I listened to a debate on the existence of God recently that really left me wanting, as they often do. In this debate between Christian theologian William Lane Craig and atheist philosophy journal editor Stephen Law, Law seems stuck on the problem of suffering and morality in the universe and posits that using his opponent's own logic, God could be ( Read more... )

I have created a brand new tag just for Mormonism! There are more entries on the topic than I had thought.

mormonism
Entry focuses on the LDS church.

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It's hard to tell, but most of us narrow it down to a few common reasons. If there's one thing it's difficult to feel empathic about, it's why people believe what they do when it's so different. There's generally just tolerance (hopefully) rather than understanding. I know, I have trouble, too. Since it is difficult to understand, our biases will ( Read more... )

New quotes in bold.

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."
Adolf Hitler

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THINGS CHRISTIANS CARE ABOUTThere are a lot of things Christians care about regarding religion that, as a muggle, I would never give a shit about in a million years. One of these things is about whether or not Mormons focus too much on Joseph Smith, regarding him as some sort of god on par with Christ. This is something my mom and her friend, who ( Read more... )

These atheist ads being put on public transportation seem to be causing a stir. Look around the Google and you'll find lots of fun things to read, such as these variants of a popular observation:

"The most astonishing part of this whole controversy is the inclusion of the word 'probably.' If someone took me aside and said 'There's probably no law ( Read more... )

I stumbled upon this aMap online software, which allows people to create their very own arguments. After their argument is created and supported, people can reply with an different map. I was expecting trees/webs with a central premise with several branches composed of arguments and counter-arguments with logic and supporting facts. In that case, ( Read more... )

I'm usually pretty satisfied with the comparison of God to Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but I also try to listen to intelligent points made by people:

"what adult has had his/her life transformed by conversion to belief in Santa Claus/ FSM ( Read more... )

Do you know how if you make an unsubstantiated fact claim in an advertisement, that is grounds to have it removed? Actually, I don't know if that's true or not, but that is one of the excuses True Believers are using in Britain to get atheist bus advertisements removed. For example:

"If you're going to put out what appears to be a factual ( Read more... )

It seems that there might actually be adherents of spiritual traditions who have no metaphysical beliefs. Well, most every person who uses spiritual jargon is probably a dualist, since it is only human to be so. I'm not certain why people take on labels like Buddhist, Sufi, Quaker, etc, but it may be a way to feel cultured, important, or it may be ( Read more... )