OCTOBER 9, 2020 BY SCOTT R. STAHLECKER During the two decades I was a Christian the flood story really perplexed me. There were portions that just could not be plausible. To begin with, the punishment didn’t fit the crime, and the crime itself reads like a well-rigged sting operation. Nor could I reconcile why God thought […]
OCTOBER 16, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN Not long ago, I found myself involved behind the scenes in a squabble between the chair of my department and another department colleague. Their disagreement was about the proper interpretation of the Faculty Handbook on an issue related to my colleague’s upcoming promotion case. Both asked me, as a former department […]
SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 BY J. H. MCKENNA, PH.D. Fifty years ago Becky pondered a preacher’s boasts about the ‘mercy’ of God. The following week Becky sat under a gnarled and unwedgeable oak and thought about ‘mercy’ some more. After bit of cogitation, she stood up an atheist. Her reasons? To say that God has ‘mercy’ on humanity can […]
BY VAL WILDE AUGUST 31, 2020 The Protestant Lutheran Church of Sweden made history last month when the numbers came in: For the first time in history, the scales have tipped in favor of a female priesthood. The numbers are extremely close: 50.1% of the church’s priests are women, 49.9% men. In fact, after accounting for […]
AUGUST 31, 2020 BY CAPTAIN CASSIDY Hi and welcome back! As many people do now, I feel disquiet and dread when I check out what Christians are doing lately. And I’m not just talking about the obvious ones shooting protesters and screeching about their worship of Donald Trump. To me, the range of behavior we see […]
AUGUST 19, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN This month marks the eighth anniversary of this blog. It started on WordPress as an outlet for short essays that I had been writing for a couple of years and didn’t know what to do with. Friends and colleagues told me that (1) I needed to get them out into the […]
If Christianity (or Islam) were true, the religion should’ve appeared in other areas around the world in complete cultural isolation from biblical locales. Such evidence would point toward a universal truth, an omnipresent God, but as we well know, God suspiciously obeys man made borders and does not reveal Himself until men arrive with books […]
JUNE 3, 2019 BY VANCEMORGAN At its best, faith is the overflow of gratitude, the attempt to live as if we are loved, the fragile hope for something better on the other side of pain and death. And this feather of grace weighs more in the balance than any political gain. Michael Gerson One of the great […]
JULY 11, 2020 BY BOB SEIDENSTICKER My oldest granddaughter is now four years old, and I remember playing with her in her first year. I found myself treating her like I did my dog. Neither understood English very well, but they could understand tone. She grabs her toy? “What a smart girl!” She rolls over? “What […]
JULY 8, 2020 BY AVELLINA BALESTRI There is a common claim made that the distinction between Muslim and Christian understandings of God are a stark difference between a distant, remote, severe deity and an intimate, invested, and loving one. There is also much said with regards to the analogies of a Master/Slave relationship on the Islamic […]
JANUARY 12, 2020 BY PAUL LOUIS METZGER Many Christians celebrated the Epiphany or manifestation of the Lord last week and remember Jesus’ Baptism today, though originally, they were celebrated together. Each event and celebration in their own way highlight the profound realization that God is with us—Immanuel (Matthew 1:23). To build on previous entries on Epiphany, […]
JANUARY 6, 2020 BY MORGAN GUYTON [Mike Pompeo: U.S. Department of State, Public Domain] Donald Trump may not be an evangelical Christian, but his administration is filled with evangelicals who have weekly Bible studies together. One such evangelical Mike Pompeo, our Secretary of State, said about Iran that “force is the only language they respond to.” […]
JANUARY 4, 2020 BY KEITH GILES There are over 2.3 Billion Christians in the world today, according to most polls. In the USA, approximately 65% of Americans identify as Christians, or approximately 167 Million who claim to follow Jesus. Christianity is the world’s largest religious group. So, that means that if every one of those who claim to […]
Just look at the symptoms. What is the one thing that Religion wants to spread the most? They want us all to know that we are all sinners, the world is ending, God is all powerful, our lives will be terrible without him, and that in order to be saved we must submit to the […]
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 BY MICHAEL STONE If you oppose Trump, you oppose Christ: Frank Amedia, Trump’s “liaison for Christian policy,” claims that opposition to Trump is part of a demonic effort to “prevent the return of Christ.” Right Wing Watch reports: Frank Amedia, the tsunami-stopping and ant-reviving pastor who founded the POTUS Shield prayer effort to wage spiritual warfare on behalf of President […]
Republican War on Women continues: Iowa Senator Joni Ernst blocks a key Senate vote on the reauthoriztion of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Ernst blocked the vote on VAWA “because of a provision that eliminated the so-called boyfriend loophole by expanding a current ban on firearm purchases for spouses or formerly married partners convicted of […]
The Atheist Experience 23.34 for August 18, 2019 with Matt Dillahunty & Don Baker.
The Atheist Experience episode 21.40 for October 15, 2017 with Matt Dillahunty and Don Baker.