Equally yoked?

It’s kind of a shame to lose a voice for atheism – it always is when someone decides to jump back into the theist slime pool, but I can’t help thinking that someone whose reasoning skills are so evidently poor is hardly a great loss.

(Via)

You know, I wish people who would opine on the Constitution would actually learn something about it first. Ditto for people who opine on Atheism and Atheists.

Founded on Christian principles, huh? Christian principles like separation of church and state and there being no religious tests for office? Yeah, you convinced me. What a powerful argument, etc.

And enough of the horseshit about Atheists – you are not only not qualified to talk about us, you are wrong in every particular, you obnoxious little religionist.

Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer

BBC News – Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer

British-born author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62.

He died from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he had , at a Texas hospital.

Vanity Fair magazine, which announced his death, said there would “never be another like Christopher”.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia.

Poor old Hitch.

I’ll be honest — I never liked him as an individual, but I always respected his skills as an orator and polemicist. His bravery in the face of his terminal illness is an example to us all, as was his unwillingness to bow down in the face of the smugness of god-botherers; I can imagine him spitting vitriol at anyone who waved a Bible and asked if he was ready to reconsider. We shan’t see his like again.

Quotation of the Day

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Marcus Aurelius

Via Ed Brayton.

Hahahahaha…

A Very Heartfelt and Honest Return to Jesus

Shorter Sean Robert Reid, Catholic to Atheist Then Back to Christianity, O Me of Little Faith
I was an Atheist, but I returned to Catholicism when I realised that my Christian wife wouldn’t sleep with me if I didn’t.

A lot of Christian conversion stories are pretty dire – most of them seem to hinge on meaningless coincidences which a person desperate for meaning converts into something significant, or to involve nascent schizophrenia (“I heard a voice telling me it was God so now I believe!”). This one, though, seems so blatantly self-serving that I just had to snark it, leading to…

Alternative Shorter Sean Robert Reid, Catholic to Atheist Then Back to Christianity, O Me of Little Faith
Jesus gets me laid! Go Jesus!

A Very Stupid Apologist (But, I Repeat Myself)

Shorter Jesse Murch, The Reformed Inquisitor, Where is Atheism’s Crutch?

I don’t have the intellectual or emotional capacity to live without an imaginary friend, so nobody else can either!

Jesse’s post is essentially the same old discredited apologetics (“You’re only an Atheist because you hate God!”) with the added unpleasantness of “You should totally kill yourself!”

Here’s the thing, Jesse – your being unable to walk without a crutch doesn’t make the rest of us lame, anymore than someone losing an eye makes the whole world blind.

In other words, your being an idiot doesn’t make me one.

Science and Religion

It’s old news, but still funny…

On the way out? You should be so lucky, Bibleboy…

Shorter Joey Nelson, Spiritual Questions
Is Evolution On Its Way Out?
My strawmen, let me show you them.

I’m somewhat in awe of Joey Nelson’s post – I’ve never seen so many misconceptions, ignorance and plain old FAIL about evolution gathered together in one place before. Even AiG can’t do it as well as Joey has here.

Joey has taken internet discourse to a whole new level – by writing a post which actually fisks itself.

That is teh awesum.

Hitchens curbstomps Friel

I’m not a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens, generally; he’s arrogant, boorish and often far too pleased with himself. I get enough of that looking in the mirror to want to spend my free time on someone else doing it. There’s also his lurch to the political right in recent years; he’s probably centre-right more than right, to be honest, but he’s still to the right of me, which makes his politics occasionally distasteful. Something I saw this morning, though, has utterly redeemed him in my eyes, at least for now. This comes courtesy of the righteous PZ; cheers, Professor!