Scientists say that our minds have a natural desire to believe in God. Its based on the need of primordial man to control his environment. If thats true, do you ever get an unnatural feeling from rejecting God?
It's common for believers to treat faith like a virtue; indeed, you'd be hard pressed to find any believer who is critical of faith. There's just one exception: someone else's faith. It seems that "faith" is only good when it's your faith; someone else's faith is necessarily wrong, bad, irrational, etc. 
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In Roanoke, Virginia, there's a dispute over a Ten Commandments display in Narrows High School. Giles County school officials know that their display was unconstitutional, which is why they recently surrounded it with other documents and started claiming that it's a display about the history of and influences on American law. It's a ploy that some judges believe.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Urbanski isn't buying it, at least not yet, and wants the two sides to find a solution together. He actually suggested removing the first four commandments because they are the ones referencing "God," thus leaving just six. If this gets the two sides to agree on anything, it may only be that Judge Urbanski is a bit of a nut. But it is a starting point, right?
Brad Pitt has revealed in interviews both atheist and agnostic perspectives. There aren't many famous people willing to come out as an atheist or an agnostic, though it's probably easier for someone like Brad Pitt because he's unlikely to lose a job or lose family members because of it. And, if more people like him do come out, it could make it easier for others as well.
Suicide in pursuit of a religious agenda is usually associated with Islam or Christianity, but religious martyrdom can be found in most if not all religions -- including even Buddhism. One difference, perhaps, is that Buddhists aren't known for suicide attacks that kill others as well as the actor. Nevertheless, the essential elements to justify martyrdom exist even within Buddhist ideology and history.
The fallacy of accent occurs when the meaning of a word or sentence is ambiguous and depends on where one places the the spoken stress. It's not easy to find the fallacy of accent in modern English; it's much more common in ancient Greek, the language of the philosopher who first described it: Aristotle. Loosely defined, though, the fallacy of accent can still crop up
Read Article: Fallacy of Accent - Ambiguity Fallacy of Ambiguous Stress in Word, Sentence
What do you think about the relationship between Buddhism and atheism - does Buddhism offer a good philosophy and/or way of life for atheists? Read More...
It's surprising, but apparently young children assume that others are omniscient and they have to learn that the rest of us in the world have limited knowledge. They know that they themselves are not omniscient of course, but they seem to automatically conclude that others -- even their parents -- know absolutely everything.
That might be helpful for parenting at times, but it also suggests that belief in super-powerful gods and spirits might come naturally to human beings.
People ask whether Islam is compatible with democracy, but is Christianity compatible with democracy? Some Christians insist that Christianity is required for democracy, but history tells us a very different story.
Read Article: Christianity vs. Democracy - Is Christianity Compatible with Democracy?
One of the interesting aspects of teaching creationism or "Intelligent" Design is the way in which it would, if adopted, inhibit the principles of imagination and wonder that are so important to science. These "theories" presume to give pat answers complicated questions -- and if you already have the answers, what's the point of continuing to search?
Christian apologists frequently try to argue that morality and altruism can't be explained by science or evolution and hence require a supernatural explanation -- their god, naturally. But what if altruism and reciprocal behavior can be modeled mathematically? What if the development of altruistic behavior can be predicted and described with such a model?
That's what Martin Nowak is working on and there's nothing more fundamental to nature than math.
Read Article: Existentialists Before Existentialism
For religious believers, religion usually plays an important and even fundamental role in raising their children. Irreligious atheists don't have this, so what are the alternatives? How do atheist parents even deal with religion and religious questions? 
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The persistence of religion despite the extent to which modern science has undermined traditional religious beliefs has vexed secularists and atheists for quite a while now. The reason why this happens may lie in the foundations of human cognitive development. 
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It is said that variety is the spice of life, but as it turns out variety may be the foundation of life -- that is to say, the foundation that allowed life to develop at all. It was variations in the structure and temperature of the universe during its earliest phase which allowed for the development of matter, then stars, then finally life itself.
The Fallacy of Equivocation is the simplest and most obvious type of ambiguity fallacy. The Fallacy of Equivocation occurs when a term is used with two or more meanings in the same argument. For an argument to be valid, all of the key terms and concepts must be use in the same way and with the same definitions throughout.
Read Article: Fallacy of Equivocation
People make lots of claims and not all of those claims are equally credible because they don't all rest on equally reliable evidence. Sometimes it would be nice if the language used to express a claim included within it a marker that communicated just how reliable that claim is. 
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It seems pretty common for Christians to insist that Christianity is not opposed to "reason." Some will even go so far as to argue that proper "reasoning" requires Christianity to be true. If it were the case, though, that Christianity and reason were so compatible then we should see defenses or endorsements of reasoning in Christian scripture. 
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Scientists are gradually discovering more and more about the earliest forms of life on our planet. In Western Australia, Geologists have found fossils of what they think may be the oldest cells ever: 3.4 billion years. If the discovery is verified, and there's no reason to think that it won't be, it will be the best evidence ever found of the earliest life on Earth.
Read Article: What is Christianity?
Have you ever read the book 'A Shattered Visage'? It has challenged atheism to the core such that many are flocking out left and right; namely many of my peers in public universities and top professors around the country. Those who have honestly researched whether the Bible is truly a reliable book and if its message is true.
It's common for religious theists to ask "how can something come from nothing?" This question is typically part of an argument designed to show that "something" can only come from "something" and therefore a Big Bang without a God is impossible. This argument, however, depends upon faulty understandings of what "nothing" really is.
Fortunately, science already has better information for us -- it's just up to these religious theists to pay attention.
In almost any defense of evolution, someone will point out (correctly) that evolution is the bedrock principle of biology -- that nothing in modern biology make sense absent evolutionary theory in the background. What about medicine, though? 
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Religious conservatives often complain about the secularization of America. It is true that the government is secular, but that's the way it is supposed to be. The rest of society is not so secular, however, and evangelicals' complaints largely miss the mark.
Supernaturalists frequently insist that social cooperation, like morality, cannot possibly have any natural cause and thus couldn't have evolved naturally. Of course, social cooperation exists in many other animals aside from humans and no one argues for divine intervention to explain their behavior.
What's more, recent research has hit upon an interesting natural explanation for high levels of social cooperation: monogamy
A single person, group, or school known as the Deuteronomist Editor was probably responsible for several Old Testament books, now called the Deuteronomist History. The Deuteronomist History was created independently of the Torah and its purpose was to explain the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. Most of the Deuteronomist History is focused on expounding Deuteronomist Theology: prosperity and suffering are caused by God based on whether you're obedient or disobedient.
Read Article: Deuteronomist History
There is a growing epidemic of HIV in Islamic nations and the reason is largely Islam itself. The taboo against homosexuality and gay sex is so strong that political and cultural leaders are in denial about the problem -- and they don't seem much interested anyway in helping gays who are suffering from HIV.
What's more, those suffering have a strong incentive to be in denial themselves and not seek what little treatment options are available.
People in America are probably familiar with apocalyptic religion, but mostly when it's embedded in Christianity and maybe Judaism. There's also a strong tradition of apocalyptic beliefs in Islam which people should make a point of learning about. 
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The "death" industry used to be the exclusive domain of religion -- priests, churches, temples, and so forth handled everything (or at least everything not handled by the family). Later funeral homes came into the picture, but the business of death remained generally religious in nature.
Today, though, things are changing and they seem to be changing fast. It's not simply that death is being secularized, but it's also being commercialized -- and the more market-based it is, the more it must respond to the demands or interests of the market. And what are people in the market demanding?
