Archive


Woman sentenced to Death for WITCHCRAFT! Saudi Arabi


Boy Starved by Cult?…

Police believe a toddler was starved to death by a religious cult because he refused to say “amen”. Members did not seek medical care when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother’s arms.

read more | digg story


An Atheist Meets God


You just need faith!

I have discovered something peculiar about the theist mind, and I was guilty of this in the past. When all the arguments have been dismissed with clear rational reasoning the last resort of a believer is to declare “You have just got to have some faith!”. Obviously, I disagree.

First let’s define what we mean by faith. Faith is the belief in a notion or idea to spite any evidence to support it, or in some cases in complete contradiction to the evidence available. When a believer states “It’s all a matter of faith”, my usual retort is now “If it’s solely about faith, then why should I not have faith in Poseidon, Zeus, Baal, Xenu, Vishnu, Allah, or Wotan?” Typically this is meet with stoney silence.

But I am not here to make that point, I want to highlight another aspect to this poor argument. If it’s just a matter of faith, why do believers try SO HARD to conjure evidence to support their claims?

In America you have Christian Evangelical’s building “Creation Museums” detailing in extraordinary detail how science supports their particular version of creation. Of course, they completely ignore vast mountains of knowledge and research that disagrees with their prior assumptions about the universe and present twisted versions of what we do know in order to further their cause. Are the people who build these monuments to ignorance aware of what they are doing, or are they themselves victims of their religious delusions?

We have numerous authors publishing misleading propaganda on “the religion of atheism”, or “the evils of evolution” for no other apparent reason than these conflict with their deeply held core beliefs.

If all I need is “faith”, then why did Jesus exist at all (assuming he did for a moment). Why perform all these miracles? Why bother healing the sick, walking on water, feeding 5,000 people, curing blindness, and coming back to life if it’s all a matter of faith? Surely NOT to provide evidence he was the “son of god”, the Messiah, and the savour of all mankind?

Even god himself was required to show numerous “proofs” of his existence by creating everything, causing a global catastrophic flood killing everyone on earth, smiting cities with fire and brimstone to destroy the wicked, impregnating a virgin, lighting a star in the sky to guide three wise men to his place of birth, setting bushes alight, parting the seas, writing commandments in stone, and underlying the crucifixion with earthquakes, eclipses, and zombies.

If it was “just a matter of faith” you would not have need for the proofs contained in the bible. The stories of god’s wrath, or his supposed eternal love for us demonstrated via the act of killing himself to appease the curse he himself imposed (never mind the fact that this brilliant solution from the omniscient creator of the universe doesn’t work if you don’t “have faith”). Why do you need the bible if it all comes down to faith? Why hold up the bible as evidence of the existence of your god, because the book says it was divinely inspired. This you call proof while simultaneously claiming you do not need proof, for proof denies faith and without faith you can not be a “holy man”.

Don’t tell me is “just a matter of faith” when you try so desperately to provide evidence or rational arguments for the existence of your particular version of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent creator. 

Your retreat to the phrase “you just need some faith” is the last ditch attempt to convince your opponent to believe because of the lack of evidence, or to spite the evidence, or just to simply believe for the sake of believing.

Faith does not require evidence – that’s WHY we call it FAITH! So stop trying to provide any evidence or reasoning to support your claim. You are only undermining your position and making a fool of yourself.


Teen From Faith-Healing

The Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family’s home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray.

read more | digg story


Smith and Jones – Grave Sketch


This takes me back my school days. Funny !


Father Bob and Aronra

This week I meet with Aronra in Melbourne for the Global Atheist Convention, and thought it would be a good idea to chat up with Australia’s most popular secular humanist Catholic Father Bob for a chat.  Strap yourself in for this one.


Further Reading

Excellent Marriage

On Thursday the 17th May the churches of Tasmania will be hosting an event at the Stanley Burbury Theatre entitled “Excellent Marriage”.  According to their web site the event “aims to celebrate the importance and value of marriage for the Australian community”.  They say  “people from religious and non-religious backgrounds, young and old, are all invited to…
Continue reading

More Ultimate Answers

This is a continuation of my reply to Andrew Finden’s “one last philosophical hurrah” post, and addresses the question “why believe there is a god?” It is encouraging to read the opening statement of this section where Andrew admits “that one can cannot prove that God exists”, however he quickly (and rightly) dismisses philosophical materialism…
Continue reading

Ultimate Answers

Those who have been following this blog for a while will, no doubt, recall the various discussions/debates/arguments I have had with Andrew Finden in the past. As frustrating as I find them at times, I think he often tackles interesting and difficult topics with a calm intelligence not very often found in the religious debate. This…
Continue reading

Dear Mr. Swan,

Wayne Swan is currently having meeting to finalise the Australian federal budget.  In these tough economic times it is more important than ever to ensure your hard earned tax dollar is being spent in the most effective and efficient manner.  In view of this I can think of one poorly thought out federal program which,…
Continue reading

We have it all

Last weekend I attend the second Global Atheist Convention run by the Atheist Foundation of Australia in Melbourne. The convention attracted over 4,000 attendees to listen to extraordinary line up of world class speakers from a variety of disciplines on a wide range of topics. The convention began with a comedy line up including the brilliantly hilarious…
Continue reading

Poor Pell

Last Monday on Australia’s ABC television network the jet-lagged evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins squared off against Catholic Cardinal George Pell on the “Q and A” program with unimpressive results. A transcript of the entire show can be found in the ABC’s web site. The level of intellectual debate on this episode of Q and A…
Continue reading


Back to top

Follow @askegg, @cynskeptical, @jimpalfreyman, and @nigelhoney on Twitter.

Designed by Andrew Skegg for using the Twitter Bootstrap framework.