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Dan

rationalatheistdanbarker

About Me


Some Articles:

Christian Terrorism In Oklahoma City

I Just Lost Faith In Faith

Dear Theologian

Cosmological Kalamity

The Freewill Argument
for the Nonexistence of God

Freethought Nontract Now "Classic Literature"

Freethought And Prime Time Television

Why Jesus?

Bible Contradictions

Debunking the Historical Jesus

What Would Jesus Say About Gay Rights?

Leave No Stone Unturned

A Short Bio: Dan became a teenage evangelist at age 15. At 16 he was choir librarian for faith-healer Kathryn Kuhlman's Los Angeles appearances. He received a degree in Religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church, California, in 1975. He served as associate pastor at a Friend's (Quaker) Church, an Assembly of God, and an independent Charismatic church. Dan was a Protestant missionary in Mexico for a total of two years.
Dan maintained a touring musical ministry for 17 years, including eight years of full-time, cross-country evangelism. An accomplished pianist, record producer, arranger and songwriter, he worked with Christian music companies such as Manna Music and Word Music. For many years, Dan wrote and produced the annual "Mini Musicale" for Gospel Light Publications' Vacation Bible School curriculum.
For more than two decades, Dan was accompanist, arranger, and record producer for Manuel Bonilla, the leading Christian singer in the Spanish-speaking world. He accompanied on the piano such Christian personalities as Pat Boone, Jimmy Roberts (of the Lawrence Welk Show), and gospel songwriter Audrey Meier, and was a regular guest on Southern California's "Praise The Lord" TV show (Spanish). One of Dan's Christian songs, "There Is One," was performed by Rev. Robert Schuller's television choir on the "Hour of Power" broadcast. To this day, he receives royalties from his popular children's Christian musicals, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1977), and "His Fleece Was White As Snow" (1978), both published by Manna Music and performed in many countries.
Following five years of reading, Dan gradually outgrew his religious beliefs. "If I had limited myself to Christian authors, I'd still be a Christian today," Dan says. "I just lost faith in faith." He announced his atheism publicly in January, 1984.
Dan was PR Director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation from 1987 to 2004. He was elected co-president of the Foundation with Annie Laurie Gaylor in 2004. He is a contributing editor of Freethought Today and is involved with the Foundation's state/church lawsuits.

My Interests

The very concept of sin comes from the bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?

You can cite a hundred references to show that the biblical God is a bloodthirsty tyrant, but if they can dig up two or three verses that say God is love, they will claim that you are taking things out of context!

I do understand what love is, and that is one of the reasons I can never again be a Christian. Love is not self denial. Love is not blood and suffering. Love is not murdering your son to appease your own vanity. Love is not hatred or wrath, consigning billions of people to eternal torture because they have offended your ego or disobeyed your rules. Love is not obedience, conformity, or submission. It is a counterfeit love that iscontingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being.

I have something to say to the religionist who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil--you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality, peace and joy. Trust yourself.

For my money, I'll bet on reason and humanistic kindness. Even if I am wrong I will have enjoyed my life, the existence of which is under little dispute.

Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday, singing, yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down. down. Amen! If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it.

Just say NO to religion.

You keep accusing me of blasphemy all of the time, But I cannot be convicted of a victimless crime.

You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?

I'd like to meet:


Emma Goldman, Joseph Lewis, Richard Feynman, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Asimov, Ayn Rand, Carl Sagan, Sigmund Freud, George Carlin, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette, Woody Allen, Sam Harris

Books:

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Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

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Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: A Guide for Young Thinkers

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Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for Young Skeptics

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Just Pretend: A Freethought Book for Children

My Blog

Imagine A World Free From Religion

Click to continue to the Freedom From Religion Foundation website Join the Freedom From Religion Foundation or Request more information Click to continue to the Freedom From Religion Fou...
Posted by Dan on Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:36:00 PST

Atheists on the case

Atheists on the caseDOUG [email protected] At the Madison headquarters of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Dan Barker's office is one floor above the office of his wife an...
Posted by Dan on Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:35:00 PST

Dear Theologian

Dear Theologian,I have a few questions, and I thought you would be the right person to ask. It gets tough sometimes, sitting up here in heaven with no one to talk to. I mean really talk to. I can alwa...
Posted by Dan on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:38:00 PST