You guys! I found an atheist book on the Free Shelf at work today! *Dances a jig with jazz hands*
John W. Loftus, author of one of my favorite blogs, Debunking Christianity, and the book Why I Became an Atheist, has edited a collection of articles critiquing the claims of Christianity. The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails is shooting to the top of my to-read list!
Non-fiction—especially concerning subjects about which I am passionate—makes me yearn for an Amazon Kindle or similar device with which I could make highlights and notes about certain passages to remember for later. I revere printed books too much to write all over them; I even hate writing in pretty journals because I don’t want to sully them with my chicken scratch handwriting. A book about atheism, science, and faith is certainly going to stir up many ideas, and I would love to store those light bulbs of inspiration somewhere. Ah well; it’s on my wishlist 
for shitsn’giggles, here’s a not-so-intellectual book I also grabbed off the Free Shelf that’s sure to make you chuckle.
What books are you reading right now that I should add to my list?
salvation in stick figures!
A commenter on my post about Sexism in the Bible slipped this into her comment:
God is good and just. It’s not what nonbeliever [sic] consider just. Their just [sic] is more to satisfy themselves. Really think about it, it is.
I hate to start out with an “Am not!” “Are too!” routine, but I just can’t help myself. I would like to hear examples about how secular justice is selfish. Most of the accusations from Christians state that atheists don’t believe in God because we’re sin addicts and can’t handle being accountable for our actions. Not only is this insulting and ignorant, but also delightfully ironic!
Selfishness and Consequences
I propose that God’s “justice” is extremely selfish and perfectly illustrates the desire to not be accountable for one’s actions. Not only that, but hey, it’s ridiculous. How “just” and “good” is it that someone is able to wreak any amount of pain, harm, havoc, or evil upon the earth and their fellow humans, apologize for it and feel regret, and then instantly be free of any consequences for that action? It may be nice, but it’s not justice.
Read the Rest! Post a comment (31)Dealing with dimwitted debate? I decided to make something that might come in handy.
What are logical fallacies?
Here are a few helpful resources for improving your (and my!) writing.
The straw man fallacy is when you misrepresent someone else’s position so that it can be attacked more easily, knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished. It’s a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made.
“To be an atheist, you have to believe with absolute certainty that there is no God. In order to convince yourself with absolute certainty, you must examine all the Universe and all the places where God could possibly be. Since you obviously haven’t, your position is indefensible.”
The above straw man argument appears at about once a week on the net. If you can’t see what’s wrong with it, read the “Introduction to Atheism” document.
—”Atheism: Logic & Fallacies,” Infidels.org
Also because, as stated above, there is a tendency to start with desired conclusions and then construct arguments to support them, many people will happily draw upon logical fallacies to make their arguments. In fact, if a conclusion is not true one must either employ a false premise or a logical fallacy in order to construct an argument that leads to that conclusion. Remember, a sound argument (one with true premises and valid logic) cannot lead to a false conclusion. So in order to avoid using logical fallacies to construct invalid arguments, we need to understand how to identify fallacious logic.
—”How to Argue,” Steven Novella, MD
It is particularly easy to slip up and commit a fallacy when you have strong feelings about your topic—if a conclusion seems obvious to you, you’re more likely to just assume that it is true and to be careless with your evidence.
—UNC “Fallacies” handout
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