In this video, I survey five rhetorical categories of comparison that village atheists/new atheists make with belief in God. And I explain why each one of them is little more than an ignorant attempt to poison the well.
parody
The Pastafarians have infiltrated my daughter’s school
The other day my daughter reported that three boys in her junior high class came to school wearing colanders on their head and smugly declaring themselves devotees of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I’ve been following Bobby Henderson’s satirical new religion for the better part of the last decade (it was launched in 2005) and I’ve […]
I Miss The Wittenburg Door
I’ve long been a fan of clever satire and parody. So it’s no surprise that I’ve also long been a fan of that fledgling iconoclastic Christian institution, The Wittenburg Door (aka The Door). The Door was every bit as smart and funny as Mad and Cracked, but it devoted itself to lampooning cultural Christianity. Sadly, […]
Overly Uptight Atheist Activists?
This week Jon Stewart’s Daily Show featured a segment on Mary’s Gourmet Diner in North Carolina with the (hilarious) correspondent Jordan Klepper. The controversy arose because Mary’s offers a 15% discount to those who pray before their meal. This was enough to raise the ire of Dan Barker, author of Godless, and co-president of the Freedom from Religion […]
God as an abusive boyfriend?
A couple days ago Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta started a fundraising campaign at Kickstarter.com to fund a new book he wanted to write provocatively titled God is an Abusive Boyfriend (and You Should Break Up). (See the proposal here.) My thanks to Gabriel Renfro for giving me the heads up on this unfolding story. Did I […]
Hi. You’re awesome.
The other day I visited a church and was greeted at the entrance with this sign. “Hi. You’re Awesome.” I looked around surprised, but there was nobody else present at that moment, so I concluded the sign must mean me. My first thought was, “Gee, if I’m already awesome, why not sleep in Sunday morning […]
How to confound Christians with bad arguments: #5 Call them Liars for Jesus
You might think this is pretty minimal. I prefer to call it streamlined. So while it is but three words, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an argument buried in there or that it can’t be very effective when deployed carefully. Indeed, I would submit that this angry, vitriolic (and increasingly common) retort does wield an effective […]
Why You Should Use Humor When Trying to Dialogue with Triablogue
As you know, in the last few days I’ve mixed it up with Patrick Chan of Triablogue. Some of my readers appreciated the efforts. Apparently not all did however. Kor wrote: “I was saddened to see this string of posts on your own blog, as they seem to run counter to the message of the […]
Patrick Chan and “The Comeback”
Wow, the boys at Triablogue are having a field day. Check out Patrick’s latest shot across my bow. (And they’ve had at least two other posts about me since then.) Patrick has definitely been putting a lot of time and effort into formulating comebacks to my witty posts. But is it too much time and effort? […]
