Author: Bill Flavell
Walking with a believer
Let’s take a walk together this evening. Let us be friends who seek nothing more than to believe things that are true, and not believe things that are false. This evening as we walk we are talking about humankind’s obsession with gods—an obsession that has lasted for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years. Theist: What should we believe about gods Alan? Atheist: Well, what do we c...
This is no test
Christians say life on Earth is just a test to see who is fit for heaven. The death of a child is just a test; an earthquake is a test. Cancer, birth defects, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, malaria and ebola are all tests. God has an entire arsenal of tests for us and some people are tested multiple times, but others are never tested at all. What Christians don’t tell us is why an infinitel...
Put up or shut up
In 1687, Isaac Newton published his book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (in English, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”). In this ground-breaking book, he proposed that an invisible force of attraction acts on all objects with mass. He gave a simple equation that allowed the magnitude of the force to be calculated. This invisible force, he claimed, explains ho...
Theophysicists
We’ve all met them; there are probably millions of them in the wild. They believe in God, but they are not theologians. They believe in science, but they are not scientists. I call them theophysicists. They say physics, in particular Big Bang Cosmology, is proof that God exists. Somehow they miss the fact that only 7% of the 2,000-odd members of the National Academy of Scientists (the most d...
God’s IQ
The average human has an IQ of 100. The very smartest humans have IQs hovering around the 200 mark. Those blessed with such talent can do things that the rest of us can only marvel at. Kim Ung-yong was born in 1962 in Seoul, South Korea. He began speaking Korean by the age of four months and by two and a half years of age, he could read Korean, German, Japanese and English. He began a physics cour...
Goodbye 2017, and goodbye Christianity
If you are a Christian, there is a lot that you have to take on faith; was Jesus born of a virgin? Did Jesus die and resurrect? Did Jesus ascend to heaven? Is Jesus alive today? You have no way of knowing if these things, and many other things, are true but if you set your threshold for belief low enough, you can believe them on faith. However, there are two facts, (one from the Old Testament and ...
Time to change
There is a time when we all have to change. Atheist Alliance International has reached that point. Over the years we have become too comfortable and we have taken our eye off the ball. The balance has swung towards establishment and away from activist. Attending meetings at the UN and addressing conferences in Europe and North America may give the impression that we are achieving things but the pa...
How myths challenge gods
It is uncontroversial that the Sumerians invented their pantheon of gods and their elegant myth explaining the creation of the world. They believed the goddess Nammu gave birth to her husband Anki. They had a son, Enlil, who made the world from his own parents. It is uncontroversial that the Aztecs invented their pantheon of gods and their rather more bellicose creation myth. In their myth, the go...
Jesus’ final miracle
If the Bible is to be believed, Jesus performed many miracles during his brief ministry, from walking on water to raising the dead. Things that are impossible for humans, Jesus could do without breaking sweat. But apparently he was killed by three humble blacksmith’s nails. What happened to his miracles? Could he perform miracles for others, but not for himself? All we are left with is stori...
Why God is too clever to exist
By all accounts God is a very smart and extraordinarily capable dude. He can make miraculous things happen just by thinking about them. He can design immensely complex things, such as life, in a heartbeat. He is so capable that, if he wanted me to believe in him, I would. Absolutely no doubt. But I don’t believe in him so he either doesn’t want me to or doesn’t care. It’s n...
The hardest truth of all
If you are an evangelizing Muslim, with complete certainty in your faith, there is a simple question you should ask yourself. If you were born to a devout Hindu family in Mumbai India, or to a pious Christian family in Atlanta Georgia, would you be a convinced Muslim today? Of course, you cannot answer that question for certain but, statistically there is an extremely high probability that you wou...
Is the moon made of cheese?
There are hundreds of ways to decide if claims you hear are true. For example, if you hear the claim that Omo detergent washes whiter than Daz. You may decide to believe the claim is true if: Most people you know believe it, or if A lot of advertisements say it’s true, or if Your favourite politician says it’s true, or if You’ve never heard of Daz, or if You’ve never seen a...