Complete History of the Universe: Personal Journey

I am likely to revisit this question repeatedly in this blog, at least to respond to various arguments for the existence of a diety. For the time being, I wish only to give a short description of my top 15 reasons for not believing in the Christian god in particular. I have never believed in any other deity, not really. Some of my logic comes from Richard Carrier’s short book Why I Am Not a…

Reminder: I’m still doing short posts to allow time for you to read my review of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.

Dear people who like debating, When trying to prove your side, the burden of proof is on you, not on the person you’re debating with. Saying “Here’s my side; prove me wrong” is incorrect. . Sincerely, anonymous. ~http://dearblankpleaseblank.com/permalink.php?viewid=962245 I almost lost it when I saw that in my rss feed. (What is “it”?) See, this is frustratingly close to being right, but…

Before I Start Reading / First Impressions Finding Darwin’s God by Kenneth Miller literally changed my life. As I’ve said before and will surely say again, it is this book more than any other which convinced me of evolution and thereby spearheaded my journey into atheism. That is because I found his arguments from the scientific evidence entirely convincing, but his arguments for how evolution…

I’ve been thinking almost from the beginning of this blog that I should write a post on homosexuality, but every time I think of it, I just don’t know what to say. My opinion on gay marriage is a bit easier to articulate. I’ve heard good arguments for abolishing marriage completely, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. As long as we have marriage as a legal institution, it needs to be…

Many of the arguments I encountered on Peter Kreeft’s list suffered from similar fatal problems. In general, they were based on fallacious thinking or misunderstood science and defended with rhetoric rather than fact. Here’s the full list again, with the two flaws I see as fatal or at least extremely weakening for each argument: The Argument from Change – poor understanding of science, fallacy…

I saw this picture on the internet and decided it was my duty to invent a context wherein this shirt would be appropriate. … The best I can come up with is a furry fetish party, but why would you wear long sleeves to a fetish party? This isn’t exactly part of a fursona outfit. Any ideas? Reminder: I’m still doing short posts to allow time for you to read my review of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to…

I don’t know why I find this gif so entertaining. Reminder: I’m still doing short posts to allow time for you to read my review of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.

Today’s xkcd is so very spot-on about free speech that I felt obligated to promote it. His alt-text is extremely to the point as well, and I’m putting it below for your convenience. “I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending your position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your…

Reminder: I am only doing very short content for at least a week to give my readers a chance to get through my review of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.

I don’t normally post on Tuesdays, but I have the review up and want to be sure people can see it. Also, I’m using this to preserve the tweets I made while I was reading, because I think at least some of them are funny. Whether this will be a common thing, I don’t know yet. I’m finally starting “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist”. Based only on the title, my review had over 500 words. —…

Tabula Rasa. Blank slate. It’s a term with which most of us are at least somewhat familiar, denoting a beginning. Well, here is my beginning. I am now restarting this blog and making it public. When I first started writing it in summer of 2011, I felt that I was at a turning point in my life, on the verge of a new adulthood. This statement was more accurate than I knew, although I was unaware…

What follows are the notes I made while watching God’s Not Dead. I had intended to write a full review, and I may still do that, but I don’t have anything else to post this morning, so here you go.   Did he seriously just joke about giving extra credit for using a lowercase g at the beginning of a sentence? I can’t imagine any self-respecting professor ever even jesting at giving extra credit…

Rebecca Reads Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy

Before I Start Reading / First Impressions Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy by Wolfgang Smith is my parents’ book, lent to me by my elder sister-in-law to try to convince me that evolution is false. (But will she read a pro-evolution book for me? Of course not…) Judging by the title and the chapter titles, I’m guessing that this is more focused on how evolution and Christianity…

Rebecca Reads Not God’s Type

Before I Start Reading / First Impressions Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms by Holly Ordway was a birthday gift for myself from my parents. The rant about how a “please be Catholic again” gift is perfectly appropriate in their eyes to give to me for an occasion, when I’m sure all Hell would break loose if I gave them a “please at least consider that you might be wrong in…

My Thoughts on Pope Francis

Recently, I was interviewed by Frank Zindler, and one of his questions was about my thoughts on this current pope. I think it’s worth expanding on my response a bit. First of all, as I no longer believe the veracity of Catholicism, I no longer accept that the pope has any authority over me. Some people shorthand this to “I don’t believe in the pope”, which I think is a very bad phrasing. It…

Interview with Frank Zindler

For the few people who don’t already know, Frank Zindler is the editor of American Atheist Press, an author of several books, a polyglot, a musician, and a scientist – one of the very rare people who is a polymath (Renaissance Man). Before I knew who he was, I met and got to know him, and even were he not a well-known and well-respected leader in the atheist community, I would still admire him. I…