Stumbling around the web, I came across a page at lukeprog.com titled The Arrogance of Atheism. I almost moved on, but then I saw the subtitle: Why I’m an atheist, not an agnostic. Luke writes a page that is simple and concise, yet totally makes sense. I contacted him and asked him if I could share it with you. So here it is in its entirety:

The Arrogance of Atheism
Why I’m an atheist, not an agnostic.

When I tell people I’m an atheist, they say, “How can you be so arrogant to think that you know God doesn’t exist? At least say you’re an agnostic and admit that you can’t know for sure one way or the other.”

Atheism! How arrogant!

But is it?

Read more…

Show Bookmarks

Hide Bookmarks

On December 24, 2006, Sam Harris wrote a piece for The Los Angeles Times called 10 Myths - And 10 Truths - About Atheism. I found it just the other day and wanted to share it with you in its entirety:

SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term “atheism” has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president.

Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural. Read more…

Here at Believers Anonymous, when it comes to providing you information, only the cold hard facts will do. In some cases, this is not as easy as it may seem, as I’ve found out today.

I’ve just spent the last 2 days looking for information on something that I think will be helpful to you. It’s about the symbols and stories of christianity and how many if not all of them are merely taken from other earlier religions and myths.

While I know that such things as the cross, the fish symbol, wedding rings, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the trinity, the crucifixion, the theft of all the pagan holidays, the christian vestments and the baptism were all stolen, I don’t have any cold hard facts to cite for you.

I’ve found several sources. Unfortunately they are either laden with agenda and biased, or simply not cited and lacking any validity. While most of those sources basically say the same thing, that doesn’t make it fact.

This might be one of those areas where there just isn’t a lot of hard evidence. This is stuff that happened thousands of years ago, not to mention that pagan religions and myths were targeted by the church in an attempt to get rid of them during the Dark Ages and at other periods. Also the original texts of the bible have been cut and edited, rewritten and improperly translated so they aren’t all that reliable either.

So, I’m on a Quest of biblical proportions (pun intended) to hunt down some great historical information for you. If you happen to have wonderful texts sitting quietly on your shelves, secret stashes of links to great sites that contain hidden treasures of historical facts, or anything else that might be useful, please comment or email me at heavingdeadcats@gmail.com

How does a religion come into being? Well, in this day and age, maybe by instant message between two friends, late at night, while surfing the internet for interesting stuff…

Here’s the recipe for Hess and Neece’s (aka Fruitloop) Religion:

serves: Humanity

2: godless heathens

1: internets (can substitute 1 intertoobs, 1 webbernets or 1 ripe interwebs)

1: news article detailing wacky fundamentalist training camp

Chat and let simmer for 3-4 hours (cooking times vary in high altitudes)

Let cool then cut into squares.

Hessenroots: ” TheCall Institute exists to equip, disciple and commission an emerging generation of radical Nazirites to prepare the way of the Lord by embracing a lifestyle of prayer and fasting that is energized by intimacy with Jesus. ” http://www.thecall.com/

Fruitloop: oh jesus. That’s rather scary.

Hessenroots: yeah, no pun taken.

Fruitloop: pun intended

Hessenroots: “International House of Prayer University” abbreviates itself IHOP! http://www.ihop.org/

Fruitloop: ROFL!!!!

Hessenroots: I do love me some pancakes

Fruitloop: I love their crepes. I sing hallelujah every time I go in there

Hessenroots: anyway, sorry…this is just too amusing/scary for me to stop reading. The name of their campus - ” IHOP Missions Base”

Fruitloop: oh jeez

Hessenroots: strategic pancake operations in a secret underground bunker!

Fruitloop: it’s the french toast underground!

Hessenroots: it’s the yummiest revolution ever! Read more…

I was raised a baptist. You know, the fire and brimstone kinda thing. In the summer, we would go visit my grandparents, and my grandmother would take us to the christian scientist church. They didn’t conflict too much for my young brain, so it wasn’t that bad. I was a good little christian girl, and got baptized as soon as I could with those god fearing baptists.

When I was about 12, my parents suddenly got religious in the church of christ. More fear of god preaching filled my head, including bible study once a week with the minister. I got baptized two more times in two different churches, for good measure, and went to church faithfully.

Not long after we started bible study, the minister decided he wanted to go bowling instead of teach us about the lord’s word. He said I asked too many questions. This was the first blatant sign I had of the hypocrisy of the church and I wanted no more part of it.

When I was in my late teens I tried several different religions and practices, from Buddhism and Taoism (which isn’t a religion, but a way of living) to American Indian practices, to Wicca (which is the ancient mother earth religion). I tried it all and found it all lacking. If pressed, I would have still called myself a christian at this point, I guess. But honestly I had no idea.

Years went by and I searched for meaning in any way I could think of. I wanted answers.
I was in my late twenties when I got married, in a small ceremony by a woman ordained in some airy fairy light church. I can’t even remember what her ordination was, but it was definitely spiritual/nontraditional. I wanted nothing to do with the christians, but still would have called myself a believer, if asked. I was afraid not to believe in the whole jesus myth. I didn’t have anything to replace it with.

About a year after I was married, I was watching this movie called The Name of the Rose. For some reason, I was struck with wanting answers to how the christian religion started. It suddenly hit me while watching the movie that the religion didn’t always exist. I wondered if the jewish god and the christian god were actually the same god with just a different name, or what was going on? Did the jewish religion always exist? I was full of questions and started an official Quest for knowledge.

I read a lot of books at that time, everything I could get my hands on. I got a really nice annotated bible to refer to, and will supply you with all the books I can remember. (Click here to see my book list)  Anyway, I came to realize that the three major religions all sort of just came about!

This to me was a shocking revelation. I also realized that the jewish god was very concerned about other gods, which seemed suspicious. I also realized that the christians kind of took on the jewish god, but the christian god never talked to anyone like the jewish god did. More reading of the bible showed more and more inconsistencies.

In this time I took an early world history class in college. There I realized that all cultures have created religions. I mean, I always knew that, but it suddenly started to dawn on me that those old Religions are now called Myths. Why would that be? Another inconsistency. More bits and pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

After awhile, I realized that all religions are made up! I was rocked to my foundations. Everything I had been taught had to be questioned and reevaluated. Nothing was sacred anymore. There was no more magic in the world, and finally, there was no more god. It was scary to admit it, back then in 2000. But there I was, a rather shocked and sudden atheist.

Since then I’ve tried to coexist with religious people nicely. I don’t usually tell people that I’m an atheist, I don’t attack their belief system, I don’t ask them to understand mine, I just try to avoid the topic. In fact, awhile ago I let people talk to me of their love of god and I didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to upset them. I guess I’m an overly polite atheist. But also I didn’t know how to defend my belief in no god. It seemed easier to say nothing.

Recently, I’ve seen things in the government and in society that have outraged me and frightened me into thinking I’ve got to act. I can’t keep my mouth shut anymore. I’ve got to at least tell other atheists they aren’t alone.

I got involved in making anti-religious t-shirts with my husband (he’s an atheist too). Then I stumbled upon Atheist Nexus. I found that there are lots of other friendly atheists out there and have tried to make friends with several of the other members. In doing so, I was inspired to create the 12 Steps to Intellectual Enlightenment by a fellow member. Then my husband said, hey, Believers Anonymous would be a great website if it’s available.

After that it was a crazy ride to find Hess through Atheist Nexus, then start the merged blog project that you see here: Heaving Dead Cats.