Awesome Godlessness Part II: Not Being Afraid of Your Own Thoughts
If you haven’t already done so, it might be a good idea to read part I of this series before reading this article. There, I set out some important ideas that will help you understand the frame of reference I have for describing an awesomely godless existence.
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God Has Far Too Much Time On His Hands
From a very young age, I remember reading and being told that God knows everything. He knows what you’ve done, and what you will do. He even knows your thoughts. Hell, he even knows what you will think before you do.
I’ve heard Christopher Hitchens call this the “celestial surveillance camera”. How perfect. God, with all his responsibilities for creating universes and making sure everything works tickety-boo has the time and interest to spy on each and every thought we will ever have. …continue reading about the god who has way too much time on his hands
Awesome Godlessness Part I: Introduction
Part of the interview an atheist survey I recently completed asked why I think living as an atheist is better than living a life under God. In retrospect, my response wasn’t nearly as good as it might have been. For starters, I wrote it right before...
Attention Dave Mabus / Dennis Markuze
You’ve decided to comment on everything I post. Normally, I welcome anyone who adds to the discussion. However, in your case, all I am seeing in incoherant babble. Let me make this clear; You have never said a word that makes any sense. Please...
Getting Past Atheist Anger
As many atheists will attest, fierce anger is one of the emotions we experience (sometimes for extended time periods) when we break free from belief. Godless Girl recently wrote about how she gets past the anger, which inspired vjack from Atheist Revolution...
PZ Myers Weighs in on the Search for a Less Religious Version of “Spiritual”
PZ Myers A couple of weeks ago I suggested we stop using the word ‘spiritual’ when describing feelings of awe, wonder, connectedness etc. and use ‘sublime‘ instead. The main thrusts behind my argument were that: Spiritual...
Atheism Is a Purely Emotional Response to Being Mad at God?
I’m amazed at the ability of the Godfull to miss the point and make false statements and generalizations about how atheists become atheists. The thought is on my mind because a theology student recently asked me to answer some survey questions...
Baba Brinkman: The Rationaliz’n, Darwin Testifyin’, Make-Ya-Think-’bout-Evolutioniz’n, Rapper
Baba Brinkman doing his thing... I’m going to start this post by saying I’ve never cared much for rap music. I suppose I could use the excuse that I’m a an over 40 year-old, white, raised-on-a-farm Albertan Canadian, but I know others...
“Why me, Daddy?”
Today, me, my wife and our two children attended a conference for families dealing with children afflicted with Type 1 Diabetes. We attended because my seven year old son has been a Type 1 diabetic for close to two years. My Son - only a few weeks after...
Spiritual Atheism: Good Idea With a Bad Label?
There’s no question that one of the challenges we atheists face is to show that life is not empty and meaningless without God. For some odd reason, believers have a hard time believing that – without God – we’re not here merely...
Atheism Can Be Frightening
I still vividly remember the scary jumble of emotions that hit me when I allowed myself to imagine there was no god. The first thought was a rather funny (well, funny in retrospect!), “Oh my God – there is no GOD!” that was accompanied...
Just Say ‘No’ to Atheist Churches
Last night I read yet another article claiming that what we atheists need are ‘churches’ where we can come together as communities. The idea, which seems to be mostly coming from ex-believers, is that we need special places where we can share...
My Spirituality as an Atheist
This about covers it… (In case you are wondering, the beautiful music is part of the Shawshank Redemption Score composed by James Newton Howard,) Read More →
A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss
What a fascinating talk this is! In my mind, we can add Lawrence Krauss to the list of amazing, passionate science communicators that currently includes Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Read More →
Because I’ve Got Writer’s Block…
In Case You Wondered…
I’m alive and well, and while I’d like to say I’ve been too busy to blog, the truth is that I’ve been sidetracked with a heavy dose of existential angst / ennui and some fairly heavy depression. What is the meaning of life? Why...
Recently Read Books
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Links For Edmonton Atheists & Skeptics
A fellow atheist from Edmonton asked me if I knew of any upcoming atheism related events. Being as unorganized as I have been, I had nothing to offer at the time. However, I’ve fully embraced Google Calendar as my time management tool of choice...
The Dunning–Kruger Effect aka Confirmation Bias on Steriods aka Creationists aka People Who Watch Fox News
In my Does Religious Faith Instill Hatred & Distrust of Science post I mentioned confirmation bias – a person’s tendency to recognize evidence that supports their position, while ignoring and/or downplaying that which opposes their position. According...
Godless ≠ Without Morals
I sometimes get emails. The latest one is from a Christian who shared his opinion (a tired old claim) that, without his god, there is no morality. As if that weren’t enough to get the last hair on my head standing up, last night I watched Dinesh...
Attempts@Rational Behavior Is Good For Your Health
I often have a sore neck. The Doc says I need to do more neck exercises so I’m visiting Attempts at Rational Behavior more than I used to. What does AARB do? They provide highlights of the weird shit religious people say on Twitter (and elsewhere,...
Does Religious Faith Instill Hatred & Distrust of Science?
I have a friend who I’m finding myself disagreeing with more and more lately. This person is intelligent and generally makes a lot of sense – even when we have ideological disagreements (such as on political matters). But lately, the disagreements...
Oprah Woo-Woo Is About To Grow Exponentially
Well, the Queen of Talk has announced that she’ll be retiring her long-standing talk show. Seems reasonable. After all, she’s worked tirelessly on building her empire for almost 25 years and probably could use some down time. But …hang...
Hiding in Plain Sight
I’ve had a few friends find this place, expressing surprise that I’m an atheist and that I’m “secretly” blogging about it. It got me thinking there may be others who’ve been lurking here and wondering about the same...
Stupid Google Search
I am not kidding – someone came to this blog by searching for does Richard Dawkins believe in God? Someone’s obviously just returned from being cast away on a remote island. This would make him laugh Read More →
Does Majesty & Wonder Have To Come From A Creator?
I was in the mood last night for space stuff so I popped In the Shadow of the Moon into the DVD player. The film is a wonderful documentary (directed by Ron Howard) of the US moon landings. It begins, appropriately enough, at the beginning with John...
Excellent Documentary of Charles Darwin
Head on over to CBC. The Nature of Things by David Suzuki has an excellent documentary of Charles Documentary. You can currently view parts I and II on the site. Part III will be available next week. Read More →
Your Comments
- meh: i was number 2 my family wasn’t that religious but i studied the fuck out of it...
- Rob: Interesting that you can think for God. The important issue for Christians is the...
- Rob: Good question. It isn’t whether we have need for a soul. We were created in...
- Rob: Hi – What strengths are there in atheism? I would like to know.
- Rob: Hi – I am not sure this is helpful. I know that everyone has to either accept or...
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Amazing Atheists
- AnAtheist.net run by James Tracy who also looks after ‘The Atheist Spot’ (an atheist link sharing service)
- Atheist Climber Thoughts about science, nature and religion, as well as politics, philosophy, atheism and the occasional rant
- Atheist Revolution by vjack – an unbelievably prolific writer on the subject of atheism
- Attempts At Rational Behavior Godless liberal firmly supporting separation of church and state
- August Cline is the atheism & agnosticism author at about.com. He is excellent.
- Common Sense Atheism Awesome, awesome, awesome awesome atheist blog. End of story.
- Dangerous Talk an atheist/progressive blog discussing the three most dangerous topics of polite conversation: Religion, Politics, and Sex
- Daylight Atheism Night time is for dreaming. Daylight is for action.
- Friendly Atheist warmth and wisdom from the guy who sold his soul on eBay
- God is for Suckers! Group blog, providing commentary, news, and rants on the evils and stupidity of belief in the big invisible daddy in the sky.
- Godless Girl Ex-christian sarcasm-a-tron armed with a vag and a brain. Curiosity killed the faith, not the sass.
- Greta Christina's Blog I don’t think anyone writes more powerfully about atheism than Greta
- Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes As the title suggests, HJHOP is a fun and quirky (but still thoughtful) critique of religion.
- Lousy Canuck He’s Canadian and he’s an atheist. Need I say more? ;)
- Monicks: Unleashed Monica is the tireless force behind the ‘Think Atheist’ community
- No Religion Blog Nice, clear explanations relating to historical accuracy/claims in the Bible, among other things
- Pharyngula by PZ Meyers – evolutionary biologist, heathen and communion cracker desecrator!
- Stupid Evil Bastard What the hell is wrong with you people? (I love that tagline)
- The Gaytheists group blog for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered) Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists
- Unreasonable Faith Excellent atheist blog (one of my favorites) by former evangelical Christian Daniel Florien
- Watching the Wheels see-er. do-er. writer. photographer. thinker. doodler. worker. lover. whiner. reader. cooker. planter. designer. laugher. cleaner (sometimes). remember-er. traveller. questioner. dreamer. organizer. learner. giver. crier. taker. sleeper. imagine-er. eater
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Heathen Bling!
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Awesome Atheism Websites
- Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Touch his noodley appendage!
- God is Imaginary 50 simple proofs for non-existence of god
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- Secular Web contains a simply fantastic article library from both modern and past atheist/agnostic writers
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- Talk Origins Archive Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy
- The Freethinker Excellent secular focused site based on the magazine founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion.
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- Why Won't God Heal Amputees? Is God real, or is he imaginary?
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Skeptical Rulers of the Universe
- Doubtful “Skepticism is a process.” This is a great place to learn. Sharon really does her homework for our benefit.
- Grassroots Skeptics A volunteer organization promoting critical thinking and a reason-centered worldview by helping local skeptics groups to share tools, information and strategies, and connect with skeptical individuals and activists.
- ICBS Everywhere Knowledge, science, reason, education, philosophy, behavior, politics, religion, and B.S.
- James Randi Educational Foundation Not-for-profit organization that promotes critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today. Home of the $1 million paranormal challenge.
- Podblack Cat Science, Superstitions and Skeptical Life
- She Thought women. thinking critically.
- Skepchick A group of women (and one deserving guy) who write about science, skepticism, and pseudoscience. With intelligence, curiosity, and occasional snark, the group tackles diverse topics from astronomy to astrology, psychics to psychology.
- Skeptic North The first Canada-wide blog for skeptics. Its mission is to affect and promote positive, science-based change in mainstream media, Canadian culture and education, and in government policy
- Skeptic's Dictionary Definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies. Detailed information on the supernatural, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. Dozens of topics in logic, perception, science, and philosophy.
- SkepticReport Extremely well organized and laid out skeptic site. Lots of good information here.
- Skeptics Society A scientific and educational organization of scholars, scientists, historians, magicians, professors and teachers, and anyone curious about controversial ideas, extraordinary claims, revolutionary ideas, and the promotion of science.
- Skeptics Society Blog Official blog of the Skeptics Society, featuring the writings of Michael Shermer as well as many others.
- Skeptigirl dedicated to free thinking, critical thinking, science, and skepticism
- Woo Fighters Purpose is to promote critical, skeptical, and scientific thinking by inspiring students to become active promoters of scientific skepticism and defenders of science.
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Health & Medicine
- Quackwatch International network concerned with health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Primary focus on difficult/impossible to find quackery-related information.
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- The Denialism Blog Discussing the problem of denialists, their standard arguing techniques, how to identify denialists and/or cranks, and discuss topics of general interest such as skepticism, medicine, law and science.
- The SkepDoc Retired family physician, former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and skeptic who writes about alternative medicine and quackery.
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Why I Blog
I'm here to help doubting believers let go of their fear and guilt, to provide an example of an atheist leading a happy, moral and fulfilling life, and to connect with fellow non-believers. Welcome!
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Great Reads
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The Four Horsemen
- Christopher Hitchens author of “God is Not Great”
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Meaning of Life Type Stuff
- Ethic of Reciprocity “The Golden Rule” is one of things that guides my life
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Kick-Ass Science
- Action Bioscience Promoting bioscience literacy. Great articles on evolution, genomics, the environment, biotechnology and more.
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