Thank you for the kind words. I am honoured that you have found my writings to be inspiring and helpful in your recent examinations of your values and beliefs. You may certainly share your views here.

I am not sure if you’ve read much more of this blog (not that I’d blame you, much of it is boring) but my article “Is Religion Good?” ( http://noonespecial.ca/2010/11/is-religion-good/ ) explains many of the reasons why I speak out against religion. In short, there is nothing good about religion that is unique to religion, while what is unique about religion is utterly disastrous. “Good” people will find a way to do “good” deeds with or without religion. At the very least, without religion, those deeds can be determined rationally based on real-world circumstances rather than from assumptions about and interpretations of the archaic ideas of a bunch of bronze age goat herders.

Supernaturalizing the human experience makes it impossible to understand and value humanity’s place in the natural environment. That is why we have to move beyond religion. Of course, I’m not advocating being an asshole about it. Understand and tolerate the individuals, understand and resist religion.

I really should get better about cross-posting some of my more interesting ideas from Yahoo! Answers. If you want to know more about my own views, a good place to start would be through my Yahoo! Answers profile (see link in the right-hand column) and click on the “My Starred Questions” tab. Based on what you’ve written, you might be most interested in the following:

Evolutionary advantages to belief:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuHdxVF8SmszJRxocMs2UvPty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120319192507AAxMFzA

Flaws in Biblical morality:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoAfaOmo1Rcd14o_9dS3xP7ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120308162729AAlu4rJ

More on the history of the Bible as it relates to real history:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aib.YcIOePGejn60n02sK6Lty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120308103202AAKlxVT

Why we’re so interested about the “end times”
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnepiGqfrz2PLTZ35hSTTJnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120104234321AAImxX9

What Jesus has to do with it
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aoh5FIPE2DGKcockah3OPXjty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110107205558AAPsp1G

Here are three books I highly recommend.

“Guns Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond (great overview of how and why civilization spread from the Fertile Crescent)

“The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins (great overview of biology and natural selection with lots of anecdotes. Also talks a lot about the way to think about evolution in terms of things like ‘morality’ and psychology.)

“Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn (provides a narrative to bring everything together and offers some suggestions of what it all has to do with you. This is perhaps one of the most important books I’ve ever read.)

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know. Nice to meet you.

I was a born Catholic and never quite understood Christianity, The Bible, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, and what any of this has to do with me, but in the essay when you say that God was made for humans to have a reason to rule the earth, it all started to make sense for me. Religion had never really been a spiritual thing for me, which stopped me from ever enjoying the concepts of heaven, but after understanding the reasons behind god and humans nature to create a godlike figure, I now think of heaven as a more artistic and beautiful thing, kind of a spiritual connection to the physical world, instead of a idea of a floating paradise in the sky. Religion all of a sudden seems more of an escape for people, a way for people to feel better about themselves and for them to find purpose, redemption, or just something it keep them from going crazy, but I feel I don’t need that, I understand those who do. This makes me think that religion isn’t all bad and that it can led to very good thing when used correctly, though charities, giving people sense of communities, and by helping them form a spiritual oneness. This reminds me of my dad, who is bipolar, and if he wasn’t such a intense Catholic he would probably go out of his mind. After reading your other ideas on Atheism, it has really appealed to me and I feel like I found something that I really get behind and understand. As opposed to the faith in religion Atheism only requires common sense. One deals with belief while the other deals with knowledge, I like that idea.

I also liked how you said in your video that Atheists and Theists need to stop arguing and start understanding each other. I completely agree with that, because a friend of mine is a die hard Non-Denominational Christian who doesn’t believe anything if it’s not in the Bible. Him and I have conversations of religion and god all the time and we never really seem to get anywhere. We both wouldn’t even think about changing our opinions and we both still can be friends and hang out, but we sometimes can’t believe what the other one is saying. which I never quite got, but the truth is that it is all just human nature and we just need to understand each other’s stand points and see where each other is coming from. Although I can’t see my friend ever seeing where I’m coming from because of his deep roots in The Bible. I’ll have to get back to on your ideas of dealing with extremely contrasting viewpoints cause I still haven’t grasped those ideas, but it looks very interesting.

Well, thanks for listening (sorry it was long, this is the first thing I’ve on the internet before, besides on Facebook), it’s nice to talk to someone who can share in my views on this subject. I’m a freshman in college this year and I’ve been challenging all of my values and belief recently and I’d like to thank you for your views, they’ve really opened my eyes and helped me understand what it was that I wasn’t understanding.

Thanks again, very much. Have a good one.

Joe K

If you are asked to solve for x:

x-1=7

Your first step wouldn’t be:
x-1 + (y^2 * 5y + 3) = 7 + (y^2 * 5y + 3)

Why complicate things for the sake of complicating things?

I have seen one documentary that combines Religion and Evolution. I wish I knew what it was called to reference it…it was on TV. It’s main message was that yes, humans evolved from ape, but eventually there became there “humans” that looked more human than ape but still thought like apes. They were still very primative. Then it suggests that God chose one of those the new born “humans” and gave them logic and reasoning. This human all of the sudden could plan things and strategize better than all the other humans. The female humans liked that this human seemed superior than all the rest and he had children with man different females. All of the offspring of this one human which they called “adam” possessed the same logic and strategic ability as their father.

That was the beginning of when humans took over the world. They suggested that it was God that gave that one sub-human his abilities to think on a higher level.

(apparently they were able to trace things back scientifically all the way to the first human how posessed this gene and we are all descendents of an african male)

I thought that documentary was interesting and had it PVR’d for a while but then when I switched to rogers from bell I lost it. What do you think about that documentary?