Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists - Dan Barker

"Valuable in the human story are the reflections of intelligent and ethical people who listen to the voice of reason and who allow it to vanquish bigotry and superstition. This book is a classic example."

—Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great

"The most eloquent witness of internal delusion that I know—a triumphantly smiling refugee from the zany, surreal world of American fundamentalist Protestantism—is Dan Barker."

—Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion

After 19 years as an evangelical preacher, missionary, and Christian songwriter, Dan Barker 'threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there.' Barker, who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (America's largest organization of atheists and agnostics), describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from fundamentalism to freethought. The four sections in Godless--Rejecting God, Why I Am An Atheist, What's Wrong With Christianity, and Life is Good!--include chapters on bible problems, the historicity of Jesus, morality, the Kalam Cosmological argument, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more. Barker relates the positive benefits from trusting in reason and human kindness instead of living in fear of false judgment and moral condemnation. FFRF

PS Thanks to Rodney for the links.

File size: 0.5 MB I 0.6 MB 

Format: epub I mobi

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ca7axxmhtiumk4c/Dan.Barker-Godless.epub.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/062nwdl059tcmsp/Dan.Barker-Godless.mobi.rar

 

https://www.rapidshare.com/files/169106552/Dan.Barker-Godless.epub.rar

https://www.rapidshare.com/files/2106938245/Dan.Barker-Godless.mobi.rar

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Letting Go of God - Julia Sweeney

In this single live performance which was recorded at the Ars Nova Theatre in New York City, American actress Julia Sweeney tells her path out of religion and how she became a more skeptical person and an atheist in humorous monologue format.

I had posted the audiobook version of the show here.

File Name ..........: Julia Sweeney - Letting Go Of God.avi
Total Size (MB) ....: 1.807,42 MB
Video Length .......: 02:10:10


https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1690719852/Julia.Sweeney-Letting.Go.Of.God.part1.rar
https://www.rapidshare.com/files/4186077503/Julia.Sweeney-Letting.Go.Of.God.part2.rar

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Symphony of Science - The Greatest Show on Earth!

A music video about evolution.

New Statesman - 19 December 2011-01 January 2012 (Christmas Double Issue)

2011 New Statesman Christmas special is guest-edited by Richard Dawkins. The issue also includes the Dawkins' interview with Christopher Hitchens. The other contributers of this issue are Sam Harris, Daniel C. Dennett, Philip Pullman, Carolyn Porco and Maryam Namazie.

An extract from the Hitchens' last interview:

"Never be afraid of stridency"

Dawkins - One of my main beefs with religion is the way they label children as a "Catholic child" or a "Muslim child". I've become a bit of a bore about it.
Hitchens - You must never be afraid of that charge, any more than stridency.
Dawkins -  I will remember that.
Hitchens - If I was strident, it doesn't matter - I was a jobbing hack, I bang my drum. You have a discipline in which you are very distinguished. You've educated a lot of people; nobody denies that, not even your worst enemies. You see your discipline being attacked and defamed and attempts made to drive it out.
Stridency is the least you should muster . . . It's the shame of your colleagues that they don't form ranks and say, "Listen, we're going to defend our colleagues from these appalling and obfuscating elements."

File size: 6.06 MB
Format: pdf


http://www.fileserve.com/file/44yHtk5


http://www.mediafire.com/?iu8312ptuvqqhfh


https://www.rapidshare.com/files/3844288368/NSXmas2011.rar

Richard Dawkins - Faith, Biology, and Skepticism

The interview features the discussion took place between D.J. Grothe (host of For Good Reason) Richard Dawkins at the Amazing Meeting 8 in Las Vegas. He talks about his new book The Magic of Reality, the differences between skepticism and atheism, exobiology and so on.

It was released on November 14, 2011.

File size: 16 MB
Length: 46 mins


http://www.fileserve.com/file/45NmrU9


 http://www.mediafire.com/?62ozw1re3o1l4fm


https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1128476761/FGR_2011_11_14_Richard_Dawkins.mp3

Atheist Pictures and Cartoons [Xmas Pack 2]

Another Xmas Pack to improve your collection!

Happy holidays!

Other packs: [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [Rapture] - [Xmas] - [Xmas 2]

File size: 23.46 MB


http://www.fileserve.com/file/J8hHgfg


http://www.mediafire.com/?juk3v13w5k7ya5x


https://www.rapidshare.com/files/1684818418/Xmas.Pack.2.rar

Samples: 

 

A Tribute to Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

A beautiful and meaningful tribute by The Thinking Atheist.

In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion - Scott Atran

"In Gods We Trust is by far the best exploration so far of the evolutionary basis of religious behavior."
—James Fox, Prof of Anthropology, Stanford University

How do we explain the cultural hold of religion throuhout history? Why are supernatural concepts culturally universal? What do biology, psychology, anthropolog, and cognitive neuroscience have to tell us about the religios differences and similarities among different cultural groups? How is it that religious explanations of natural phenomena have had a greater hold on our collective imagination than most political, economic, and scientific accounts?

In this groundbreaking and highly interdisciplinary book, Scott Atran addresses these questions and more as he attempts to map the evolutionary landscape of religion. From the book

File size: 7.78 MB
Format: pdf


http://www.fileserve.com/file/bt3S6Re


http://www.mediafire.com/?n29id74h9mb1se0


https://www.rapidshare.com/files/4181953959/Scott.Atran-In.Gods.We.Trust.rar

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22 Comments From Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens died at 62, on December 15, 2011.

It is said that "God is Not Great, but Hitch is." and that's so right!

We'll remember him as a great thinker and brilliant debater.

To XMAS And Beyond!

A short history about Pagan roots of Christmas and Christianity by The Thinking Atheist.

Also watch: Christmas Unwrapped

UPDATE! I made a transcription for the video by the request of antifuffa83. However, I'm not a native English speaker, so sorry for any mistakes.

Transcription:
People often ask me as a skeptic if celebrate the Christmas and I say "sure" Well, not because of the baby Jesus but then again most Christmas traditions have nothing to do with the baby Jesus. Take the Christmas tree for example. Centuries before the Christ child was supposedly born, many cultures brought evergreen trees into their home for decoration in the month of December to celebrate the arrival of the Winter Solstice and do ask their various pagan gods ... harvest the following season. The practice continued in various forms throughout the ages. The ancient Egyptians honored their sun god Ra with palm leaves and evergreens trees.

The early Romans decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs as part of pagan festival called Saturnalia: the festival of Saturn, the god of agriculture.

The Vikings of Scandinavia believed that evergreens were the special plant of their god, Baldur and they were burned Yule logs in feast until the last amber burned out. The actual Christian tradition of Christmas tree began as late as the 16th century in Germany and Christmas trees were still seen as pagan symbols throughout the US until the 1840's. The Winter Solstice, not the baby Jesus, most likely account for the selection of the December 25th as the Christmas day. Late December was when the day started to become noticeably longer and the Sun seized its movement to the south. So the Winter Solstice was celebrated for the birth of the Sun. It just wasn't the Sun most religious people have in mind. And you might be surprised that America didn't even declared Christmas day as a national holiday until June 26th, 1870.

The exchanging of gifts? Pagan in origin. Standing back to the festival of Saturnalia and originally banned for that reason by the Catholic Church in the middle ages.

Christmas carols? They traced back to the middle ages as well. Not as religious songs but as common folk songs sung during harvest festivals and they were only later integrated into worship by religious figures like Martin Luther. Mistletoe was a happy Christmas tradition but few realised that mistletoe was once considered as mysterious magical plant by the Druids and Greeks, a Pagan symbol of life and fertility. In Scandinavia mistletoe was considered "the plant of peace" under which enemies could declare a truce and arguing spouses could kiss and make up.

Many decried the use of word "Xmas" to mark the holiday often clamouring that we should put Christ back in the Christmas. Well, actually Xmas is Christmas. The "X" comes from the first letter of the Greek word for Christ and those who declaring Xmas a war on Christ are appereantly confused. Of course confusion would be understandable, if you follow the Biblical acount of the Christ child. For example, the book of Luke has Mary and Joseph living in Galilee. But Matthew has them living in Bethlehem, in Judea. Matthew: Chapter 1 says angel appeared to Joseph but Luke: Chapter 1 says the angel appeared before Mary.

And what about the three kings we hear so often about? In the book of Matthew they were magi, astronomers, not kings! There is no mention of three anywhere. And the entire account contradicts to one in the book of Luke which has been Jesus visited by local shepherds, not astronomers!

And miraculous virgin birth? Not so much. Matthew apparently misread the original translation from Hebrew to Greek. The Hebrew word "almah" doesn't mean virgin, it translates "young woman of marriageable age" or "young maiden."

What about the lineage of Jesus? The book of Matthew has 28 generations between David and the birth of Christ. But Luke lists 41 generations. According to both Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born on or before 4 BCE during the reign of Herod the Great. But Luke said that Joseph and pregnant Mary had to go to Bethlehem for a census by Quirinius. That census took place in 6 AD, years later and after the death of Herod. And even if there was a census it would taken place in their local tax district requiring no travel and Roman tradition was to register only the men meaning that Mary wouldn't have had to make the journey at all.

Matthew says the Jesus' birth took place in a house but the book of Luke says Jesus' birth took place in a manger because there was no room in the inn. After Jesus was born Matthew says the family immediately fled to Egypt for several years to escape of Herod's wrath. But the book of Luke has them returning immediately Nazareth. And by the way no ancient historian or geographer, no other source other than the Bible confirm that the city of Nazareth even existed in the 1st century AD. In fact, the expression Jesus of Nazareth is most likely a bad translation which means the one of the truth and city of Nazareth was likely named much later by the faithful or the opportunistic. The list goes on and on.

Ultimately, many of the traditions of Christ's supposed birthday have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ and instead came from other earlier Pagan traditions. And even if there had been a Jesus Christ as much as hate to break into you unlike the depiction on yearly Christmas card, because he was born in the Middle East, Jesus Christ was most certainly not white!

Still, I'm a fan of Christmas. I enjoy family, friends, Christmas light displays, the Christmas trees, stockings, gifts, the classic Christmas songs, hot chocolate and pumpkin pie. But like many other skeptics I also celebrate the season knowing that those plastic Nativity "Jesus"es are actually more real than the Jesus they represent and his millions of Christians erect pagan symbols and practice pagan traditions while defending Christian saviour story, it is a chance for the rest of us, to simply smile warmly, offer them a cup of hot cider and wish them a "Merry, Merry Xmas!"