The Reverend Dan Erickson explains why I shouldn’t be an atheist

Quotation-Bob-Dylan-god

The Rev. Dan Erickson, Senior Pastor at Chisholm Baptist Church, has managed to publish an op-ed in the Hibbing, Minnesota Daily Tribune titled “It’s not easy to be an atheist.” Apparently, the Daily Tribune is so desperate for content that they’ll publish tired religious cliches, and Rev. Erickson has never actually talked to an atheist.

In his book, “When God Goes to Starbucks,” Paul Coppan notes that there is plenty of evidence we, as human beings, have a disposition to believe in some type of deity or spiritual reality. Thus, he says, if someone wants to overcome this predisposition to believe in God and be an atheist, it may be necessary to make some intentional choices in order to avoid being a “default theist.”

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Most pathetic troll ever

mclovin

Creationists (and poes), it doesn’t help the conversation at all when you pretend to believe something you do not — your complete lack of understanding of the others’ positions makes your sham obvious from the very onset.

For example, I got this request from an “atheist” to help spread a rational understanding of the universe…like this.

We as atheists are sick and tired of having religious people laugh at us. We’re sick and tired of defending the most ridiculous theory in the world . . .

The truly delusional Big-Bang theory.

The universe did not originate out of “nothingness” via some stupidly insane Big-Bang theory ! For pity sake, even a moron knows that “nothingness” cannot experience a bang. And so what’s reality ? What’s the alternative ? Well look closely and please think deeply. Pure Logic is the alternative, it’s very very simple;

The universe has “always existed” . . . Period.

The evolution of TIME is what deceives us

into thinking the universe must need a beginning.

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We aten’t dead

atentdead

I’ve been reading the obituaries. So many people, friends and foes alike, have expressed their confidence that Freethoughtblogs is dooooooomed, because Ed Brayton has left. It’s all going to fall apart without his iron hand ruling this motley crew! Without him, no one could possibly be interested in reading anything on this network! They only ever read the old white men here anyway, so losing one is an irreparable loss!

Let me explain a few things about how FtB works. These people don’t have a clue.

  • Ed never actually “ran” this place — no one did, or does. This is one of those pinko commie anarchies. He managed the books, arranged for the ad services, that sort of thing, but all of the blogs here are autonomous. No boss. Get it? If you’re an authoritarian, maybe not.

  • The kind of minimal, managerial oversight needed to keep the lights on has fallen into the hands of the executive committee, a small subset of the people here who handle mundane issues that affect the whole network. Just to let you know how busy the executive committee is, we initially proposed to meet once a month. I don’t think we’ve met in over a year.

  • The network is not a vanity project for the white men who set it up. It’s an anti-vanity project. The whole purpose of the network was to leverage our traffic into creating a space for a diverse group of bloggers. They’re still here! Ed and I could drop dead on the spot, and it’ll still keep ticking along.

  • Building a diverse network also produces a robust network. There is no single point of failure. By design and by diffusing the leadership all along, there’s no way to take it out with loss of a single blogger (we’ve lost and gained bloggers all along, you know).

  • We do have to worry about maintaining a volume of traffic to maintain ad rates. But this is a group that does not prioritize making money off their writing (although it sure would be nice…) but on maintaining independence. I’d be writing for free — I was writing for free years ago — and what money we do make is distributed among the bloggers by traffic. There is no central authority skimming off the profits.

  • I do have one serious worry about an ongoing failure. That’s all you people who say you only came here for the PZ and Ed show. You’re doing it wrong — I’m not going to object to you reading my stuff, but the whole point of the network is to give all those other voices a platform. You should go read them.

So here’s some suggestions.

Go look at the main page. See all those bloggers?

Go look to the left, at the sidebar. See all those bloggers?

Scroll down on the sidebar, and look for the “Latest Posts Around FtB”. See all those bloggers who have recently posted stuff?

Broaden your horizons a bit. Go read one or more of those links.

Don’t trust me. Go read Miri, who is saying exactly the same thing.

You can also stop annoying us all with the ill-informed doom-talk.

Another Bangladeshi blogger murdered for atheism

niloyneel

Atheists neither need nor want martyrs, so could the mindless fanatics of the world please stop creating them? Niloy Neel has been hacked to death with machetes in Dhaka.

Imran H Sarkar, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, told the BBC that Mr Neel had been an anti-extremist voice of reason.

“He was the voice against fundamentalism and extremism and was even a voice for minority rights – especially women’s rights and the rights of indigenous people,” he said.

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Computer security I can manage!

I mentioned before that my wife has betrayed me by getting one of those accursed Windows PCs. One thing I’ve been worried about is those filthy viruses that infect PCs — I can cope with my Mac, with years of technical experience, but no, I am a novice when it comes to Windows.

So you can imagine my relief when I learned how easy it is to keep Windows computers virus free. All I need is a malachite crystal!

malachite

So easy…

I no longer support Cthulhu

After years of affirmation and endorsements, he has finally sunk to a depth of evil and depravity and corruption that even I can no longer abide. Cthulhu has joined the Republican party.

cthulhu-president

I could forgive him if he’d become a Christian or a Muslim, I could even look the other way if he started blogging at Patheos, but a Republican? Intolerable.

Anyway, I’m now in the market for a new evil god of nightmarish wickedness to which I can give my sarcastic support. Suggestions welcome.

I’m kind of leaning towards Jesus.

Farewell, Ed

As you may have heard, Ed Brayton is leaving FtB. His health has suffered, because he is the point man here, and one of the defining features of the current atheist movement is that it is populated with assholes who hate the idea of any kind of social justice movement, so they’ve been making life hellish for a guy who has had more than enough work trying to keep the lights on and the engines running.

So why am I leaving? Also omnipresent since the start of FTB, as I’m sure you well know, has been controversy. The bloggers here have often gone on crusades and launched battles, most of them necessary and justified. But along with that has come a great deal of drama and stress. I’ve endured several threats of lawsuits against me as the owner of the network over the words and actions of others. I’ve had continual demands that I do something about this or that blogger, that I throw them off the network or censor them. I’ve been caught in the crossfire of a great many fights, continually taking shrapnel in battles that I wasn’t even involved in.

He’s basically retiring to Patheos, where all the lazy slackers of atheism go to avoid controversy and get money. I can’t blame him. He’s been tortured enough.

The rest of us are still here, though, and we’ve got a committee that will be stepping up to take the place of one guy — we hope that will diffuse the attacks, although I’m pretty sure they’ll start ramping up now.

So nothing changes.

At least one person will enjoy the Republican debate tonight

MITCHEM

A commissioner of Lincoln County, North Carolina, Carrol Mitchem, was told by the courts that he could not continue to require sectarian Christian prayer to open meetings of the commission. This prompted him to open his mouth and let the dumbassery flow, like a rippling river of sewage and ignorance.

Changing rules on the way the United States was founded, Constitution was founded (I don’t like), Mitchem told the paper. I don’t need no Arab or Muslim or whoever telling me what to do or us here in the county what to do about praying. If they don’t like it, stay the hell away.

Mitchem echoed that sentiment to WBTV on Friday.

I ain’t gonna have no new religion or pray to Allah or nothing like that, Mitchem said. He added that anyone who doesn’t want to hear a Christian prayer can leave and wait until we’re done praying.

We’re fighting Muslims every day. I’m not saying they’re all bad, Mitchem said. They believe in a different God than I do. If that’s what they want to do, that’s fine. But, they don’t need to be telling us, as Christians, what we need to be doing. They don’t need to be rubbing our faces in it.

But rubbing everyone else’s faces in his vile religion, well, that’s perfectly OK.

Not only does this man vote, he’s active in local politics. We’re doomed.

A holy relic!

One thing I do not miss at all about living in Salt Lake City was the bland, totally credulous way the television news would report on all things Mormon. No claim was too ridiculous if it was said by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, and all the officials of that organization were treated as revered and unquestionable sources of authority. I just had to keep the television off and shun the newspapers every year at the time of the General Conference.

So this news story gave me horrible flashbacks: smiling Mormons announcing new lunacy to the straight faces of reporters. The church is going to let the peons view the sacred Seer Stone of Joseph Smith! Stand back in awe!

seerstone

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