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Criticism of Religion
Luke Muehlhauser ("lukeprog") is an atheist and naturalist who arrived there via a journey as a devout pastor's kid. His story is moving. The tone and discussion here is sympathetic and friendly, and the writing almost always thought provoking. The site includes some impressive resources, like an evaluation of all of William Lane Craig's debates and a voluminous list of debates about God. Luke's site is a beacon of thoughtful and respectful dialogue. Highly Recommended. About itself: "See, believers have two ways of thinking. In most situations, they think with the same logic as most people do: this is our 'common sense.' Tell a believer that the bank stole his money, or that an ancient book says you can heal disease by dancing around a fire, and he will ask for evidence. That is common sense. ... The whole point of my website is this: If a believer applies his special thinking to any other area of life, it becomes clear how irrational that special thinking is. And if he applies common sense to his religion, it becomes clear how irrational that religion is."
Paul F. Crawford, The Intercollegiate Review 46:1, reprinted at First Principles Journal (April 21, 2011).
It is almost scandalous to question the status of
"the Crusades" as the paradigmatic exemplar — along with the Inquisition — of the Christian religion gone bad. Nevertheless, recent
years have seen a steady stream of publications offering just such a
reappraisal. Paul F. Crawford summarizes some of this literature in
"Four Myths about the Crusades". The myths? 1) "The crusades
represented an unprovoked attack by Western Christians on the Muslim
world." 2) "Western Christians went on crusade because their greed led
them to plunder Muslims in order to get rich." 3) "Crusaders were a
cynical lot who did not really believe their own religious propaganda;
rather, they had ulterior, materialistic motives." 4) "The crusades
taught Muslims to hate and attack Christians." Events dimly remembered in the fog of history are prone to being recast and appropriated to one narrative or another. Crawford's summary and citations provide a starting point for considering whether the Crusades have suffered such a fate.
In its own words: Over the past several years, I have observed to my dismay the forces
of militant religious fundamentalism gaining in strength, both in my
home country, the United States of America, and worldwide. This ominous
development, driven by those who are dedicated enemies of all the
progress and enlightenment that has been achieved over the past several
centuries, threatens the liberty and happiness of all people
everywhere. As a result, I have been compelled to grow more involved in
political causes to help oppose it, and to defend the human rights that
once more need defending. This process of awakening led to my writing
the essay "Unapologetic",
but did not stop there. We need as many voices as possible calling
attention to the evil of the religious right and shining the light of
scrutiny on their true goals. Only by doing so can we hope to stop
them, and I hope to play some small part in that.
The final motivating factor is the fact that there are not nearly as
many good atheist weblogs as there should be. There are many blogs
written by atheists, but relatively few that are about atheism, relatively few that are well-written and address the subject frequently and knowledgeably.
Tagline: Sex, atheism, politics, dreams, and whatever. Thinking out loud since 2005.