Table Of ContentA n o ny m o u s
Alan Turing........................20
Introduction
Richard Feynman...............21
Rationality & Reason
Carl Sagan.........................22
Atheism................................1
Stephen Hawking...............23
Critical Thinking...................2
Humanism
Epistemology.......................3
Rights................................24
Epicurean Paradox...............4
Privacy...............................25
Russell’s Teapot...................5
Health Care........................26
Pascal’s Wager....................6
Logical Fallacies...................7 Money
Disinformation.....................8 Saving................................27
Donating............................28
Science
Lending..............................29
Scientific Theory..................9
Banking..............................30
Scientific Method...............10
The Big Bang.....................11 Drugs
Earth..................................12 Alcohol...............................31
Evolution............................14 Cigarettes..........................32
Dinosaurs...........................15 Marijuana...........................33
Stem Cells..........................16 Shroooms...........................34
Scientists Sex
Galileo Galilei.....................17 Masturbation......................35
Charles Darwin..................18 Pornography......................36
Albert Einstein...................19 Health Benefits..................37
Condoms............................38 The Qur’an.........................65
Anal Sex.............................39 Book of Shadows...............66
Conception.........................40
Religious Icons
Sublime Priests................................67
Purpose..............................41 Mother Teresa....................69
Morals................................42 The Pope............................70
Ethics.................................43 Jesus Christ........................71
Forgiveness.......................44 Virgin Mary........................72
Lies and Deceit Religious Holidays
God....................................45 Christmas...........................73
Abortion.............................46 Easter................................74
Abstinence.........................48 Lent....................................75
Homosexuality...................49 Hanukkah...........................76
Creationism.......................50 Holiday...............................77
Apologetics........................51
Hocus Pocus
Sin......................................52
Soul....................................78
Female Priests...................53
Heaven & Hell....................79
Cults Miracles.............................80
Scientology........................54 Faith...................................81
Jonestown..........................55 Prayer................................82
Solar Temple......................56 Speaking in Tongues..........83
Heaven’s Gate...................57 Transubstantiation.............84
Exorcism............................85
Religions
Beastly Number.................86
Buddhism...........................58
Satanism............................87
Catholicism........................59
Purgatory...........................88
Christianity........................60
Angels................................89
Watchtower.......................61
Demons.............................90
Voodoo...............................62
Homeopathy......................91
Lindy Hop...........................63
Sacred Texts
The Bible............................64
Destructive Behavior Religion and Politics
Child Abuse........................92 Church & State..................98
Genital Mutilation..............93 Australian Aboriginals........99
Alexandrian Library............94 Catholics & Nazis.............100
Book Banning.....................95 Fundamentalism..............101
Crusades............................96 Marriage..........................102
Death Penalty....................97 Manhattan Declaration....103
Introduction
What ideas are so dangerous that Catholics want to prevent you
from reading about them? The ideas in this book.
Every Sunday, hundreds of millions of people gather together,
united by their belief that their god is the One True God. They
meet in churches to give thanks and to pray.
The power of the Catholic Church is unquestionable: over a billion
devout believers en masse. And yet belief can be deadly.
It is paramount that we understand how the world really works.
What if astronomers were prevented from sharing observations
they had made while peering through telescopes, by penalty of
death? People would never have been told that planets orbit the
Sun, or that massive rocks on a cataclysmic collision course could
extinguish all life on Earth. Somewhere, a rock is headed our way.
Without sufficient notice, any asteroid deflection strategy will fail.
As time is our most precious commodity, arresting advancement
or dissemination of knowledge is an intolerable transgression.
It does not matter how old you are right now. Whether you are a
teenager or an adult, you always have a choice of what you want
to do with your life. You can always choose how you want to
make a positive contribution to humanity.
It is important to point out that science does not have all the
answers. The scientific method allows us to systematically
examine nature to discover how the Universe works. Science
continually refines itself based on new findings; whereas, belief
vehemently denies new information to preserve faith.
This booklet contains commentary on many topics that religious
people tend to preach out of ignorance, faith, or arrogance. This
is not a complete list. There are topics that are not included that
are just as important as the ones that are, but booklets usually
have a beginning and an end.
Keep this booklet with you; keep a copy on your laptop. Distribute
it to your friends. Visit reddit.com/r/debatereligion if you need a
kind voice. Refer to the booklet when your friends and family
members have questions. Use it to refute the Bible. Take time to
understand the arguments, learn about logical fallacies, and grow
as a good, kind, and moral free-thinking individual.
Realize that you are never alone. By the end of 2011 there will be
7 billion people on the planet. All of whom, like yourself, need
food, love, comfort, friendship, education, and support. Take up
hobbies, make friends, see the world, learn a field of science and
contribute something tangibly meaningful to humanity.
You are actively and strongly encouraged to research every fact
in this booklet for yourself.
Aug 22, 2011
Rationality & Reason
Atheism
Atheism is a lack of belief in any god; no more, no less. Atheistic
morals are driven by a desire to do good in the world. Atheists
need not be threatened into doing good deeds by fictional beings.
So what stops atheists from killing people?
• Friendship. Treating people with kindness and respect
sets an example. Killing other people seriously hampers
long-term friendships and other relationships.
• Kindness feels good. If a god told an atheist to sacrifice
her child, she would tell that god to go fuck itself with a
solar-powered chain saw while standing a quarter-mile
from the Sun's searing surface. Theists would kill the kid.
• Death is final. Murder devalues human life; socially well-
adjusted people value others due to empathetic responses,
which are not the exclusive domain of god belief.
In stark contrast, religious reasoning has justified murder, torture,
genocide, infanticide, and slavery. If anything, propensity for
violence increases in proportion to the fundamentalism of a
person's religious faith.
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Critical Thinking
Thinking critically means understanding whether an opinion or
argument makes logical sense. There is a difference between
critiquing the Bible and applying empirical evidence to highlight
parts of the Bible that are false.
Critical thinking requires reason over emotion, recognizing and
acknowledging factual evidence, finding the best explanation (not
necessarily the most comfortable), and asking questions. It also
means changing your opinion when you are shown to be wrong.
Always approach subjects with an open-mind. If you believe with
absolute certainty that you are right, leaving no room for doubt,
then you have stopped thinking critically. Faith-based thinking is
the opposite of critical thinking: it purges rationality from the
mind. When you believe something on faith alone, you have
closed your mind to other possibilities.
The statement, “there is no god” is not closed-minded. It is
simply a shorter way of saying, “there is neither empirical
evidence nor any logical reason to believe any gods exist.”
Facts must have independent confirmation; encourage debate;
avoid arguing from authority; consider many ideas; quantify;
every step of an argument must work; if two ideas are nearly
equivalent, pick the simpler; and theories must be falsifiable.
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Epistemology
This -ology is the philosophical study of knowledge that asks
some fairly profound questions:
• What is knowledge?
• How do we acquire knowledge?
• How do we know what we know?
Without understanding how knowledge is obtained, how our
senses serve us, and how we formulate concepts, our thoughts
will have no coherent path.
The debate between atheists and people who believe in faeries
(or gods) hinges on criteria for truth. The atheist favors logical
consistency, coherence, and observable evidence as truth; the
theist stands upon custom, faith, revelation, and intuition. The
atheist sees the world as nature presents it; the theist twists the
natural world with ideas that are inconsistent with reality.
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Epicurean Paradox
The problem of evil, posed by Philosoraptor Epicurus, states:
If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to
Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing
Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing
Then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing
Then why call Him God?
And yet Philosoraptor Lactantius argues that gods are all-
powerful, he insists that an all-good god does not exist. He says
that gods are distant and uninvolved with the concerns of
humanity; gods are neither our friends nor enemies.
Then why waste time thinking about them? If we cannot prove
that they will intervene to help us, then we must abandon them
to save ourselves. If gods exist and they are benevolent, they will
understand completely.
A simpler answer as to why evil exists in the world is that socially
maladjusted people do stupid, malicious things (sometimes for
religious reasons). Plus, there are no gods to stop them.
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