There are a lot of answers, but you can't find them unless you start asking questions.

 


RichardDawkins.net

The following list compiled by
Isaac Schlueter.

Science says,
"I'll believe it when I see it."
Religion says,
"You'll see it when you believe it."

Science says,
"Test everything, especially what I tell you."
Religion says,
"Trust me (or you'll be sorry.)"

Science says,
"Reason is powerful."
Religion says,
"Reason is the deceiver."

Science says,
"Everything can be explained (even if some parts don't make sense yet.)"

Religion says,
"Everything is mysterious (and it all makes sense to
those in the know.)"

Science says,
"This world is real."
Religion says,
"This world is an illusion."

PRAYER
by Don Boos

That an all powerful loving god exists
Most people would agree.

Claiming such a god’s a myth brings cries of blasphemy.

But looking at the record an unbiased mind will see any evidence of gods existence is purely fantasy.

Believers claim that answered prayers prove that god exists

But answered prayers are another of religion’s many myths.

One person prays, by chance the asked for happens
Believers credit the lord.

Thousands pray and nothing happens,
But these results are just ignored.

In past disasters many perished.
Usually some survived.

God gets credit for those who lived,
but no blame for those who died.

Survivors say I prayed to god
that’s why I’m here today.

But believers ignore those who lived and did not choose to pray.

If the dead could speak many would say, “I prayed too.
So I don’t understand why god killed me
and yet saved you.”

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
(OF THE ETHICAL ATHEIST)

NOTE: Freethought and tolerance obviously prohibit these from being "commandments"! Just consider them "suggestions".

1. Thou SHALT NOT believe all thou art told.
2. Thou SHALT seek knowledge and truth constantly.
3. Thou SHALT educate thy fellow man in the Laws of Science.
4. Thou SHALT NOT forget the atrocities committed in the name of god.
5. Thou SHALT leave valuable contributions for future generations.
6. Thou SHALT live in peace with thy fellow man.
7. Thou SHALT live this one life thou hast to its fullest.
8. Thou SHALT follow a Personal Code of Ethics.
9. Thou SHALT maintain a strict separation between Church and State.
10. Thou SHALT support those who follow these commandments.

 

 


Welcome to Rational Atheist. Our forum will be up very soon! The programming is being completed by WheresJames.com. The company has a plethora of free software available to the public.

What is Rational Atheism? Read this article to find out.

Why I Don't Believe in Christianity by Jennifer Umbehant

NEWS

Stop by the News Section for a collection of current and past issues in the news concerning atheism, science and rational views. There are also articles listed with opposing viewpoints.

We are featuring the following article:

Darwinmania!

The party is about to begin.

In a week or so, the trumpets will sound, heralding the start of 18 months of non-stop festivities in honor of Charles Darwin. July 1, 2008, is the 150th anniversary of the first announcement of his discovery of natural selection, the main driving force of evolution. Since 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth (Feb. 12), as well as being the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterpiece, “On the Origin of Species” (Nov. 24), the extravaganza is set to continue until the end of next year. Get ready for Darwin hats, t-shirts, action figures, naturally selected fireworks and evolving chocolates. Oh, and lots of books and speeches.

But hold on. Does he deserve all this? He wasn’t, after all, the first person to suggest that evolution happens. For example, his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, speculated about it towards the end of the 18th century; at the beginning of the 19th, the great French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck made a strong case for it. Lamarck, however, failed to be generally persuasive because he didn’t have a plausible mechanism — he could see that evolution takes place, but he didn’t know how. That had to wait until the discovery of natural selection.

Natural selection is what we normally think of as Darwin’s big idea. Yet he wasn’t the first to discover that, either. At least two others — a doctor called William Wells, and a writer called Patrick Matthew — discovered it years before Darwin did. Wells described it (admittedly briefly) in 1818, when Darwin was just 9; Matthew did so in 1831, the year that Darwin set off on board HMS Beagle for what became a five-year voyage around the world.

<read more here>

Rational Atheist Links

We have some really great links in our Links Section. If we forgot to include a link to your atheist, humanist, secular, or freethought site, drop us a line and let us know. We will be sure to check it out.

Our favorite link right now is ScienceDebate2008. Be sure to check it out!

CURRENT EVENTS: Atheist Happenings

Have an important even coming up? Let us know and we'll be sure to add it here. Just email us.

WE HAVE A NEW TOPIC – THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. Check out the our featured article from the new section, The Day You Discard Your Body by Marshall Brain.

Bookstore

Check out our Bookstore for a HUGE selection of books for the rational mind.

Join in our discussion of Parenting Beyond Belief Edited by Dale McGowan at the Rational Atheist Book Club.

We are currently featuring three books: Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, Why I Am Not a Christian, and Plato and Platypus Walk Into a Bar.

VIDEOS

We're currently featuring the NOVA presentation JUDGEMENT DAY: Intelligent Design on Trial. If you have ever found the "controversy" of evolution vs. intelligent design interesting, you'll love this production, it is a highly recommended watch.

BIOGRAPHIES OF DISBELIEF

Check out our Biographies section. Eventually there will be hundreds of individuals listed here. This section features people who have been brave enough to disbelieve – sometimes just the smallest amount. They are atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, rationalists and secularlists.

We are currently featuring the Biographical page of Cillian Murphy. He once said, “I was agnostic before this film. Now I'm very much an atheist. Not just because I spent time with these guys–they just confirmed what I'd always suspected. For me, the film ultimately is a battle between science and religion, or science instead of fundamentalism.”

You can find our pictorial map of disbelievers with clickable links right here.

QUOTES

We're currently featuring this quote by Bertrand Russell,

“The world, we are told, was created by a God who is both good, and omnipotent. Before He created the world, He foresaw all the pain and misery that it would contain; He is therefore responsible for all of it. It is useless to argue that the pain in the world is due to sin. In the first place, this is not true; it is not sin that causes rivers to overflow their banks or volcanoes to erupt. But even if it were true, it would make no difference. If I were going to beget a child knowing that the child was going to be a homicidal maniac, I should be responsible for his crimes. If God knew in advance the sins of which man would be guilty, He was clearly responsible for all the consequences of those sins when He decided to create man.

Check out one of his books today!

BLOGS

We are currently working on adding some dynamic pages to the site. Part of the site will be a blogging area for your personal blogs. For now, check out some of these great blogs elsewhere on the net.

The Perplexed Observer
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"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."
--Kahlil Gibran

COMING SOON!!! An A–Z dictionary and list of the Creation Myths. Most of us are familiar with the Hebrew myth of creation, but what about the creation myths of Japan, Sumeria, or Assyria? What about the creation myths based on a female as a creator? Find out all about the myths of creation here.

Also, be sure to check out the works of Rachel Ryan, the artist who made the beautiful fabric montage of a creation myth you see to the left.

Brian will be working on our Creation Myth section. Our FIRST PAGE ON CREATION MYTHS is here! Check out our information about the Japanese Creation Myth. We also have a page on the Sumerian Creation Myths.

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and in conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

-Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha), 562-483 B.C.

 

Featured Authors

Check out our new section on Featured Authors! We are currently showcasing Michael Ruse, Richard Dawkins, J Alan Erwine and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

BOOK REVIEWS

Read a good book lately? Submit your review to Star@rationalatheist.com. Want to see what others have said about a specific book? Read up on some books in our Book Section. We feature authors such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Find plenty of new books, and a few golden oldies.

We are currently featuring the book review Science has a lot to say about God on the book God: The Failed Hypothesis, by Victor Stenger. The review is written by Star Umbehant.

COMING SOON!!!
Ethical Atheists: sick of being labeled as EVIL? This part of the site will be dedicated to all the good deeds done by atheists, secularlists, agnostics, secular humanists and the like. We don't need a god to be ethical. Have some ideas or want to suggest an article or link?

Email Us

ETHICAL ATHEISTS

Consider this quote from Richard Dawkins from The God Delusion: “If there is no God, why be good? Posed like that, the question sounds positively ignoble. When a religious person puts it to me in this way (and many of them do), my immediate temptation is to issue the following challenge: ‘Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, applepolishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even you every base thought.’”(Chapter 6, p. 226)

Feel free to browse these articles on the subject: Atheist Foundations of Ethics by John B. Hodges and An atheist has values that sound familiar by Dina Haines Appleby.

 

Click here to see a thank you page to several supporters of the site. Did we forget you? PLEASE let us know and accept our apologies. We will be sure to rectify the situation. Please be aware that this is a work in progress. There are a lot of things on our list so if we haven't included you here yet it's not because we haven't thought of you and appreciate what you do for us. Thank you so much.

Visit Our NEW STORE!! Choose from several witty Atheist designs on tees and bumper stickers. Feel free to send us any ideas and requests. Look for more coming soon!

Also, feel free to check out posters and such at The Philosophy Gift Shop.

Atheist Discrimination and Victims of Religion

Sick of hearing about all the persecution against the Christians? So are we. Here you will find detailed accounts of instances when it is not the Christian being persecuted but the Christian doing the persecuting. Atheists are being persecuted in America. Don't think anyone is being killed or tortured in the name of religion these days? Take a look around, it's not hard to find an example.

It won't take long for this page to grow. Have an example? Personal account or article? Submit it here.

Christians...click here. If you are a Christian, you are about to begin a fascinating journey. In the next ten minutes it will become clear to you that your belief in God is delusional. The goal of this short video is to help you look in a mirror and understand the delusion of Christianity. Once you can see what is going on, the hope is that you will be able to start healing your delusion. With each healing, we make our world a better place.

If you are an intelligent, well-educated Christian, click here. If you are an educated Christian, I would like to talk with you today about an important and interesting question. Have you ever thought about using your college education to think about your faith? Your life and your career demand that you behave and act rationally. Let's apply your critical thinking skills as we discuss 10 simple questions about your religion.

These videos brought to you by Marshall Brain. We'll have a biography up for him in the biography section shortly.

FEATURED LINK...HILARIOUS!!! Mr. Deity. Check it out! There are four videos – in the first video Mr. Deity creates the universe and then goes over the "The List" to decide on what evil to allow in the world. In the second video, Mr. Deity discusses a big favor with Jesse...ugh, Jesus. In the third video, Mr. Deity works out the lighting on Earth and in the fourth video, Mr. Deity explains prayer.

Check out our myspace profile. You can find us at http://www.myspace.com/rationalatheists. Meet new friends! A great place to network.

Welcome to the team! We have a couple recent additions to the team here at RationalAtheist.com. We would like to welcome TPO and Forcarl. TPO is helping us track down the latest in news, and also with some various behind-the-scenes work. We could tell you what it is, but then we'd have to...turn you over to the religious folks. Forcarl is helping us out on the Biographies of Disbelief section of the site. We can't thank you enough! Thank you so much for your constant fight and dedication to the cause of bringing rational atheism to the world.

Wanna help? Email us here.

Submissions

Web submissions are always open for book reviews or articles. Please send your submissions to Star@rationalatheist.com. Also, if we haven't listed your site in the links section, feel free to send us an email and we will review your site for submission.

If you wish to email us, please be aware that whatever you send may be used at our discretion for Web site publication, including any remarks you use in the email. We will however, not publish anything that you specifically ask us not to.

LOOK FOR PERSONAL PAGES SOON!!! You have probably already seen our Biographies of Disbelief section – soon there will be a section for YOUR biographies. Look for more information in February - you'll find an upload form to list all your pertinent information for your personal page. Your favorite links, quotes, movies, music, books and more.

COMING SOON!!! Encyclopedia of Gods. Over 2,000 Gods will be listed with brief descriptions on each.Want to know what Gods we DON'T believe in?? You'll find them all here.

For now, check out this link: Godchecker.com. They currently feature over 2,850 deities. You will also find an immense selection of articles of interest at the Encyclopedia Mythica.

Forum

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