Thoughts as a source of entertainment

During the "good ol' days" religion was much more influential. I believe religion was one of the best sources of entertainment for people during the time before things like television, music, etc. It's not that people have stopped using religious ideas to entertain themselves, but there is a lot more competition (things today are just more entertaining). Back a long time ago, probably the most entertaining thing they did was attend church.

Of course even atheists keep themselves entertained in this way (thinking philosophically, thinking about science, contemplating the universe, etc). There are two important things to consider here:

1). An idea doesn't need to be logical to have an emotional effect
2). If an idea is believed, it will have a stronger effect

The importance for a believer is how the belief makes them feel. Thinking about the concept of heaven, and truly believing that one will someday be there, would certainly feel good. It's obviously not heaven being real which makes a believer feel good, but the idea of heaven. This is why Christians are so passionate (i.e. emotional) when defending their beliefs, and obviously the more people that believe an idea, the more believable it becomes. People are the same way with their drug of choice. For example, people who drink often will ignore and/or get angry at people who openly talk about the negative effects of alcohol.

People are nutty about defending their sources of entertainment. Me, I get some joy out of writing about atheism (and the other things I write about on my other blogs). And of course, I can easy get emotionally involved when defending my atheism (although I try not to). Sometimes I find it entertaining to debate hot-topics like morality or politics.

Getting back on point, many people, when they are bored, like to daydream. Even if the daydream is not based in reality at all, they still enjoy doing it. But for religion, it's (as stated before) a double-whammy because the actual thoughts (done through prayer, etc) cause good feelings and the ideas are believed to be truth (like heaven for you and a hell for your enemies...a fantasy that would make even an atheist feel entertained, and if it was believed to be real it becomes that much more powerful).

Today people aren't so reliant upon religion (and many people go to atheism because it is more fun to believe in evolution and science, and not be as morally restricted [for good or for bad]). In modern times being an atheist (for many) is just more fun, unlike the past, where being a believer was the most entertaining option. People only care about truth so long as it entertains them in some way (keep in mind that being afraid and/or angry can be entertaining).

Life must be boring if the most entertaining thing you have to do is pray to an imaginary friend, keep that in mind the next time you surf the internet or watch a movie. 

Christian inspired by an atheist

Atheists are as irrational as theists? Says who?

Shirley Phelps Roper disagrees....

There is importance in what is said, not so much how it is said. Typically the only time an atheist will refer to themselves as an atheist, is when the topic of religion is brought up.  Atheists on YouTube are going to talk about why they believe religion is false, that is the point (otherwise they wouldn't go under the 'atheist' label). Religion is a very big thing in the world (for good or bad), and on the internet, people are going to debate it with a lot of passion. Religion plays a big part in an atheist's life (it's everywhere). Personally, if I was a believer, I would want to stay as far away from atheists (or more so,  their ideas) as possible - being that their ideas are corrosive to mine. Leave atheists alone! Or at least if they bother you don't get involved with debates, or expect emotion and ignorance (nearly everyone has varying degrees of both).

Biased study on atheism.

If only truth was a democracy.

"popular Christian YouTube channel, shockofgod"

Describing someone on YouTube who's videos typically get under 500 views as "popular" is missing the forest full of trees. There are many many atheists on YouTube that get 20 times the view count that shockofgod gets. This study seems to be connecting dots with confirmation biases such as - atheism is false, truth is a democracy, etc. It's sad that they felt it necessary to construct a pseudo-study that merely encompasses a biased perception of reality and seeks after no objective understanding.

The church's records in my case are not aware of my atheism (very difficult to study the amount of atheists in society because of inaccurate records). There is no doubt that as a society, we are becoming less religious (even the majority of Christians are not that devoted to the faith). Atheism isn't going anywhere. Like many, Shockofgod wishes there were no atheists. If there were no atheists, it would make it easier for believers to believe in their comforting (albeit fictitious) beliefs. Atheism is the disbelief in the gods of others, even shockofgod is an atheist outside of his belief in the Christian god.

Atheism exists in all humans by default (well all humans confronted with contradictory gods), some people are aware of this fact, and are able to withdraw themselves from the belief in gods all together, making them a total-atheist.

What's funny about Christians is that they worship ideas, and this makes them guilty of idolatry (even though they aren't aware if it, like they aren't aware of many things).

"my imaginary friend is better than yours"


Our society going through another Dark Age (what fundamentalists seemed to be striving for) does not disprove atheism, but proves human fallacy. 

bloodvile: "TheAmazingAtheist is wrong"

The thought of others suffering brings certain people joy. If hell truly existed, it probably wouldn't exist as a fear tactic. Those that are only good out of fear of hell are not truly good at all. The reality is such people are disingenuous sociopaths. Underneath her self-righteous front, is a scared, ignorant person. As she imagines TheAmazingAtheist suffering, you can see her eyes light up with joy. If there is such a thing as evil in this world, that is what it looks like (albeit subtle). Those that get pleasure out of viewing/imagining the suffering of others have psychological "issues" (to put it nicely). Atheists are not good for the sake of reward or fear of punishment. Acting good out of fear is not truly being good, but afraid. A person cannot be good out of fear of hell (they are afraid, they are merely acting good). 

Atheist Daniel Dennett - Humans naturally look for who instead of what.

This also reminds me of the way people name their cars, and then get mad at them when they break-down. We personify many things, computers, ignorance (i.e. God), cars, boats, etc. Hell (npi), when a person accidentally walks into a pole, they typically get mad at it, like it was out to get them. It's easier to personify things (using emotional labels) than to understand them. 

New evidence that Neanderthals interbred with Humans

I've seen people with much more than 1% Neanderthal in them. Would be neat if they were able to bring them back (I believe they are working on it) so that we could use them as workers. Being that they aren't human, it wouldn't be considered slavery =D

It is stuff like this that should make Christians rethink the Adam and Eve story. Being an atheist is easy in a world with science. 

TheReformedapologist: "Systematically Dismantling Atheism"

This guy claims that atheists cannot have meaning in life, which is bogus. Life is only meaningless if no meaning is assigned to it.

"the brain is only the muscle used to think"

Oh, Christians, your blissful ignorance of biology is adorable.

Most atheists, when asked if life has meaning, will describe how it does (or how it does for them on an individual level). 99% of people, regardless if they are atheists or believers, have assigned some sort of meaning to their lives. I fear this is a straw-man atheists are never going to hear the end of.

Slavery In The Bible

This is a good documentary that doesn't have nearly enough views.

The bible is filled with slavery. Even Jesus appears to have supported slavery. This just shows that the moral structure layed out in the bible is a little bit outdated (to put it gently). For those bible-thumpers, slavery is not morally wrong (if it was the bible would have condemned it, not endorsed it). Maybe people should create a new religion, with a new set of morality, for believers to latch their faith onto (perhaps with more unicorns and less rape, murder, and slavery).

When I was a Christian, I would read the bible all the time (wanted to know what I was suppose to believe in). What probably threw my faith off the most was the parts that talked about rape and the brutal murdering of babies (that God apparently endorsed), but also slavery. It was easy for me to see that the bible was not a good book to get morality from. It was primarily reading the bible that killed my faith. This is why I believe that all Christians should read the bible from cover-to-cover. Most Christians that actually read the bible are forced to step back and ask themselves a few big, obvious questions. The bible has probably created more atheists than anything else. As a culture, we have out-grown the bible (and other similar holy-books), and that is the cause behind the rise of atheism (many contradictions).

Response to Atheism: The Problem of Morality (bardlishthemagnifico)

"You simply cannot justify morality as nothing more than cultural."

This guy is oversimplifying what atheists believe. I can't speak for all atheists, but morality is both soft-wired (learned) and hard-wired (innate) into us. As far as his claim that atheists believe that humans have no free-will, this is not true. Humans have free-will, but the forces behind that "will" as so complex that we label it as supernatural. Just because we don't understand how something works, doesn't mean that an omnipotent-being must be responsible. Many argue that atheists believe we know everything (some atheists act like to pretend they do when debating believers), when questioned, most atheists will admit that there are a lot of things we don't know. The important thing here is to admit that humans don't understand the forces behind consciousness and freewill, but that doesn't imply any supernatural intervention in the natural world. We must should assume that consciousness and freewill are a product of the natural world, until shown evidence that points to the supernatural (none exists).

Challenge For All Atheists (littlebigronnie386)

"you are probably just laughing at me"

Yep, all atheists should laugh at people that use the bible as proof that the bible is true; what a great use of logic. Most atheists know the bible well. This is not a very good challenge, atheists know the bible better than Christians (as a whole).

"I love all people"

Bullshit.

No one loves all people, you cannot love all people unless you know all people (you cannot love someone you do not know). Serial killers, rapists, child molesters, etc. should not be loved. 

VenomFangX: "Thunderf00t serves death"

"The Bible says.."

No thought required for a Christian....

Accepting death makes a person appreciate life more. If someone believes that they will live forever, they will not be able to truly appreciate how amazing life is. VenomFangX automatically assumes God is real, and that the Bible is the "word" of this being; he provides no evidence to support either of these claims. Atheists do not "serve" death, they appreciate life by being aware of death. Death is one of those things which happens to all of us. Everyone has seen the effects of brain damage on an individual; death is the ultimate form of brain damage in that it is the brain's complete destruction.

Where Did Christian Cat Come From?

Yeah, explain where kitties come from you pin-head atheists!

For those that are slow, this video is satire. The guy in the video (Edward Current) is an atheist. Check out his channel (click me!)

Basil Marceaux IS MY HERO! (must watch video)

Probably the most articulate politician of our generation, he would absolutely crush Obama in a debate. Imagine if we had him running with Sarah Palin? Game f*cking over!

Basil Marceaux (most awesome political candidate ever?)

Wish he would run for governor of New York, then maybe after he fixes the problems here, he can run for President and clean up Obama's mess!

Must Watch Video!!! Orthodox Christian Bashes Creationism

I have to agree, creationism did give rise to atheism. Creationists also have no faith; they try to create fake evidence, and faith is not evidence based. Anyone that needs evidence to believe in a god has no faith; i.e. those that try to delude themselves and others into believing their is evidence. If Christianity is to survive, it must start to embrace reality. The rise of atheism has much more to do with religion holding onto medieval world-views than anything else. 

VenomFangX: Christianity and depression

VenomFangX is not allowing mean comments on this video, unfortunately for him, he didn't disable embedding.

Emotional reasoning is a big cause of depression and anxiety. It is his pessimism and fixation on his "feelings" that are causing his problems.

He believes "if I feel bad, things must be bad". He has a confirmation-bias that his life sucks, he ignores the positive, and focuses on the negative.

Try thinking of the most depressing/anxiety provoking thing possible, if done properly, you will feel depressed/anxious.

If this kid wants to change the way he feels, he must change the way he thinks.

Also, his faith in God must not be that good, because if it was he would probably not be depressed. Believing you have the creator of the universe on your side should be an idea that would make anyone happy. Deep down I bet he has lost his faith, but doesn't want to admit it openly.

VenomFangX: Old Testament Slavery, Stoning and Seafood

Probably one of the better arguments from a Christian regarding the Old Testament's disgusting nature. He does however seem to either ignore or not be aware that "the ends justify the means" mentality does not = morality (remember the Nazis?). If this God guy has infinite power, he would not need to do all these goofy things only so his son (which is himself?) to be born; he would have just made it happen without all the nonsense in-between. It is always interesting to see Christians do mental gymnastics to justify the disgusting nature of their holy-book.

I suppose being an atheist is easy. Atheists have no desert writings to rationalize, if we agree with an idea then so be it, if we don't then we don't—no need to distort the truth.

VenomFangX: Traditional Morality (Objective) versus Modern Morality (Subjective)

I almost hesitate in saying this, but on a few points I agree with VenomFangX. People that don't strive for to better themselves tend to define/structure their actions as being moral (i.e. good and/or acceptable behavior); causing them to stagnate, act impulsively, and badly. The problem with many people in general is that they lack the sort of empathetical capacity required to act good for the sake of being good. Most people behave poorly, and while the Bible (mostly the Old Testament) is a joke in the realm of morality, people that actually follow the teachings of Jesus perhaps would behave in a more objectively moral way (the well-being of those around is probably better vs. the alternative).

In practice I believe in belief in certain circumstances. Some people are just too stupid and narcissistic to behave well on their own. Such people need Jesus, otherwise they treat themselves and others like shit. What I am trying to say is that if your IQ falls below the average you should follow Jesus! Jesus offers morality for the mentally weak (be good or be punished!), some people wont be good for the sake of being good, they need a reward and/or fear of punishment to motivate them to behave properly.

I know most atheists will aggressively disagree with me here. But do such people really believe that ALL people would behave the same and/or better if they didn't have the moral structure that Christianity provides (heaven, hell, etc.)?

VenomFangX: The Limitations of Science and "Scientism"

VenomFangX is missing the forest full of trees. Science is more than what his goofy philosophy class straw-manned it to be. Science is the method humans use to understand the objective world. While science is far from perfect (because humans are far from perfect), it is our best shot at figuring out this universe. The Bible makes many scientific/historical claims that not only cannot be confirmed, but go directly against our best knowledge of science and history. VenomFangX is looking for meaning in the world, meaning does not exist in the world objectively—meaning is purely subjective (i.e. the opinion of an individual). Science deals with facts, while people are entitled to have opinions, those opinions cannot fly in the face of facts (unless the facts are ignored).

Atheists on YouTube are going to have a field day with this one.

VenomFangX is back on the air!

OH MY! The infamous creationist is back on YouTube. Thunderf00t is going to have fun with him.