Actual Theists

Unintentional Parody

Sorry powells4fam, you just won a full post for your response to "7 reasons why becoming an atheist sucks"

"So being an atheist means I have to become a depressed, emo, asshole, who insults anyone that's not him? I hope you realize that there is NO PROOF WHAT SO EVER that God doesn't exist, that he's an imaginary friend, or that the bible is wrong is retarded.His entire blog was trolling. If you read the bible, you'd see that it predicted many events like economic collapse, earthquakes, and even TRAINS.And To say every Christians are child molesters, to say that Christians believe the earth doesn't revolve around the sun, to say that we are the selfish ones even though Christians exist to help OTHER PEOPLE. I don't think you should call us selfish when your acting like a troll by assuming your right. Infidel has to come on here and act like a troll and assume that he's right. He gives no proof at all and just says he's right, your wrong over and over again, just like the last thousand atheist trolls I've met. Can't you people get some originality? For the record, events in the bible have been proven and they have historical backgrounds to them, JESUS WAS A REAL DUDE. Fact. Since Infidel wasn't there 2000 years ago and its not possible to disapprove God then his entire argument is invalid and false. At least some atheists I met had the decency to admit that they don't if God exists or not. But infidel has to base his statement on theories, opinions, thoughts, and trolling. And evolution and the big bang ARE THEORIES. They just thought of evolution cause monkeys look like men. Oh that bird is slightly darker than that one. IT MUST BE EVOLUTION!Believing in God is a lot more rational than believing that a magic explosion that came from nothing can somehow create dinosaurs. To say that Infidel is right with no proof is ignorance at its best. I'm really happy I'm not a pathetic troll like you because my IQ would probably go down. Based on the atheists I've met, I don't even think they believe what they say. They just want to be different and they are so naive to believe that believing in God makes one stupid. To believe that is what makes you stupid. One question? If humanity is so meaningless and we're just a bunch of fleshy meat sacks then why is humanity the only super intelligent species in the world?"

Goodbye Sheeple

Match's search numbers put things into perspective. A very limited dating pool with only 71/2000. I had hoped Los Angeles would be better than 3.5%. At least it's not 0.7% like the whole of America.

Religion & Writing Proficiency Level

Lovely statistics via blog.okcupid.com

The pattern behind self-deception

Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ

Thank you Satoshi Kanazawa, for discovering what we already know, and religious conservatives don't want to admit.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/index.html?hpt=Sbin

David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation

Top 20 search terms

Did you know every time you search for something the terms are logged? All the silly, dirty, and horribly misspelled searches end up on someones statistics page. Here are the best one's that led to curefaith.com (in order of frequency).

1. atheism sucks (apparently I agree.)


2. babies are delicious (WTF?)


3. std cure (woops, wires crossed. Will have to be more specific if you want any hope with that one.)


4. "how to cook babies" ("WTF?")


5. torture terrorists


6. "atheism is just too bleak" (Instead, lets make up stories that make us feel better.)


7. "free thought" +bible (free thought + bible = -bible)


8. "you're wrong for being an atheist." (Google will happily refute that one.)


9. bible verses that cure people (zero results.)


10. doctor jesus cure (lol)


11. faith magic know (?!)


12. god argument makes more complex not simpiler


13. how can i explain that god exist to atheist (with much difficulty.)


14. how to cure my dog by faith (there are specific faith cures for dogs now?)


15. i'm becoming an atheist (good for you!)


16. if religion did not exist would there be a cure for cancer? (There would also not be religion, which would be almost as good.)


17. interracial punish evil (racist?)


18. the church of atheists suck


19. the out campaign sucks atheist (it sucks them real good.)


20. the pain of atheism (oh the pain. the horrible pain. )

Viral Memetic Infection

Simple, heartfelt, and spot on. Diane Benscoter talks about how cults rewire the brain.

Easy pieces

Concocting the ultimate viral idea

What might a powerful viral idea look like? In other words, what elements would an idea that's equipped for survival and impact have?

Lets make some guesses about this hypothetical idea:

• Untestable but ultimate rewards for believing and following idea correctly.
• Untestable but ultimate punishments for not believing in or not following idea correctly.
• Punishment for believing in other contrary ideas.
• All good things that happen are thanks to belief in idea.
• All bad things that happen are from lack of faith in idea or are good things in disguise.
• Idea supported in large body of interpretable literature containing some historical grounding.
• Reward for taking idea without evidence.
• Everything in the world is evidence for idea.
• Reward for convincing others of idea and for having many children.
• Open to all races, ages, and sexes.
• Solutions to fear of death, lack of control, loneliness, powerlessness, and insignificance.
• Reward for outward appearance of happiness.
• Reward for funding idea.
• Reward for dedicating everything to idea.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Any additions to make this bad boy even more infectious?

Leap of astranomical odds

Organic chemist John Sutherland of the University of Manchester was able to show the formation of ribonucleotides (building blocks of rna) under conditions similar to earths early years. That leap of astronomical odds creationists claim is necessary for life to have evolved is becoming demonstratively even less credible with every such discovery.

God is running out of gaps to hide in.

Where the freedom slope ends

Witness as Pat Robertson mounts the most common attack on homosexual marriage. Marvel as he uses a picture perfect slippery slope argument. Gaze in awe as he demonstrates his bigotry once again.

He claims the ultimate conclusion of same sex marriage is legal polygamy, bestiality, child molestation, and pedophilia.

Funny thing though, he's partially right.

You could say that abolishing slavery, giving women the vote, and allowing interracial marriage were all part of a slippery slope towards granting people rights. An awesome slippery slope towards unprecedented freedom.

The line isn't same-sex marriage, its further than that. Like Pat says, polygamy deserve the same rights as same-sex marriage for the same reasons. Bestiality is getting into Grey territory. Child molestation has absolutely crossed the line because it gives someone the right to violate the rights of another (The right to your own body). Giving people rights is good. It's always good until those rights interfere with the rights of others. Your rights end where your neighbor's begin.

Stand, dumbstruck, as Pat leaps off the freedom slope just moments before it ends!

Believe you're not infected?

Theists. Fed up being picked on? Now it's your turn!

It falls on you to show your religion is the real deal. What evidence or arguments do you have? People of other faiths have been just as convinced as you are, what makes your faith different? Why should we ever appeal to faith?

This is an open on-going invitation for you to stand up for your beliefs.

email curefaith@gmail.com, or add a comment and I'll start a new post with your argument or question.

Please be concise and to the point. If your argument or question is terrible, I won't bother posting it.

Occam's Chainsaw

I don't want to come across as all pretentiously existential here, but I'm pretty sure, something exists.

As our understanding of the universe has increased, what appears to be complex has been broken down into simpler and smaller parts. Animals to cells, cells to molecules, molecules to atoms, and so on. Existence ultimately must* be made from building blocks of irreducible complexity.

But where did these irreducibly complex building blocks come from? How do they exist. How does anything exist? Existence appears impossible, but is possible because it does exists. It's a mind blowing paradox.

Whats the answer to all this?

God of course. An all powerful, all knowing, all encompassing creator of the universe. However, even a small child can ask the next logical question; "But who created God?" Well, dear child, you see, God has always existed, he's eternal. He's the alpha the omega. Ah, no worries then, I can sleep soundly tonight.

Not so fast. How does something being eternal help us? We are still left with the question of how it exists. But wait, matter is eternal too, it can neither be created or destroyed. In using God to explain the universe, haven't we just invented, by definition, the most complex thing ever to exist, only to leave us right back at square one? Much much worse than square one even. It's going to take a hell of a lot more to explain God. You'd have to be a small child or completely blinded by faith to go with the God explanation on this one. Never has Occam's razor been needed more in the history of logic! This is the ULTIMATE divide between simplicity (the simplest thing possible in the universe), and complexity (God being infinitely complex).

But back to the impossible sounding question at hand. Just because I cannot comprehend a possible explanation, doesn't mean there isn't one, but I can't even make one up here! My wildest, craziest, fevered dreams don't have an answer. The question of "why does anything exist" is unique in that sense. Magical fairies can at least be used to explain everything else. Anyway, in the end, it doesn't matter if you're religious or a freethinker, the fact that something exist is just totally freaky. I'm freaked out. Really, I am.

*If the universe isn't made of building blocks that are irreducable, then they must be infinitely reducible, which means again infinite complexity.

Support for torture of terrorists

Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey on torture of terrorists. Turns out, if you're more religious you're more likely to support it. Not surprising considering most religious texts limit human rights back to the dark ages.

I'm edging towards the "can rarely be justified" response, but maybe I've been watching too much 24!

What's your stance?

God exists, therefore, God exists

I was having an enjoyable conversation with an anonymous Christian commenter here on my Easter post.

They were trying their best to answer some tricky questions and find evidence for Christianity when this one popped up.

The question was:
"What makes Christianity's obvious inaccuracies any more credible than other religions?"

And I got this wonderful circular argument as a response:
"Jesus said he was the way, the truth, and the life...AND he rose from the dead. I'll believe Him before anyone else."

This exemplifies a far too common argument. I have heard both family and friends make it in similar forms. It's a fallacy that only makes sense in the mind of someone who starts with the conclusion that God exists. If you already know God exists, then why not look to his infallible word to back that up? Problem is, it holds no water when you look at it from a neutral perspective.

If you are religious, please try to step back from your faith and legitimately ask the question: is my religion more likely to be man-made or true, and what makes it so different from other religions that we all agree are man-made?



As you can probably guess, I'm still waiting for the evidence.

Dirty Dirty God

Genesis 1:31: "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."

Very very good, if you know what I mean...

God is filthy. Not your average truck-stop restroom man-whore kind of filthy, I'm talking about kink more deviant and extreme than you can even imagine. No, this isn't another joke at the expense of Catholic priests; their boy buggering is made to look as tame as Sunday school where the rest of the animal kingdom is concerned. God's filthy creations include porcupines who take golden showers, Garter snake male she-male female orgies, and Bed bugs which mate through the appropriately horrifyingly named process "traumatic insemination."

So next time you're reminded that God hates homosexual humans, don't forget, at least he LOVES homosexual animals.

Check out God's perverted creations at cracked.com's 15 most bizarre animal mating rituals.

7 reasons why becoming an atheist sucks

1. Say goodbye to sheeple.

Having spent all your life being raised by, herding amongst, and copulating with other Christians, your social pool just got a whole lot smaller. Admitting atheism amongst Christians is social suicide one step away from coming out as gay. As your social circle's new black sheep and immediate source of gossip, you'll be prayed for, suspiciously glanced at, and be the only one not invited to your niece's baptism. You might even get your very own intervention; coming home to find a circle of family and friends, bible in hands and solemn faced, it starts with "I know you are angry at God, but...."

Sure, you could keep going to church and stick with your friends, but you could also continue to put out milk and cookies for Santa.

To make things worse, its not like you can hop on over to your local church of atheism and find a new circle of friends. Finding a lover is going to be difficult too. There are still a lot of fish left in the sea, but the unfortunate majority are the deluded religious.

2. Death isn't the beginning.

Death suddenly becomes the fear inducing end to your existence you had been afraid to think about. Sure you're free from hell too, but you were never going there anyway, only the neighbors' kid who peed on your lawn.

Once life was a journey with Disneyland waiting at the end, now it's the destination and sure as hell isn't Disneyland. You really don't want to go back to before you were born, what with the lack of thinking and all.

3. Ignorance was bliss.

Your days of living in a bible bubble are over. The bible is no longer the source of all answers. It's like you lost your textbook the day before midterms, and to make things worse there isn't even a midterm!

God forbid, you may even need to discern between sources of information yourself.

That mysterious plan God had for your life? Turns out it wasn't so mysterious after all. Nana didn't die because God was calling her to heaven, she died because she refused medical treatment on grounds of faith.

Suddenly those angry looking bees aren't God's creatures, and that drunk driver doesn't have God nudging his car away from running you down as you tentatively cross the road away from the bees. Sure all these things had just as high a chance of hurting you before you became an atheist, but now they hurt you mentally too.

4. Cut line to big J.

Who you gonna call? Not Jesus, that's for sure.

That voice in your head just got a major downgrade from almighty creator of the universe to imaginary friend. Want grandma to survive cancer? Well too bad, talking to yourself just isn't going to cut it anymore. You'll have to get a Ph.D and start researching.

What are you going to do on airplanes? I'm entirely sure they stay in the air only thanks to continual requests to God.

Once you were like a superhero in disguise. "God's disciple" colorfully embroidered on the spandex under your shirt - at a moment's notice you could send up the call and stop the turbulence bringing the plane down. Now it's Superman II all over again.

5. No more get out of jail free.

Those children you molested during your priesthood? Turns out God didn't forgive you after all. You're accountable to yourself for everything you have done. God isn't going to wash your sins away, you'll just have to live with the dirt.

That war your country is fighting over seas? Turns out it wasn't something God wanted, and right now your taxes are going towards funding genocide of a culture whose only sin was getting religion just as wrong as you did.

As if not having your sins forgiven was bad, now there isn't even defined good and evil. You might just need to come up with your own moral code, and how egotistical would that be!?

6. One in a billion.

The sun no longer revolves around the earth, and life no longer revolves around you. This isn't your personal God constructed holodeck. You're about as special as one talking animal amongst 6,000,000,000 similar talking animals on one planet in a solar system amongst 10,000,000,000 other solar systems in a galaxy amongst 1000,000,000,000 other galaxies.

Worst of all, now you can't judge others. Jimmy the satanist isn't going to hell, and you can stop feeling self-satisfied knowing you're going to heaven. Remember that picture of you in a solid gold frame that was stolen by burglars? Well now you can't feel all smug knowing they will be getting their comeuppance.

7. You dumb.

You have to admit you were horribly deluded. You might just have to dissect your lost faith inside and out, and maybe start a blog to lure others into the bleak reality you have discovered. What's worse is that all the faithful are exposed as the infected they have always been. Like waking from your stupor amongst the flesh eating zombie hoard, you are not in a better place!

Do you have an STD?

STD
abbr. socially transmitted dogma

noun
1.	a communicable viral idea transmitted by social contact

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

God's Influence

A few cheap jabs. Cheesy I know.

Any buttons I missed?

A vast and important undertaking.

Tonight I took the time to contribute to one of the most important movements of this generation: The Zombie Bible! Matthew 18 was in dire lack of zombies, so I corrected this grave omission.

A few highlights:
"18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be turned, and become as headless zombies, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of the undead."

"18:8 Wherefore if thy brain thinks with rational thought, tear it out and devour it: it is better for thee to shuffle unflinching with the horde, rather than have a brain to question it."

Luckily it was easy to keep the original message completely intact!

Please, for all our sakes, do your part and contribute.

Pro Christian marriage parody.

The National Organization for Marriage put out this video parodying pro christian marriage. Its a good laugh, here's the transcript:

There's a storm gathering.
The clouds are dark and the winds are strong, and I am afraid.
Some who advocate for interracial marriage have taken the issue far beyond interracial couples.
They want to bring the issue into my life.
My freedom will be taken away.
I'm a California doctor who must choose between my faith and my job.
I'm part of a New Jersey church group punished by the government because we can't support interracial marriage.
I'm a Massachusetts parent, helplessly watching public schools teach my son that interracial marriage is OK.
But some who advocate for interracial marriage have not been content with interracial couples living as they wish.
Those advocates want to change the way I live.
I will have no choice.
The storm is coming.
But we have hope, a rainbow coalition of people of every creed and sexual preference are coming together in love to protect marriage.
Visit NationForMarriage.org

Wait.. did I get something mixed up?


Raw auditions dug up by the Human Rights Campaign. Catch them before they are pulled!

UPDATE: Wake Up World did a real parody (as if it needed one):

Persuade me.

There's a guide via wikiHow on how to persuade an atheist to become christian. Its seemingly written by a mixture of theist and atheist authors, although much of it deals with praying, knowing and dispensing advice from the bible, setting a good example, and being friendly and open.

Just to make things clear, appealing to my emotions will never change my mind.

There are also a lot of deceptive arguments against science and tired arguments for the existence of God (Kalam Cosmological Argument anyone?).

When you boil it down, there is only one piece of good advice left:

find evidence.

For the theist who's trying, see this guide on ebonmusings.

Borderline religious

In the course of a potentially offensive Joke I asked someone at work if they where religious. The answer itself wasn't surprising, but hearing it out loud and so readily admitted was bizarre. "I'm borderline religious" was how they put it.

Maybe they are legitimately going through a transitional phase and have the where-withal to acknowledge it? Perhaps they were worried about fitting in and scared to admit their faith fully? If that was the case, then how much faith can they really have? It's far more likely they hold a common view; that of nonchalance and ignorance. I have known many Christians who use it as a label and nothing more. It's what they Identify themselves as, but they don't go to church or practice. Effectively, they just haven't given it much thought. One of Christianity's traits is to stop believers from thinking; my experiences and the statistics would suggest it's highly effective.

A devout Christian friend of mine would describe those people as false Christians, almost relishing the idea that they won't be going to heaven. I can't look at them any more kindly, these half Christians can neither defend their beliefs or even understand them. They are enablers for the more extreme zealots. Approaching voting with that same ignorance, public policy's are so easily swayed towards that of the religion to which most subscribe. It's a travesty when the religious majority band together to trample the rights of the minority.

So to all those who are borderline religious out there. Stop riding the fence and start thinking. Get your beliefs straight or risk going through life a zombie pawn to the fanatical!

Evolution vs Creationism

Muslim scholars debate evolution vs Intelligent Design. Oh... wait... what year is this?



Creationists - this is how your arguments come across to scientists! Also, don't forget, a couple of centuries ago the church once insisted the world was flat for the same reasons. How is denial of evolution any different?

Revelation 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.

Happy Easter

A week early I know, but Happy Easter everyone!

Slain in the spirit FAIL

I have just been slain in the spirit! I was in hysterics. I couldn't stop laughing. I could hardly move. It lasted for what seemed like hours. I was ecstatic. I could hardly breathe. I felt light headed. I felt disembodied. Surely it was the power of the Lord God? Surely it was Jesus feeling me up?

Nope..

I just spent the last hour reading FailBlog and working up a fit of laughter that wiped the floor with when I was "really" slain in the spirit. It happened back when I was young, christian, and naive. I was down on the floor near the pulpit. The service was over and members of the church had come together to pray, lay hands on each other, and speak in tongues. It wasn't uncommon for people to collapse to the floor in fits of laughter. It was called "slain in the spirit" and was considered a mystical encounter with the holy spirit. Some of my church friends were praying, speaking in tongues, and laying hands on me when the laughter started. I collapsed in hysterics. They blew the holy spirit on me, and I could hardly move, such was its power.

After I escaped from the confines of faith, I had believed that experience to be a combination of oxygen deprivation & our biological perceptibility to transcendent experiences. Thanks FailBlog for inducing that experience again.

Holy Spirit FAIL!

What the bleep do we know

The movie What the bleep do we know uses quantum physics as a springboard into absurd pseudoscience. Directed by three Ramtha cultists, it unsurprisingly receives a thorough debunking here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. It's also terrible, which doesn't help its case.

I couldn't stomach it to the end, instead I re-watched a fantastic talk by Richard Dawkins' "The universe is queerer than we can suppose".

My de-conversion, part 1

One of my earliest memories is of a plaque my mother had handcrafted (shown left). It depicted verses from Corinthians 13, which detail Love. I remember being enthralled by its simple but beautiful artistry. In many ways, this is how I saw Christianity, as my mother and upbringing pedestaled it as the only source of joy. It took me many years to realize life was the source of Joy, not God. This is the first part of that story.

I was brought into this world by two very young evangelicals in the UK during the 80's. My mother was strictly religious, having devoted her life to God. I never saw my father as religious; he left both my mother and religion when I was just 4. Looking after my 2 year old sister and I, times were tough for my mother who had no useful extended education or income beyond minimum wage jobs and alimony. I expect the hardship helped fuel her religious devolution, combined with her sisters and parents who were all devoutly religious and a constant source of support.

We went to church weekly; God was the central theme of everything my mother did. When I was 5, I remember being tucked into the lower bunk bed by my mother and asking Jesus into my heart. My mother had prompted me to do so, explaining that doing so was the only way to heaven. I felt that what conspired that night was somehow of great significance. I was right, it was the start of my full indoctrination. To further my education I was sent to an small expensive private Christian school my mother could barely afford. As intended, it enforced my early beliefs and kept me covered in cotton wool. Bible verse memorization and assemblies that almost always involved God were part of every day school life. Ultimately classmates and faculty were kind, and being a kid was usually simple and fun.

It wasn't all joy though, fear of hell was a powerful pacifier. I remember feeling pangs of desperation and despair when I'd doubt my faith, as all questioning and criticism was replaced with complete and overwhelming dread. A feeling I can still remember vividly to this day.

My school headmaster & our church pastor during an assembly re-enacting Jesus washing his disciples feet. Hard core!

Faith defense.

God works in mysterious ways.
The bible says it's so.
I'll pray for you.
Who are we to understand God?
Jesus loves you.
God's in control.

The most obvious one:
I have faith.

and my favorite -
Some day I'm going to come down their and punch your fat face in for Jesus!


Any other obvious ones I have missed?

Faithfully burning threats.

Come on, grab an armful, we have to destroy everything that's harmful to God!

Tonight's episode of family guy does religion.

Personal fudge factor.

Dan Ariely talks about our buggy moral code.

The Beautiful Truth Review

The Beautiful Truth takes you on a creepy mellow journey with a 15 year old boy as he discovers the cure for cancer.

The cure for cancer?? That's right, THE cure for cancer.

Turns out, after decades and billions of dollars in research done by pharmaceutical companies, Max Gerson had already discovered the cure back in the 1920's. Oops. Apparently, lots of organic fresh juice, and SPOILER ALERT: Coffee Enemas is all it takes!

Avoiding alot of modern things also helps:
Pharmaceutical drugs, MSG, aspartame, vaccines, food irradiation, genetically modified foods, dental amalgams, water fluoridation, and radioactive kitchen sinks, are SHOCK, all bad for you! It does seem the filmmaker took every controversial potentially carcinogenic but "proven safe" thing he could find; but I can't disagree, staying away from some of those things is probably not going to hurt.

Just remember, asbestos was proven safe too!

Apparently cancer researchers have been conspiring to bury the cure in order to make money; because you can't patent sticking coffee up your arse! If it really cured cancer, then wouldn't the active ingredients in coffee be extracted, properly dosed, added to and tweaked, and then sold at pharmacies as cancer cure douches by said conspirators? You'd make billions! Especially if marketed as a daily thing, or would it just be too kinky for your average Joe to stomach?

The segment about Kirlian Photography showing the aura difference between processed food and organic sent my suspicion levels off the chart. "All living things have a distinctive energy field around them that can be measured and even photographed". The film immediately lumped itself in with these air heads.

The problem is that the film is so dotted with fiction that the facts might get a little lost during its 92 minute droning time. The facts can essentially be boiled down to just one sentence: To lower your risk of cancer, eat healthy food and avoid potential carcinogens. Here's one way of doing both at the same time.

So don't bother with The Beautiful Truth, that is, unless you're looking for a bullshit enema. The far more beautiful truth it seems, is that science and reason have almost doubled life expectancy and far improved quality of life in just the last 100 years. Sure there will be a few side effects, but can anyone argue it hasn't been worth it?

How to cook babies in delicious sauce.

How to cook babies in delicious sauce is a great book, filled with many great sauces, each one more delicious than the last. With this as your guide, your food is sure to be deliciously saucy. Sure, there's the whole matter of cooking babies, but that's not important when there are so many great sauce recipes to be gained.

When Christians point to the Bible with admiration and awe, sighting how wonderful a guide to life it is, you can't expect differently, because they think its written by the Almighty G himself!

Whats just plain silly though, is when atheists (including myself..) say there are so many life lessons to be learned from the bible, there's lots of good in it they say, in an effort to sound enlightened and accepting. Yes, there's some advice in the Bible that's probably worth taking if your gunning for happiness, but you certainly don't need the bible to get it.

Looking for good advice in the bible is like looking for edible food in a dumpster. You'll rummage through plenty of rotting garbage before finding anything half palatable.

Garbage like God slaughtering innocent babies:

"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.” (Exod. 12:29)

Well at least he didn't eat them!

What if you're wrong?

I have heard a lot of theists bring up Pascal's Wager, or at least pose the question "what if you're wrong?" Perhaps trying to instill in others the same fear of the afterlife they possess?

"Why not believe, what have you got to lose?" they say..

I find the question rather distasteful, as it heavily devalues the life we have now. We have EVERYTHING to lose, our very freedom of thought; through which we experience what is likely to be the only existence we will ever get.

Historically, there have been thousands of possible faiths to pick from. Even if one of the religions is the "correct" one, your odds are still astronomically low that you both pick correctly and qualify for the happy ending.

We can guarantee what we have today. Life is astounding, we have a magnificent opportunity right here, right now, and to limit our experience with dogma is a tragic waste.

Pat Condell

Pat Condell is my hero. Also he's very very funny.

America; less a nation under God.

Survey shows America is becoming less Religious, about time it started catching up with other developed nations. It would be interesting to see this graphed over time. How many generations until the religious are a minority?

In defense of faith.

Watching too much Atheist Experience will have you forgetting that Christians can form coherent arguments. The most interesting part of Hitchen's & D'Souza's debate was D'Souza, who doesn't fall flat on his face when defending faith. Good stuff.


Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza at CU Boulder from Justin Leddick on Vimeo.

Atheist Blogroll

It was surprisingly difficult to find good atheist blogs out there in google land. That is, until I came across the Atheist Blogroll. It brings together a surprisingly long list which Cure Faith is now a part of. Thanks, and nice job MOJOEY!

Rolling list now added to the sidebar.

Religulous Review

I have been on the lookout for a good religious comedy for a while without much luck so I gave Religulous a shot. It half hits the mark, being mildly funny most of the time, but painful to watch for the rest. Unfortunately the religious targets come across as pathetic husks of conscious beings, and barely get a coherent word in. Very little of significance is said until right at the end when Bill Maher ups the threat level. If the world does end by religion inspired nuclear terrorism "Lets remember what the real problem was, that we learned to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it". In light of the absurdly unintelligent religious interviewees, it made this message especially terrifying. If the enemy is this dumb, what hope do we have?

That said, if you like laughing at stupid religious people, this movie is for you!

Admitting ego.

I added a blog subtitle "One atheist's battle to unravel the most destructive viral idea ever to evolve". Hopefully it sums up what this is all about and adds a little more personality to the title.

I need to admit this is egotistical and stop detaching myself from posts. Later I plan on writing of my experiences growing up as a christian and gradually developing resistance to faith. There will be no hiding then!

From ape to man, extended version.

Creationists who care to do the research have a problem. Scientifically verifiable genetic mutation is practically undeniable. They might as well say cancer doesn't exist.

One of the few lines of defense left is a fictional distinction between microevolution and macroevolution. Both are big words so they must be scientifically sound! Out of necessity they admit that small scale changes are possible (the kind we can observe in our lifetime), but deny that species can undergo great change.

The catch line goes, "a dog can turn into a bigger dog, but it can't turn into a cat". It's wonderfully effective. Use two very common everyday animals and people start thinking about what's directly in front of them. Dogs can change into bigger dogs? Alright, I have seen that happen! Turn into a cat though? That's preposterous; it's crazy talk! The catchphrase creates an immediate reaction, that of distaste for an idea made to look absurd.

What it successfully blindfolds people from seeing is the vast amount of time it would take for a species to change like that. If a dog can change into a bigger dog, it could also change into a smaller one, which could change into a lighter more ambidextrous one, and after billions of years under the right conditions, something resembling a cat. Macroevolution IS microevolution, there's just more time involved. If genetics can change a tiny bit in a short time, they can change substantially given vast amounts of time.

Microevolution is a flimsy way for Creationists to draw a distinction between genetic change they can't deny, and a full on hedonistic belief in evolution they can't admit.

For the visually inclined creationists out there, click the link for an illustrated explanation!


Any thoughts on how I can improve the wording on the image to make it more effective?

Practical Morality

When religious people say "without religion, how do you know whats right?" its another way of saying "I can't think for myself and need a book of rules to follow". Just like bureaucracy, the rules of religious can hinder when people don't think for themselves. What about practical everyday morality?

Magic landfish.

Its no wonder the uninterested have a hard time taking evolution seriously. The closest they come to being educated is the odd cameo in popular media, which often simplifies the process down to an iconic image of a fish struggling onto land. It sells the reference instantly, but unfortunately not the process. Its so powerfull, the millions of years and evolutionary steps it represents are easy to forget.

Image: Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder, which centers around the preservation of an evolving ecosystem comically triggered by a magic green flash of Chi.

Symbolizing Cure Faith

Added a logo to the title, a cross unraveling into a strand of DNA. I'm hoping it works on a multiple levels. Faith is a problem regardless of religion, so the direct reference to Christianity isn't ideal but will do for now.

Preventing free thought, one verse at a time.

Matthew 18:4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

That's right Christians, you should come to God like a starry eyed kid looking up in awe at their parents, just brimming over with subjection and respect, and ready to follow them to the worlds end without question. When those parents tell you Tooth Fairies and Easter Bunnies exist, don't hesitate to embrace that as 100% genuine fact.

Originally I wanted to do an interpretation thing, something like "Whoever asks the fewest questions, shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven", but the verse is already so transparently aimed at keeping Christians ignorant there's hardly a point.

Just one of the many mechanism's the bible employs to keep Christians passive.

Scientifically, god does not exist.

Check out Austin Cline's explanation for why science allows us to say god does not exist. You'd think this approach would be used more often, but its hard to appeal to a religious authority using scientific method. Historically, you might not even live through the process.

Dawkins on Religion as a Virus.

Some of Dawkin's older but more powerful media. Unfortunately the blatantly obvious youtube title destroys the well crafted lead up, but its still a vaccine worth spreading. Effective enough to chip away at faith perhaps? It would be interesting to hear some legitimate religious responses to this one, there weren't any in the comments. Is there another copy out there that doesn't present such a no-go title for believers?

State Religion vs IQ

There are plenty of Religion vs IQ by country statistics out there. Unfortunately its easy to poke holes in IQ tests when administered across cultures. To add something new to the evidence:

Congratulations Mississippi, you're the least intelligent AND most religious state!

State IQ compared with % answering Yes to "Is religion an important part of your daily life?":



State IQ statistics from McDaniel Estimating State IQ
Religious importance statistics from Gallop - State of the States: Importance of Religion