God sure works in mysterious ways:
This just further evidence that there is probably nothing that will shake the religious faithful from their delusions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- The Atheist Missionary
- I am a Canadian father, lawyer, columnist, skeptic and humanist interested in furthering a critical analysis of religious belief systems. The name "Atheist Missionary" is a sarcastic jab at religious fundamentalists. Atheists don't proselytize and are unified only by their freethinking nonbelief in the existence of a supernatural deity. In my preferred reality, philosophers would be treated like rock stars.
Twitter Updates
Sites which I commend to my visitors
- Advocatus Atheist
- Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach
- Atheism: Proving the Negative
- Common Sense Atheism
- Dan Carlin - Common Sense and Harcore History
- God is Imaginary
- Humanist Toronto
- Journeyman Philosopher
- M and M
- Pharyngula by PZ Myers
- Randal Rauser
- RichardDawkins.net: A Clear Thinking Oasis
- Skeptics Annotated Bible
- Stephen Law website/blog
- Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
- Why won't God heal amputees?
Blog Archive
Highly recommended books
- How Are We To Live? Ethics In An Age of Self-Interest
- Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence
- Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists
- The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason
- The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To Save World Poverty
- The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking
- You Can't Go Home Again
Followers
BlogCatalog
Subscribe To My Podcast
The Atheist Missionary is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
If their belief is god eases their pain, then so be it. As an atheist, I can't condemn. It is just too big of a burden and loss, 'hard to imagine the grief. I hope they find solice in wherever they can.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with susana. As irrational as these words are, a parent who loses a precious child ought to be able to find comfort in the irrational. It will pass.
ReplyDeleteWho is brave enough?
ReplyDeleteI have a challenge for any convinced atheist (maybe even the atheist missionary). Here´s the deal: I am a convinced theist (new-born christian) and also a missionary. You propose a book I will read, I propose a book you will read. Each week we read some 20 pages or so and send an email to each other of what we´ve read (to ensure everybody does the homework). Get the most compelling book you know of. If your book is convincing you might convert a theist into an atheist and get rid of one of their missionaries. This blog is about convert, isn´t it? So what about cutting the chitchat and getting serious. Who dares?
My mail is theist.atheist.challenge at gmail dot com.
If the challenge ends and nobody of us is convinced, well, at least you will be better prepared for a discussion with a theist having read one of their main books (don´t worry, I wont pick the Bible, I don´t want the challenge to last for 30 years :)
Sure ... I will drink your Kool-Aid. However, before I choose your book, I would like to know more about what flavour of religion you ascribe to. Describing yourself as a born-again Christian tells me little more than the fact that you believe Jesus existed, died on tte cross, started to rot and then came back to life. My choice of book for you to read will depend on what you believe "as a matter of faith". I will read whatever you want me to and thank Zeus it's not the Bible - that is one nasty book.
ReplyDeleteAll right, sounds cool. Althoug you already described pretty well what I believe in, I´ll give some more details. I believe only in the Bible, I believe everything in it is true, I believe in life after death, paradise and hell. I believe we are created by God and can be reconciled with him by believing in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. I am evangelical, not catholic nor mormon nor Jehovas witness, baptized as adult, if that helps. Like to sing worship songs and like pizza(on this we might agree :). Ok, so that´s pretty much what I believe in.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way. Jesus body was transformed, that´s why his close disciples didn´t recognize him after his resurrection. So, no worms sticking out of the ears or so. This info enough?
da, your reading assignment is Sam Harris' The End of Faith. I await my reading assignment and I will begin a post to record the respective chapter-by-chapter critiques.
ReplyDeleteI would like to make it clear at the outset that:
1. I like your style.
2. From what little I already know if you, I am convinced that you are deluded.
3. I embark on this exercise with an open mind and I hope you will be willing to do the same.
Hi fellow missionary (although of the other side),
ReplyDeletethis sounds good to me. My book was also a New York Times bestseller, also around the 350 pages, so it seems also a fair challenge among these two books. It´s called The purpose driven life, from Rick Warren. I will have to get your book in spanish as I life in Peru, althoug I´m Swiss (told you, classic christian missionary, traveling from one country to another). But I should have no problem getting hold of the book.
Let´s say we get our books by next wednesday or so?
Now my terms:
1. I enjoy your blog
2. I think this will be fun and enriching
3. I open up my mind to the possibility you and the author could be telling the truth
4. Best if we avoid unconstructive argument-bombing at the other, like "You don´t know what was before the big bang" or "The earth could impossibly have been created in seven days". I think you and me are beyond these silly arguments, thinking on a more essential, philosophical and higher level than that.
5. Let us leave the main talking to the books.
6. Discussion should be on peacefull exchange of opinions and for comprehensive issues (if I don´t understand what the heck your pal is talking about)
7. At a given day each week a comprehensive question of the other must be answered (could be "give a short summary" or some more deep thought question about the content, that´s up to each one (to ensure homeworks are done).
8. In your terms: I´m 150% deluded. Hope that motivates you
9. I think you try to convince others to convince yourself
10. This is just a filler ´cause I wanted my points to be 10 like the commandements (proves how deluded I am)
The post sounds good to me, we could have like a public philosophic discussion. So everybody can watch us as if we were in an arena. The entire challenge should take some two months or so. I´m fully committed to it!
da, I am ready when you are. Your terms are eminently reasonable.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a video of me buying The Purpose Driven Life this mornign to post on youtube. I would have been less embarassed to buy a how-to guide on masturbation!
Wow, I love this blog and here's another reason to love it. Glad I came out of my rss reader today to see the comments....go atheist missionary. If da will truely read with an open mind then he'll hopefully be converted, the A.M is in for a laugh I suspect no matter how open minded he is.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, good one. I was asking yesterday in a bookstore for the book you assigned me and the woman asked if it´s about morality and ethics. As I replied, "Yes, kind of..." she told me to go to a catholic bookstore as they didn´t have it. I told here it was anti-religious...her face was priceless. Fun already started. So, I´m still on the search. Tomorrow I´ll have the chance to go to more open-minded bookstores, hehe. I´ll keep you updated about my quest for Sam´s book. Whenever you wish start the "battle of the atheist-theist" post...we can start posting our prelude there.
ReplyDeleteJust email me at theatheistmissionary@gmail.com when you get the book and I will set everything up. Best regards, TAM
ReplyDeleteAll right. Best regards, TTM
ReplyDeleteda, I started my assignment tonight - see the most recent post on this blog: The Missionaries go toe to toe - The End of Faith ...
ReplyDeleteYou can send your updates to my email address listed above. Your End of Faith chapters are longer than mine so there is certainly no need for you to reply every day. In any event, I will post whatever you send me whenever you decide to send it. I suggest that we pose the Sunday questions in the comment thread.
came across your website by accident;then found a cool podcast that you might be interested in
ReplyDeleteMessages from loved ones lost in 9-11 is a book by Bonnie McEneaney that has many afterlife stories
the podcast was awesome - i dare you to read it for it may lead you to THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE