The Logical Atheist

If we could abandon, for a moment, every theistical idea, it would nevertheless remain substantially true, that the happiness of society must depend upon the exercise of equal and reciprocal justice. It would also be true, that benevolence is an amiable trait in the character of man; that the cultivation of his faculties is a duty imposed on him, because the faithful performance of his duty extends the circle of his real felicity; that vice is the bane of individual and social existence; that truth is to be preferred to falsehood, activity to indolence, temperance to debauchery, and, generally, that science and virtue claim pre-eminently over ignorance and vice, the universal attachment of the human race. All these, and many other particulars of a like nature, would stand as immortal monuments of the real nature of moral principles, even after cultivated intellect shall have performed the last solemn act of duty relative to the ancient regimen, and shall have recalled bewildered man to...

If a thousand Gods existed, or if nature existed independent of any, the moral relation between man and man would remain exactly the same in either case. Moral principle is the result of this relation, it is founded in the properties of our nature, and it is as indestructible as the basis on which it rests. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806),  Principles of Nature; or, A Development of  the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

The other day I raved about Hemant Mehta's "Friendly Atheist" YouTube series "Everything Wrong with ...."  I repeat my recommendation here, but I want to add a note. The series is highly entertaining, but don't let that overshadow the deeper message: the Hebrew Bible is full of deeply immoral tales. I don't know why even some secularists concede that it is one of the great works of literature. It is clearly ungreat at every level, but especially at the moral level. God just wasn't into justice as you and I understand it. You will have to look awfully hard to find even one sound moral lesson in Genesis, which is as far as Mehta has gone. (He tells me he plans to keep going, a plan I heartily applaud.) If someone can tell me how the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Lot, and rest teach something worthwhile, I'd like to hear it. Leave me comments. By the way, Mehta refers to the God of Genesis as "the Christian God," b...

The different religious sectaries, which have prevailed in the world, have furnished innumerable proofs of the bigoted tenacity so strikingly characteristic of supernatural theology. It is not only in regard to their doctrines that this disposition has appeared, but each sect has laid claim to a pre-eminent preservation of morals, and to the power of rendering good and happy a wicked and apostate race of men. The fulminating anathemas of the Church have been poured forth in every direction, and the most petty sectary has raised around itself a rampart for the alternate purpose of self-defence, and attack upon heretics and unbelievers. They have universally charged each other with holding doctrines of a demoralizing nature, and subversive of the moral purity of rational existence. In such a state of things reason owes to the happiness of man the faithful discharge of an important duty, consisting of a candid and temperate investigation concerning theological ideas, and the foundation of...

If you're looking for an informative, entertaining, irreverent, and even hilarious look at the the Bible, I highly recommend Friendly Atheist's YouTube series "Everything Wrong with...."  (Hemant Mehta has a website too.) As you'll see, just about every line is absurd and uproariously funny -- the book could have been written by the Monty Python gang. It looks like Mehta started a year ago and is just now getting to the end of Genesis. I've watch a few at random and found them brilliant, not to mention educational. He cleaves to the text with the help of good graphics while offering brief droll comments that are always well put. I now plan to watch them all in order. If you want a good sample, see the one on Genesis 19 , where we learn about Sodom and Gomorrah, poor Lot, his doomed wife, and his scheming incestuous daughters. You will have a laugh and go back for more, I'm sure.

If the Christian religion be true, the proofs ought not only to be universally exhibited, but they ought also to be universally convincing; and this results essentially from the nature of that evidence which is employed to substantiate the system. It is not strange that man should often doubt, where human testimony is the only ground of conviction, but when the proof rises higher and claims a divine origin, one would suppose that the mind must necessarily yield to the force of such divine testimony, otherwise the means made use of by divine power for the accomplishment of the end, are inadequate and deficient; but as no such imbecility can justly be attributed to a being possessing infinite wisdom, it is to be presumed, that the exhibition of evidence in the present case ought to be complete and satisfactory, universal and every where convincing. If human projects miscarry, this failure is to be ascribed to the imperfection of human nature; and the believer ought to perceive that he do...

In the case of the Christian religion, man is subjected to damnation, either because he is ignorant of the system, or because his mind cannot discern the quantum of evidence necessary to establish its divine origin; but in the system of nature, although there is a real difference in regard to the possession of talents, yet the man weak in intellect cannot, in justice, be subjected to punishment on this account. No Christian will contend that great mental energy will entitle a man to salvation, or, on the other hand, that a feeble understanding will, in the mind of the Deity, be considered as a justifiable cause of damnation. No; if God be just, he will require only the due and proper exercise of those diversified talents which he had variously bestowed upon his creatures. If one be weak and another strong, one foolish and another discerning, the justice of God demands a mode of treatment exactly adjusted to these different powers and faculties. The Christian religion, therefore, in ord...