Blog | Cellar Door Skeptics

Jul 28, 2015
6 min

Morris on my Mind, and Not the Saved by the Bell One…

Once again we are visited by our good friend David Goza who lights our way regularly from the dark pits of YouTube A weekend of collecting, sorting and cleaning Ordovician-Period marine fossils from the Arbuckle Mountains has got me thinking once again about one of the strangest beliefs held by fundamentalist Christians: that about 4,400 or so years ago, the deity who had created the universe a couple of millennia earlier got all pissed off and wiped out almost everything in

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Religion: Best Intentions, Useless Today

Christopher Tanner

Jul 28, 2015
3 min

Religion: Best Intentions, Useless Today

© Jordan Smith I feel like religion definitely had a purpose, many years ago. Its inception was our first attempt at scientific exploration and philosophy. Before our species had the scientific knowledge to ponder such questions as why items fall to the ground? Or how does it rain? We first had the thirst for knowledge – curiosity. This is a lovely statement about the good nature of humanity and in fact most life on earth. We are a curious bunch. Ignorant of basic facts, and

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Christopher Tanner

Jul 28, 2015
6 min

The Generational Fight For Religion

© 2015 Jen Aldrich As none of you may know, one of my many hobbies is genealogy. I find bridging the past to the present absolutely fascinating, and was quite shocked how easily that could be done. My interest started when I decided to research my own family. One side of my family I knew next to nothing about, and the other almost just as little. Once I had started, I realized that many things may actually be nature instead of nurture. Then I began to wonder, what, if anythin

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From the Bones of the Past We Can Find Purpose in the Future

Christopher Tanner

Jul 21, 2015
4 min

From the Bones of the Past We Can Find Purpose in the Future

David Goza stops by to lay down the smack. This one’s for Jonny B., who’s been on my mind. A visit to the Museum of Osteology can precipitate quite a train of thought, provided one is open to that pleasure. I’m fortunate to live a mere 20 miles away, and pay it a visit now and then. I always spend a good deal of time tracing limbed vertebrate evolution through various ancient and modern skeletons on display, admiring especially the universal template shared by amphibians, rep

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When They Stand at the Edge of Non-Belief It’s so Hard Not to Push

Christopher Tanner

Jul 7, 2015
2 min

When They Stand at the Edge of Non-Belief It’s so Hard Not to Push

Once again we are visited by our good friend David Goza who lights our way regularly from the dark pits of YouTube The questionnaire that I have my students fill out at the beginning of every semester includes questions designed with a view to getting to know who my students are. I always find the answers interesting and revealing, and occasionally alarming. One of the questions I ask is, “What is the biggest idea you’ve ever had to come to terms with?” As you can no doubt im

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An Atheist Participates in Evolution: Broken Ears and Fears

Chris Hanna

Jul 7, 2015
5 min

An Atheist Participates in Evolution: Broken Ears and Fears

The fourth of July has come and gone once again with a bit more of a bang in Michigan than usual; the legalization of airborne fireworks reducing neighborhoods to the quiet relaxing sounds of Afghanistan and Syria, not to mention rampant pet terror at what could only be “The End of Days”. All this culminating as I sat watching the Kentwood Michigan fireworks display with an uneasy feeling as to the development of my baby girl in utero and my own evolutionary failings. For tho

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Seeing God at the Bottom of a Water Bong

Christopher Tanner

Jul 2, 2015
4 min

Seeing God at the Bottom of a Water Bong

Once again we are visited by our good friend David Goza who lights our way regularly from the dark pits of YouTube Anatomically modern humans have lived on this planet for at least 200,000 years. During that time, our ancestors – or people whom our ancestors knew – have eaten, drunk, smoked, snorted, or otherwise ingested (use your rich imagination) absolutely everything on the surface of this planet. You know that’s true – hell, they’re still doing it! Now, some of those thi

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Evil Empire: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act for Adoption

Chris Hanna

Jun 30, 2015
4 min

Evil Empire: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act for Adoption

Governor Rick Snyder would rather have 13,000 children languish in state sponsored homes and foster care than let any one of them be adopted by two loving men or women. There I said it, we all know thats what he really means. The recently rushed and signed (June 11) bill by the Michigan Governor is essentially the Religious Freedom Restoration Act for adoption and has already drawn the ire of the ACLU. The same derogatory and incendiary language for refusing services based on

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Are Believers the Most Arrogant Atheists?

Christopher Tanner

Jun 26, 2015
3 min

Are Believers the Most Arrogant Atheists?

© Religion Erased Atheism. The disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. There are plenty to choose from and with insufficient evidence, plenty to disprove. So how does one go about doing so? Well, wait until a religion presents credible evidence. One that actually stands out from the ordinary. It makes sense. Instead of doing the impossible and spending a lifetime analysing the seemingly endless line of false prophets, wait for one to impress you. That is

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Young Earth Creationism and the Ultimate Question Concerning “Number 2”

Christopher Tanner

Jun 25, 2015
3 min

Young Earth Creationism and the Ultimate Question Concerning “Number 2”

In the course of a recent exchange with a Young-Earth Creationist, I was accused of dodging what my interlocutor imagined to be “the hard questions,” all of which were pretty much on the level of Bill O’Reilly’s “OK, smart guy, how’d the moon get there?” His rapid-fire questions basically took the form, “If there’s no God, why do we see something instead of nothing?” They boiled down to the ontological difficulties concerning the origin of the universe and the origin of life,

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Christopher Tanner

Jun 24, 2015
3 min

What Does “God” Mean to You?

©Fueling Your Consciousness I have smart friends. Like, really smart friends. And I tend to save things they say in response to my prompts on Facebook because they truly blow my mind. Here, my buddy sets the record straight about online religious debates. Enjoy. 🙂 “As an igtheist, I have to say that I think this back and forth is pointless and fruitless. Until there is a solid agreed upon definition of god that can be empirically measured, there is no point in claiming to be

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Chris Hanna

Jun 23, 2015
3 min

An Atheist Participates in Evolution

© Deafilosophy An argument made consistently for the existence of God, and consequently against the scientific, agnostic, or atheistic position, is that evolution is a false theory. I have heard noodly logic and word soup at every level of this claim from “It is completely impossible,” to, “There is no evidence,” to, “There has been microevolution but not macro evolution,” and finally, “There are no transitional fossils.” (Coincidentally, this particular claim frequently co

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Dreaming of Darwin: Fundamentalist Night Terrors

Christopher Tanner

Jun 16, 2015
4 min

Dreaming of Darwin: Fundamentalist Night Terrors

Some of the great scientific discoveries have been syntheses that emerged more or less organically from the systematic crunching of a compendium of data accumulated over time. Plate tectonics furnishes an illustrative example: the Grand Unified Theory of Geology was made possible by a great many observations made over the course of a couple of centuries, some of them serendipitous (e.g. the discovery of deep-ocean trenches and mid-ocean ranges during the submarine era). Put e

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God Isn’t Real but the Devil Is: Childhood’s End and Five Years of Hell

Christopher Tanner

Jun 10, 2015
6 min

God Isn’t Real but the Devil Is: Childhood’s End and Five Years of Hell

Warning: The Following is a true story with names changed for privacy and safety. This is a trigger warning so please be careful if you have a history of abuse as this story could cause a recurrence. Hi, my name is Josephine and I am 12 years old; I’m in the sixth grade, and my life is pretty good. I live with my grandparents and my younger brother. My sister Nicole, her husband and their two children live down the road. I like to visit and spend time with my sister, so I us

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Cursed are the Meek, for They Dream of Being Enslaved

Christopher Tanner

Jun 9, 2015
4 min

Cursed are the Meek, for They Dream of Being Enslaved

I’m going to keep this entry short ‘n’ sweet and get you thinking about something. (If you end up coming to the same conclusions I have under your own steam, the insight will be more truly yours than if I simply serve it up fully-cooked.) I want to spill just a little metaphorical ink over the most important verse in the Bible. I’m not talking about John 3:16. I have in mind a different saying attributed to Jesus, one that can be found in that compendium of aphorisms and apot

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If You Have to Tell Me About God, Don’t Bother!

Christopher Tanner

Jun 8, 2015
3 min

If You Have to Tell Me About God, Don’t Bother!

© Religion Erased You could declare God loves me with one hundred percent commitment. You might make it a personal mission to spread his joy, one that has spanned a lifetime. Yet as a fellow human, you will never be enough to convince me. You are just another person. One that has only experienced life and nothing more. See it from my perspective. Your appearance doesn’t really stand out compared to the rest of us. You certainly rely on food and water daily to survive like the

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Chris Hanna

Jun 4, 2015
3 min

Letter from the Editor: I’m Just Tired

As the title says, I’m just tired, exhausted, worn down, exasperated… Does anyone else feel it? Wait, let me elaborate before you sigh and cast your weary gaze to the back button, expecting this to be nothing but a series of complaints from a millennial who actually has to work for his money. You would be quite wrong, of course, as I rarely give people exactly what they expect. As an activist, blogger, podcast host, engineer, homeowner, small business owner, husband, responsi

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Why I Hate the Phrase: “True Christians Don’t Do That!”

Christopher Tanner

Jun 3, 2015
2 min

Why I Hate the Phrase: “True Christians Don’t Do That!”

It never fails. Any time a situation arises where a Christian, or group of Christians, is in the wrong Christians come out of the woodwork to distance themselves. “A True Christian wouldn’t do that!” “As a True Christian, I’m appalled and I wish you wouldn’t call these people Christians.” Listen, folks. There are over 40,000 different denominations of Christianity. Each one values certain verses from the Bible more than others. Some denominations are more progressive and valu

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A Couple of Hellbound Apostates Visit the Wichita Mountains

Christopher Tanner

Jun 3, 2015
8 min

A Couple of Hellbound Apostates Visit the Wichita Mountains

If you were expecting or even – God forbid – hoping for another rant, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: I think I need to give it a rest for a while. I’ll say only this before taking my leave of that somewhat continuous, reiterative and baleful project: because of the way fundamentalist religious dogma with all its patriarchal connotations warped the members of my family for generations, I’m genuinely sorry I was born into that family, and somewhat resentful as well. Th

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Christopher Tanner

Jun 1, 2015
5 min

Saying Goodbye Instead of See You Later

We, as social animals, do not typically enjoy saying goodbye. I have never met anyone who was excited to say goodbye to someone they love. What makes this inevitable event more bearable is the fact that we will be able to see them again. What happens though, when this promise of reunion is taken away? A religious person never truly experiences the feeling of losing someone with no hope of ever seeing them again, but for an atheist, losing someone to death is a very final thin

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