Common Sense Atheism

One money quote:

Personal revulsion should not translate into moral revulsion…

If we don’t like porn and our sexual partner does, we don’t get to say, “Porn upsets me, therefore you’re a bad person for enjoying it.” If we want our relationship to be monogamous and our sexual partner doesn’t, we don’t get to say, “Non-monogamy freaks me out, and you’re a bad person for wanting it.” If we’re not interested in bondage and our sexual partner wants to try it, we don’t get to say, “Bondage scares me, therefore you’re a bad person for being curious about it.”

And the reverse of that is also true. If we are interested in bondage and our partner isn’t, we don’t get to accuse them of being unadventurous and uptight….

We need to base our decisions on principles of consent, honesty, fairness, and harm, not on the principle of what we find disgusting.

A handy index for you:

1. Funniest Clips from Atheist Stand-Up Comedians
2. White Wine in the Sun (atheist Christmas ballad, Tim Minchin)
3. Godless Comedy
4. High Stakes Intelligent Designing (NonStampCollector)
5. The Christian Story is Absurd and Evil (NonStampCollector)
6. Hilarious Atheist Videos (7 videos from NonStampCollector)
7. Sell the Vatican, Feed the World (Sarah Silverman)
8. The Bible’s Buried Secrets (NOVA documentary)
9. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians (PBS documentary)
10. Marjoe, the Atheist Revival Preacher (documentary)
11. Living By the Book (atheist parable)
12. From Big Bang to Us, Made Easy (fantastic educational series)
13. Critical Thinking (5 min)
14. Atheist Alliance International 2009 Videos
15. Kissing Hank’s Ass (the absurd story of salvation)
16. An atheist lives with a Christian family for 30 days
17. The Story of Creation (is ridiculous)
18. Faith Healing: A Question of Miracles (documentary; faith healers exposed)
19. The Universe is the Ultimate Rube Goldberg Machine
20. Embarrassing Facts About Christians (Edward Current)
21. What is Morality? (my video trailer for desirism)
22. Storm (Tim Minchin beat poem about critical thinking)
23. What if God Disappeared? (Edward Current)
24. Jesus Loves You (well sorta)
25. Tragedy Follows Moment of Hope (Haiti girl dies; but don’t worry, God has his reasons)
26. The Jesus Timeline (it doesn’t make sense)
27. William Lane Craig Answers Cosmologists
28. The Invisible God (2 min)
29. The Deconversion of TheraminTrees (16 min)
30. Why Christian Morality Scares Me (my thoughts on Douglas Wilson)
31. Superstition in Pigeons and Humans
32. Closer to Truth (dozens of interviews with leading philosophers and theologians)
33. The Holy Gospel of the Easter Bunny
34. Baloney Detection Kit (Richard Dawkins Foundation TV)
35. 80 Short Quotes About Atheism
36. Brainwashing Children to Love Death
37. Some Hot Chick Answers 22 Questions About Atheism
38. Atheist Stand-Up Comedy in Church
39. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Moral Philosophy (better than theistic morality)
40. A Courageous Young Atheist (10 min ABC piece)
41. Refuting William Lane Craig’s Proofs of God (a failed attempt, if you ask me)
42. Why Christians Should Help Fight Sharia Law (10 min)
43. Reshaping the Destiny of Earth (10 min Scientology promotional video)
44. Let’s Make Christmas More Christlike (2 min inspirational video)
45. Atheists Depicted in a Good Light on TV

Here is an update from her father. Nicole is on MySpace and Facebook.

She’s now 19, still courageous, a drummer & singer & model and not too bad at public speaking (which is also one of my passions). I think I’m in love…

The below two-part video epitomizes what Scientology videos are like: well-produced, hyperbolic, triumphant, with bombastic music and outrageously epic imagery & language:

When I watch these videos with a crowd of 100 or 5000 Scientologists, they clap and cheer loudly at every “big moment’ in the video. It’s amazing. Nobody thinks these videos are cheesy. And apparently nobody wants to fact-check them.

This year there was a multi-hour video played at Scientology hubs all over the world for the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists. I really hope someone posts a copy of that so we can fact check it. It made dozens of highly dubious claims about the scale of Scientology operations and their contributions to “planetary clearing.”

I would love to have the competent researchers of FactCheck.org fact-check this video or the 25th anniversary one. But they only fact-check political videos.

By the way, Scientology really does have all that amazing real-estate. The leaders of Scientology are apparently bajillionaires.