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Extremist Response Squad?
2008-01-17 00:45:00
This was a post on our messageboards talking about the frequent characterization of the RRS as "extremists", "fanatics", or "militant." I found it to be a clearly elucidated argument for the reasons why we are none of the aforementioned and am reposting it here, with his permission, of course.     Tarpan wrote:  It?s not very uncommon for the Rational Response Squad to be accused by both theist and atheists alike of being equal to extremist or fundamentalist theist groups.  Their aggressive and vocal nature draws a reaction and a number of people feel this is positive, while others feel that it is negative.  I would like to take a moment to seriously consider if this is an appropriate correlation. Extremist or Fundamentalist groups are credited with taking their religious devotion to a level that would involve killing people as well as sacrificing themselves for their cause.  Killing innocent people, bombing schools, market places, hospitals, as well a...

Still Don't Think Theism is a Mind Disorder...Part Deux
2008-01-15 10:35:00
Since there have been so many things that I wanted to address in the comments, plus the fact that it got long as hell, I decided to post it here. Enjoy.   Quote: No atheism here. Submitted by Fenriz on January 13, 2008 - 2:37pm. Religion is different from illegal drugs because it is societally protected. Even if religion is destructive, it won't carry the same stigma as drugs because too many people support it. Your analogy is more effective with tobacco and alcohol, which are both traditionally accepted features of our culture despite the harms they can inflict. Because they are so ingrained in our culture, we won't get rid of them regardless the problems to which they contribute (though tobacco could be teetering on the brink of extinction). I agree that it is considered taboo to critique religion too harshly, but is that respect deserved? Would we not be better off as a society if events such as these didn't happen? Some people will find other reasons to eng...
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Muslims suppressing atheism in Turkey
2008-01-14 06:17:00
Yesterday I blogged about muslims attempting to take down pictures of their invisible friend on wikipedia via petition.  Today we got a letter from the head of the number one turkish atheist site which has been stripped from the eyes of Turk s twice.  Once under the original domain and then again under another domain.  Unfortunatly the owner is unable to fight this in court because to do so he would have to identify himself which if you're familiar will end up resulting in his head being chopped off by the peaceful and loving muslims who work for Allah.  If you speak Turkish and you are an atheist please support this site... READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Atheism , Turkey , Muslims

Still Don't Think that Theism is a Mental Disorder?
2008-01-13 07:45:00
Wow. A whole barrage of nonsense came at us in the past two weeks or so. First off...a man cuts off his own hand after seeing the Mark of the Beast on it. With a circular saw. And then microwaves it. And then calls the authorities. A quote from one of the sherriff's deputies states, "That kind of mental illness is just sad." I couldn't agree more. Now, I know what you guys are going to say--"It's not BECAUSE of religion." Actually, I don't think that a case could be made either way. Was he likely vulnerable to delusional behavior? Yeah, I'll concede that one. The fact that religion is unique in its ability to seep into the crevices of your mind so pervasively that this theme plays out in our society over and over again isn't addressed by that statement, though. How do the appeasers and framers answer that? Maybe it only manifests itself in those already prone to mental illness, but isn't that akin to excusing and perpetuating a belie...
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Atheist Divisiveness and Dogmatism
2008-01-10 12:19:00
Lately, I've been realizing that, despite what I had come to believe, religion is not the biggest danger to society. Poor thinking is. Adherence to mindless dogmatism is. The self-serving desire to fit everybody into a mold, likely similar to your own, is. These traits are unfortunately not limited to theists.   Obviously, being a member of the Rational Response Squad puts me in a position to be critiqued and vilified by the people who possess the aforementioned character flaws, and recently I've been seeing it almost constantly. It literally pains me to see that so many who have managed to escape religion still cling to so many other similarly irrational ideas and use such blatantly poor logic-particularly if it involves us. Have we done some controversial things? Sure. Are we brash, loud-mouthed, occasionally immature, and possibly arrogant? Sometimes, yes. Have we made mistakes? Of course-show me one person who hasn't, and I'll show you a liar. Do we have con...
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A Response to the American People...
2008-01-04 04:24:00
...represented by a small sample of letters to the editor from around the country.   Well, this will be a first with two posts in one day, but I really wanted to briefly discuss the following letters that were submitted to various papers across the US. This is certainly not a statistically significant sample, but I feel that these particular mindsets are far too common for a supposedly enlightened and egalitarian society. We'll start with my favorite one from the Salt Lake City Tribune. Quote: Blame atheists  In his Dec. 27 letter, Steven Fehr says he believes President Bush is the worst president he has seen. Whenever I hear someone complain about the president, I ask them, "Do you pray for the president of the United States daily?" Is that too much trouble? There used to be a custom of praying for our president. Perhaps too many people in the United States believe this would be mixing politics and religion. If the majority of the people ar...
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Ranting on holidays and porn...two completely unrelated topics
2008-01-03 09:29:00
"Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man. For war consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of time is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many days together: so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is peace. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Holidays , Topics

The Triumph of Reason
2007-12-27 11:48:00
THIS PAGE RECOVERED FROM CACHE AFTER LOSING TWO WEEKS OF DATA  Response to Katha Pollitt's "The Atheist's Dilemma" From The Nation, Dec 3, 2007 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071203/pol litt In this issue of The Nation, Katha Pollitt posits that what people like to refer to as the "New Atheism" is destined for failure. She argues that the devout will not be persuaded by atheists, particularly those like Sam Harris, who "[think] religion is completely stupid." She goes on further to admonish us for not appreciating the so-called moderates of any faith. Ms. Pollitt is demonstrating her ignorance of the effectiveness of the atheist "movement" (although I hesitate to use that word) and the reason why even the moderate religious acolytes need to be called to account for their beliefs. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Reason , Triumph

The Infallible Pope Benedict Releases Bigoted Encyclical Vilifying Atheism
2007-12-04 08:47:00
Kelly O?ConnorThe Catholic Church has officially ended their campaign to improve the public image of the Church with the latest papal encyclical, Spe Salvi, which means ?saved by hope? for the Latin fans out there. The Catholic Church?s history is littered with crimes against humanity, and Pope Benedict XVI seems to desire the return to pre-Vatican II Catholicism. This was a concern voiced by many at the time that the former Joseph Ratzinger* was canonized to this position. The former pope, John Paul II, had made great strides in the modernization of the Church, and many were reluctant to elect somebody who would reverse that trend. Despite John Paul?s dogmatic adherence to the sexual proscriptions of Catholicism, he at least officially accepted evolution, admitted Protestants into heaven, and eliminated limbo. (Where was that place anyway? I may have been there once?) Pope Benedict is turning out exactly as predicted.The attempt to correlate atheism with violence, hatred, and genoc...
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Trying to Collect my Scattered Thoughts
2007-12-02 05:45:00
Well, this isn't an official response to much of anything, but I wanted to at least throw a little update out there. First of all, living with twenty thousand thoughts and ideas running around my neuronal network constantly is frustrating, exhilirating, and exhausting. There are twenty articles to which I want to respond, thirty different ways to track and promote my progress, contact lists to be exported/imported, stats to assess...you get the drift. O_O An amusing development is the three (?) threads about our ads at Democratic Underground. Unfortunately, two have been archived and one is in a donors only section, so I wasn't able to invite them over here for a nice healthy debate on the definition of pornography, the objectification of women, and maintaining rational and effective marketing. No matter what our individual desires or wishes are concerning the more...primitive... parts of our brain, I feel that in order to achieve our goals as a group, it would behoove us ...
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No Faith in Science
2007-11-26 16:46:00
I have faith (pun intended) that at some point in his studies, Paul Davies has held a dictionary in his hands, and possibly even opened it. These days, it?s even less cumbersome with the advent of online dictionaries and the added benefit of providing multiple sources from which one can gain a better understanding of a particular word. In order to correct the compilation of fallacies presented in this piece, we need to start at the beginning?definitions. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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An FYI for Feedburner subscribers...
2007-11-26 03:56:00
Sorry to confuse everybody, but I am not going to be using feedburner anymore, so if you subscribed through feedburner, it will automatically redirect you to this blog for three more weeks. After that, it will disappear from the blogosphere, so make sure you subscribe through this site. The links are at the bottom. Thanks, Kelly ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Blog Info: READERS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO PROMOTE THIS BLOG ON THEIR SITE FOR ONE YEAR. Give Kelly a year and she'll give you major media theism debunked! Subscribe (free) to our onsite feed : http://www.rationalresponders.com/blog/42 8/feed READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust
2007-11-25 20:16:00
I received an email from Sam Harris today urging everybody to pledge money to help support Ayaan Hirsi Ali 's security detail. Due to the threat on her life, she has 24 hour a day guards and the cost is financially prohibitive. This is an important project to support in order to ensure the protection of the world's most prominent opponent of Islamic fundamentalism. If you are unaware of her work, here is a video playlist of many of her public appearances. Kudos to Sam Harris for setting this up and spreading the word about this inspiring woman. We'll be making our donation soon. The important details are below as reposted from this page of Sam's website: READ MORE »Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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Two Confused People Discuss Atheism
2007-11-23 01:54:00
First of all, to those of you who have been reading this blog regularly, I apologize for repeatedly writing about Dinesh D?Souza. This is occurring for multiple reasons: he?s the only person who?s promoting his biased agenda with actual fervency (which includes frequent articles or blog posts), and I was specifically asked by Ken Bronstein from NYC Atheists to continue deconstructing his propaganda. It?s like being stuck between a rock and a hard-head?oh, I meant hard place. I must confess that I haven?t yet watched this televised discussion, although I plan to, because I would like to get this written, at least preliminarily, before suffering the inevitable loss of neurons that will occur when I watch their mutually masturbatory misinformation session. Thankfully, it was only broadcast on The 700 Club, so they were preaching to an audience that has already been tainted by this type of nonsense. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Atheism , People

Request for assistance
2007-11-22 18:53:00
Hey folks, I need some help finding articles for my massive blogathon (future book and movie) in which I'm responding to as many leading theists as I can in one year through my blog. If anybody sees anything that you think I should respond to, please submit it in this thread. Types of stories I need: Major print media (hopefully with an online link as well) Author of article should be a well known theist, or at the minimum a frequent theist writer, preferably leaders of orgs, thinktanks, or pundits. Most preferable articles are op-eds posted in papers that are likely to reprint my rebuttal. (the less conservative the publication, the better) If you read a story that is printed in the paper and it is not available online, please scan the article and send me the scan via email: Kelly aT __ rationalresponders.com Other things you can do to help: Subscribe to my blog feed. Compile a list of email addresses to major newspapers for op-ed submission. I promise to share this list wi...
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Georgia Governor Angers the One True God by Praying to Yahweh for Rain
2007-11-19 21:09:00
Rational Response Squad News Service Associated Atheist Press Staff Writer: Bizarro Kelly Sapient Mon Nov 19, 1:04 PM ET Atlanta, GA - It's completely obvious that the damage caused by rainstorms in drought-stricken Georgia was caused by their blatant blasphemous beseeching of Yahweh --another one of those false ancient deities--for rain. Witnesses at Governor Sonny Perdue's prayer service reported that he seemed completely unaware that if Yahweh did exist, his bible specifically calls those who pray in public hypocrites. (Mat 6:5-9). READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Rain , True

Secular Fundamentalists: There is no such thing...and the AAI conference do
2007-11-15 07:03:00
Reddit this -- Digg this! One of the methods used by the religious to marginalize atheists and our increasing visibility is to accuse us of becoming that which we originally opposed, or in other words, just like them. It?s even better if they have the convenience of one experience with these so-called ?secular fundamentalists? from which they can draw unfounded conclusions as to the validity of this argument and, ultimately, the character of all those who have no belief in gods, goddesses, or other mythical creatures. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Thing , Secular , Conference , Amen , Dame

D'Souza - Nothing to Refute Here
2007-11-08 09:58:00
Kelly responds to Dinesh D'Souza and his "What atheists Kant refute" drivel. Digg Kelly's Response - Reddit Article The question of the nature of reality is one that likely will never go away. There will always be those who support the belief that this mysterious ?something? exists, and there will be those on the opposing side. We must work with the tools available to us, and those just happen to be limited to our five innate senses and the knowledge that we have gained through science and reason. READ MORE »Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |

News story from Belgium that further demonstrates the idiocy of Islam
2007-11-02 04:17:00
Quote: A Belgian anesthetist has filed a complaint against a Muslim who blocked him from entering the operating theatre where his wife was to undergo emergency surgery. The woman was operated with the male doctor shouting instructions from a hallway to a female nurse Doctor Philippe Becx from Bree, Belgium , was called to the hospital in the middle of the night because a woman had to undergo an emergeny caesarean section. However, her husband blocked the door and demanded a female anesthetist. The latter was unavailable. After a two-hour discussion proved fruitless, an imam was summoned. The imam permitted the doctor to apply an epidural injection, but only if the woman was fully covered with only a small area of skin showing. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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Dinesh D'Souza's ridiculous op-ed in USA Today
2007-11-01 08:58:00
Here's the link to the original article and below is my response. Enjoy. Bump my response on reddit. Digg me on Digg. Anybody who has ever perused the "Religion" section of the local bookstore has undoubtedly seen that the sheer volume of available apologetics material is most certainly not in danger of being over taken by the comparatively miniscule, if even present, section of books on atheism. That notwithstanding, the response from believers to books like Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion or Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great has been so vociferous that one would think that it was in imminent peril. As much as I would relish that notion, it is apparent that instead of diminishing, it is in fact increasing--with new names, albeit old arguments. READ MORE »Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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Response to "You guys are bad representatives of atheism!!!" people
2007-11-01 06:40:00
I found this article on the USAToday website. It's written by Nica Lalli and is a thoughtful piece that makes the very valid counter-point to all of the people who carelessly lob the accusation at us (or others, such as Christopher Hitchens here) that "You guys are bad representatives of atheism!" Since this is so frequently used as an argument against us, I thought I would re-post it here. Quote: Atheists don't speak with just one voice All religions have richly diverse histories and equally diverse believers. Yet why are non-believers treated as a monolith? Equal treatment might lead to greater understanding. READ MORE » Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
More About: Atheism , People , Guys , Resent , Response

Deconversion story posted on Dawkins' forums - ironic or not? We report...y
2007-10-31 09:27:00
Here is a post from the Dawkins ' forums that essentially credits us, and specifically the Nightline debacle with Cameron/Comfort, for his deconversion from christianity. I find this terribly ironic since some of the regulars at the RDF site are extremely critical of us and our methods, some even going so far as saying that we will never affect anybody's beliefs and that we somehow harm atheism. I find it telling that when this was posted on their boards, nobody had anything to say. Why didn't they explain to this person that they shouldn't have been persuaded by our juvenile, offensive argumentation? Why was the typical response to anything having to do with us not represented in this thread? Go ahead and explain to this poster all the reasons why we are ineffective and pedantic stupid morons. I triple-dog dare you. link Quote: ThatTallDJ: Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for your warm welcomes. I suppose it is necessary to go into the obligatory story of my personal jour...
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Premiere of my blog--Featuring Dumbass Comment of the Day Award
2007-10-30 00:42:00
From: The Ages, Australia Apr. 15, 2007 Thornton McCamish http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17975/aga inst-god In this article, apparently a few months old, the author reviews some of the current books and trends in this "New Atheism" thing we keep hearing about. He seems to maintain journalistic integrity and doesn't appear particularly biased--until you get to the last sentence: Quote: And that?s the main problem for atheist evangelisers: just because something isn?t true doesn?t mean it?s not real. Huh? Could you repeat that? O_O Bookmark/Search this post with: | | | | | | |
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