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The asshole
Yahweh leaned back in his chair and stole a quick glance out the window. Mondays were murder in Heaven. Such a workload! Sometimes he regretted inventing weekends — sure, they’re great but it just makes getting back to work all the more annoying. He watched as people mingled with angels on the gold-gilded main boulevard, 257 floors below his…
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The theory
Dave was so thrilled the day his book finally got listed on Amazon. “Dave’s Theory of Everything” had been years in the making. His radical new model of how the universe works would be a game-changer for all of humanity; of that Dave was sure. He had patiently recorded every detail of his model and had…
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The nightmare
Spoiler alert: I’m writing about a nightmare I had, but it’s incomplete because I forgot part of it. This probably won’t be of much interest to anyone; I mostly posted it here for myself. But if you’re curious, read on to get some insight into a godless mind. In seven or so years of being godless, I have never once been…
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Humans as pattern seeking devices
So much of the human experience can be explained by one simple fact: the human mind is basically a pattern-seeking device — and a very good one. We like to think of our minds as computers, but we operate on a completely different paradigm. The utility of a conscious mind — which is very costly in terms of the energy consumed by the…
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A creator worthy of creation
Christians sometimes ask how anyone can gaze into the heavens, at the incredible vastness of space and the innumerable stars and galaxies, and not see a Creator. To me, it’s just the opposite. My question is, “how can anyone look upon all that and see behind it a god who throws tantrums over whether or not humans eat…
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Why I mock religion
I’m not normally one who mocks anyone or anything. But much of what I write here can (rightfully) be called mocking of religion, and more specifically of Christianity. Most of the time, I’m poking fun at a particular branch of Christianity — that of fundamentalism, or as I am prone to call its adherents, “fundies.” Why do I do this? I suppose…
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On dualism
I had a brief exchange with a good friend on Facebook recently. My friend is basically a freethinker like me and, I believe, an agnostic. But one area where we disagree centers on the issue of dualism, or the notion that the mind is somehow separate from the physical brain. I don’t want to do my friend the disservice of…
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Where are the miracles?
Does God exist? As many people on all sides of the “does God exist” debates have agreed, I personally believe that this is something which will never be definitively proved or disproved. To use some legal terminology, that leaves a lower standard of provenance: rather than showing proof beyond a reasonable doubt, we are more concerned with the preponderance…
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Rick Warren wants to please God
Check out this video of Rick Warren defending his position on gay marriage on Piers Morgan. A friend on Facebook asked me what I thought about it. I couldn’t answer him honestly for a lot of reasons. So I decided to answer the friend here, where it is safe and I am anonymous. I know, I know... Where to start? First of all,…
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“Sometimes God doesn’t answer prayers” (you think?)
Long time no post. I hope to pick up the pace a bit in the coming weeks and months. Maybe. Anyway, the point of this post is to respond to something I saw a while back on Facebook. A friend of a friend posted a long, rambling, circular-reasoned piece of drivel about why God doesn’t always answer prayer. Here’s an excerpt to…
quiet musings
“Take the risk of thinking for yourself; much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.” —Christopher Hitchens