people. Incorrect, yes. Bad, no.

In fact, they mean well. They mean to help. I can’t fault them for that. I’m happy and grateful they have concern for me and my family.

If someone says, “I’m praying for you”, the translator in my head hears, “I am thinking about your family and hoping for the best”.

In my view, the only difference between them and me is that they believe there is someone “up there” listening to those prayers whereas, of course, I don’t.

Thinking about this makes me wonder … to those of you who do take a hard line, how do you reject a prayer?

July 28, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, religion

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Belief In God = Misplaced Hope & Comfort

The shock and fear of my son becoming a diabetic shook me very deeply. So deeply, that I found myself reacquainted with that frightened little voice in my head that yearned for a sort of parental comfort and protection from the perceived demons of the world. The voice was saying, “Please don’t take him from me. Please make everything turn out alright”.

It was a momentary lapse that was quickly dispelled with a little dose of rational thinking and the reminder that millions of undeserving people are inflicted with suffering every day. This undeserved suffering that’s been happening over hundreds of thousands of years is just one indication that there is no god.

The horrible experience convinced me that emotions like fear and hope evolved with strong connections to an often supernaturally based yearning for protection and comfort - we didn’t understand the world, so we looked to the mystical realm for help. While this may have been helpful to us in the past, in my mind, that approach is today a distraction. Hope and comfort are now better sought out in our own growing knowledge of the universe - of how things work and how things can be fixed.

Bringing it back to this personal experience, my kid gets to live because of humanity’s growing knowledge of biology, and I feel grateful to live in a time and place where my family can benefit.

Fear gives way to hope and comfort in the knowledge that our species is, with growing rapidity, learning to eliminate the suffering many people’s god is either unable or unwilling to end himself.

July 25, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

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XTC ‘Dear god’ Lyrics & Videos

XTC dear godI trade emails with a group of co-workers and past co-workers. Today, someone in the group said, “God Bless Canada”. Another friend replied with, “What if you don’t believe in god?” (huzzah!) and then followed up with the lyrics of a 1987 song called Dear god by the British Band XTC (probably best known for We’re Only Making Plans for Nigel). I’ve pasted the lyrics below. Not only are they clearly and strongly written from the point of view of an atheist, but they write god without a capital “G”. A nice touch if you ask me.
—
Update: I went to submit this post to Reddit and saw the XTC Dear god video had already been posted on youtube so I’m adding that, as well as a Sarah McLachlan version.

Dear god,
Hope you got the letter,
And I pray you can make it better down here.
I dont mean a big reduction in the price of beer,
But all the people that you made in your image,
See them starving on their feet,
cause they dont get enough to eat

From god,
I cant believe in you.

Dear god,
Sorry to disturb you,
But I feel that I should be heard loud and clear.
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears,
And all the people that you made in your image,
See them fighting in the street,
cause they cant make opinions meet,
About god,
I cant believe in you.

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
Did you make mankind after we made you?
And the devil too!

Dear god,
Dont know if you noticed,
But your name is on a lot of quotes in this book.
Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look,
And all the people that you made in your image,
Still believing that junk is true.
Well I know it aint and so do you,

Dear god,
I cant believe in,
I dont believe in,

I wont believe in heaven and hell.
No saints, no sinners,
No devil as well.
No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
Youre always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
Those lost at sea and never found,
And its the same the whole world round.
The hurt I see helps to compound,
That the father, son and holy ghost,
Is just somebodys unholy hoax,
And if youre up there youll perceive,
That my hearts here upon my sleeve.
If theres one thing I dont believe in…

Its you,
Dear god.

July 24, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, video

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A Difficult Week

insulin injection diabetes

On Friday, my wife and I learned that our son - six years old - is a type 1 juvenile diabetic (the insulin injections for life kind).

Needless to say, we all have a lot to learn and adjust to. I don’t have the energy to post much else today.

Right now, I’d say if there is a god, his name is Frederick Banting.

July 19, 2008 · Filed Under family matters

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Who Needs To Be In My Blogroll?

I’ve been doing some work on my sidebar and bookmark page. What links am I missing that you think should be in every good rational, freethinking, atheist’s blog?

July 14, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

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Karma Isn’t The Answer Either

It’s funny how one broken brick can lead to an entire wall falling down…

One of the first aha! moments I had after letting go of my god delusion was the realization that leading one’s life according to the laws (?) of Karma isn’t much better.

The Stoke-On-Trent Humanist Group has it partly right:

These people are deluding themselves. Karma is an Eastern idea, popular in sophisticated quasi-religious philosophies like Buddhism, and is a way of dishing out false hope to the down trodden and wretched without the need to invoke a god.

False hope. Sound familiar?

What’s also familiar to me is the idea that the good and bad stuff you do is being recorded somewhere. Only, instead of gods doing the tallying, the universe somehow is. Make no mistake however, that you are being judged. Everything you do goes into a score book which will be used to determine your reward (coming back as a more enlightened human) or punishment (coming back as a dung-beetle).

I think a lot of people who let go of gods replace them with mysticism of this sort - the supernatural idea that, somehow, the universe has taken a personal stake in your moral behavior. To me, karma sounds a lot like sin.

Let’s stop the madness and give up this perverse idea that someone or something is watching us and judging for the purpose of determining where we fit in after we are dead.

July 12, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

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Who’s Your Nomination For The Fifth Horseman?

I downloaded the Four Horsemen from richardawkins.net a couple of nights ago, and got to wondering who the fifth horseman might be. Even though I like to think I have the occasional original idea, I decided to Google the matter here and here and found that there were at least a few people wondering the same thing.

For the record, here are my top three choices:

Pat Condell: This guy makes Christopher Hitchens look like a beat-around-the-bushes mambie pambie pussy. ‘Nuff said. You can find Pat on his web site and Youtube channel.

Bart Ehrman: I think it would be safe to say that most other candidates for the fifth horseman are not Bible experts. Ehrman fills this void. His knowledge of Bible history and textual criticism is mind blowing. I especially like his there are more mistakes than there are words in the Bible quote. Ehrman has written several books - his most well known probably being Misquoting Jesus. Here’s a video of Bart Ehrman speaking at Stanford.

PZ Meyers: Through his Pharyngula science blog, PZ Meyers has become one of the most vocal and convincing atheist voices on the web. The guy is right up there with Dawkins in terms of his ability to explain science and obliterate his opposition. PZ’s blog is updated daily - sometimes several times a day - and is enormously popular.

Time to vote!

Who is your choice for the fifth horseman?

View Results

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July 11, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, poll

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The Five Most Important Days for Atheists

Head on over the Hemant’s for an interesting 10 year retrospective.

July 10, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

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