August 31, 2007

Top 10 Logical Fallacies Used By Religion

For those who don't know, A logical fallacy is a flawed pattern of reasoning. Something which the religious are professionals at.

In this post I'm going to list my favorite ten logical fallacies used by the religious in arguments. I'll also post their meaning and an example of what the fallacy may look like when used in an argument. I'm sure most of you free-thinkers will recognise many of these from past discussions with religious people.

#1. Argumentum ad ignorantium - Fallacy that something must be true because it has not been, Or can't be, proven false.
If you can't prove that god doesn't exist, That means he must exist.

#2. Argumentum ad misericordia - Appealing to pity.
Why are you so intent on destroying something that makes so many sick children happy!

#3. Argumentum ad nauseum - Fallacy that something is likely to be true the more often it is said.
God exists, How many times do i have to tell you?

#4. Argumentum ad novitatem - Fallacy that something is right because it's new.
Of course Islam is the true religion, Mohammad is the most recent prophet.

#5. Argumentum ad populum - Fallacy that something is correct based on the amount of people who believe it.
Look how many people believe in Jesus, They can't all be wrong.

#6. Bifurcation - Fallacy of presenting a situation as having only two answers.
Evolution is wrong, So that means creationism is right.

#7. Circular Logic - The premise that what you are trying to prove is evidence of it's self.
The bible is the word of god because it says it is, And it can't be wrong, because after all, It is the word of god.

#8. Cum hoc ergo propter hoc - Fallacy of asserting that events occurring simultaneously must be causally related.
With all these natural disasters happening how can you deny that god isn't punishing us?

#9. Plurium interrogationum - Fallacy of demanding a simplistic answer to a complex question.
If god didn't create the universe then explain what did.

#10. Slippery slope fallacy - Fallacy that one event will inevitably lead to harmful consequences.
If we let gays get married it will be the end of family values.

There are many more but these are my favorites and most commonly used logical fallacies in discussions with religious people.

if you have any more with examples please post them in a reply and I'll add them to the list.

Does Religion Deserve Respect?

As an atheist i often get told that i should be respectful of other peoples beliefs, While at the same time no respect is shown to mine. The religious ask me not criticize their belief, Not to question it and more often than not take offence that someone could possibly believe that their god doesn't exist. And all the while they continuously and consistently try to indoctrinate me in to whichever invisible-sky-super-friend cult they have been tricked in to following.

So should free-thinkers respect religion even though they don't believe it? The answer is No, They shouldn't. Religion would be easy to ignore if all it was was a belief in something that doesn't exist, As far as i know it's still perfectly legal to be a moron. But with religion comes more than just a "belief", There also comes actions. The belief causes people to take certain actions and these actions should be neither respected nor tolerated.

Let's use an analogy to look a bit closer at this. if i said that i believed there were invisible pixies at the bottom of my garden and they grant me wishes, Should that belief be "respected"? Of course it shouldn't, it's not true, But it's a fairly harmless belief and it would be easy to write me off as a nut and ignore me. But what if i said that there were invisible pixies at the bottom of my garden and they require me to mutilate my child's genitals, Treat my wife like an animal, Prevent me donating blood that may save someones life, Plant bombs, Cut peoples heads off and not work on a special day? Should my harmless "belief" be respected even though it is responsible for making me take some crazy, And sometimes horrific, Actions?

This is why Atheists and free-thinkers should oppose, Disrespect and try to eradicate religion. Not because it's incorrect and primitive, But because it makes people do things, Things which without religion would be barbaric and illegal.


August 25, 2007 Banned From DIGG

It seems the christian right have used their sheer numbers yet again to bulldoze through freedom of speech and in to a realm where people have to do what they say. This time they are using digg to demonstrate their utter arrogance, Pettiness and contempt for anyone who dares question them.

After reading this interesting article on about an area of space 1 billion light years across which contains no stars I thought "digg would like this" so i clicked the "digg this" link on the site and was greeted with the message;
This URL has been widely reported by users as being regularly used to spam Digg's submission process and cannot be submitted at this time.
Spam! I clicked the back button to see which site i had been reading and it turned out to be the website belonging to everyone favorite neighbourhood atheist, Richard Dawkins. You can see the error page by clicking this link

Now, I think it should be obvious what is going on here. Richard Dawkins is not a spammer. His site has been banned as a result of a collective sabotage effort by those who disagree with him, Namely fundamental christian nut cases.

I guess they only like free speech when it's protecting their right to tell us that we are going to hell, Protects their right to protest at funerals and protects their right to spread hatred and homophobia.

I suggest everyone email digg ( and let them know about this abuse and strongly urge them to reverse the ban. It would be also handy if you could digg this story.

Christian Morality Activist Arrested On Prositution Charges

Coy Privette, the president of a Christian morality group and a former state legislator and Southern Baptist Convention leader, has been arrested on prostitution-related charges in North Carolina.

Privette, the president of the Christian Action League in North Carolina, was charged July 19 with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution.

Privette, 74, is a former trustee of the Christian Life Commission (now Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), the Southern Baptist Convention's moral-watchdog agency. He is a former trustee chair of the SBC's Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

Sex scandals have become more prominent in Baptist circles recently, with clergy sex-abuse cases recently shocking churches in Texas, Missouri, Kentucky and Florida. In 2006, Oklahoma pastor Lonnie Latham, a member of the powerful SBC Executive Committee, was arrested for “offering to engage in an act of lewdness” with a male undercover police officer.


Don't you just love it when the hypocricy of these people is exposed by thier own foolish imoral actions?

the president of a Christian morality group arrested for soliciting sex. It simply doesn't get any better than that!

Mother Teresa, The Fake Christian

Mother Teresa is often held aloft by the noisy religious as evidence that religion equals morality, Even though they usually other hold aloft other people and seldom point to their own works of charity to prove this.

There is no mistake, Mother Teresa had tried hard to help people and she did say she was a christian, But as we all know, Saying something and doing something are two very different things.

While her outward appearance was very religious and an appearance that was designed to portrait someone who completely believes in god, her personal writings show a very agnostic person who has nothing but questions.
"Lord, my God, you have thrown [me] away as unwanted - unloved," she wrote in one missive. "I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer, no, no one. Alone. Where is my faith? even deep down right in there is nothing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart."




This raises some very interesting questions. If Mother Teresa was able to do such good work even though she had "no faith" will this finally put to rest the unfounded claim by the religious that without religion man would have no morality? And secondly, How many other so called "christians" are simply paying lip service? How many other people, Especially politicians, Are simply claiming to have a belief in the invisible man in the sky when their actual belief is one of agnosticism, Or even better, Atheism.

I have read a number of people claiming that this was nothing more than a crisis of faith, A time when Mother Teresa was questioning her beliefs, A blip if you will. I prefer to see it as a revelation of reality.

August 22, 2007

Which Religion Are You? 71% Say Atheist

Although i hate to refer to Atheism as a religion, It does say a lot about changing trends in America and globally with regards to god, Or more precisely, The lack of god, When 71% of voters in a poll state that they are Atheist.

On Larry Kings page on the CNN site he has a poll asking the question "which religion do you associate with?" and amazingly, At the moment, 71% of voters have selected "Atheism" and a further 3% selected "agnostic".

So much for religions claim that atheism isn't as widespread as people think.

So any atheist out there, Go vote, Make your voice heard!

August 19, 2007

Hitler Was NOT An Atheist

During any discussion with the religious where the topic is the evil and violence that comes from religion at some point it's pretty much guaranteed that one of them will claim that Hitler was an atheist, Then use this as an almost "you guys are as bad as us" argument - As if that redeems them for centuries of killing and Torture.

Catholics today like to distance themselves from Hitler, Understandably, But as much as they would like to rewrite history - much like they do in child abuse cases - The fact remains that Hitler, While in power, was a devout Catholic who visited the pope, and after his fall from power wrote many times in "The Nazi Bible" (Mein Kampf) about his christian faith and how he sympathised with jesus' fight against "Jewish poison". His faith in god and religion even lead him to put "Gotten Mituns" on every Nazi soldiers belt buckle, Which translates in to English as "God With Us".

Doesn't sound like the actions of an Atheist to me.

If you have a copy of Mein Kampf laying around you may be interested in looking up the follow quotes;
p. 46
And the founder of Christianity [Jesus] made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God

In 1922 he published "My New Order" and in that stated;


When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those [Jews] by whom today this poor people are plundered and exploited

There are many more occasions when Hitler made his faith in God and Jesus clear, But we could be here all day. As atheists it is important that we challenge every falsehood perpetuated by the religious and we have to challenge every attempt by them to rewrite history.

August 11, 2007

Christian Boot Camp Drags Girl Behind Van


Charles Eugene Flowers and Stephanie Bassitt of San Antonio-based Love Demonstrated Ministries, a 32-day Christian boot camp, were arrested on aggravated assault charges for the alleged June 12 incident.

Lovely people, Christians. They seem to have a penchant for humiliation, Cruel punishments and violence against children. but apart from that, Lovely people.

Evidence For Intelligent Design?

If you are like me you probably get sick of hearing the religious talk about creationism, Or intelligent design as they like to call it, They think that makes it sound scientific. It's the idea that god made everything as it is and that animals didn't evolve through natural selection.

Over the years, After many discussions with these people, I have found a very "unscientific" pattern to the way they argue their point. They argue their point by, Well, Not arguing their point at all.

The reasoning of supporters of intelligent design is to find holes in evolution without ever presenting any evidence or reason to support their own position of "god done it", Yet their whole reason for disbelieving evolution is that sometimes the evidence simply doesn't add up. Well, If it's the so called "lack of evidence" that makes them question evolution let's hear the compelling evidence that makes intelligent design the theory to replace it.

Supporters of intelligent design seem to be under the impression that for their theory to be true all they have to do is disprove Darwin's evolution. I'll show you how little sense this makes.
person 1: There was a ball there earlier.
Person 2: Either Billy took it or a magic purple dragon wearing a top hat took it.
Person 1: Well billy couldn't have taken it, He's at school.
Person 2: That means it must have been the dragon!

I don't entertain the idea that evolution could be incorrect, There is simply too much evidence to support it and anyone who can understand the evidence is certain to come to the conclusion that yes, Through natural selection, Simple life can evolve in to varied complex life. But let's assume that at some point evolution is going to be proven, By science, To be incorrect. What reason do we have to assume that intelligent design should be the theory to replace it?

So i put it to supporters of intelligent design. What reason is there to think that intelligent design is the cause of different species and why should it replace evolution, Even if evolution is one day proven to be incorrect?

August 05, 2007

Dawkins Urges Atheists To "Come Out Of The Closet"

Atheist god Richard Dawkins has put his name behind a campaign which urges all Atheists and non-believers to "come out" of the closet and speak freely about their non-belief.

Atheist clothing

The campaign goes further than just asking Atheists to be honest about what they believe, It also asks them to wear a scarlet "A" as a way for us to make our non-belief known to people. It's not really a way of converting people, It's more of an in your face "fuck you" to the religious people we have had to suffer for too long and a way for us to make it clear that we don't want other peoples beliefs to effect what we are allowed to do in the way of laws and public policy, Particularly in our schools where our children are regularly brainwashed with this filth.

Some people have complained that this adoption of a "symbol" is another step towards the much unwanted transition from non-belief to religion, But i see it more as a way to say to people "I'm a rational intelligent human being and i don't need to believe in invisible men in the sky to explain things which currently have no explanation in science". Think of it as a medal that you earned for not being tricked in to believing in supernatural monsters.

Religious Freedom In Iraq?

For the Iraqis there may be religious freedom. But certainly not for the American service men and women fighting over there.

According to the nogodblog a fundamental christian major had a complete meltdown when he found out that soldiers in his company where holding a meeting under the umbrella of Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

The Major threatened to punish the soldiers under the UCMJ, Accused them of being part of a conspiracy against christians and said they were disrespecting soldiers who have died protecting the Constitution.

After his ranting and raving was over he broke up the meeting and vowed to make sure no such meetings were allowed to take place in the future.

I thought the freedom of belief was one of the things we are supposed to be fighting for over there? I guess, Like always with christians, They don't mind what you believe, As long as it's the same thing that they believe. And if you believe otherwise they start shouting, Abusing thier power and threatening people.