By psychman33 http://therageofreason.blogspot.com/ ~ R eligious people like to argue that human morality is dependent upon the Christian worldview to make sense. They use this argument as a support for the necessity of their God. They like to argue that without God as a basis, there is no objective morality. I tend to agree that there is no objective morality. Instead, I refer to a shared subjective morality. Our humanness is what determines and leads to this shared subjectivity . I've found that the following explanation, based upon scientific knowledge from biology, sociology, neurology and psychology, usually works to refute the Christian claim, and to establish a coherent moral picture, without having to appeal to any deity or religion. A humanist model of morality owes nothing necessarily to Christianity. When you observe other animals in nature, you find that animals which evolved to be dependent upon other animals for mutual survival, i.e. social animals , also evol...

By psychman 33 ~ I wrote this for a Facebook forum I frequent. But I think that it may be of some use here. D ue to the fact that this argument keeps being advanced, despite being addressed and shown to be deeply flawed, I have decided to create a document that will gather all parts of this issue into one place. This will serve to keep the separation of time and space from allowing people to forget and disavow that these arguments have been addressed, as it will be here and accessible to all. The formulation of the fine-tuning argument (FTA) is sometimes presented in a Bayesian form of probability. I will not present this form, as it will only serve to cloud the issue, and render this treatment unfriendly to the average reader. If anyone wishes to discuss the Bayesian inference argument, I’m more than willing to do so in the comment section, however. Throughout this document I am going to try to avoid being too technical, though some technicality is inherent in the argument. Th...

By psychman33 ~ This was originally a post on Facebook in response to some criticisms I received for being offensive to Christians. I think that it is also a good addition to this forum. It contains some of my experiences that turned me away from Christianity, as well as an important point about our modern discourse. I get the impression that my writings, my methods, and my motivations are misunderstood. So, as briefly as I can, I will attempt to explain how I moved from belief to skepticism. In the process, I hope to also clarify my motivations for writing about the subject matter I write about. I hope to show that my message is not one of offense, but one of necessity. Most of the material I will cover here has been covered in some of my other notes and articles. But, this is the first time that I have presented it together with the purpose of defending my actions and words. Most people know that I spent my youth in the Protestant Christian Church. My father was a deacon wh...

By psychman33 -- H aving grown up as the youngest son of a Christian minister, first in the Baptist denomination, then into Pentecostal and Non-Denominational Churches (part of the Charismatic movement for the most part), I was heavily indoctrinated in Protestant Christianity from a very young age (since birth really). From my earliest memories, I was in church every time the doors were opened (mainly because my father usually was the one who opened them). For much of my early childhood, we even had a family bible study every single weeknight. As a result, I have a very strong understanding and knowledge of this religion, and it's sacred writings. Another effect of this style of upraising is that I have undergone a long, painful, arduous journey escaping what I now think of as the brainwashing that I was subjected to for more than half of my life. To this day, I still have not escaped all of the effects of this time in my life. After all, it was perpetrated at the most deve...

By psychman33: T hroughout my life, I have been approached by many people in need of comforting. Apparently, there is some component of my personality that draws people to me who are in this state. Image by V О И via Flickr In my former Christian life, even if I had no real practical help or advice to give, I could always fall back on the old religious saws, which basically say that one's fate lay in the hands of an almighty benevolent being. There is little argument that this idea, when implicitly believed, is very comforting. This brings me to the crux of my posting. Recently, a friend began to confide to me some difficulties he was experiencing. I was able to give some basic advice, and to express empathy. What do you do to give comfort to others? What do you tell yourself in tough emotional times? But, after this, I felt that something more was needed, that he expected more. He was a fellow unbeliever. So, I know that he was not looking for any reassurances of a religious...