How did this Liberal Atheist end up in a Foxhole?

The Atheists Spreading the Word

Documentary about atheism, aired on CBC's The National, October 5, 2007

GREAT ATHEISTIC QUOTES

Great quotes from well known atheist, agnostic, free thinkers and religious skeptics.

"The way to change the world is to change people's minds. As more and more people openly discuss the fact that "God" and "Allah" are completely imaginary, the world becomes a better place. The people who believe in "religion" look sillier and sillier. Eventually, religion becomes a fringe activity that is meaningless."
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/



"WHAT IS ATHEISM?"

Atheism is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This absence of belief generally comes about either through deliberate choice, or from an inherent inability to believe religious teachings which seem literally incredible. It is not a lack of belief born out of simple ignorance of religious teachings.

Some atheists go beyond a mere absence of belief in gods: they actively believe that particular gods, or all gods, do not exist. Just lacking belief in gods is often referred to as the "weak atheist" position; whereas believing that gods do not (or cannot) exist is known as "strong atheism."

Regarding people who have never been exposed to the concept of 'god': Whether they are 'atheists' or not is a matter of debate. Since you're unlikely to meet anyone who has never encountered religion, it's not a very important debate...
It is important, however, to note the difference between the strong and weak atheist positions. "Weak atheism" is simple scepticism; disbelief in the existence of god. "Strong atheism" is an explicitly held belief that god does not exist. Please do not fall into the trap of assuming that all atheists are "strong atheists." There is a qualitative difference in the "strong" and "weak" positions; it's not just a matter of degree.

Some atheists believe in the nonexistence of all gods; others limit their atheism to specific gods, such as the christian god, rather than making flat-out denials.
"Is there such a thing as atheist morality?"
If you mean "Is there such a thing as morality for atheists?," then the answer is yes, as explained above. Many atheists have ideas about morality which are at least as strong as those held by religious people.

If you mean "Does atheism have a characteristic moral code?," then the answer is no. Atheism by itself does not imply anything much about how a person will behave. Most atheists follow many of the same "moral rules" as theists, but for different reasons. Atheists view morality as something created by humans, according to the way humans feel the world 'ought' to work, rather than seeing it as a set of rules decreed by a supernatural being.

"Then aren't atheists just theists who are denying god?"
A study by the Freedom From Religion Foundation found that over 90% of the atheists who responded became atheists because religion did not work for them. They had found that religious beliefs were fundamentally incompatible with what they observed around them.

Atheists are not unbelievers through ignorance or denial; they are unbelievers through choice. The vast majority of them have spent time studying one or more religions, sometimes in very great depth. They have made a careful and considered decision to reject religious beliefs.

This decision may, of course, be an inevitable consequence of that individual's personality. For a naturally sceptical person, the choice of atheism is often the only one that makes sense, and hence the only choice that person can honestly make.

The word "deny" can be used to mean "fail to accept the truth of." In that sense only, atheists deny the existence of god. They are not "in denial," wilfully ignoring evidence; nor do they necessarily positively assert the nonexistence of god.
(Quoted from infidels.org)

For more great reading please pick up a copy of David Mill's "Atheist Universe" and any Richard Dawkins books or simply go to http://www.rationalresponders.com !

Atheist Statistics 2008

-The safest countries in the world have a positive correlation with atheism.
-Education and intelligence have a positive correlation with atheism.
-Atheists are less likely to be criminals and less likely to divorce.
-Atheism is growing (3 times as many people losing their faith than gaining a faith).

Atheism is never about having fun or doing what you want, it's about the truth.



Note:This is a REBUTTAL to Christian claims that atheists are immoral, dumb, or evil. This is not an attack on Christians. In other words, I wouldn't have felt the need to make this video if it hadn't been for all the insane opinions Christians have of atheists and the non-religious.

Sources:
Statistics in regards to Europe came from religious organization called Tearfund.
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/ar...

Statistics in regards to America came from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/unite...

Atheism growing came from..
http://www.adherents.com/

Societal Health statistics come from numerous sources, such as The journal of Religion and Society
http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2005/2...
but the specific quotation comes from "The Cambridge Companion to Atheism" by Zuckerman. More information can be found in this video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fEcrW3CUtek


National Academy of Sciences statistics come from a study in the Journal Nature, by Larson & Whitham in 1998.
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/at...

Intelligence and Education statistics come from the Tearfund organization as linked previously as well as DOZENS of studies that can be summed up by Paul Bell in an article in Mensa magazine.
Bell, Paul. "Would you believe it?" Mensa Magazine, Feb. 2002, pp. 12--13

Prison Statistics can be found here..
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs...
http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

Divorce Statistics can be found here..
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr...

Divine impulses: Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens discusses his upbringing, being an anti-theist, his contempt for the religious, the value of religion, the trouble with Islam and mortality without God.

Divine impulses: Christopher Hitchens - part 1 of 7



Divine impulses: Hitchens: A Child Atheist - part 2 of 7



Divine impulses: hitchens: being anti-god 3 of 7



Divine impulses: Hitchens: contempt for the religious 4 of 7



Divine impulses: Hitchens: the value of religion 5 of 7



Divine impulses: Hitchens: the trouble with islam 6 of 7



Divine impulses: Hitchens: morality without god part 7 of 7

Atheist

Atheists aren't that bad. This is NOT an argument for atheism... It's a defense of atheists.

This video received the award for "Excellence in Humanist Communications" from the Harvard University Humanist Chaplaincy.

This video (among others) was also mentioned in the November 4th New York Times article "God and Man on YouTube."

The Rise of Atheism - ABC plus Christopher Hitchens

A large convention of atheists gathered today in Virginia, where men, women and children eagerly proclaimed that God does not exist.

While their views still may be the minority in the country, atheists have become more vocal and visible in recent years.

T-shirts, bumper stickers and even rap songs proclaim atheists' beliefs. Atheist summer camps now exist for children.

"Over the last 20 years," said Alan Wolfe of Boston College, "the number of people willing to tell people in surveys that they don't believe in God have pretty much doubled."

Books denying God's existence have topped bestseller lists, and Congress has its first self-proclaimed atheist, Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.

"A lot of respectable people are coming out and saying they are very happy to dispel the myths of the Bible," said Margaret Downey of Atheist Alliance International.

Some atheists said their profile has increased because of a rise in religious extremism, like the Islamic fundamentalism behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the rise of the Christian right in the United States.

Gathering of the Godless

Meanwhile, the Internet has helped unite non-believers. In fact, this weekend's convention sold out, and had a waiting list of 600 people.

Besides listening to speakers, convention attendees can buy merchandise like a born-again-atheist hat, atheist-on-board signs for those with kids, or after-the-rapture mints.

They also had the opportunity to mingle with celebrity atheists like authors Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.

On "Good Morning America Weekend Edition," Hitchens said American believers should recognize they live in a secular state.

"It would be better for them if they didn't give themselves false conciliation," he said. "My challenge is really to say, 'Can you name me a moral action or a statement that has been made by a believer that couldn't have been made by a non-believer?'"

And while the stigma associated with atheism may be diminishing, the majority of Americans say they would not vote for an atheist for president.


But, Hitchens said he believes people would vote for an atheist candidate.

"They haven't had an offer from a decent atheist yet," he said.

And while Hitchens said atheists tend to be liberal, he said the group doesn't back a particular

presidential candidate.

- ABCNews.com

Atheist Life vs Religious Life

Some argue that religious life is the best way to live. They claim life without a god is sad and depressing. Statements like "I could not imagine my life without God", and "My life would be meaningless without God", are common defenses for a religious life.

Godless and Free

Godless and Free by Pat Condell

Somebody pointed out to me recently that by focusing on what I don’t want, namely religion, I’m attracting more of it into my life, which I agree would be a very unfortunate irony if not for the fact that I’m focusing on what I do want, and that’s freedom, and lots of it.

You see, I make these videos not because I despise religion as humanity’s way of poking itself in the eye with a sharp stick for no reason, although obviously I do, but because I want to live in a free world full of free people who can say whatever they want to say and who can be whoever they want to be one thousand percent fo the time, and where nobody is allowed to shut them up because their crackpot religious beliefs have been offended.

I don’t care at all about theology, unless it threatens that freedom, and then I care about it the way I care about rabies or typhoid. So you could say that I’m not so much anti-religion as pro-freedom. Indeed if religion was pro-freedom, I wouldn’t have such a problem with it. But then if religion was pro-freedom it wouldn’t exist.

Because religion feeds on a broken spirit, and that’s why it tries to break your spirit the moment you come into contact with it.

Submit. Obey. Do not question.

Those words should be chiseled above the entrance of every church and every mosque. Because that’s the only message religion has, when it comes right down to it – Praise the lord, or else.

The pope spelled it out for American catholics when he told them, “Obedience to the doctrine of the church is the foundation of your faith.” That’s what he said. There was no mention of enlightenment or spirituality or any of these things, because he’s not in this business. He’s in the obedience business, the only business where the customer is always wrong.

Clergy are the only salesmen who don’t have to justify or prove any of the outrageous claims they make for the product they’re hustling, and this leaves them free to engage in the kind of open fraud which in any other walk of life would be a criminal offence.

For the level of investment they demand from us I believe we’re entitled to expect actual enlightenment and wisdom in return. Instead, what do we get? We get dogma, crude coercion, and endless empty pieties about the love of a god who clearly loves us the way a violent husband loves the woman sitting next to him with two black eyes. If we step out of line we pay in the most brutal way.

And it’s this crass violence at the heart of religion which I believe makes it truly evil, and also furnishes proof, as if proof were needed, that this is an entirely manmade phenomenon with nothing divine about it, otherwise it wouldn’t be so damned ugly.

The god of the desert is transparently a false god. He’s a puppet who speaks with the voice of ignorant men who are afraid of knowledge and afraid of freedom and who therefore need desperately to control the thoughts of others for their own miserable survival.

They need us to believe that we’re less than we are, and to diminish ourselves in our own minds, to feel small and helpless, in need of salvation. So what do they tell us? They tell us that strength and virtue lie in submission. Yes, of course they do. With our faces in the dust we are invincible, isn’t that right?

And of course we live forever, either in eternal bliss or in eternal torment, but that’s entirely up to us. Eternal bliss requires that you wear a straitjacket of blind faith, not permanently, just from now until you die, whereas living a joyful, humane, compassionate, but godless life will get you horribly tortured for all eternity.

Fear is religion’s currency of choice. It’s the lowest of human emotions because it’s the most crippling emotion and this is why it’s religion’s currency of choice. It’s pretty obvious when you think about it, but hey, don’t strain yourselves.

But actually it’s religion that has everything to fear because it depends on maintaining the illusion, maintaining the spell, and hoping that nobody manages to burst its artificial bubble of faith, and this is exactly why it wages such determined war on our basic freedoms of thought and speech.

But it’s losing this war, because every day more and more of us are waking up to the damage that this nonsense is doing to our world. We can see our societies being twisted out of shape, being injected with false values that pander to bigotry and superstition, and we’ve realized that this god of the desert has outstayed his welcome and become a liability, and quite frankly he needs us a lot more than we need him.

Because we’ve moved on from the desert, and we’ve discovered a few things about the world, and the universe, and our place in it, and we’re no longer afraid of the thunder and the lightning. Our world is no longer populated by demons and hobgoblins, and we no longer need to be led around by the nose for the benefit of clergy.

And they know this, just as they know that their god’s very existence depends entirely on our belief – belief without evidence and belief that defies reason – and when that belief disappears, as one day it certainly will, this ridiculous god will disappear with it, instantly and forever.

He won’t be able to vent his wrath or visit retribution on anyone, because he won’t exist. He’ll evaporate quicker than common sense in a creation museum, and his vast army of controlling parasitical clergy will find themselves briefly, cartoon-like in mid air, before dropping like fleas into a bucket.

That’s what I’m looking forward to, and that’s what I’m focused on, and it’s why I make these videos, because I think we’re better than this. And I know we’ve got the power to withdraw our belief, and our consent, and put a stop to this nonsense.

All we need is the courage.

Peace and freedom. Let’s not forget the freedom.