The Atheist Blogger

I spoke about Spotify a few weeks ago, and today I got given 5 invites. Soooo…anyone want them? Just leave a comment (fill in your real email address) and the first 5 people shall receive them.

Remember, this isn’t a standard music player, nor does it allow you to download music. It’s an online music player (like an online radio) but where you can search for specific songs and play them in the order you want. Every 30 minutes of play, there is a 30s advert (that’s how they make money).

I’ve spoken about my Christian friend David a few times on this blog, and I’m getting a chance to see his dad preach on Monday at a Christian Union meeting, so I thought I might talk about him and his beliefs a bit more. Out of respect for his privacy, I’m only referring to him by his first name (as is my policy on these things).

When I met David last year, we talked a lot about religion / Christianity / atheism. He came across to me as a very moderate Christian, the kind that never angers and always smiles (i.e. the most annoying kind). There is being nice, and then there is being so nice you constantly come across as an arrogant condescending moron.

When losing an argument about faith or religion, he would always *without fail* resort to his favourite catchphrase:

I tried to be an atheist…I really tried…

As if he thought this argument was actually worth anything. It is of course, a logical fallacy in many ways. Firstly there is no correlation between failing to do something and the accuracy of what you were trying to attempt. I could say “I tried to be a Christian” or “I tried to be a banana”, but my failure to be either of those doesn’t reflect on their actual veracity as subjects. It only reflects on my personal failure, and as we can easily demonstrate, there are people who have succeeded at being Christians, and there are plenty of bananas in the world (although atheists wish that weren’t so true).

Secondly, it doesn’t prove anything other than the inevitability of failure. Since it’s pretty easy to establish that you cannot change your beliefs on will (despite what some people claim), “trying” to be an atheist just by pure will isn’t going to work. Atheism is more of a realisation than anything; it involves reading the arguments and realising that you agree with them. So saying that you tried to be an atheist but always came back to Christianity is as much an argument as saying “I tried to be bald but my hair kept growing back”. If it’s an inevitable event, you won’t be able to change the outcome.

I guess in the baldness metaphor, you could liken becoming an atheist to older people losing their hair, or if you damaged the hair follicles beyond all hope of repair. What I’m trying to say is, that if you really want to take the view that you can “try” to believe / disbelieve in something, it will only work if the conditions are correct. A Christian can no more try to be an atheist and succeed than an atheist can try to be a Christian and succeed. There have to be certain conditions present first (doubt for the Christian, delusion for the atheist).

Another popular argument David uses is “Where did logic come from?” which implies that logic can’t exist without a creator. The obvious problem with this is that logic doesn’t exist…at least not in any material way. It’s a human concept; a way of viewing reality through the human mind. Animals do not have a concept of logic, they merely appear to live by it because everything that exists go through our logic filter before being processed by our brain. Everything we see has a logical reason for happening, otherwise we classify it as a delusion.

Asking “Where did logic come from” is the same as asking “Where did our minds come from?”, and the answer is the same: They evolved. Daniel Dennett has written on the evolution of our conscious minds (many times), and I highly recommend his book, Freedom Evolves, which deals with the concept of free will.

Needless to say, I think Monday’s CU meeting should be a blast. Hopefully I’ll get to meet the man who convinced an extremely intelligent son to follow a delusional fantasy.

The other day I added my facebook profile to the sidebar of the blog, and I’ve had quite a few friend requests from people who subscribe which is always nice. Being an “out of the closet” atheist, I don’t see anything wrong with random people finding me on facebook. It would certainly be nice to chat to some of my blog readers beyond the confines of the comments.

So, please do add me.

I’d also like to thank everyone who reads the blog, especially those who comment and leave me feedback. It really makes a difference on how I view the blog as an aspect of my life, and it is nice to see an increase in subsribers despite the fact I’ve been away from blogging recently :P

Furthermore, I checked my WordPress “Incoming Links” recently and was surprised to see how many other blogs there are that keep me on their blogroll or “My Fave Blogs” lists. It’s a reminder that I’d better actually update my own sometime!

I guess I just felt I needed to say something! Coursework is more or less done, so I’ll be getting back to some kind of schedule very soon. Watch this space.

My Feeds

I subscribe to quite a few blogs; some technical, some webcomics, most atheist-based. However I do subscribe to a few Christian blogs for various reasons:

“Atheist Central” by Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort’s blog is a great place if you want to have a laugh, or simply want to watch a load of bigoted hatred emerge out of the “love” theists have for our souls. Whether he is busy redefining science or claiming that light is invisible, Ray Comfort always manages to bring a smile to the face of any atheist. Heck, he even has his own bunch of debunkers.

Stuff Christians Like by Prodigal John

This blog is rather atheist-friendly since atheists aren’t actually mentioned, so it is a nice look into the minds of Christians when they aren’t all riled up over our “atheist faith”.

Debunking Atheists by Dan

Debunking Atheists has a special place not only in my feed reader but also in my blog’s blogroll because the author challenged me to put him there after he wrote answers to the Atheist Thirteen for me. Dan (the author in question) has a current series trying to “Debunk Evolution” which is hilarious to read, mainly because he doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the science and simply repeats well-known lies.

Uncommon Descent by William Dembski (originally)

A blog about Intelligent Design, which of course spouts the same rubbish and regurgitated debunked “facts” they’ve been talking about for years. The site logo is still the I.D mascot, the bacterial flagellum, which of course has various explanations for its existence through Evolutionary theory. Still, it’s great fun to read on all the “controversy” surrounding these issues.

So what Christian blogs do you peruse? Why do you do it? Do you actively take part in discussions or just sit in the sidelines?

I don’t care if he didn’t write what he said (although I suspect he probably did), because the way he presented the message is worthy enough of some kind of recognition. He said it truthfully, emotionally, and successfully connected to his audience.

If you supported the ghastly proposition 8 in california, or the other propositions which have now enforced legal discrimination against people of different sexual orientations, please watch this video, and then tell me you don’t feel incredibly guilty.

(via Candy Coloured Frown)

P.S. Sorry about the lack of activity on the site, but I’ve had a busy week revising for tests and doing coursework! Should get my act back together by the weekend though.