Don't Give into Nihilism or Do. Zach Weinersmith is Fantastic.

We've talked a lot about life after death. I found this apropos. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is fantastic - give them a look.

"I believe that the best way to become an atheist is to read the Bible"

Supposedly, this quote is from Penn Jillette. I might add that it helps to read the Bible alone, without an apologist shouting over the verses about owning slaves and wearing two different types of cloth. Qualifications aside, I'd say that this quote is pretty much on the money.
One of the members of our Secular Sunday group has taken this a bit farther and published a book of unblinded, unapologetic interpretations of the stories from what some people might tell you was gospel... so to speak.

The link to that is here.

As a teaser, here is a biblically-backed piece on the "Ten" Commandments:

Which Ten Commandments?

From time to time we hear of attempts by Christian organizations to put the so-called ten commandments on public display. These are usually shown on two tablets of stone because, legend has it, that is how they were given to Moses. The first five of these are about submission to authority, the other five about justice and fairness. Most people can’t recite all ten but tend to be familiar with a few. The most popular of these are arguably Thou Shalt Not Kill and Thou Shalt Not Steal. The others are about lying, coveting, adultery, swearing, honoring one’s parents, keeping the Sabbath, making false images, and, most importantly, rejecting other gods.

But, according to the Bible, God never gave these laws to Moses on any tablets. If we believe what the Bible says, God gave the Jews three sets of commandments. The first set consisted of the ten condensed above. These were shouted by God, not written down. We find this in Exodus 20:1-19. Imagine the scene: two million Jews gather at the foot of Mount Sinai and their god shouts down his laws through thundering, lightning, trumpets, and billowing smoke. The Jews are terrified. They tell Moses that they are willing to accept the laws, but not in such a frightful manner.

So Moses treks up the mountain where he camps for forty days. The Jewish god needs plenty of time to write the commandments on two tablets (keep in mind these are stone tablets, not iPads). However, Moses breaks these tablets to pieces before anybody can see what’s in them. This is in Exodus 32:19. One can assume that they are the same ten that God shouted out from the top of the mountain, but the Bible does not confirm this.

Moses is summoned for another forty-day trip to the mountain. God says he will write down the commandments again, but this does not turn out to be the case. We are now in Exodus 34:1-28. God repeats his egotistic commandments (no other gods, no idols, keep the Sabbath) but forgets about all the others. In this third and final set of commandments there is no Thou Shalt Not Kill and no Thou Shalt Not Steal. Instead we find laws about festivals and animal killings. And, rather than writing them down himself, he instructs Moses to do that.

Next time you see someone trying to display the ten commandments feel free to tell them they have the wrong commandments and refer them to Exodus, chapter 34.

Introduction

This page will be updated with any sort of media that can be found to generate discussion, provoke thought, or get a good chuckle. Please, submit anything that you find of value to me, and I will try to remain on top of it enough to update the page with what you've submitted.

Here are a few items that we've talked about in the (relatively) recent past:

The Divinity of Doubt

Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth

The Angels of Our Better Nature

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Bit about Evangelists

Gary Marcus' Kluge

Lewis Black's Argument Ad Nazium Fallacy

Sam Harris' On Free Will