1. Atheists don't believe in anything

Comment #83092 by Loren Michael on October 28, 2007 at 11:33 pm

These are all incorrect:

"Atheists don't believe in anything, except the power of reasoned rational thought, free investigation and the unfettered human spirit to succeed."

"I would say that we don't believe in anything for no reason. Which just means we don't have faith in anything, not that we don't believe anything."

"We believe in gravity for many good reasons, as do all people. We don't believe in the orbiting teapot because there is no reason to."

"If by belief, you mean belief without evidence (faith), you are absolutely right. We take pride in the fact that we do not believe in things that cannot be proved rationally."

Madalyn Murray's screed about specific atheist advocacy positions are also mostly incorrect. Don't try and turn "atheism" into something it's not. It has a well-established (and simple) meaning.

2. Atheists don't believe in anything

Comment #83091 by Loren Michael on October 28, 2007 at 11:20 pm

Atheists don't believe in god.

Any response that references "the supernatural" have misunderstood the term.

3. Hitchens and Prager Debate

Comment #46159 by Loren Michael on May 30, 2007 at 12:12 pm

People, and this certainly includes Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, need to get past the "Religion/Secularism" debate. It's not sufficient to merely rail against religion when there are other, nonreligious ideologies that are just as incoherent and illogical as religion. Religion is obviously extremely damaging, but it's not alone, and when people restrict themselves to merely promoting atheism, they get saddled with all the nonsense that has been promulgated with an atheistic component.

All of them have touched on this sentiment, I'm sure. I haven't read The God Delusion or Hitchens' new book, but I know Harris briefly draws an analogy between religion and communism, and Hitchens notes in this debate that atheism is a necessary clause but not a sufficient one. That said, the point gets raised again and again, and even in the Prager debate, even after Hitchens makes the aforementioned point, he's still defending "secularism".

Just like the religious moderates are fundamentally unable to raise a coherent objection to religious villainy, people that hawk atheism and nonreligion are unable to marshal any true strength against the greater specter of unreason and dogmatic thought, and they're forced to make backhanded and awkward linkages between their central thesis and something that is obviously outside it. People need to start boiling this down to what is true and what isn't, and start casting this in terms of skepticism and reason.

4. NEXT MONDAY: Bill O'Reilly interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #33155 by Loren Michael on April 19, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Sam Harris has been on O'Reilly a few times and it turned out fine.

5. Stephen interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali author of Infidel

Comment #26160 by Loren Michael on March 17, 2007 at 9:52 am

Acording to AEI,Walmart is a blessing to the USA...LOL.

One good thing about Wal*Mart is that they actively destroy small towns, which, in the United States, are teeming with Republicans.

If Wal*Mart forces otherwise backward hicks to move to a city and get inundated with culture, they aren't all bad.

6. Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islam

Comment #22964 by Loren Michael on February 25, 2007 at 2:14 am

Oh, that was pretty good.

I wish the United States had more straight debate and discussion shows. I'm forced to turn to podcasts to actually find any really good conversations. Maher's need to humor everything up kind of detracts from the discussion, as does the clapping from the audience.

7. Is America Too Damn Religious?

Comment #22604 by Loren Michael on February 19, 2007 at 9:35 pm

I can't help but notice that the pro-religion folks lean amazingly heavily on the No True Scotsman fallacy. The second fellow to speak for them pretty much uses it as his entire premise.

Also, the link above is to the 50 minute edited debate. The long version is apparently RealPlayer only, at this address:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7422542