Determinism Versus Free Will: The Difference is Options

In the determinism versus free will debate, determinists believe causality and choice are mutually exclusive – while compatibilists believe they are intimately intertwined. I will attempt to present a rational argument for my particular brand of compatibilism. Mine is a unique (I can’t find my central tenet repeated by anybody else on the Internet) and forceful argument that explains how free will is compatible wi

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In atheist forum discussions about free will, determinists overwhelmingly outnumber compatibilists (those who say f… Continue

Don't worry. This post will not list and define the many types of logical fallacies that exist. I’m not expert enough for that and I’m too lazy to Google the research necessary. What I hope to do is describe some observations about logical fallacies garnered from blogs and forums from around the Internet.

Logical fallacies have a legitimate function in formal debate. If you can persuade your audience and win your point with an invalid argument, then good for you. You’re a clever dude (or dudett… Continue

This article in New Scientist is right up our alley. Copyright forbids reproducing the article, so here's the link.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18216-dear-god-please-confi… Continue

Pat just keeps getting better and better. His latest video really hangs religion out to dry. Below the video, I've also included the transcript.

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Well, I’ve been hearing quite a lot of bitching and whining in the press lately about aggressive, intolerant, atheism; as if that’s, somehow, a bad thing. It seems religion can dish it out okay but it can’t take it: like a street thug who calls the police when his victims fight back. Aggressive atheism is really defensive ath… Continue

My stepson is a devout Catholic. It bothers him that I have an atheist website and a presence on several atheist forums. He has an account on my member forum, at AtheistExile.com, and follows the conversations there as a lurker instead of a participant.

He told me I should try prayer, just for a little while, to see if they come true or not.

I never approach my family members on the subject of religion but if they approach me about it, I don't hold back unless I see them closing their minds. T… Continue

Nature is, as Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “red in tooth and claw”. It has no morals. Morality is a human construct that usually reflects our social norms. As such, morality is formed by an amalgam of influences from family, religion, culture, evolution and the arts. This amalgam of influences varies from person to person and is relative to our exposure to, and experience with, these influences.

Almost half the human race subscribes to a religion that claims morality is objective because it is ha… Continue

This video says it all . . .

Did anybody watch the Intelligence Squared debate, on the BBC News channel, yesterday? There's a video of Christopher Hitchens at the debate, below, at the bottom of this post. The Catholics got trounced by the atheists. I’ve been waiting for the transcript but, so far, none has materialized. So I gathered the stats instead.

Before I continue, I should describe the Intelligence Squared debate format. Each debate has a proposition. In this case, the proposition is: “The Catholic Church

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I just ran across this essay from the eminent ex-Muslim, Ali Sina: the founder of FaithFreedom International. It expresses my own feelings on the subject better than I could. Note: I edited the essay for grammatical errors (Ali Sina is an Iranian and English is his second language).

The Problem is Islam, not Muslims
By Ali Sina
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We have to make a distinction between Muslims and Islam. Muslims are people, human beings like you and I with the same goodness… Continue