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What I'm reading now:
The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture
God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman
The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture by Darrel W Ray
Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life (this is excellent. Well written and fascinating. Highly recommended)
God Is Not Great (Hitchens is extremely erudite but I agree with him a lot here. Excellent so far)
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Listening to the audio version. Excellent!)


What I just finished:
Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language
Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism (Recommended. The first half is a great read. Thorough and detailed but easy to understand.)
Letting Go of God (I listened to the audio version. It was poignant and funny. Highly recommended!)
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) (best trilogy I've ever read!)

Series

Happy Atheist Love

Evolution Before Darwin

Contrary to many assumptions, evolutionary theory did not begin in 1859 with Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species. Rather, evolution-like ideas had existed since the times of the Greeks, and had been in and out of favor in the periods between ancient Greece and Victorian England. Indeed, by Darwin’s time the idea of evolution – called “descent with modification” – was not especially controversial, and several other evolutionary theories had already been proposed. Darwin may stand at the beginning of a modern tradition, but he is also the final culmination of an ancient speculation.

Evolution in Greece

While the Greeks did not specifically refer to their concepts as “evolution”, they did have a philosophical notion of descent with modification. Several different Greek philosophers subscribed to a concept of origination, arguing that all things originated from water or air. Another [...]

Conversation with Anne About The Meaning Of Life

The other day I wrote to Anne in response to some questions she emailed me. She replied not long after in another email. Here is an excerpt (I’ve removed the more private information): (Note: I’ve added some happy puppies playing in the snow since this topic can be rather serious, and we are having the biggest snow in WV that I’ve seen since we moved here 5 years ago)animals_125_42-P

Thank you for answering my email. I am only 21 and it seams that I am searching for myself and what it is that I can believe. I see how people lie on a daily basis to make the even more entertaining than the event really was so I find it hard to believe anything that is told to me. Giving this way of living I find it tremendously hard to base my life and way of [...]

Atheists, It's Time to Stand Up to Jesus

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By Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk, Comment Is Free.

Civility has its uses, but atheists should not be afraid to mock faith to undermine religious [...]

Advice For Freethinking Kids?

128837916282606782The other day I got an email from an atheist couple who have two kids, one 9 and one 10. They asked me for information regarding websites or literature that might deal with “god pressure” for kids at school. This would be the 4th and 5th grade. Apparently kids at their school are proselytizing and mocking these 2 kids for not believing.

The parents don’t want their kids to feel like freaks and also want to help them counter the exasperated ‘you don’t believe in god!’ remarks. Sam, the father, admits that it can be lonely to not believe in god sometimes. I understand. I feel that way too, although not as much as before I belonged to Morgantown Atheists.

Diane, the mother, says they are open to ideas and suggestions. She says they have friends who aren’t religious but still believe in god. It’s not [...]

100 Questions for christians

funny-pictures-cat-is-ponderingA fellow blogger, Angie the Anti-Theist is doing something very cool I want to share with you. She wants to come up with 100 great questions for christians that are creative, hypothetical and unique. They should make christians really have to think about their beliefs. Everyone knows the stale, tired old questions that have been done to death. These should be new, fresh and thoughtful.

So Angie would like us to come up with creative stump-the-fundie questions to add to her list.

You can see the first 10 questions to get you started on her blog post: Questions for christians.In her list are 2 videos you simply must watch. The first one is gay dolphin sex. I mean, come on, you really don’t want to pass that up, do you? The second one is a music video that is just awesome. I hate [...]

Questions For You

Some days the creative juices flow easier than others. Sometimes I just can’t think of great ideas to share with you. I’m sorry, I am a bit tapped out lately. More great stuff will come, I’m sure. I’ll just have to pray about it, I guess. “Dear Mighty Invisible Pink Unicorn….”

I’m going to share some lolcats while I take the opportunity to ask you some questions.

1. Do you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share with HDC? You can email us at HeavingDeadCats@gmail.com

funny-pictures-cat-explains-meaning-of-life

2. Do you have a deconversion story you’d like to share with us? Send us an email with your story. We’d love to publish it for you. Reading how others have unshackled themselves from religion can be helpful to people who are struggling with such a decision. [...]

Oh Jesus!

I find your lack of faith disturbingI was having a conversation with my friend Steve earlier about Jesus. Was there a Jewish rabbi named Yeshua walking around the Fertile Crescent around 2000 years ago, preaching the end of days? Does it matter? This is my conclusion. No, not really. We’ll never know the truth of it, and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Steve says the majority of scholars feel that there was such a guy. I’ve been under the impression for many years that the biblical Jesus never existed. But I think it’s just an exercise in scholarship and semantics, really.

Here’s where I started:

  • Josephus was the nearest contemporary to Jesus, and he never met him.
  • All the gospels were written 40-80 years after the supposed crucifixion. None of the gospel writers or Paul/Saul ever met Jesus.
  • The Romans were meticulous record keepers back then. Not a word [...]

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