Coffee Shop Atheist

One of the core fallacies that allow Christians to shrug off the atrocities of Yahweh in the brutally backwards Old Testament is the fallacy of Special Pleading.  This idea is used to absolve them from following some of the more dated laws contained in books such as Leviticus and Deuteronomy, by appealing to the idea that some portions of the Old Testament continue to apply, while other portions do not.  The typical Christian proof-text for this separation comes from Paul in Romans 6,

¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Christians latch on to the idea that the law ceases to apply, conveniently ignoring the next line,

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

What Would Jesus Do?

The fact that the law should still be followed is ratified in the Gospels, when Jesus says in Matthew 5,

17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them

In fact, in Matthew 15, Jesus admonishes the Pharisees for not following the commandment to kill children when they dishonor their parents (telling the Pharisees they ought to kill themselves)

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b]

Jesus goes on to point out that the Pharisees do wrong by ignoring the imposition of God’s command, (and ought to be put to death), for setting aside their possessions “for God” and not giving it to their parents.

Civil, Ceremonial, Moral Law, and “Context!!1!”

Whenever punishments of the old testament are described, the classic Christian apologist go-to is discipline vs. doctrine, or “Civil, Ceremonial, Moral” law.  This distinction divides the entirety of the old testament law into multiple categories, that may be applied at the discretion of the “Holy Spirit” (one’s own inbuilt/environmentally-created conscience).  This distinction is often the implied idea behind claiming the context (historical, biblical) of a passage as a validation for its dismissal.

This sort of claim to an outside agent for accepting some laws as valid, and dismissing other laws, is a classic case of Special Pleading.  Special pleading is defined as:

a form of spurious argumentation where a position in a dispute introduces favorable details or excludes unfavorable details by alleging a need to apply additional considerations without proper criticism of these considerations themselves

It is also called having a “Double Standard,” and a critical investigation of the standard by which some laws are ignored (even the principles behind these laws) and others are followed reveals this fallacious nature of this mindset.  When this argument is used, it can be dismissed outright. Continue reading →

In Italy, the Catholic Church enjoys a tax exemption on two-thirds of its 100,000 properties; that is, until today.  The new prime minister, who has been in office for only 4 months, has decided to go through with a plan to remove the churches’ tax-exempt status on many of the properties in question, specifically those which merge commercial interests with ministry.  An investigatory committe found in January that there would be an estimated gain of $130 million dollars (100 million euro), that would could be gained from assessing taxes on all church property.  And I for one think that we here in the states could take a hint from the folks who created Catholicism.

Freedom of Religion (From Oversight)

Churches here in the US enjoy oversight-free status in numerous areas that most non-profit organizations do not enjoy, and often engage in business and commercial enterprise using methods that would be illegal under other circumstances.  Many churches enjoy tax-free retail establishments such as coffee shops or bookstores (which are somewhat under fire), which compete directly with other businesses. Continue reading →

The USC Pastafarians, the local secular group from my college, is hosting a benefit dinner tonight for a very interesting partner: The Good Samaritan Clinic, whose stated mission is

To show God’s love by providing free Health Care to those who need it.

That’s right. God.  The one atheists like myself and the majority of the Pastafarians don’t believe in.  The ones that many of us actively wage an intellectual war against (that takes place in the minds of His followers, of course).

Here’s the thing: Atheists, like Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Scientologists, along with every other religiously affiliation, have one thing in common, beyond every other thing:

We are human.  We know what it means to hurt.  We know what it means to feel pain.

And for the majority of humans, we want to help one another out.  That means things like a benefit dinner for the Good Samaratiain Clinic, a free clinic that provides health care services to the Hispanic population of Columbia, SC, replete with volunteers from USC which serve to interpret and foster cultural relations.

This means that I have the opportunity to set aside my differences of theology and pursue what is laid out in James 2: 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  Help is active, not passive; It is ignorant to assume otherwise, regardless of which side of the religion fence you sit on.

I couldn’t be more proud to serve alongside Christians at such an event.

The Dinner is being held at Russell House Ballroom A at the University of South Carolina.  Tickets are $6 at the door, and all proceeds go directly to support the free clinic.  I’ll be playing guitar for everyone’s enjoyment.  Hope to see you there!