Atheism Archives

What I Believe as an Atheist

April 7, 2019February 18, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

When someone finds out that a loved one is an atheist, they tend to have a lot of questions. One question I was asked when coming out was “If you don’t believe in God, then what do you believe?” I was confused by the question at the time. What do you mean, what do I believe? I thought. About what? Morality? Science? The cosmos? Music? Pineapple on pizza? After thinking about it further, I think that “So, what do you believe?” is a pretty good question to ask an atheist, since all you can assume to know about an atheist is that there’s one thing they certainly don’t believe in, and that’s a god or gods. Everything else is up in the air.

Book Review: Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller

March 31, 2019January 18, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I’ve been wrapping up another book, and this week I finally finished it! I read Kenneth Miller’s Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul, which arose from the 2006 court case Selman v. Cobb County School District.

This dispute began innocently, with textbook publisher Prentice Hall and a run-of-the-mill biology textbook. Frustratingly, but not surprisingly, the religious climate in Georgia at the time made teaching honest biology harder than it should be. The Cobb County School District included with every biology textbook a sticker:

Is the LCMS a Cult?

March 17, 2019October 24, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

I’m excited to find out whether the LCMS could really be called a cult, especially since in a time of extreme frustration, I once made the claim that I thought it was a cult. That being said, my own analysis will be based off of my personal experience and various Lutheran doctrine that I’ve had the chance to read. I do have a personal dislike and deep disdain for the LCMS, but I’m going to do my very best to be fair and objective when pitting it against the BITE Model. Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a cult. Maybe it is, but maybe it’s not. Let’s find out.
Read more →

An Atheist’s Thoughts on Lent

March 10, 2019October 8, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

It’s finally here! The best time of the year. First, people gorge themselves on all kinds of treats, then they get black ashes rubbed onto their foreheads, then they eat fish on Fridays, and then it’s Easter. That’s right. It’s Lent. Again.

Book Review: Why There Is No God by Armin Navabi

March 3, 2019October 13, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

If you’re familiar with the online atheist superpower Atheist Republic, then you’ve probably heard of their book Why There Is No God, written by their founder Armin Navabi. I’ve had this book for a while, and I decided this weekend to finally read it and give my opinion here on my blog!

My Life in Books: Fiction vs. Nonfiction

February 17, 2019October 6, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

If there’s anything my family loves other than Jesus, it’s reading. I grew up involved in both, but for me, the Jesus didn’t stick, but the reading did. My books are obviously not the kind that my family would want me to read, but that’s irrelevant. Read more →

On the Burden of Proof

February 10, 2019October 6, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

When people find out that someone is an atheist, they usually have a lot of questions. I’ve seen in my experience that most of these questions take the offensive stance and are often accusatory. Atheists are used to hearing things like, “Where do you get your morals from?” and “Why do you hate God?” One of the most common of these quips is “How do you know for sure that there is no god?” which also takes the form of “Well, you can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, so disbelief is illogical.” These statements are the embodiment of the theist’s attempt to flip the burden of proof. Read more →

Lutheran Creation Doctrine: The Verdict

February 3, 2019October 13, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

This is the week when we will find out for sure what LCMS Lutherans believe about creationism! I feel like this is something I’ve been wanting to know for years, but I’ve never really been able to ask my family directly, and the one time I asked my brother-in-law, he said he wasn’t totally sure but to check out the Concordia Theology blog for answers. So that’s what I’ve done, and it may finally tell us what Lutherans believe. So far I have read and responded to the introduction to this series, as well as their Lutheran-colored analysis of Old Earth, Young Earth, and Evolutionary Creationism. This is the conclusion of Charles Arand’s series, and it’s called A Few Reflections on Creation in Genesis 1. In the beginning, Arand states,
Read more →

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking: Book Review and Best Quotes

January 27, 2019October 6, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

Last year, we lost a man who was one of the most famed scientific minds to date. Stephen Hawking took after Albert Einstein in a quest to discover how the universe works, even in the face of the greatest adversity. Hawking was a pioneer on the quest to reconcile quantum physics with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and his specialties were the study of black holes and how we might be able to reverse what we know about them to find out how the Big Bang occurred. Brief Answers to the Big Questions was the first book I read by Hawking, but I already feel like I’ve learned so much.

Matt Walsh Defends Karen Pence’s Homophobic School from Persecution

January 20, 2019October 8, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

This week, I finally did something I have been wanting to do for a long time: I put “atheist” on my Facebook profile. It was less of a dramatic coming-out than I had anticipated; to see it, you would have to go to my profile and scroll through my “About” section and find it listed under “religious views”. I could have made it into a post that will show up in people’s News Feeds, but I didn’t find that necessary. I did, however, follow a number of atheist pages, and maybe one day I’ll share some of their posts for all my friends to see.