White House officials met with secularist and atheist groups for the first time in history. Of course since religious groups have lost their exclusive access to the WH they must have tantrums over the event.
The supporters of Proposition 8 realize how poorly their side argued their case in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger. So now, like monkeys, they are pulling yet more poo out of their backsides and flinging it in hopes that something will stick to the wall.
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The potential harms they cited included giving bisexuals a legal basis for pursuing group marriages and unmarried fathers an incentive to abandon their children.
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Bisexual means a person can be romantically and sexually attracted to either gender. It doesn’t mean they’re inclined to fall in love with both at the same time. Of course the bigots like to push the notion that it’s the latter because then they can also pimp their slippery slope fallacy. OMG, if we allow same-sex marriage it might lead to POLYGAMY!!! Yeah, and people might start squeezing the Charmin too. Please people, protect the toilet paper and vote NO on Gay.
As to the claim that same-sex marriage would give unmarried fathers an incentive to abandon their children…that’s pure horsecrap. There are already millions of “deadbeat dads” out there and it has absolutely nothing to do with same-sex marriage. It’s high time that heterosexual people stop blaming gay people and gay unions for the failings of heterosexual relationships.
A student in a Maryland middle school refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Her teacher mocked her and called her names on the first day, and had the school police escort her to the office on the second day. It’s a good thing the girl wasn’t doodling on her desk….
Yet another Christian is crying “persecution” and filing a lawsuit because he thinks they shouldn’t have to share public space with others, or be pestered with the opinions of those who think differently. Perhaps a secured commune would be a better place for him.
Finally, this “Christian” charity will stop providing aid to Haiti if they won’t turn from their evil Voodoo ways and convert to Christianity. This is exactly why I despise most “faith based” charities–they don’t truly want to help but only to push their religion on others. The aid they provide is only a vehicle to gain more bodies for their god. There is nothing moral about what they do.
Thankfully I never plan to be in Jordan so I don’t have to worry about this effed up new law. I do, however, feel for those who have to suffer under it.
The Jordanian government has ruled that electronic communication like websites will be subject to the country’s Press and Publications Law, prohibiting speech that insults religion, according to reports from the region.
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Critics of the ruling worry that the law will be widely applied to social media, possibly even SMS and to websites that allow reader comments to be posted. Supporters appear to argue that free speech comes with responsibilities along these lines and that the legal framework actually facilitates online communication.
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A blasphemy law in Ireland, the UN resolution against “defamation of religion” and now this? Where are all the RRRWers who rend their garments over “thought crimes laws” when you need them?
It may seem like there’s nothing more to it than theist, agnostic and atheist, but it’s really more complex than that. It can also be very frustrating when people lump all atheists together, or make inaccurate assumptions about us based on misconceptions. This wonderful and informative post from The Freethinker will help explain the differences. Be sure to visit the link for the full piece and very helpful graphs.
Too many times I have informed someone that I am an atheist, only to have them reply, “Oh, but how could you know that God doesn’t exist? You’re taking a faith position!”
Many headaches later, we finally come to an agreement over the definitions of these words.
This arrangement is an attempt to clarify and classify these words, so that their rogue meanings no longer confuse and muddle religious debate.
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An atheist agnostic is someone who does not believe in gods and also thinks that the existence of gods cannot be known. This might mean that they don’t believe in gods because they haven’t seen any evidence that supports their existence.
A theist gnostic is someone who believes in a god/gods and thinks that the existence of gods can be known. This position is usually referred to as just ‘theist‘, since people who believe in gods, usually also think that their existence can be known.
An atheist gnostic is someone who does not believe in gods, and who thinks that we can know that gods do not exist. A fairly unusual position, they might think they have found proof of the non-existence of gods, or might have been persuaded by life experiences.
A theist agnostic is someone who believes in gods, but thinks that they could not know for sure that their god exists. Another fairly unusual position, as people who have faith in gods usually also think that their god can be known to be real.
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In terms of numbers, the main positions are represented here, and the fringe positions minimized. Though the corners are cut, these positions are by no means impossible. For example, absolute atheist gnostic would express: “I know with absolute certainty that no Gods exist.” And absolute agnostic theist would express: “There is absolutely no way to know God’s existence for certain, but I have no doubt whatsoever that there is one.”
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It’s important to remember that these terms can still be misleading.
When talking about different gods that people believe in, we could pick different positions on the graph depending on which god is under discussion. For example, Christians will be on the theist axis when it comes to Jesus, but on the atheist axis when it comes to Zeus.
People who refer to themselves in casual usage as atheists usually mean that they are atheists for all possible gods, whilst a Muslim would be an atheist for all gods except Allah.
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I’m not at all surprised. Brad Pitt officially indicated during an interview with BILD magazine that he doesn’t believe in God.
….. BILD: Have you found happiness in life?
Brad Pitt (nodding): Hm – yes. I am on the path I want to be on.”
BILD: Do you believe in God?
Brad Pitt (smiling): “No, no, no!”
BILD: Is your soul spiritual?
Brad Pitt: “No, no, no! I’m probably 20 per cent atheist and 80 per cent agnostic. I don’t think anyone really knows. You’ll either find out or not when you get there, until then there’s no point thinking about it.
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It sounds, from his description, like he’s an agnostic atheist. Being one myself I gladly welcome him to our ranks.
I realize it sounds like a strange question but it’s not. All too often we non-religious and non-believing types are told that our problem is that we’ve just never read the Bible, or that we haven’t read it enough. That’s simply untrue. The fact that we have read the Bible is the reason so many of us left religion and even lost our faith. In the meantime, and even afterward (for some of us still read that tome), we’ve managed to find that even we can find quotables within the Bible–ones that are far more interesting than the usual dribble lobbed at us by the RRRW.
That being said, I thought it might be interesting to see what some of my readers consider their favorite Bible verse. Mine is:
1 Thessalonians 4:11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.
Yes. The Bible actually tells people to mind their own business. Funny how none of the Bible Thumpers seem to know about that particular verse. Certainly none of them live by it.
Submit your favorite verses by clicking on the “Comments” link below!
If you live in the United States, you are almost certainly friends with at least one atheist, agnostic, nonbeliever, skeptic, or unaffiliated humanist, whether you know it or not. And your friend almost certainly endures prejudice and unequal treatment, whether you know it or not. And your friend is roughly as decent, good, loyal, honest, courageous, and generous as your other friends, and you know it.
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Those who get along without God are not lynched or stoned in this country, but neither do they have equal rights or acceptance. They encounter prejudice and cruelty on a personal level often. They pay taxes that support “faith based” programs and discriminatory organizations, as well as proselytization in the military, they see religion and religious based pseudo-science imposed on their children in public schools, and the stigma attached to their free-mindedness restricts their participation in public life. There are probably 20 atheists in Congress, but only one who admits it, and he won’t use the word. President Obama’s parents were both atheists, whether or not they used that word for it, and he got along fine without religion but would not have gone far in politics had he not adopted it.
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Pastor may have lost post over Prop 8
Surprise! It’s not because he supported “traditional marriage” or advocated for Proposition 8. So much for the claim that religious people are being persecuted by us for pushing their bigotry masquerading as religious beliefs.
The pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento was removed from his post by the denomination’s regional leadership Monday without explanation. LGBT activists believe his firing, which began in earnest in January, is likely the result of his ordination of three gay parishioners to leadership positions within the congregation and his staunch opposition to Proposition 8.
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Why should it matter to you if Proposition. 8 is upheld by the Supreme Court, especially if you aren’t gay and you don’t care about anyone who is gay? The bottom line: Are you part of any minority — single mothers, people over 60, Mormons, children of alcoholics, truck drivers? If so, your legal rights could change if the California Supreme Court rules to uphold Proposition. 8.
Right now, Californians are supposed to be treated equally under the law, and there are equal protection laws that allow residents to fight discriminatory treatment when it happens. By upholding Proposition 8, the Supreme Court will make the new law of the land “equal protection by majority rule.” If you are part of the majority, you get equal protection. If you aren’t, you don’t, whenever enough people vote away your right to be treated equally.
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How important are your equal protection rights? Are you ready to lose them?
There is a moral panic in America over young women’s sexuality — and it’s entirely misplaced. Girls “going wild” aren’t damaging a generation of women, the myth of sexual purity is. The lie of virginity — the idea that such a thing even exists — is ensuring that young women’s perception of themselves is inextricable from their bodies, and that their ability to be moral actors is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. It’s time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not on whether or not they’re sexually active.
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If we’re to truly understand the purity myth, we have to recognize that this modernized virgin/whore dichotomy is not only leading young women to damage themselves by internalizing the double standard, but also contributing to a social and political climate that is increasingly antagonistic to women and our rights.
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Ten years ago, a gay University of Wyoming student was picked up at a bar by two young men, driven out to the middle of nowhere, pistol-whipped, tortured, robbed, tied to a fence and left for dead. Eighteen hours later he was found — still alive but comatose — by a bicyclist, who at first thought the seemingly lifeless body, its face completely covered in blood except for the skin-colored trails left by tears, was a “scarecrow.”
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Perhaps fearing a hate crimes bill that protects gay, lesbian, and transgender people will soon be enacted — thanks to a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and the president — many media conservatives have seen fit to maliciously attack the legislation, just as 20/20 twisted and misreported the events surrounding Shepard’s death.
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Reporters, hosts, anchors, and pundits — indeed, all Americans — are free to feel and speak as they wish about the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. It’s their right, even if they aren’t being honest. Unfortunately, too many have chosen to use this freedom with complete disregard for the facts.
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Cardinal Cormack Murphy-O’Connor: Secularists and atheists are “not fully human”.
The notion that a single gene might determine sexual orientation was briefly proposed and swiftly rejected in the early 1990s.
That hasn’t stopped antigay activists from circulating the myth that, because numerous researchers in the past decade have found a mix of biological factors and possibly other unknown factors in the formation of sexual orientation, therefore these experts must believe in the existence of a single “gay gene.”
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WorldNetDaily, LifeSiteNews, Virtue Online, and Peter LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth all parroted A. Dean Byrd of NARTH, who repeated his previous false assertions that “activist researchers” have contended anytime in the past decade that there is a gay gene.
The antigay activists (Byrd included) illogically contend that, because there is no single gene that determines sexual orientation, therefore sexual orientation is caused entirely by the environment — lousy parents, in particular — and therefore, they insist, anyone can “change” their sexual orientation with sufficient right-wing Christian brainwashing.
Not so, said the APA last year:
Many [researchers] think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.
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According to a religious identification survey conducted in March by Trinity College in Connecticut, about 12 per cent of Americans now identify themselves as atheist, or non-believing, while another 12 per cent describe themselves as agnostic, or unsure whether there is a God.
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Many students compare what’s taking place to the “outing” of the gay community, and describe their decision to go public with their atheism using similar terms.
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“People ask, ‘how do you live life as an atheist? How do you fit in the community?’ ” he said. Many fear getting kicked out of their homes or losing key friendships. “I know the analogy of coming out as a gay person is not perfect, but in a lot of ways it really does fit.”
Many atheists say they regularly face hostility, and even threats of violence.
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Rep. Thad McCotter is co-sponsoring House Resolution 121, which calls on President Obama to declare 2010 “The National Year of the Bible.” Unfortunately, the resolution contains historical inaccuracies that undermine its credibility. For instance, the resolution states:
Whereas shared Biblical beliefs unified the colonists and gave our early leaders the wisdom to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States…
There are several problems with this statement. First, the notion that the colonists had “shared Biblical beliefs” that unified them is inaccurate. In reality, 11 of the 13 colonies at the time of the writing of the Constitution had established churches that denied equal rights not only to non-Christians but to other denominations of Christianity.
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Perhaps even more inaccurate is the claim that those “shared Biblical beliefs…gave our early leaders the wisdom to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.”…
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We also know from what sources the ideas found in the Constitution are derived because they are spelled out in great detail in the Federalist Papers, written by James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. In those 85 essays, written to explain and defend the new Constitution to the people of America, the Bible is nowhere mentioned at all. Nor was the Bible ever mentioned as justification for anything during the debates at the constitutional convention in 1787. The intellectual sources for the provisions of that Constitution were found in the same places Jefferson looked to for the ideas in the Declaration, particularly Locke, Sidney and Montesquieu.
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A church lobbyist in the Telegraph’s story used the term “militant atheist”, and said that “militant atheists were attacking the children”. I’ve heard the term used before, but didn’t really think about it in depth until now. What exactly is a militant atheist? The word militant has a very strong and very negative connotation in today’s post 9/11, 3/11, 7/7, and Mumbai world. When someone says militant, what is the next thought in your head? I know for me it conjures up terrorist, extremist, guerrilla, and other less than desirable labels. The word is very much associated with violence and unrest. Naturally this is done on purpose by the religious right to discredit and demonize atheists. Trying to define their opponents with a negative label, easily repeatable slogan or caricature has been their strategy for a long time. Anyone reading a “tax and spend liberal”, or a “flip flopper”? The fact is atheists aren’t militant in the sense we think about today, if anything they could stand to be more forceful in their rejection of faith (new atheism). What purpose do these negative labels serve? Well, from an academic stand point, it’s much easier to dismiss the militant atheist, or Darwinist Dawkins, than it is to the Oxford Professor of Evolutionary Biology Dawkins.
Atheists and theists alike can agree the above mentioned terrorist attacks were all done by religious militants. Ever heard of an atheist terrorist attack? No. Large religious gatherings in the Muslim world often include burning effigies, anti-American chants, threats and calls to violence against non-Muslims and the staple riotous mob. In using the term militant atheist, apologists want to stir up images of Dawkins igniting a crowd with fiery, Palin-esque speeches. Christians pal-around with Satan maybe? How about Christopher Hitchens leading a mass protest/riot with an alleged “militant atheist” fringe, burning churches and attacking believers? During the annual American Atheists Convention, did the atheist take to the streets? Did they Burn effigies of the Pope? Were there calls to harm and indeed murder theist? The fact is, you will never see anything like that. Atheist do not display the raw hostility and hatred that is found in many theist groups. Hopefully by now you can see the point I am driving at here. Just because a theist group can have moderates, and militants, doesn’t mean this structure applies to all ideological organizations. There are no militant, terrorist, or extremist atheists in the modern world…
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In the Theist/Atheist system, only one can be said to militant. To suggest otherwise is at best a misrepresentation, and at worst an outright lie.
“Confused Children” TV Ad.
Ostensibly children, who can grasp the fact that God is Himself, His own Son and the Holy Spirit–and not be traumatized by the notion that God sent his only son to Earth to be brutally slaughtered to appease Himself, will be irreparably confused and psychologically damaged by learning that some children have two mommies/daddies instead of one of each. But since when have the NOMbies ever made sense?
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More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.
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The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations –such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians–categorized as “mainline” Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.
I can’t say I’m surprised, though I’m definitely disgusted and saddened. But please, feel free to remind me that as a lesbian atheist I’m completely lacking in morality, and that I need to find god and read that Bible thingy to turn my life around.
There are places where religion rules. And even where it doesn’t, some want to change things.
Of course our own home-grown Theocrats think that their brand of religiousfascism would be so much better than Sharia Law (simply because it’s Christianity and not Islam). But it wouldn’t.
There is a reason America was founded as a secular nation. There is a reason for the Separation of Church and State, which protects everyone religious and non-religious alike. It is because the mingling of religion and politics is dangerous, if not deadly. It’s just too bad the RRRW can’t understand that.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking votes for its next bus campaign slogan. There are six slogans (two of which are similar), or you can suggest your own.
*Religion Once Ruled the World. It Was Known as the Dark Ages. (Ruth Hurmence Green)
*The truth shall set you free from religion.
*Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings (Victor Stenger)
*Hang out with atheists. It’s more fun than hanging on a cross. (Just for fun)
*Religion flies planes into buildings Science flies humans to the moon
*9/11 was a faith-based initiative
Cast your vote and see suggestions by others. My contribution: Religion is not under attack. It is the attack.
I’ve been meaning to analyze the recent American Religious Identification Survey which found that the number of people without religious belief has increased to 15%. But someone did it much better than I ever could have so I’ll draw your attention to her analysis of it:
For several years I have been claiming that the United States is entering a post-Christian stage of intellectual development, something I consider to be a positive trend. I argued that this trend was part of a wider trend toward more social liberalism in generally, another thing which I consider to be generally positive. Last year I wrote: “Americans are moving rapidly and quickly toward social liberalism… The American people got tired of the culture wars and they seem to be abandoning the cultural conservatives.” All this is part of our country “moving toward a post-Christian culture.”
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The most recent American Religious Identification Survey (2008) shows that the trends I’ve claimed exist are substantiated. This survey notes that in 1990 86% of Americans identified themselves as Christian in some form or another. In 2008 that has dropped to 70%. In rough terms that means that approximately one in five of the individuals who identified as Christian in 1990 no longer do so. The survey also says that the decline in numbers of Christians is not due to them converting to a new faith but abandoning their faith. “The challenge to Christianity in the U.S. does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of organized religion.” The number of Americans who say they lack religious beliefs increased from 8.2% in 1990 to 15% in 2008.
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Future problems for a sect are indicated by the percentage of young people in their pews. If a congregation is primarily made up of the elderly it will disappear relatively quickly. If it is mostly young people it will probably grow. An estimated 22% of the American population are between the ages of 18 and 29. Below is a chart of selected Christian sects and how far off they are from that percentage in regards to church membership. A negative number implies they are that many percentage points below the national average of young people. I have added the “nones” in as a comparison.
That Mormons have no statistically advantage in terms of youthful members is rather surprising. According to the survey 22% of Mormons are between 18 and 29, which is precisely the percentage of Americans between those ages. Yet, according to the New Yorker: “The Mormon birth rate is about fifty per cent higher than the national average.” A higher birth rate ought to mean that the percentage of young Mormons is higher than the national average not the same.
Mormonism is clearly having a problem. It seems unable to hold on to converts and unable to hold on to their own young. The 2001 ARIS numbers showed that the numbers who left the Mormon cult was slightly higher than the number joining it. Official Mormon numbers are vastly higher than the numbers of people who actually think they are Mormon—in other words the Mormon sect counts as members people who do not think they are Mormons….
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In the wake of this study there are the typical claims of Christians are under siege! and the like. If only the atheists would STFU and go back in the closet where they belong, Tony Beam laments. Funny that they want to silence us, but they’re being “persecuted” because the realities of clergy abuse* are exposed to the world and people are standing up to their intolerance. But I’m the last person who will ever accuse them of being rational.
(Clergyabuse is not confined to the Catholic church and it’s not a case of pedophiles “masquerading as” priests. Tony Beam has a case of the No True Scotsman fallacy going on here. Ignoring the reality of church scandals by pretending the perpetrators “aren’t real Christians” is not going to change the facts or the trends. It just makes people more disgusted with religion and its myopic, deceptive followers–which is why many people are leaving. )
Christians need to face the facts. This is no longer a world where people spend their entire lives in the same town and are exposed only to what they’re indoctrinated into as children. Some of us grow up and determine that what we were told as children isn’t necessarily so. Others simply decide to choose another path. Ironically while Christians use the latter to their advantage when recruiting others (evangelizing) they act like it’s a tragedy if it means people leave their clutches.
There are many other reasons people leave religion, even if they don’t lose their faith entirely. Mistreatment and outright abuse at the hands of people insisting they’re doing God’s Work has caused millions of people to throw off the shackles of religion. Meanwhile the RRRW blames the victims rather than their own abominable behavior and continues to wage their war against humanity.
Sadder yet, some people think the solution is to raise their children in a vacuum. Keep them away from the world, don’t expose them to opposing ideas that might challenge the dogma you feed them (don’t forget to force-feed them that dogma until they know it by rote), and they will be the dutiful single-minded automatons you want them to be.
But what happens when those sheltered individuals reach adulthood and go into a world for which they’re hideously unprepared? I guess that’s when the world (particularly the Evil Atheists) gets blamed for anything that happens to them. The parents certainly won’t be taking responsibility for their failure to properly prepare their children to face the world.
If you’re a non-believer, tepid believer who is frustrated with organized religion, agnostic or otherwise not of the flock let your voice be heard. Tell them why you left the church/lost your faith, and why their current efforts are sure to fail. Stem the spread of lies about you and yours. It’s time for your voices to be heard above the fracas of the RRRW. Let them know we’re not going away no matter how much they want us to.
I’m not at all surprised. Brad Pitt officially indicated during an 
BILD: Have you found happiness in life?
I realize it sounds like a strange question but it’s not. All too often we non-religious and non-believing types are told that our problem is that we’ve just never read the Bible, or that we haven’t read it enough. That’s simply untrue. The fact that we have read the Bible is the reason so many of us left religion and even lost our faith. In the meantime, and even afterward (for some of us still read that tome), we’ve managed to find that even we can find quotables within the Bible–ones that are far more interesting than the usual dribble lobbed at us by the RRRW. 
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If you’re a non-believer, tepid believer who is frustrated with organized religion, agnostic or otherwise not of the flock let your voice be heard. Tell them why you left the church/lost your faith, and why their current efforts are sure to fail. Stem the spread of lies about you and yours. It’s time for your voices to be heard above the fracas of the RRRW. Let them know we’re not going away no matter how much they want us to. 
