AtheistExile’s Church of Self-Determinism

Featured Video
Pat Condell's latest (107th) video:Latest Forum Activity
- AtheistExile Reply to CARMs Matt Slick: Point #1
by: admin
December 2, 2011, 23:05 - Re: CARMs Official Anti-Atheist Apologia
by: admin
November 25, 2011, 16:08 - Forum Rules
by: admin
November 25, 2011, 12:05
- AtheistExile Reply to CARMs Matt Slick: Point #1
AtheistExile’s Tweets
- Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die. ~Johnny Carson http://t.co/ZSuqdJ9Z Best quotes 18 minutes ago
- "The future has already arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet" ~William Gibson http://t.co/z7jjlTGz Web's best quotes 37 minutes ago
- "What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day." ~Phyllis Diller http://t.co/lA49nRUX Web's best quotes 58 minutes ago
- "Anything you're good at contributes to happiness." ~Bertrand Russell http://t.co/34iQo9q6 Web's best quotes 1 hour ago
- You don't need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool as been invented to justify hate. ~R. A. Weatherwax http://t.co/RzMNNN0A 1 hour ago
- @P_Homing_Pigeon thanks for heads up 1 hour ago
- @Evolution_Child Let me guess . . . laughing at the "spot remover" quote? 1 hour ago
- @weezmgk @askegg I think even xians want a little devil when it counts. :-) 1 hour ago
- #FF @cody7n6u3 @fatcouncillor @goggy3 @ViewFromOlympus @Elucidatus @prkakwani @indramahardika @HereticPoet @c_echeverri Thanks guys! 1 hour ago
- "Man tends to treat all his opinions as principles." ~Herbert Agar http://t.co/eXHG3tP2 Web's best quotes 1 hour ago
AtheistExile.com’s RSS Feed
Freethought & Religion
Epilepsy, the God Module and Muhammad
It seems that temporal lobe epilepsy creates electrical storms in the brain that stimulates an adjacent area (now identified as the God Module). Many of these epileptics are hyper-religious.
God in the Constitution
There are some really good points covered: particularly the secular nature of our constitution and the the break it represents from the divine authority previously assumed by governments.
Perspective on Heaven and Hell
The brevity of life doesn’t bother me either. It’s nature’s way of telling me to enjoy myself or achieve something or help somebody in need. If death is the end of everything, then living is everything.
Islam and the Subjugation of Women
The religious/legal/political ideology of Islam needs to be reformed before change (much less, peace) can come. The first thing that needs to change is the subjugation of women.
Pascal’s Wager
If there is a God, does anybody really think we can hoodwink him into thinking we believe in him when we don’t? Believing in God AND thinking you can fool him is just plain nuts.
Carl Sagan’s ‘Amniotic Universe’
Sagan thinks we might be recalling this embryonic period when we describe feeling “at one with the universe” during a spiritual experience, out-of-body experience or near-death experience.
Confusing Morality with Religion
The Quran weaves Jihad against infidels inextricably into the fabric of Islam. It is more than a tenet of belief, it’s the moral responsibility of all Muslims. The terrorists ARE following the Quran. Islam is a rabid dogma.
What Atheism SHOULD Mean
Most people believe that dictionaries define words for us. But it’s the other way around. We, by our actual usage of words, tell dictionary lexicographers how to define them.
The Vatican Battles Satanism
Traditionally, any priest could perform exorcisms to cast the Devil out of a possessed person but 3 years ago the Vatican decreed that such purging should be left to professional exorcists.
Politics & Philosophy
Explaining Purpose
Human purpose and causality are both observable facts. They must, therefore, be compatible. Hard determinists simply side-step the philosophical challenge with false dichotomies.
Agents of Change
Skyscrapers, dams, dikes, highways . . . ALL technology serve human purposes — NOT causality’s (because causality has none). They are products of human intelligence interacting with causality.
3 False Conundrums of Free Will
The claim that free will (a.k.a. intent, purpose, self-determinism) contradicts or violates causality is a false dichotomy. It’s not a choice of one or the other: causality or free will. There are other possibilities
Dancing with Causality: Purposeful Steps
They’ve been arguing in circles because they’ve defined “free will” to fit their premises. This is because they didn’t know anything about the brain: not even its electro-chemical characteristics.
Brave Saudi Explains Arab Backwardness
They continue this horrible delusion: this belief in one’s own perfection. The belief that others must learn from them makes it impossible for them to benefit from modern culture.
Dualism and False Dichotomies
Anticipation is not an ephemeral wisp that flits through the mind and is gone. We mentally revisit our plans to revise or adjust them as needed. This is one of many forms of feedback our brains routinely perform.
Causality and Self-Determinism
Our destinies are not written in the stars (may the force be with you). We might eventually face extinction as the universe grows cold and fades away but our individual destinies are ours to make.
Absolute Certainty
Among us atheists, of course, religious fundamentalism is ruled out, so absolute certainty in atheists most often seems to conceal over-confidence or intransigence or (more likely) both.
The Palestinian Problem
I understand that liberals want to be inclusive. And that’s normally a good thing. But inclusion should not be a goal for its own sake. All considerations need to be addressed.
Science & Technology
Google Plus Requirement for Real Names
Google+ can require our real names for their internal records but they do not need to display our real names against our will.
Help Save the Planet: Die
Martin Azua, of Spain, has come up with an eco-friendly way to dispose of your corporeal remains after you die. He is marketing his design as the Bios Urn.
Scientists Slow Light to a Stop
Scientists have stopped light in its tracks in two landmark experiments. In doing so they have overcome a fundamental obstacle to the development of quantum computers.