gdp's Comments

Deep Thoughts : Rev. Isaias Rivera arrested

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:35:06 +0000

That's pretty sad, but not surprising. Assuming the crime is confirmed, my guess is that the pastor will do a "heart-felt" mea culpa about letting God and his congregation down, he'll get a reduced judgment because he's a man of God, and he'll soon find a new church who will take him in. What's more surprising to me is the amount of money. $137,000 embezzled from one church?! Which means the church must have a lot more than that, otherwise it would have been noticed sooner. No wonder churches are still expanding even during the economic crisis, they're probably doing better than most businesses are.

AnAtheist.Net : Haiti: The Robertson Response

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:43:32 +0000

That's horrible that Pat can preach such hatred at a time like this, but it's par for the course for him and his ilk. Does he truly believe his god would do such a horrible thing, or is he just trying to score points with his followers who eat this sort of thing up? Either way, it's at least good that someone at the White House spoke out against the remark.

Life Without Faith : A Colbert Christmas Song with Costello

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:54:27 +0000

I hadn't seen this one, pretty good. Stephen says in real life he is a Christian (and is or was a Sunday School teacher), but he either has a really good sense of humor about religion or has very irreligious writers (or both).

Atheist Revolution : The Day I Became an Atheist Activist

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:25:58 +0000

Best of luck to you with your formal complaint, vjack. That must take a lot of courage to do, but it's good that you're standing up for your rights. State employees shouldn't have to be subjected to prayers as part of their job, and public universities shouldn't lead state workers or students in prayer.

Life Without Faith : Video: God can defeat healthcare

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:29:23 +0000

I didn't know that elected representatives could be deluded enough, and/or desparate enough to pnader, for them participate in something like this.

Life Without Faith : Tim Minchin's beautiful Christmas song

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:01:43 +0000

Thanks for posting this. Both funny and beautiful. I see it was just re-released as a single today on the US iTunes store, in case anyone's interested. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/white-wine-in-th...

Mississippi Atheists : Recap of Dan Barker\'s talk at the University of Memphis

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:27:53 +0000

Great recap. I especially like your intro -- I think it captures the overall tone of the event well. Dan Barker wasn't there to convert/deconvert people, he was there to give a convincing argument about why state and church need to be separate. He definitely made his own views on atheism clear (and defended them during the Q & A), but presented examples and historical references that both believers and non-believers could relate to. There was plenty new and interesting in this talk; I've read his book "godless" and listen to the Freethought Radio podcast, but still got a lot out of it. Anyone who's interested can search YouTube to see other events he's spoken at. The one in Memphis isn't up yet, but I saw it mentioned somewhere that it had been recorded and would be posted on YouTube eventually (hopefully soon!).

Conversational Atheist : Comments for Slavery in the Bible

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:57:37 +0000

Great article and pocket version, too. blackbart1721, I've heard this a number of times, too. The thing is, when the Bible talks about the Israelites being captive in Egypt, apologists make it sound like slavery, but when the Bible (including Jesus) mentions slavery, then they act like it's just a butler or something, like you said. I think using Alice from the Brady Bunch is a good image, using specific examples (even if fictional) can drive home a point, I'll have to think of this next time it comes up.

Conversational Atheist : Ray Comfort: Un-satirizable

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:37:20 +0000

You're right. He's apparently saying nothing = something, and something = God. Mathematically speaking, this would mean nothing = God. Logically speaking I'm not so sure, since he's not using logic to begin with. It's sad that he probably doesn't even realize he's posing the wrong question. When he's asking "Do you believe that nothing created everything?", I think he should be asking "Was there a creation?" or perhaps, "Is there any proof that everything, or anything, was created at all?"

Conversational Atheist : Possibly Acceptable Child Sacrifice

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 17:20:37 +0000

You may be on to something, Jaume. To which I could counter, "It's very convenient that Jesus rose from the dead only once, while he was supposedly buried behind some huge boulder, with no witnesses there at the time and Jesus gone by the time anyone got there. At least modern magicians do their tricks in front of people." I'm sure they would reply that we just need to have "faith" that he was resurrected. Believers try to have it both ways: "there's proof Jesus rose from the dead!" Then when you dispute the proof, they say "You have to have faith." Which is it???

Conversational Atheist : Possibly Acceptable Child Sacrifice

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 17:14:36 +0000

Very thought-provoking article. Last Christmas, I listened to a sermon about the Massacre of the Innocents, which infuriated me in part because it was given by a family member who will be ordained soon (this summer) and in part because it made no sense and was trying to excuse one of the worst incidents in the New Testament by making the congregants feel guilty about the death of all those children. I wrote at length on my blog (here if you're interested) about what I thought was wrong about the sermon. I couldn't believe my relative could preach about God letting thousands of toddlers die as if it was a good thing, and that a number of my family members would really think it was a wonderful sermon. I didn't think about the fact that there is no explanation as to why Jesus dying at the age of 2 wouldn't have counted as a suitable sacrifice for our alleged sins. Certainly Jesus could have died, gone to hell, and come back and preached for as long as he wanted, as you suggest in your article. This is definitely food for thought. I suppose a believer could argue that there are some temptations (related to sex, for example) that baby Jesus would not have resisted/conquered while in human flesh had he died before adulthood, and therefore his sacrifice would not have been valid. But this would be baseless: as you point out in the other article you link to, this supposed sacrifice of Jesus is completely unlike any other in the Bible and doesn't follow OT rules. So God is setting new ground rules anyway for Jesus. If God existed and was really intent on someone dying as a sacrifice, certainly he could have just as easily have counted the sacrifice of his 2-year-old son, thus sparing the lives of thousands of toddlers. Besides the one possible argument I mentioned (which I could see someone proposing, but which is indefensible), I'd be very interested what believers would say to this.