Advocating Reality

Major Themes of this film: Martyrdom Martyrdom Atheists are awful Martyrdom Muslims are awful Martyrdom Martyrdom Academics are awful Big Business people are awful Oh, and Martyrdom.  Did I mention Martyrdom? Actually, scratch a lot of what I said before.  Anyone who isn't Christian is awful, and some people who 'claim' to be Christians are also awful. This movie can be summed up as 3 logical fallacies: Arguments from Emotion Arguments from Ignorance Arguments from Authority First, just like with the TV appearance of Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, this movie most certainly is NOT persuasive in regards to the existence of God. Virtually every stereotype which could be played, was played.  The abusive Muslim who disowns his daughter when he learns that she is a Christian.  The scenes with the Academic crowd show them all to be vapid anti-theists.  Every student in the philosophy class, save one, simply go along with the anti-religious n...

Over the course of several years, through education, discussion and hours upon hours of deep thought, I no longer accept the traditional, mostly-absolute view of 'Free Will'. During some of my discussions, an issue kept coming up which kept me wondering about one particular aspect, though. Mainly, what does this mean for morality and law? How do we hold people 'accountable' to our societal and legal rules if they don't really have a say in their own thoughts and behavior? For the duration of this article (rant?), when I use the term 'Free Will' without qualification, I am specifically referring to the version of 'Free Will' which has been traditionally held by the majority of the populace for (probably) thousands of years. It occurs to me that the reason why we can still hold people accountable even without Free Will is because, when our brain is faced with a decision to make, it takes everything possible into account, including memories...

I am often told that the only reason that I am an Atheist is because I shield myself from the religious side and follow science with blind faith. Obviously, these claims are baseless as none of these people (to my knowledge) have installed cameras or computer logging software to track my actions, but it occurred to me recently that this might actually be a testable claim (a rare event indeed amongst the religious crowd). Therefore, I have created this 'Send an Atheist to Seminary' campaign in order to carry this claim through a real-world test: I am ready and willing to attend a full Seminary 'education' in order to expose myself to 'the other side'. If I come out of it a Christian, then I will preach the Word of God until my dying day. I will renounce Atheism and anti-theism and will publicly debate any Atheist who is willing to do so. There is a bit of a catch, however - I have a family, so not only do I need the funds to attend the Seminary (and all of...

My friend Wayne made a post on his Facebook Wall earlier today: Everyone should dedicate one hour to education per day. Yea, go do something useful. Now, I actually do this already.  I am always looking for documentaries, lectures, debates and whatnot in order to further my understanding of science and of the world in general.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is something that everyone should do.  I realize that many people have little free time in their lives, but I say do it anyway.  Learning is the absolute best use of your time, in my opinion, and it has innumerable benefits. For one thing, learning will  challenge your preconceptions.  I can't count how many times I have watched Lawrence Krauss' lecture 'A Universe From Nothing', because it completely changed my perspective on how the Universe actually works.  This has happened to me on a number of occasions, on such topics as cosmology, biology, chemistry, and physics...

This blog post will serve as an ever-changing list of materials which I feel serve as excellent examples for distinguishing fact from fiction and for making educated decisions, as well as being entertaining. Skepticism / Atheism Penn & Teller's 'Bullshit!' Showtime Series -  http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/home.do The Atheist Experience TV Show -  http://www.atheist-experience.com/ Marijuana / Drug Reform Grass: A Marijuana History -  http://www.amazon.com/Grass/dp/B0034L1N2Q Understanding Science Falsifying Phylogeny -  http://www.youtube.com/user/AronRa#p/c/0C606FE36BEDAC75/0/91UAzMNUDLU Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism -  http://www.youtube.com/user/AronRa#p/c/126AFB53A6F002CC/0/KnJX68ELbAY Cosmos:  Carl Sagan -  http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan-DVD-Set/dp/B000055ZOB 'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009 -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo