thought of th day.471

What can we atheists offer to the world in joyful appreciation? A huge question, an important question.

We cannot offer Santa Claus for adults; we can’t compete with supernatural grace that freely promises heaven. But we can offer…

* Clear, clean, logical minds uncorrupted by promises of the improbable and impossible; we embrace facts.
* Logical consistency of our thinking makes us skeptics of snake oil salesmen (natural and supernatural).
* Without fear of a supernatural punisher, we go wherever the microscope and telescope lead us.
* Scientific advances far beyond outdated popular beliefs and prejudices result.
* So we have cars, microwaves, computers, hybrid foods to feed the hungry, condoms to limit their number, etc.
* We recognize that quality of life is more valuable than mere quantity of life.
* We care for others compassionately, because our logical minds tell us this improves this planetary life for us all.
* We support individual freedom and personal responsibility for everyone.
* Believers in fairy tales don’t need to fear us; we respect fellow humans above ideology.
* We enjoy reasonable amounts of learning, sex, love, eating, etc., etc. without guilt or fear.
* We offer a wisely selfish morality that uses anything from tradition or science to improve our planet.
* So we help our neighbors get more out of life even when the press is not looking; this helps our planet.
* We atheists guarantee that anyone embracing atheism will never suffer for a moment after death.
* After death atheists get exactly the same amount of happiness as any believer; we guarantee it!

~Jim gressinger

thought of the day.470

“First of all, what the fuck is objective morality? Second, if it comes from SOMEONE else (god) it is still subjective. We just do what the subject commands: Cant see much objectivity there.

Third of all, what's wrong with subjective morals? We all have them. Atheists can affirm that they do at least, and they are moral people.”

~Someone’s response to a debate on YouTube

thought of the day.469

I wonder how many Christians pray to their God to douse the flames of hell and how many are just glad they’re not going to burn?

thought of the day.468

On the virgin birth of Jesus, in Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah used the word almah to describe the mother of a child Christianity says was the messiah. But almah means "young woman" in Hebrew, not virgin. (The word for virgin in Hebrew is betulah.) Although some biblical scholars have made note of this, they fail to go on and develop the enormous implications of the matter. The notion of a virgin birth first appears in Matthew 1:18, 22-23, where Matthew says the virgin birth was a fulfillment of a prophecy by Isaiah in 7:14. But not only didn't Isaiah, as we have seen, use the word virgin, which all by itself refutes Matthew's virgin birth of Jesus, but the very context in which Isaiah was speaking absolutely precludes the notion of such a prophecy by Isaiah. I elaborate in my book, Isaiah told Ahaz, the king of Judea, that by the time the child of the young woman, a boy, was old enough to know right from wrong, Ahaz's enemies, the kings of Israel and Syria (Pekah and Rezin) would be dead. And the two kings died around 731-732 B.C. So the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in 7:14 took place close to 800 years before Jesus was even born, conclusively negating Matthew's averment that Isaiah's prophecy pertained to the virgin birth of Jesus.

~Vincent Bugliosi

thought of the day.467

In my many conversations with Christians the notion that “humanity is wicked” has been asserted on numerous occasions. This of course jives with the biblical account of the Fall of Man and the reason we are all sinners worthy of eternal torture in Hell.

To be human is to be kind and cruel, open-minded and closed, full of love and hate, goodwill and ill and countless other things. To say humans are wicked and leave it at that is absurd, devalues humanity and is one of the many reasons I despise Christianity.