2012 May | The Eloquent Atheist

The Revelations of Joanna

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Kenneth E. Nahigian

The messiah’s mother was born in Devon, England, in April of 1750. What, you didn’t know? It was a strange day, featherstitched with endings and beginnings. Mobs stormed the French royals, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man, Voltaire sewed seeds of doubt and sedition, and everywhere were new prophets and seers, feeding on spiritual anomie like the wild mushrooms of a wet, warm spring. In England was Joanna Southcott. A simple farmer’s daughter, former domestic servant and fairly bland … Read on…

A few words on Christopher Hitchens

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Chuck Byrd

Jesus Christ! Christopher Hitchens is a tough read. Yes it’s true that “god is not great.” It’s also true that “religion does poison everything”. I think it’s safe to say that everyone in this room would wave that banner proudly. I do stick to my belief that Hitchens is a tough read. So what are my options to deal with this problem? I guess I could have contacted Christopher Hitchens and ask him to write a “Dummy’s Guide to Freethinking” … Read on…

The nature of random

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Michael W. Jones

Programmers know something about random number generators. For the edification of civilians, the simplest of those generators can be asked for a random number between 3 and 5, for example, and with a certain level of precision, say 5 digits, and will immediately respond with an answer like 4.28694, always randomly. The next time the number might be 3.74812. An almost unlimited number of possibilities exist. The random number generator is useful for programming most games of chance and for … Read on…

The Excellent Eightfold Axe

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Douglas Wilton

writing is like any other bodily function
when you have to go you have to go
until you find that you are mostly gone
little more than a shadow cast
from the shell of what you were
by the fierce light of the future Read on…

Agnosticism, a personal definition

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Michael W. Jones

Agnosticism is simpler than it sounds, and also much more difficult. Most would define agnosticism as the view that the truth of certain claims (especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims) are unknown or unknowable. Simply restated, man cannot rationally have sufficient knowledge to either prove or disprove the existence of one or more religious deities, if any. As such, agnosticism is not a statement of either belief or disbelief. … Read on…

Phenomenon

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Billy Harfosh

This life is beginning to represent something raw and unchanged
The constant rudeness the violence and the collisions
Disease and death-Love and Hate
Tears-and for what?
Where is the endgame Read on…

Faiths and Public Affairs

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Tibor R. Machan

Former Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum made an impassioned pitch in favor of rejecting the famous doctrine of the separation of church and state. He made his position clear on the ABC-TV program, This Week, on Sunday, February 26: “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,’’ Santorum noted. “The idea that the church should have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical of the objectives … Read on…

Marvin’s question about Agnosticism

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Michael W. Jones

A gentleman named Marvin used our contact form to ask a question that should have been answered before he could ask it. His actual question is as follows: Hi. Do I have to be an atheist to submit my works here? I am actually an agnostic but I sometimes wonder and speculate the non-existence of God. Somehow, I am an adherent of atheistic existentialism by Nietzche. As the fellow that should have arranged to answer this question in advance, I … Read on…

Vengeance is mine saith the Lord!

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Michael W. Jones

Once again, I have been reminded of the incredible vanity and violent nature of that old white-haired Christian mirage in the sky, seeing two churches (one Lutheran, one generic Christian) in one day displaying the message “Never Forget” on their outdoor message boards. The reference, of course, is to 9/11, that action spurred by a false Arab god (as identified by the Christian false god) which resulted in so many deaths in New York City. No decent person is happy … Read on…

4 Poems by Jan Steckel

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Jan Steckel

We are pleased to be able to bring you four new poems from Jan Steckel, who has been featured on our pages before. Her work is always elegantly thoughtful and shines brightly into inky dark corners and sunny green forest clearings alike. Her words are evocatively beautiful, perfectly matched to her themes, sure to bring clear imagery to your mind at her every turn of thought. Jan’s ideas perfectly realize the objectives of our magazine, a rational light showing the … Read on…

The Eloquent Atheist

Positive Atheism with Humanist Nuances

Monthly Archives: May 2012