I’m almost certain I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: In the same-sex marriage debate, it is often put forth that denying gays the right to marry is like when the majority was in the business of denying the right to interracial marriage. If that is true (and it is – it’s uncanny how much alike the arguments are), then we ought to find ourselves willing to commit to the terminology (or to like terminology) we would apply to anyone still against interracial marriage today. The most apt term is “bigot”. Let’s not shy from utilizing it.
1) The Bible is internally inconsistent.
2) The Bible is historically inaccurate.
3) The Bible was subjectively written by men.
4) The Bible has been and is poorly translated.
5) The Bible was subjectively put together by men.
It’s often thrown at atheists that atheism offers no ultimate purpose for living. Aside from pretending that this somehow discredits all the purpose we actually have, this argument forgets one thing: just because the theist has faith that he has an ultimate purpose for living, it does not mean he actually has that ultimate purpose. The point is merely an entirely unpersuasive Argument from Consequence.
Eliot Cutler is the most reasonable choice for Maine governor. He’s the one who has a commanding grasp of all the issues, the one with the most reasonable plans, and the one who isn’t going to mess everything up (that honor would be LePage’s). Libby Mitchell would be a fine choice as well, but Cutler has her beat in a number of issues, especially where it comes to being independent of a political system.
Creationist Republican/Tea Party candidate for Maine governor Paul LePage rages against government and the assistance it gives to poor people. He’s intensely angry that anyone would have the audacity to take his money from him in order to help others. But this isn’t some pure libertarian stance he’s taking. No, as is well-known, the LePages stole a lot of money from Florida by illegally claim double-residency, thus getting their children in-state tuition at massive savings. This, as is the case with virtually all Tea Party supporters, is about greed. LePage is willing to take government assistance – welfare – from the state of Florida when it suits his wallet, but when it comes to helping anyone else he wants to put caps on benefits and slash every service under the sun.
Paul LePage is just another greedy Republican/Teabagger who is out to get his own. It has only ever been about his own wallet.
The notion that theists can take comfort in living for some purpose shows at least two things: (1) that they’re oblivious to the fact that they’re wrong that there is an ultimate purpose. It’s all a big if, then situation – if everything they say is true, then they can take comfort. Too bad they’ve never bothered to offer any evidence for any of their claims. (2) The whole game is really just about comfort. People fear death, they fear losing all they have, they fear not existing. That probably has played a role in the invention – and certainly the persistence – of religion. And it is this need for comfort manifested through religion that has lead to hostility towards science. We can’t stop the need for comfort, nor do we want to stop it, but we can stop religion, if even only theoretically.
For the Sake of Science 