http://www.evilbible.com/

One particularly vile and pointless act is described in the book of Joshua. God instructs Joshua to kill all the Hazorites. Not content with doing this, God also has Joshua cripple all the horses that formerly belonged to the unfortunate Hazorites by slicing through their hamstrings (Josh 11). Little wonder that these acts are not described in Sunday Schools to little girls who dote on ponies.

I like that idea very much!
There are some real good grusome stories in the bible! Human sacrifice and discriptive tales of war that no one in their right mind would deem as holy acts, but the bible sure does.

Exodus 13:2 “Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among Israelites, both man and beast, for it belongs to me.”

It amounts to a really weak reason for atheism, as it does nothing in answering the larger question. Plus, any theist worth his or her pillar of salt will have a nice, tidy apologetic answer to every contradiction and blood thirsty act you can dig up. I have had fun surprising the more ignorant brand of christian with some seldom mentioned bible trivia, but I’m sure they just go and ask their preacher about it, who then gives them a nice convoluted answer that any reasonable person would find totally bogus but is perfectly acceptable within the distorted framework of religious thought.

The bible is a human invention, and thus reflects both the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of human nature. It also reflects an outdated societal model that even the most hardcore christians find impossible to conform to. I guess it’s helpful to point that out to the fence sitters, but the non-religious generally don’t care and the religious won’t even listen.

I’m convinced that the best tactic is to attack the concept of faith itself. Religious people are so proud that they have faith – that faith somehow trumps every other epistemological source out there. Given their strange pride and devotion to the concept of faith, it just blows me away when they’ll turn around and claim atheism is ‘just a faith position as well!’ We gee then, I guess faith ain’t all that special after all!

Let’s go after the concept of faith the same way those creationist bastards go after the word theory. In other words, use their own rhetoric against them. “After all, Christianity is just a faith position!”

Wow. I like it. ….thinking of a faith smear campaign….

Bumper Sticker for stargate Atlantis fans:

Feed the Raith with those of Faith

Too Old Testamentie?

Too Old Testamentie?

Hmmm… maybe too geeky I’ve never seen that show. Not that I’m not a geek myself.

For firefly fans: “Shepherd Book died for your sins.”

oh geezus

I totally agree with you, except that I think you are overlooking just how many fence sitters may actually run across this site. As you say, seasoned atheists won’t really care, and highly faithful theists will not budge either. However, I think there are loads of theists (since this is U.S. I’ll just say Christians) that are just going through the motions, while they juggle the reality of the day-to-day life they know. It is these people that I’m most interested in. A perfect example is our own “reluctant atheist”. Here is a guy that was a theist, but then happened upon a few contradictions and took it upon himself to investigate more. Now, he has done enough research to be a strong debater on the history in/of the bible, and even goes on the offensive with his very own Web site!

I don’t know how to attack faith without solid contradictory evidence. Science will get there, but who knows when. Bible bashing one tactic we can use with some success in my opinion.

To us, these answers sound ridiculous. But they are not meant for us, they are meant for those who’ve have already bought in and who are looking for any excuse to rationalize their own choice to believe.

The human mind is an amazing acrobat.