Personal Blog of Greg Swartz
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My name is Greg Swartz and I am a freethinking activist in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. I self-identify as an atheistic humanist. I hope to bring you my considered opinions and views, reviews of books, articles and such things, links and whatever happens along the way. Read more.
Free thought, in a general sense, is a process by which truth is determined by considering facts and evidence using logic, reason and rationalism. As used on this blog, it is an umbrella term to include humanism, atheism, agnosticism, skepticism or any other belief system that questions established religious dogma. Read more.
The success of the human species is largely based on cooperation. Liberarianism advances ideas that individuals should have the right to do pretty much whatever they want - socially and economically. So how does libertarian individualism benefit humans or human society? Read more.
Religionists generally will appeal to supernatural forces to explain the mysteries of the universe. Atheists, on the other hand, generally maintain that the supernatural either does not exist or is of no importance to the natural world. Read more.
Of what value is ancient wisdom? Some support their ideas with this so-called "ancient wisdom". But such a reliance is a known logical fallacy. It is especially dangerous when applied to religious arguments, because their source is their god(s) and in many religions godly opinions and commands are immutable. Read more.
The Christian holiday of Christmas is not celebrated on December 25 because it is historically provable that Jesus was born on that date. Rather, Christianity is a Roman religion. The time around the Winter Solstice was a normal time for celebrations in the Roman Empire. Since the Romans were polytheists and easily incorporated other religions and celebrations into their pantheon of beliefs, this Christian holiday was introduced and accepted, only to reach dominance later. Read more.
From time to time, I run across something really stupid that people say about atheists. In this post I intend to accumulate some of those MISrepresentations and try to give you the truth. Read more.
The accumulation of wealth on the part of certain evangelical preachers seems to violate the teachings of Jesus found in the New Testament. They appear to represent the wealthy who Jesus is supposed to have claimed could not get into heaven as camels could not pass through the eye of a needle. Read more.
It is often said that "atheists believe in nothing" - that is that atheists are nihilists. That statement fails as discussed in this post. Read more.
Realizing as a child that the Santa Claus story was a lie, I developed a healthy skepticism about anything told to me by adults. So, when asked to agree to the Jesus story, I refused and continued to question until I became an atheist. Read more.
We humans spend a huge amount of time trying to determine what the truth is, how to reach the truth and what to call it once we have determined what it is. Should it be based on faith or based on reason? This post will maintain that reason should be the only valid basis for reaching the truth. Read more.
Human beings have been praying for millennia and it seems about time to face up to reality - prayer fails and is actually destructive! Read more.
Christianity makes certain truth claims which are based upon alleged historical events related to Jesus: his birth, his ministry, his miracles, his crucifixion and, finally, his resurrection. Should they be allowed to make those claims without definitive evidence or claims that any of the stories are allegory? Read more.