The Logical Atheist

What do you infer from the supposed fact that that a just God ought to be prayed to in support of a just cause? Does that mean that this just God would let a just cause fail if no one properly asked him to lend a hand?

The more closely I read the Tanakh (the Pentateuch, Hebrew Bible, or Five Books of Moses), the more clearly I see the power agenda behind it. (Let's remember that these books are the foundation of the three Abrahamic religions.) Without this perspective, it is hard to understand what these books are really about; the catalog of stories, divine punishments, and commandments simply makes no sense. Why would a perfect, all-powerful, and benevolent deity do such horrible things while making such unreasonable demands on a group of "chosen" people? In fact, why is there a chosen people at all? Why is the message, whatever it is, not intended for a universal audience? We can arrive at a better answer if we think of the Israelites as a cult in which most people are subservient and from which a minority, an elite or priestly class, benefits. Cults are always vulnerable to defection and disintegration as members of the subservient majority, especially in a rising generation, begin ...

I sadly must report the death of George H. Smith on April 8. He was 73 and had been in poor health. Smith will be no stranger to readers of this blog, which was inspired by his writings. I was fortunate to have known George since the 1970s and to have had many conversations with him. He was self-educated and nothing short of brilliant. He wrote perhaps the best book ever on why belief in gods or God is not just mistaken but illogical: Atheism: The Case against God  (1974). (The 2016 edition has a foreword by Lawrence Krauss.) Smith wrote two other books that deal with the philosophy and history of freethought: Why Atheism?  (2000) and Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies (1991) .  He also wrote dozens of essays on the intellectual history of individualism, liberty, and anarchism. Many of these can be found at Libertarianism.org . Some of his essays have been compiled as books, available at Amazon .  As I've pointed out often , Smith's work in my view is far superior...

Why is this supposedly perfect and self-sufficient God so needy?

Why didn't "Thou shalt not buy and sell human beings" make the ten commandments?

This time of year I am always reminded of the famous story from the news industry. A local radio newscaster began his morning program with the words: "Today Christians the world over awoke to celebrate the alleged resurrection of Jesus Christ." The newscaster was fired.

Passover begins tonight, that joyous time of year when Jews the world over remind themselves of how great Yahweh is. At least that's what Yahweh wants them and the adherents of the offshoot religions, Christianity and Islam, to do. In the relevant text, Yahweh repeatedly reminds readers that he is the one who led them out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The warning is clear: do not forget what Yahweh did for you -- not only your distant ancestors but you  -- or you're a bad person and will suffer severe consequences. But is that the whole story? In this post I am taking the book of Exodus, which is excerpted in the Haggadah, which Jews read at their two seders (I've been there), at face value. Needless to say (?), there is little or nothing of historical accuracy in that book. Archeologists have failed to find evidence of any kind to support the claim that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt or that a mass exodus from Egypt to Canaan ever occurred. But let's w...