The Atheist Blogger

I got some negative feedback after I jokingly filled in the atheist thirteen meme as if written by a fundamentalist Christian. People said I was taking the easy way out, and that it wouldn’t have cost me anything to ask a fundie to do the thing for me. I took the criticism, responding only that I had once been a Christian and so I knew what it was like to believe etc. However, I’ve recently been reading the blog “Debunking Atheists” for amusement, and decided to ask the main contributor “Dan” if he would answer the meme for me. I modified a few questions to better suit a theist answering them.

Here is his response.

Q1. How would you define “atheism”? A branch or another name of the religion, Secular Humanism.

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition? I was raised in an atheist’s/atheistic home.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word? “vague”, I prefer ‘Biblical Creation’

Q4. What scientific [endeavor] really excites you? Discovery of any kind, without the subjectivity of scientists that are atheists.

Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why? Their belief of no God. Why, because of the end result on Judgment Day.

Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response? I would ask to be more specific. A bishop or minister? If his soul couldn’t live without anything else then he would have my blessings. If he means priesthood in the RCC (Roman Catholic), I would ask why he would want to be a part of the largest pedophilia group/society in the world. I would ask why does he wants to help people into hell. I would rather him be an atheist.

Q7. What’s your favorite theistic argument? Anything Jesus said, like the sermon on the mount. He is the pro!

Q8. What’s your most “controversial” viewpoint? That a building or Church isn’t necessary for Salvation and/or denominations are man made.

Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favorite, and why? Dawkins, putting his foot in his mouth in Expelled. The Movie was hilarious. Why, because Dick makes me laugh.

Q10. If you could convince just one atheistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be? My Dad

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It seems that the Creationist organisation Discovery Institute is attacking Richard Dawkins over his involvement in the Louisiana “academic freedom bill” which allows teachers to discuss theories that oppose Evolution. Simply put, it is allowing Intelligent Design into the classrooms.

The Discovery Institute reported that Barbara Forrest, leader of LA Coalition for Science has written an article on the Richard Dawkins website, pleading people to contact the Louisiana Governor and stop this bill being passed. The Institute rather snobbishly remarked:

Newsflash for Richard, we’re not a British colony anymore.

Well pointed out, but of course they forget that Richard Dawkins runs The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, a charity registered in both the UK and the USA. They also seemed to overlook the fact that his website isn’t tied to any specific country and as such has a large majority of American visitors. Forgetting as well that the article in question wasn’t even written by Dawkins but by a citizen of the United States, and their accusation that Richard Dawkins is somehow trying to “dictate education policy” to the U.S falls completely apart.

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Firstly, let me apologize for yet another absense on the blog. I’ve only just worked out how to post-date articles so it shouldn’t happen again in the future. During the past 2 weeks I’ve finished university (first year anyway), passed all my exams (yay!), gone on holiday, got badly sunburnt, and then had to pack my entire room into a transit van and move back home.

Onto the topic of this article. I was contacted a week ago by a muslim named “Abu” who opened his email like so:

right in this moment in time I’d love to lose my rag bang the computer and
scream infernally! But I’d like to alter your skewed views on life and the
pointless, deity-less movement that is atheism. Why verily only the arrogant,
proud, the incessently stupid believe in atheism…

He outlined what he thought were good arguments against atheism, including the “There are no atheists in foxholes” argument and Pascal’s wager (both easily refutable). The ongoing discussion has covered about 6 emails now and they are a pain to read all at once, so I’ve chosen the best bits for you:

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On 30th May 2008 at 23:00 GMT we will hold the first book club discussion of the chosen book this month: “Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design“.

There are quite a few sites for working out your timezone compared to GMT, but I have found an easy and accurate one: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

The discussion will take place on MSGPlus, in the temporary channel #atheist-book-club. If you already know how to use IRC, you will need to enter the following details into your IRC client:

Server: irc.msgplus.net

Port: 6667

Channel: #atheist-book-club

If you have never used IRC before, I have set up a Java Applet on the forums. It requires you to have Java installed on your computer (most people do) and for JavaScript to be enabled in your web browser.

You can either register / log into the forums or join the chat as a guest. It’s open to all.

http://atheistblogger.com/forums/chat.php

After the discussion, I will create a forum thread so that other people who couldn’t make the IRC chat can voice their opinions of the book. Speaking of which, I’d better get it finished!

What’s the best way to support the theory of Evolution? Make a 2 hour Creationist propaganda film packed with every lie every told about the theory. You may think you have heard all the idiotic arguments that try to undermine Evolution, but I bet there are still some in this documentary that have eluded you.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2783773121996810582

The movie is quite old so you may have seen if before, or seen parts of it (the Peanut Butter bit on YouTube), and if you haven’t yet seen Expelled, this movie is probably just as funny.