The Atheist Blogger

No More Mr. Nice Guy has posted the 90th Carnival of the Godless over at his blog, and it’s well worth a look. This is the second time I’ve submitted something to the carnival, and I’m pleased to report that my article proposing an online atheist book club got through.

Speaking of which, we’re still working on the chatroom, and people can still post suggestions in the forums. Voting will be on May 1st.

On a further unrelated note, I won’t be posting as much for the next 3 weeks as I have revision followed by exams. I’ll still write the odd article, and if people want to sent stuff in (even short stuff) I’ll gladly post it for them. Wish me luck :D

Matt’s Notepad has a great article in which he debunks some of the most well known Creationist / ID arguments concerning Evolution.

The arguments can be found here: http://mattcbr.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/repeated-ignorant-creationistid-arguments-a-solution/

Some similar arguments that debunk Creationism have been written by Talk Origins, and Richard Dawkins has a list of “Debate Points” that cover Evolution, atheism, and faith that you might find interesting.

I’m split on how to react to this story. A woman last January was spotted “driving on the wrong side of the road and through red lights at speeds of up to 70mph”.

Unfortunately, her car veered off the road and onto the pavement, killing a mother and her daughter. At the scene, the driver told investigators:

Somebody had their foot on my foot and their hand on my hand - it wasn’t me driving, it was Satan

The work of the Devil?

Today she got cleared of causing death by dangerous driving.

However, she only got off the charge by entering a plea of insanity, and the jury decided to accept the plea within 15 minutes.

This whole event raises questions about how to handle religious nutcases like this woman. Should we really play along with their “insanity” when two women are dead? On the other hand, at least the courts recognised that claiming the devil did it is pretty stupid.

Hopefully she’ll be locked up for a long time in a mental institution. It’s one thing to suffer the delusion of God, but blaming your insanity on Satan and killing two innocent people is just too far.

It seems that there are more people confused about what agnosticism means than what atheism means, and I’d like to take the chance to explain what it is, as well as dispel some common misconceptions.

Just like atheism and theism are different sides of the same coin (the belief in God coin), agnosticism and gnosticism are different sides of the same coin (the “knowability” of belief). If you have a belief in anything, you are either gnostic or agnostic about that belief.

Misconception: Agnosticism relates directly to belief in God

Whilst the modern use of the word “agnostic” is usually attributed to people who say they are “unsure” of the existence of God, it is neither a good usage of the word, nor a “direct” usage. If you are truly agnostic, you have to claim that everything is unknowable, right down to simple proofs like “1 + 1 = 2″, or “Humans need oxygen to breathe”. Such a view is rather silly, and I challenge any true agnostics to give up oxygen for a day or two and see how they feel about it afterwards.

I’d wager that everyone in the world is a gnostic “oxygenicist”. We don’t need to question the validity of the claim that oxygen is needed. It’s a known fact.

Personally speaking, I would further classify myself as a gnostic “gravitationalist” since the theory of Gravity is probably not going to be disproven. It’s a sound theory, and much better than anything flat earth theorists can come up with.

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