1. That's not MY God or Religion you're criticising

Comment #130279 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 8:02 am

I am criticizing only those who use false beliefs to cause harm in this world. Bad people do bad things but it takes religion for good people to do bad things. If you are willing to criticize and condemn such and all religions that do this then fine, if not then you are complicit in these harms.

2. Atheism is a religion and you're as bad as the fundamentalists

Comment #130277 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 8:00 am

Well you might be as bad as a fundamentalist for saying that, but since it is false being only a lack of belief in god and nothing else it is not a religion.

3. Science and Religion BOTH make faith claims

Comment #130273 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:58 am

No science makes falsifiable claims, only religion makes faith claims

4. Religion is not incompatible with Science: 'Non-Overlapping Magisteria'

Comment #130272 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:57 am

If religion makes a falsifiable claim and science tests it and it is false, then religion is at fault for holding onto such claim. Historically where there has been overlap science has shown religion wrong 100% of the time. If religion wants to stop interfering with the way and means of conduct in society and this world then NOMA could apply, otherwise no.

5. You can't be moral without God!

Comment #130267 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:54 am

And with such a morally repugnant and false statement you have just given evidence that you are not moral and you have a god!

6. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #130265 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:53 am

Evidence clearly shows that Hitler was a christian and anti-atheists. You can deny that as much as you want but making such an assertion deflates your whole argument and just shows you are a hate mongering bigot. Can we have a decent conversation now or you incapable of that?

7. I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

Comment #130263 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:50 am

You are going the wrong way, get rid of your remaining faith and you will get there.

8. You can't prove that you love someone, so don't expect proof of God

Comment #130261 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:49 am

If you think love is about proof you live a very sad life.

9. Science can answer how questions but only religion can answer why questions

Comment #130259 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:48 am

False, science asks why questions all the time and unlike religion has obtained good answers to many of these.

10. If you don't accept the supernatural, you obviously think life is depressing, meaningless and cold

Comment #130256 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:47 am

One of the justifications but not arguments for not accept the supernatural, is because I don't want to think that life is depressing, meaningless and cold. By contrast a naturalist worldview is life-affirming, meaningful and positive.

11. The Transcendental Argument for God

Comment #130252 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:44 am

"Atheism is self-refuting because it asserts that everything in the universe, including the atheist's own reasoning, came about as a result of non-rational forces."

This is not self-refuting. Non-rational forces via evolution brought about beings with rational capabilities.

"If that is indeed the case, every argument employed by the atheist is, according to his own assertions, incoherent and meaningless."
False. See above.

"Only the theist is able to claim coherence and true logic in his arguments because those arguments are founded on the notion of an all-knowing being."
Presumably then, if there is no all-knowing being then the theists arguments are incoherent and illogical. Indeed logic, coherence, reason and evidence indicate beyond any reasonable doubt there is no all-knowing being.

12. Was religion beneficial to the development of society? Is it now?

Comment #130247 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:38 am

No

13. The US is a Christian Nation

Comment #130246 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:37 am

This is a scurrilous myth! Check the founders who were mostly deists, their care in creating the first amendment being well aware of the problems of religion interfering with the state in Europe and check out the Treaty of Tripoli.

14. Science owes its origins to Christianity or Religion

Comment #130245 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:35 am

Either it does or does not. Either way it is quite irrelevant to what science has discovered by reading the book of nature. To assert otherwise is the genetic fallacy.

15. Most religious people are moderate, and don't hurt anybody

Comment #130241 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:34 am

Where is your evidence? How many people are they hurting by not condemning extremists? How many people are they hurting by fighting for religious rights that benefit extremists? How many benefit from the implicit threat of extremists in keeping or creating new double standards in their favor, thereby implicitly encouraging extremism and benefiting from the hurt that those extermist have or could cause?

16. Atheists don't believe in anything

Comment #130235 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:30 am

Yes they do, most believe that someone like you who makes such a claim is a bigot.

17. What's the evolutionary advantage of offering your place to an old woman on a bus?

Comment #130231 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:27 am

What's evolution got to do with this? Nothing.

18. How do you explain the lack of transitional forms in nature, the gaps in the fossil record?

Comment #130228 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:26 am

There aren't any. There are gaps in the fossil record, far fewer than in the past and there will be fewer in the future but there was never a be a time when every single transition was fossilized nor could we find all those that exist. We do have a more than sufficient fossil record to know how humans evolved from ancient primates, nothing more is needed.

19. How can the Earth be so perfectly suited for life by coincidence?

Comment #130223 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:20 am

Its not a coincidence.

20. A universe that follows 'laws' implies a 'law giver'

Comment #130220 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:20 am

No it does not. In fact societal rules do require a rule giver - a tyrant, king or legislature of one form or another. However laws, as in the discovered laws of nature do not, being only a consistent, robust and concise description of how certain facts occur.

21. All worldviews are merely paradigms, narratives having no more inherent value than any other narrative.

Comment #130217 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:18 am

Atheism is not a worldview so this does not apply.

22. Atheists only promote divisiveness, as any other separatist movement.

Comment #130214 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:17 am

This is truly the pot calling the kettle black.

23. Atheists are just as dogmatic as theists, and the only reasonable person is an agnostic.

Comment #130213 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:16 am

To be dogmatic one needs to assert and defend a belief and ignore or suppress evidence and argument against it. You have a belief in god and I don't, there is nothing for me to defend. Only you could be dogmatic should you so chose.

24. What are your qualifications to question religion anyway? Just who are you?

Comment #130207 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:12 am

What are your qualifications to question atheism? You have many false conceptions of that so it does not look like you are qualified to do so. I am not questioning religion, I am questioning why you should impose it on me or anyone else.

25. People who've experienced God KNOW that God exists

Comment #130203 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:11 am

I have experienced no god and so I know no god exists.

If you don't like my answer who can you make a similar claim?

26. What does atheism say about the purpose (or the meaning) of life?

Comment #130201 by martino on February 20, 2008 at 7:09 am

Meaning and purpose are different concepts.

Being an atheist means disbelief in god which means there is no god given purpose. That is all.

One can go further in saying there is no purpose in anything. This is different to meaning which is subjective. The meaning in your life is the one you give it.

If you decide the meaning in your life is defined by fulfilling a non-existent purpose (such as to serve your god) then your life is a facade and it has no meaning.

As usual with many of these questions , not only is the theist wrong in thinking that atheists are somehow lacking, it is, when you examine the question, the theist who is lacking. Maybe that is why they ask these questions, to deflect and to cover up their own flaws.