Tag: Atheism
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This Atheist Has No Quarrel With Jesus; It’s Christians I Have Issues With…
Growing up Jewish in a mostly Christian world (here in America, back in the 60’s) was like living inside a giant non-sequitur. Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust (I was born in 1959, 14 years after the camps were liberated) added extra non-sequitur-iness. My tribe was hated to the point of genocide by…
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I Grew Up In The Shadow Of The Holocaust
It’s National Holocaust Remembrance Day. According to Donald Trump, “Jews” are a “nationality”. That’s not the first time a country’s leader has started down that road… Historically, it never ends well for Jews. I was born in 1959, 14 years after the Nazi concentration camps were liberated. In my brain, those camps never went away.…
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What To Do When Your Imaginary Friend Is A Raging Asshole
We all have a friend or family member who “took to” religion while the rest of us ran from it screaming, our hair on fire. You know, guys whose feeble “Hey, have ya heard the ‘good news’ and can I ‘give you my testimony’?” when they were newbies in the cult turned into full on…
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What Do You Do When The Reality Of A Pandemic Contradicts What Your Religious Faith Wants You To Believe?
I draw a very clear distinction between spirituality and religion. But then, I would — I’m an atheist. A spiritual atheist. I commune regularly with the cosmos though I’m quite sure the cosmos does not commune back. The cosmos couldn’t give a rat’s ass about me. I accept that. I stand in awe of the…
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Show Me A Person Who Claims To “Speak For God” & I’ll Show You A Person Who Thinks They ARE “God”
This really should be a no-brainer. Ask ten theists what “God” is & you will get ten distinctly different answers. Ask 10 ardent theists — evangelicals, say — what “God” is and, if you listen really closely, what you’ll get is a person describing themselves. The absolutes and the moral imperatives heavy with the weight…
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The More A Person Loves Their Church, The Less Spiritual They Seem To Be
I bet that lights a few fires. First, let’s define “church”. We can’t define it the way Jesus would have defined it because Jesus never imagined “churches”. He was born, lived and died a Jew. He knew from temples. And — if you recall — Jesus preached AGAINST the temple and the temple authorities. They…
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I Grew Up In The Shadow Of The Holocaust
It’s National Holocaust Remembrance Day. According to Donald Trump, “Jews” are a “nationality”. That’s not the first time a country’s leader has started down that road… Historically, it never ends well for Jews. I was born in 1959, 14 years after the Nazi concentration camps were liberated. In my brain, those camps never went away.…
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The Bible Is What Happens When Books Meant To Answer “One” Question Are Used To Answer Another…
I’ve always said Hebrew School made me the atheist I am today. That’s not entirely true. I have been an atheist since inception. Hebrew School simply closed the deal. But I don’t regret any of my religious education (which lasted from age 6 to 14). I genuinely learned a lot from it. In particular, I…
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The Deep Down Dirty Secret Inside Every Evangelical: They All Think THEY Are “God”
Ask ten people what “God” is, you’ll get ten different answers. That’s because “God” didn’t invent us, we invented “him”. Ask ten Evangelicals what “God” is and they’ll draw you a word picture that, if you stripped it of all the larger-than-life puffery would look exactly like them. For reference-sake, let’s remind ourselves that Jesus…