Austin's Atheism Blog

Epistemology is important because it is fundamental to how we think. Without some means of understanding how we acquire knowledge, how we rely upon our senses, and how we develop concepts in our minds, we have no coherent path for our thinking. Many debates between atheist and theists revolve around basic epistemological principles. Without understanding this and understanding the various epistemological positions, people will just end up talking past each other.

 

Read Article: What is Epistemology? Philosophy of Truth, Knowledge, Belief

Churches and church leaders should probably be careful about explicitly praising or condemning specific politicians or political parties, but the Vatican has actually been getting more and more vociferous in its attacks on America's Democratic Party. The Democrats generally adopt a more progressive and pro-liberty line when it comes to reproductive rights and this annoys authoritarian Catholics who believe that all society should be run according to the standards laid down in Catholic dogma.

As a consequence, we will see more and more the slogan "party of death" get thrown around by Catholic church leaders. Remember that this isn't merely an attack on the Democrats, but an implicit endorsement of the Republican party and Republican politicians who keep referring to themselves as the "party of life." We should expect Raymond Burke, former archbishop in St. Louis and current leader of the Vatican's high court, to play an important role in this political agenda. Read more...

From: "Gumbie"
Subject: I don't understand...

hello i respect your views and your beiliefs , but what i dont understand is if there is not a GOD why even bother with the subject. if he does not exsist then oh well. what could lead someone to telling thousands of people that there is no GOD. and why.

Read more...

Closely associated with taking action that should be considered immoral is the fact that there is so much evil in the world today. If there are any gods, why don't they act to eliminate it? The absence of substantive action against evil would be consistent with the existence of evil or at least indifferent gods, which is not impossible, but few people believe in such gods. Most claim that their gods are loving and powerful; the suffering on Earth makes their existence implausible.

 

Read Article: Evil Conflicts with the Existence of God: God Doesn't Care or God Doesn't Exist

Christians opposed to equal rights for gays are ramping up their anti-gay and anti-equality rhetoric in California. They are slightly behind in polls about people's opinions on whether equal marriage rights should be taken away from gays so they need to work harder in order to achieve their authoritarian goals. Unfortunately, when the extreme right "works harder," they often descend into absurdity and madness.

Case in point here comes from Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in La Mesa. He recently led a conference call sponsored by Concerned Women for America in which he used militaristic language in order to describe his commitment to undermining equality and then compared same-sex marriage to radical Islam — but in a way that made radical Islam look better and more peaceful! Read more...

Subjective Validation is also sometimes called the 'personal validation effect' because it refers to a process by which people accept some claim or phenomenon as valid based solely upon a few personal experiences and/or subjective perception. This subjective validation is generally at the heart of people’s reports of the experience of paranormal phenomena. For example, when it comes to readings by astrologers or psychics, a person will quickly focus on and remember the “hits” or accurate statements, but forget and ignore the “misses,” or inaccurate statements. In this manner, the person has subjectively validated their preconception that there exists some sort of astrological or psychic connection between things in the universe.

 

Read Article: Subjective Validation: Seeing Patterns & Connections That Aren't There

Some people might tend to think that atheists are such a minority that they have never heard of any famous atheists who have contributed to society. As a matter of fact, many famous philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and more have been atheists.

 

Read Article: Are There Any Famous Atheists?

People who challenge Christian privileges and the abuse of government power to promote Christianity are almost invariably subjected to harassment, threats, and even violence by their "good Christian" neighbors. This holds true if the complaints come from atheists, Jews, pagans, or even Christians themselves. This is why the identities of challengers are often kept anonymous, especially in court cases — otherwise the bullying and harassment may force people to withdraw.

What this means is that efforts to expose the identity of people making complaints is almost certainly done with the full knowledge and intention of subjecting them to the harassment, threats, and even violence that they are being protected from. People who want to reveal these identities are arguably trying to aid and abet the use of intimidation to force minorities to cease challenging unjust privileges. That's what I fear has occurred in the case of John Freshwater. Read more...

If it's not bizarre enough that traditional, religious patriarchy reduces to little more than "God gave me a penis, so God wants me in charge," there have been some who have argued that in order to find more favor with God, it's necessary to cut off some of those dangling bits. A eunuch still has their penis and thus retains their sign of divine favor, but castration removes the bits which make the penis more useful. So God prefers the penis, but God likes a useless penis even more. Huh?

 

Read Article: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Let He Who Can Accept This, Accept It

Each branch of philosophy has some relevance to atheism, atheists, and the critiques which irreligious atheists use to challenge religion, religious beliefs, and theism. Some branches are more relevant than others and some are more relevant than most people realize, but all have something to offer. Although no one can be an expert in them all, there is thus some value in atheists trying to become familiar with the basics of each before focusing on learning more about one or two.

 

Read Article: Why Should Atheists Learn Philosophy? How Can Atheists Learn From Philosophy?