Austin's Atheism Blog December 2006 Archive

LaShuan Harris is accused of having thrown her three children off a bridge and into San Francisco Bay. Harris claims that she was sending her children directly to heaven because ... Read More

The Boy Scouts of America have a problem: they want (and won) the right to impose religious tests on membership because they are a private organization, but now they don't ... Read More

What does it mean to 'respect' someone's religion or religious beliefs? Many religious theists insist that their religion deserves to be respected, even by non-believers, but what exactly are they ... Read More

Freud theorized that repression in one area of the human psyche would lead to those feelings be expressed somewhere else and in some manner, even if masked. Much of what ... Read More

The idea that we all have a 'God-shaped hole' in our hearts or lives which can only be filled by God's eternal love, but which many try to fill with ... Read More

This question, which is really just a simplified version of Pascal's Wager, is one of the most popular questions which religious theists - particularly Christians - pose to atheists. It ... Read More

In Frederick County, Maryland, new county commissioner Kai Hagen refused to swear an oath declaring belief in the existence of God. This has ruffled some feathers and there are people ... Read More

Every society has had minorities, but not every minority is treated as an "outcast" — a scapegoat for much of what society despises. Such outcasts are laden with the sins, ... Read More

A standard dictionary defines a freethinker as “one that forms opinions on the basis of reason independently of authority; especially one who doubts or denies religious dogma.” What this means ... Read More

The flap over Keith Ellison not wanting to be sworn in (in an entirely ceremonial, non-official event) as a U.S. Representative while using the Bible is really exciting the Christian ... Read More

The so-called "war on Christmas" which Christian Nationalists keep promoting may not be good for society or even good for American Christianity, but it's sounds like it's good for the ... Read More

Many religious believers imagine that their belief system has an advantage over atheism because they offer hope, meaning, and morality. People who think this, however, either don't understand or don't ... Read More

Conflicts over the permissible boundaries of both public celebrations and personal meanings behind Christmas are becoming as intractable in Great Britain as they are in America. In both cases, the ... Read More

Did you read about the problem with Christmas trees in the Seattle airport? It was a pretty simple story: a rabbi asked to have a couple of Hannukah menorahs put ... Read More

"Atheism Online is back! We would like to keep this site as it has been: a portal for atheists looking for general information, blogs, newsfeeds, forums and connection to the ... Read More

Iraq today is a hotbed of violence and strife — much of it religious, either directly or indirectly. It's impossible to either describe the problems or to think about solutions ... Read More

It's common knowledge that women tend to be more religious than men and this is something which sociologists and other researchers have puzzled over for quite some time. Why are ... Read More

World Net Daily consistently puts a radical spin on the news which is almost directly the opposite of reality. This is especially true when it comes to church/state separation cases. ... Read More

Some religious theists, and Christians in particular, seem to be wondering why atheism is in the news more recently. They think that atheism is becoming more popular, but there are ... Read More

A common question which atheists hear a lot is 'why don't you believe in God?' Theists, religious or not, have trouble imagining why anyone would not believe in at least ... Read More

Some Christians' obsession with people using "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" causes them to act as if the issue were something like an ethnic identity. Happy Holidays still includes ... Read More

The more common understanding of atheism among atheists is "not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made -- an atheist is a person who is not a ... Read More

Many people object to President Bush's faith-based programs, but challenging them has been difficult. The problem is that these programs are funded not by acts of Congress, but simply by ... Read More

There are a lot of misunderstandings about who atheists are, what they believe, and what they don't believe. People become atheists for many different reasons. Being an atheist isn't a ... Read More

Every year for the past 11 years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has put up a "Winter Solstice" sign in the rotunda of the Wisconsin Capitol. The state government opened ... Read More

I see a lot of misunderstandings and errors about atheism and atheists all over the net. People don't understand what atheism is, what the definition of atheism is, or the ... Read More

Religious theists will commonly insist that religion generally, and their religion in particular, are necessary for a healthy and happy society. Some will even go so far as to claim ... Read More

It might seem to some that discussing the nature, attributes, and character of a supposed god doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless there is some reason to think ... Read More

Atheism is not a religion, philosophy, ideology, world view, or anything like that. At the same time, however, atheism is still generally protected under the law as a "religious philosophy." ... Read More

Why do people become atheists? This is a very good question; unfortunately, it isn’t very easy to answer. There are perhaps as many reasons for being an atheist as ... Read More

Many Christians believe that Christmas is inherently religious and Christian, which means that it cannot be celebrated in a secular or otherwise non-Christian manner. This is easily refuted by pointing ... Read More

Assuming that political and religious authority is invested in different individuals and structured in separate systems, then there must always exist some tension and potential conflict between the two. Such ... Read More

Image Source:Jupiter Images In Dixie, Florida, a local resident has erected a six-ton granite monument to the Ten Commandments at the top of the courthouse steps. Some people imagine that because ... Read More

I've written a couple of times about the problem with putting polling places in churches. Research has provided strong evidence demonstrating that if people have to go to a church ... Read More

In August I wrote about Lt. General H. Steven Blum who lumped atheists and agnostics in with bigots when claiming that there are no atheists in foxholes. He thus managed ... Read More

How much authority do school districts have over the material taught in public school classes? It has been established that they cannot ban the teaching of evolution for religious reasons, ... Read More

Poster Design by Xiangtao Used with permission It's common for religious theists to claim that the beauty around us is evidence of the existence of their god. Some may even go so ... Read More

An outspoken atheist, Madalyn Murray O'Hair has long been an object of hatred and fear for the Religious Right. It is thus not surprising that they placed the blame on ... Read More

Sometimes, people who don't believe in god are told that they must not really believe in anything. I've even had that happen recently on comments here with the blunt statement: ... Read More

It might seem odd to list 'existence' as an attribute of God, but that's not actually the point here. Of course believers think that their god exists - what is ... Read More

If Christians love Jesus, and if Jesus is the "Prince of Peace," then Christians should be a pretty peaceful lot, right? Apparently that's not the case — if you ask ... Read More

What caused me to reject not only religion, but also belief in the existence of any gods? Not every atheist shares my story, but my experiences are not at all ... Read More

In Turkey schools that can't afford to spend time teaching the science of evolution are getting expensive books that promote creationism. No one knows who is funding the publication and ... Read More

Every dictionary has a definition of religion, but not every definition is equally good. Some are decent, but others are horrible. Sometimes older dictionaries have better definitions than newer ones, ... Read More

A number of religious theists like to blame atheism for all the ills in the world. They like it so much, in fact, that even when there is no genuine ... Read More

Atheistic critiques of religion and religious belief are nothing new. Atheists have been raising objections to religion and pointing out problems in religion for centuries. It isn't even new that ... Read More

One curious aspect of Americans' prejudice against and distrust of atheists is that it is even higher than Americans' prejudice against Muslims. I'm not trying to say that Americans should ... Read More

In an effort not to offend religious families who object to the teaching of evolution, is it permissible for schools to insist that a "disclaimer" be read to the class ... Read More

Although atheism is only the disbelief in gods, it's common for atheists in the West to apply their skepticism about gods to supernatural and paranormal claims generally. Whether the subject ... Read More

Because of the words "under God," many regard the Pledge of Allegiance not simply as an expression of patriotism, but also as an expression of religious piety. Furthermore, it has ... Read More