Christianity

A collection of 27 posts

Atheist Demographics

Census: Christianity in UK on the back foot

The 2021 national census in England and Wales seems like a long time ago now, but the data is only just being released after aggregation and analysis. As reported recently, non-religion in the UK is in the ascendancy and Christianity is in decline. The latest statistics reaffirm this. Though the

aliens

The saved and the damned of Proxima Centauri B

As a child, I delighted in books of the unexplained—ghosts and UFOs, Mary Celestes and Bermuda Triangles, abominable snowmen and cursed mummies.  As a grown-up skeptic, many of these inexplicable phenomena have long been explained, or competently assigned diminishing probabilities. Ghosts almost certainly don’t hang around graveyards. Yetis?

Christianity

The stark similarity between Trump support and God belief

The January 6th hearings have been eye-opening and should leave no one in two minds about the hugely questionable moral behavior of Trump. Christian theologians and apologists have one job: to maintain the primacy—the moral perfection—of both God and the Bible. Everything they do is to maintain both

bible

Why the hell do you believe in hell?

I've been thinking a lot about heaven and hell lately, which is weird for an atheist, perhaps. There's just none of that sweet reward and all that horrible punishment without believing in God. I guess I've gotten caught up in the long grass of

Christianity

How identical twins can cause serious problems for ensoulment

Ensoulment is the proposed process of a soul becoming attached or associated with the physical matter of a human at some point in their development. For religious people, this is commonly understood to happen at conception when the sperm and egg combine. We've already seen that IVF, with

atheism

Evolution of an atheist

Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, had some advice for those who were undecided about the existence of God. In what has become known as “Pascal’s Wager,” he argued that, given a choice between believing or not believing in God, the wise decision is to believe

Bert Bigelow

What would Jesus literally do? That is the question.

This is an often-asked question by Christian believers. Usually, the answer they provide to their own question is a preachy sermon, extolling the wonderfulness of Jesus and the religion that is named after him. Or, it’s used to justify some action that an individual intends to take anyway. I

agnosticism

Welcome to my world. Our world.

So you've heard? We've moved. Some of us have set up residency for the first time. And we haven't just moved, we've upgraded. Built up. Built down. Spread sideways. Reached inwards. Stretched outwards. Invested. Predicted and future-proofed. Designed. Tested. Improved. Fortified. And

Christianity

Quote of the Day: Islam's Differences to Christianity

This is a worthy Quote of the Day from (((J_Enigma32))), rightfully pointing out my over-simplicity when talking about the tendency for Islam to be more "monolithic" than Christianity: ‮malsI‬, however, has been very different. Due to the nature of the holy book, ‮malsI‬ requires that society adapts

Christianity

What is "True Christianity"?

How does one go about arguing that their version of Christianity is the "True Christianity"™? This is an epistemological and exegetical problem. I have discussed this previously with regard to Islam and its differences to Christianity in '“True Islam” and violent extremism – redux' and "Islam

Christianity

The Theological Roots of White Supremacy

There was an interesting piece on Bloomberg the other day with an interview of Robert P. Jones by Francis Wilkinson. The bio and intro reads: Robert P. Jones is founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of the new book, “White Too Long: The Legacy of

Christianity

The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

The New York Times recently ran a piece on a new book, the book being The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey. The book looks to be an evisceration of the notion that Christianity has so pristinely added so much to the world, as

Christianity

On Christianity and Homosexuality

Here is something I wrote on some time ago, and I have expanded this repost here to include the remarks from the person I was debating with. I am reposting these pieces because it has come up in conversation on another thread. This first part deals explicitly with the intersection

Christianity

Analysing the Muslim Foster Care Scandal: Daily Mail Hypocrisy

There has recently been a scandal in the UK regarding a child from a Christian background being fostered by Muslim foster carers. This has produced quite a lot of media attention due to the fact that the foster carers supposedly encouraged the five-year-old girl to speak Arabic and banned her

Christianity

This Is the Soft Underbelly of Christianity

A friend of mine, who goes by the name of Fellow Feather, often writes adverts for different publications that are designed to be provocative. Here is his latest one, and it's poignant and pointed! GREATER EVIL IS BEYOND THE IMAGINATION OF MANthan that God,perfect in every way,

Christianity

No True Scotsmen, Religion and Criminality

This old chestnut. It rears its ugly head every so often when a believer is found to do some terrible crime. I think the last time I talked about it in this context was when Anders Breivik went and shot up a group of young political people in Norway. Let&

bible

Jehovah's Jihad: Christians Abhor the Qu'ran, Ignore Biblical Atrocities

The Bible contains Jehovah's jihads and is more violent than the Qu'ran.

Christianity

Ockham's Razor and Christianity, revisited

Having just moved to Patheos, it gives me a great opportunity to revisit some older posts which can now get more traction. There is no point reinventing the wheel, and I have over 1200 posts to draw on. Anyway, here is one on Ockham's Razor and Christianity. Here

China

Being skeptical about Chinese 'persecution' of Christians

Some of you may have heard news reports like this one from Yahoo News about a church being 'knocked down by the Communists'. This is how they report it:

Christianity

Christianity is not responsible for science (part 2)

The other day I posted a piece refuting the notion that Christianity is somehow causally responsible for the development of science and the scientific method. I would like to continue with a short piece looking at another couple of points which I have had heard raised.

Christianity

Christianity is not responsible for science

Tihs has come up in conversation elsewhere, so I thought I would resurrect this old post from my old, old blog. I have recently been involved in an argument online which is a very common argument and one which annoys me just a little. It is also an argument which

agnosticism

Real Deconversion Story #7 - Phil Stilwell

Here is another account in my series of real-life deconversion stories. They are often painful, psychological affairs, as you can see from the various accounts. Phil Stilwell, someone whom I came across on facebook (The Unbelievable page). It is a few years old now, but well worth the read. Happy re

belief

The terminal decline of Christianity in New Zealand

The results of the 2013 New Zealand Census has Christianity down to 47 per cent. Retired scientist, Ken Perrott's, accompanying graph charts Christianity's decline in every recent census and projects its decline to just above 20 per cent by 2030 and further, beyond that date. It is, of course, very

Christianity

Aaaarggghhh! The Republicans are properly mental!

So, us in the rest of the world can see that the Republican Party in the US are several sandwiches short of a picnic, holding the country and perhaps the world to ransom. Here are a couple of interesting articles: Salon.com: Christian delusions are driving the GOP insane Why

Christianity

No, THIS is the best religious debate ever....

H/T Reasonably Faithless: http://youtu.be/uX-Aldx-LM0