@GodisNotReal_

I’m not a socialist. So please erase that presumption from your mind before arguing against a point I don’t defend. I understand that capitalism is a big reason why the United States of America is the wealthiest nation on the planet. Full-blown socialism isn’t good for everybody—but neither is full-blown capitalism. Because of capitalism, the ebb and flow of the stock markets generally favors investing (in the long run, informed investors stand a better chance of making money instead of losing it). Corporate profits rise every year. This doesn’t favor anybody making less than $10 an hour; people living paycheck to paycheck who don’t have enough disposable income to invest in a 401(k) or buy stocks. Since 2009, the last year the federal government raised the minimum wage (to $7.25/hr), the unemployment rate has dropped from around 8% to under 4% today; the Dow Jones Industrial Average has more than doubled, from approximately 9,170 to 21,750 (this is being written December 26, 2018);

I have a lot of questions about heaven, what it's like there, and who is allowed in. If you're a Christian who believes in heaven, you probably don't know all the answers, but I hope you'll give a lot of serious thought to these questions. Where is it? Is it literally in the clouds above, or some other mystical, magical space? If it is physical, how could we find it? If it is metaphysical, what special forces separate it from what I like to call "reality?" Is there weather in heaven? What if some people really like snow, wind, and rain, and others like perpetual sunshine? Is there thunder and lightning there? If there is, what if some people, like children, are afraid of it? How could anybody experience fear in paradise? And if God can magically make people not afraid of it, then why didn't he do that for us on earth? Who goes there and what are the criteria? Do you have to be a Christian? Is any version or schism of Christianity acceptable? Do

Last year, after the Charlottesville protests and the murder of Heather Heyer , my frustration with the social media reaction to these events and the NFL players who were protesting during the National Anthem came to a head. I wrote What is Going on with America's Religious-Like Obsession with Flags ? The NFL players are still kneeling; the president is still pissed off about it; and social media reaction to these stories has continued to baffle me. So here we go. Part II of that post last year. Look, people kneeling or sitting during the National Anthem makes me uncomfortable. It should make you uncomfortable if you're an American. I want Americans to be happy, healthy, and safe. One would think that if an American citizen, or a group of them, would protest during a moment that is supposed to unify Americans, there must really be a big problem. Are they not happy, healthy, or safe? If so, why? I looked into the reasons for their protests. According to the US Census, 76.7%

John Smith is running for political office. Well, at least that's what his followers want you to believe. It's a little odd, you think, because you don't even know what John Smith looks like. You see billboards, newspaper ads, posts on social media, and you even hear campaign commercials on the radio. But Smith himself doesn't appear in any of those. It's always some guy  or some lady  who claims to speak on behalf of Smith. They never show Smith's face either. Sometimes they show an artist's impression of what Smith may  look like. Although in most of the drawings Smith is depicted to look pretty consistently like other drawings--always wearing a white suit and having a beard--you find it odd that he is usually shown as having white skin, even though both his parents are of middle eastern descent. "Sure, I guess that's possible," you ponder, but isn't that just a little weird? Never, have you ever seen an actual photo or video of John Sm

If ever you wanted to get into the mind of an atheist, the very last place you should turn is to a theist who doesn’t understand atheism in the slightest way. Anthony DeStefano is the author of “Inside the Atheist Mind: Unmasking the Religion of Those Who Say There is No God" and he recently penned an article on FoxNews titled “T oday's atheists are bullies -- and they are doing their best to intimidate the rest of us into silence .” I read just a few sentences of DeStefano’s article before quickly realizing he doesn’t know the first thing about the mind of an atheist. I can’t speak for all atheists, obviously. But I can speak for myself, and I can speak somewhat generally about most of the atheists I interact with on social media (and the few I know in 'real life'). It would be impossible to paint broadly about any group of people--you couldn’t make accurate judgments about all white people, all Canadians, all photographers, or all Christians, except that they h

A Christian commented on a post of mine and asked me for "my story"--She wanted to know how I became an atheist. The following is how I replied. My parents were both Catholic, but we didn't go to church that much when I was a kid. My dad's mom lived with us for a little while when I was really young, and she was very deeply Christian and also had the unfortunate combination of also being Schizophrenic. Paranoid Schizophrenia is one of the worst and saddest diseases on this planet--my grandma was plagued with grandiose delusions unimaginable by sane people. But she read the bible to me when I was very young. I remember once she told me that "the devil" was always "trying to get me." I realize now what she was probably trying to say is that he was trying to tempt me to sin, but I was so young that I took that literally to mean that little red demons or devils were always following me around trying to kidnap me. I used to walk to school every day

I was reading replies to a random tweet one day when I ran across a comment from "Lilith" ( @LilithLiberated ). She claimed to be an atheist but stated that she "hates god." I had a tough time understanding how that could be possible. Often times while using social media, a religious believer will accuse me of having a hatred for god. I always respond that I don't hate god at all. It would be impossible for me to hate something that doesn't even exist. I often will clarify that I do hate certain actions (or lack of actions) performed by religious people. So I had to reply to Lilith's comment and ask her to clarify how she could hate something that doesn't exist. After a few questions, I asked if she would be ok with me posting all our Q&A on the blog. Here is our conversation: @GodsNotReal_ :  You say you're a "misotheistic anti-theist" which means you hate religion and hate god. Tell me a little bit about how you can hate someth