I kind of like Richard Dawkins, although I don't like his use of straw men. But I understand, he has a real point to make. Maybe we shouldn't be using God as a lame excuse to do the awful things that humans do. Where God starts, humanity ends. That's bad.

But Dawkins is too much of a crusader for me. He can only take the argument so far without mending the linguistic fences that block reconciliation.

The semantics of what defines an atheist seem pretty muddy. It's like "Look, we agreed no leader right? So shut up and do as I say!". But it's okay, that means atheism is evolving. That's a huge improvement on religions, which don't evolve.

Sam Harris, The Problem With Atheism, 2007 AAI convention.
Ayan Hirshi Ali pretty much rocks that conventiin too.

tell me a Dawkins strawman please.

"I can't prove that God doesn't exist any more than I can prove that the Easter bunny doesn't exist."

so tell us why this is a strawman.

I can tell you this thread has become a strawman.

Cant even answer the question... doesn't seem to know what a strawman is, and thinks Hitler was an atheist.

Better be a troll. If not... lol.

What are we watching them do? My favorite ones are dead.

You forgot Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
Eta: half this thread has been censored.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2016 02:00AM by Cpete.

Nominally they were but Hitler stopped going as an adult.Not sure about Mussolini, but Hitler wasnt much of a Catholic. Let's talk about atheist monsters such as lenin and Stalin

Hitler declared himself catholic from Mein Kampf (1924) tot his last radio address days before his death (1945) and hundreds of times inbetween. So I get quite cross when christians keep repeating this lie, knowing very well that a lie is what it is.

Best in what way or what purpose?

I have a couple of favourites. Dawkins is really good at evolutionary biology but I know a couple of atheist comedians I'd rather watch for entertainment. There are no "best" neither subjectively or objectively until you have given us an idea of what area of expertise you are looking for. Best atheist magicians? Penn & Teller perhaps. Best atheist rapper? I have no idea.

Penn and Teller are great - love their Bullshit (it's a Showtime TV series by that name).

Bill Maher is very funny too.

George Carlin, well what can I say?

I liked bullshit too. But my tbm family felt 'a darkness' around him. I know the name of that 'darkness' it's called "Fuck!"...

Oh yeah for humor Mr. Deity and Way of the Mister.

To watch? or to read. Definitely if coming from Christianity, well it has to be Thomas Jefferson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

http://thejeffersonbible.com/

Jefferson got rid of all of the supernatural and "magic" nonsense and gave a clear philosophy and creed to live by using the words and acts of Jesus.

"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." ~ Thomas Jefferson, 1787



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2016 12:56AM by dydimus.

Jefferson was a Deist,not an atheist although he is certainly worth reading.

Yeah, I guess he was a "Deist"...yet, I choose to think that if he knew or lived during Darwin, Einstein, Hawkings, etc... I believe he would of chosen Evolution and Big Bang Theory and Higgs Boson.

What is Deism? 1.belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind

So a supreme being "created" a world, life, physics; but plays no part in it? That makes no sense. So if Jefferson was a deist, I think it's because he couldn't find the answers to creation or the reason for being during the time he lived except through a supreme being who no longer interacted with mankind.

He also thought that owning other humans was OK.

the religion of the Soviet block was the state. Not atheism.

you seem to be confused about what constitutes a religion.

Maybe. Why was half this thread deleted?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2016 02:38AM by Cpete.

I wondered that do.

Too,not do. Stupid autocorrect!

My favorite quote from the Jefferson memorial:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

I like Steven Weinberg and Daniel Dennett.

Brother Maher and Brother Carlin are the only home teachers I need.

I concur

Peter Boghossian

Tim Minchin:

Thank you god
The good book

"Confessions" rocks but leaves out religion

Basically, I love them all

Peace anthem for palestine, The fence, Lullaby ...

Graydon Square for atheist rap. Even I you don't like rap you'll probably like him.

Christopher Hitchens.

P.J Meyers whose blog is Pharyngula. My husband the atheist likes him, and I find him smarter and less obnoxious than some of the others. A plus is that he is openly critical of the woman-bashing in the skeptical community, and he is a biologist.

Thanks for sharing. I already found something I liked that he said. It's nothing big, but it just supports one of my earliest shelf-breaking items - the illogic of this earth being a proving ground after which we should be judged.

"Remember, too, that eternity is a very very long time. After 70 trillion years, anything you did on earth is gonna fade to insignificance. Your whole mortal existence is only going to be one one-trillionth of your first 70,000,000,000,000 years in heaven, but even that huge amount of time is an unimaginably small fraction of eternity. That means that having an “eternal view” of your purpose in life means reducing your entire mortal existence to meaninglessness. "

I feel like people never really spend any time imagining the expanse of eternity and how illogical it is to think that we should be judged after a "an unimaginably small fraction of eternity" and then ASSIGNED to a kingdom, or a REALM of existence, as if in the remaining eons of eternity we would never change or grow beyond its bounds.