What if they don't convert? Do they get a holiday somewhere nice and secular? I dunno Las Vegas or something?

In the first century BCE, a gentile posed a challenge to two Jewish rabbis: explain the entire Torah to him in the time that he could stand on one foot. The first Rabbi dismissed the question, but the second, the famous Jewish theologian Hillel, rose to the challenge.

"That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it."

Bunny ranch, perhaps?

They're all about getting people to believe, sans evidence, that there's a god.

Nobody believes or disbelieves in god without evidence.

I like the whole "disrespectful" comment. As if a fairy tale must be given reverence compared to another. The whole thing remembers me the film "In The Name Of The Rose" and how dangerous comedy can be for religion.

You blithely excuse the shortcomings of government when you blame religion for the TSA. No religion can force me to do anything (and yes, I'm speaking for myself as an American here), but the government can take my property, health, liberty and life.

Well said, MarkD.

"The whole thing remembers me the film "In The Name Of The Rose" and how dangerous comedy can be for religion."- Toubrouk

You mean this?....
"Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith, because without fear of the Devil there is no more need of God." Thus preaches the crazy old bastard munching on poisoned pages.....

I admire Umberto Eco; not the most prolific of writers, but truly one of the last Renaissance men... I can't even begin to imagine how a conversation with him would go.

http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/about-god-and-dan-brown.html

DANGIT, Toubrouk!!!!!. Now I'm gonna have to go back and read NotR and Foucault's Pendulum again. Actually, that's not such a bad thing after all.....

You got it right Juliana. Laughing at the imaginary, all-seeing Bogeyman is the best way to discredit it. It is amazing what people are ready to believe when they are conditioned by fear.

On another note, please forgive me for inducing in you the urge to read books. I would like to remember you to use latex gloves during your reading, you never know... ;)

You got it right Juliana. Laughing at the imaginary, all-seeing Bogeyman is the best way to discredit it. It is amazing what people are ready to believe when they are conditioned by fear.

On another note, please forgive me for inducing in you the urge to read books. I would like to remember you to use latex gloves during your reading, you never know... ;)

I wonder if in a thousand yrs or so after some cataclysm knock us all into the dartk ages if one day people wont be debating the merits of gay marrige and athiests burning in hell because they dont belive in Guardians and the champions sent to save mens soul's Hal Jordan

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.

Solipsistic nonsense.

I agree Skipper, just because my neihbor hates blowjobs is no reson to make sure I never get any

Speaking of muslims... the Taliban is evidently buying children,training them for suicide attacks, then selling them.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/07/pakistan.child.bombers/index.html
Yeah, that'll get me to convert.

Finally, and the next time you spend an hour at the airport standing in a hot sweaty TSA line, try to remind yourself that it's because people believe in Islam, and maybe mention it to the people around you if you can do it without somebody bending you over and peering between your butt cheeks with a flashlight. I really hate that few people seem to make the Islam/TSA-hell connection.

And because our government overreacts to low-probability threats with invasive and ineffective security measures. Don't forget that!

Nobody believes or disbelieves in god without evidence.

People believe in god because other people or the Bible tell them god exists.

I.e., evidence.

What was he doing during the Holocaust, going out for a beer?

What should he have done?

In-depth discussion of the Problem of Evil here.

Especially love the concept of original sin, and the notion that Adolf Hitler can go to heaven if he accepted Jesus, but I'm supposed to burn in hell because I don't.

That's actually grace and forgiveness you're objecting to. Since you and I have accumulated plenty of non-original sin, it's not that particular theological concept that condemns us.

What if, instead of converting an atheist, you only create an agnostic? Do you get a consolation prize? Perhaps a trip to a secondary holy site?

Personally, I think that show's choice of gods is too limited. Include Bacchus! The prize: a trip to Rome and all the booze you can drink. Would the other candidates really have a chance at competing?

This reminds me of an old Firesign Theater clip, "Beat the Reaper". The idea was that a contestant would be injected with disease germs. If he guessed what disease he had within a time limit, he got the antidote. If not. . .

"Nobody believes or disbelieves in god without evidence."

Ah, yes. When hearsay = evidence, the religious fanatic can claim anything.

The only way a thumper can get by is to redefine things line by line.

I suggest a long look at a fallacy tutorial. The colloquialism you're using has little merit in logic.

You've convinced people to become atheists, Amy? I'm surprised, because while you're not a bad advice columnist, as an atheist you suck.

Please try to see it from a rational viewpoint.

Ted Turner - that's an atheist for you. Fame, money, power, movie star wives; that is a man who has lived like there was nothing after the grave.

And Hugh Hefner -- What a renunciation of religious morality HIS life has been.

Even Richard Dawkins can show a life devoted to the mind.

But YOU? A woman with more than her share of looks, brains, and confidence, with one life to live, living it as an impoverished blogger?

That problem you had with identity theft? I admire your determination, but a REAL atheist would now be writing her blog atop a throne constructed out of the skulls of bank executives.

A REAL atheist would not have a boyfriend. She would have a favorite among her legion of enslaved Chippendale dancers.

Me, I'm a Catholic. I have an excuse for clinging to Judeo-Christian values. What's yours?

Pseudonym, "Evidence" is something which proves an assertation

If I were to claim I have a five foot long, five foot wide penis, and I wrote a book that claims the same thing does that make it fact?

If I were to read my children stories of greek mythology and raised them to belive in it would that mean that Zues and Gaia and all the others exist? After all there is a book and someone how claims it to be true?

And while were on the subject Ted Kazinski wrote a book and tells people the contents are true. Tell me Pseudonym is what Ted wrote true? It does meet your stanndars of proof after all

Personally, I think that show's choice of gods is too limited. Include Bacchus! The prize: a trip to Rome and all the booze you can drink. Would the other candidates really have a chance at competing?

Posted by: Ron

Better yet Istar goddes of sex, go with Amy's suggestion of a bunny ranch

Google ads are funny things. For instance, the one on your site as I'm writing this is for an Islamic matrimonial site.

Atheists don't equal morally inferior. I'm fairly sure not many atheists live on top of mounds of skulls, but some practicing pagans I've met wish too.

(and yes I do imagine that you are being figurative)

Sweet Lou: Amy is entirely able to look after herself. But man, you're a douche.

The Jews do not proseletize -- not because they're better people, wishing to avoid dragging others into irrationality and superstition, but because they surely would've been murdered for it or at least gotten in serious shit from the Christians and certainly, the Muslims.

My understanding is that Jews don't proselytize because their beliefs don't call for them to do so. Being Jewish is as much a matter of birth as of belief--actually more so. (I'm considered Jewish by rabbinical law because my mother was, and she because her mother was, and so forth, even though our family has held atheist beliefs for at least three generations.)

It's possible for a non-Jew to convert into Judaism, but it's an involved process, and the convert has to seek it out; no rabbi is going to try to persuade him to do it. By contrast, all it takes to become a Christian is to say you are and mean it. (This may also be true of Islam; I don't know enough about it to say.)

If Jews were inclined to seek converts, and were deterred only by threats of violence, they'd surely be doing so in places where it was safe--like present-day America.

When hearsay = evidence, the religious fanatic can claim anything.

Hearsay is evidence. Sometimes not very strong evidence, but lots of it is true. For example, I know of the existence of Einstein through hearsay. I know which city my sister lives in through hearsay. News gathering involves hearsay.

Pseudonym, "Evidence" is something which proves an assertation

No, that's proof. Evidence is an indication of possibility.

Sweet Lou wishes he could do all the things he projected onto Amy, and if it wasn't for those darned Catholic rules he (supposedly) lives by, that's what he would do, I'm guessing.

I find it funny how the formerly religiously suppressed go absolutely apeshit wild when they fall off the religion wagon, and do things that a non-repressed person has no interest in doing, because the crazy shit has never had the appeal of being 'forbidden'.

One of my exes was raised very orthodox Jewish and he fell off the wagon in university. He then proceeded to go to nudist camps, swingers parties, sleep with trannies, go to orgies, etc. One extreme to another, in my opinion.

I'd be more convinced if Amy didn't have to TELL me how successful and happy she is. Or if she didn't have so many entries on her blog ranting and complaining. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that someone with her self-confidence turned so defensive so quickly.

There's a lot of talk of religious hypocrisy (partially because there IS a lot of religious hypocrisy) but very little discussion of atheist hypocrisy.

The people who seem to me to live their life most in tune with atheist beliefs are the ones who live like they have one life and nothing else. They don't let religious morality constrain them, but neither do they waste time sneering at those who are so constrained. They are above it all. This group contains the Ted Turners of society. I know a few people in this group, and I have a grudging respect for them.

There is another group that takes great pleasure in mocking us pathetic God-botherers. They spend an amazing amount of time and energy in this odd pursuit. I know a fair number of these, and funny thing, is, I wouldn't trade my life for that of any one in this group -- even if I was an atheist. These are the atheistic hypocrites.

Of course, any discussion of hypocrisy tends to get a bit douchy. And humor, like success, is primarily in the eye of the beholder.

But am I truly the only one who finds the idea of Amy perched on a throne of bank executive skulls amusing (not to mention satisfying to their sense of justice)?

Chrissy,

You have no idea. Thrones made out of the skulls of my enemies and platoons of lightly-oiled slave girls would be the least of it. Attila the Hun? Ghengis Kahn? Those were the fellows who knew how to get things done!

So isn't it a GOOD thing that I am constrained by the fear of a loving yet stern and just God who has provided me with an extensive list of "thou shalt nots"?

Side note of interest: I have read that pretty much everyone of European descent has Atilla (or maybe it was Ghengis) as an ancestor. That fellow got AROUND!

Actually, I find it rather frightening that you have to use an outside source to restrain any murderous intent, and hope that you're trying to be sarcastic in a meaningless way. Pretty much every actual atheist I've meet has had a high standard of morality in their own life, as was mentioned above, it seems to be more likely it's the fallback religious types that kick all over the traces.

People that need outside influences to force their behavior into acceptability create the type of thinking that woman need to be covered from head to toe to not be raped.

"People believe in god because other people or the Bible tell them god exists.
I.e., evidence."

So Christmas stories are evidence of Santa Claus and Rudolph?

"So isn't it a GOOD thing that I am constrained by the fear of a loving yet stern and just God who has provided me with an extensive list of "thou shalt nots"?"

If you were really a Christian, you'd be rolling in dough overselling condos, then claiming you "don't know where the money went", like Jim Bakker. You'd have your choice of girls, and the cash to pay them to be quiet and not tell the wife. You'd have big hair and a cable TV show, and maybe a big cooler full of Kool-aid ready for the End Times.

But the big joke, really, is that you're "constrained" by anything. Dahmer and David Berkowitz are "saved". Say Hi for me when you get to see them.

So Christmas stories are evidence of Santa Claus and Rudolph?

Yes, absolutely. How would someone even become aware of the notion of Santa Claus without evidence? We don't all invent him independently. Stories that are admittedly fiction aren't strong evidence, but little evidence is; just because a textbook says Einstein was real doesn't prove anything.

Actually, I find it rather frightening that you have to use an outside source to restrain any murderous intent, and hope that you're trying to be sarcastic in a meaningless way. Pretty much every actual atheist I've meet has had a high standard of morality in their own life

Was that high standard of morality due to nature or nurture? I suggest nurture, meaning that they had it imposed on them by an outside source (society, family and so on.) To whatever extent humans have built-in morality it is extremely weak.

Thank you Psedonym, I will in the futre not even bother to respond to your innae posts in any way.

I mean serioulsy you belive in Santa Claus but not Einstein? Einstein who we have photos and vidoes of a man whom thousand of books reference and created new ways of looking at the universe.

So a man who we have photos of man not have existed, but Santa Claus, and Jesus(who is only mentioned in the one book) are real.

Again thak you for making it so easy to ignore your idiotic ramblings