Ok, this is just about the cutest little atheist I’ve seen. “Under Nobody” should be the official addition to the pledge, which would finally make it no longer violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (if you’re tired of me linking to it, too fucking bad! You guys need to pay attention to it). Considering how the pledge is itself kind of a violation of everything the Founding Fathers believed in, it’ll at least be a good compromise.
Convicted child rapist to become ordained minister
Have you ever wondered if there aren’t some churches that are a bit too inclusive? Sure, it might first seem like a good idea to accept anyone regardless of their past, but once in a while you have to know where to draw the line. Take the City of Refuge Worship Center, which plans to ordain a registered sex offender.
Mark Hourigan was convicted of raping an 11 year old boy, but ended up serving his prison term. No doubt in prison he did what most convicts do: he found religion.
If it’s any comfort (trust me, there isn’t any), officials claim that he won’t be ministering to children. They even got him to sign an agreement that he wouldn’t preach to children, which seems to me about as binding as the old “pinky swear”. Some of the (smarter) congregants have left as a result, which goes to show not everyone is deluded enough to think that a child rapist can be rehabilitated with only the power of the Lord.
I could be wrong of course, and Mark could have totally repented for his crimes. Call me close minded, but I’ve yet to hear about this kind of thing working out for everyone in the end. The Catholic Church tried the whole “use the Lord to fight off your sinful temptation” before, and it only made the abuse worse. My advice to these guys is pretty simple: don’t bring anybody that’s ever abused any kids in your organization, period. Is that really so hard to understand?
Why is no one listening to this man?
If there’s one thing you can credit to fundamentalist Islam, it’s their ability to control their flock. There aren’t many Islamic fundamentalists that apostatized, and anytime there is, it offers us a unique opportunity to understand the scope of terrorism that shouldn’t be ignored. Ed Husain was a radical, brought into this culture in college by other British born Muslims, and it wasn’t until he witnessed the cold blooded murder of an innocent man that he was able to walk away. Now, he’s trying to warn other Brits of the growing dangers of fundamentalism, and his message is simple: the UK needs to do a better job at integrating their Muslim population in British society.
He correctly points out one of the main problem lies in Muslim ghettos, where anyone living there can practically spend their entire lives without ever leaving the confines of the group; you can send your kids to a Muslim state school, go to a Muslim NHS doctor, and even do business entirely within the Muslim community there.
Of all the countries in Europe, Britain has had the most trouble properly integrating this minority in their culture (and stories like this don’t help). This in turn is creating a dangerous situation, as their own citizens are slowly becoming their worst enemies. Worst still, British prisons are becoming recruiting centers, a situation that only exacerbates an already serious problem.
I don’t want to sound alarmist here, but when former fundamentalists are telling people they need to act now before it’s too late, is it really a good idea to ignore them? It’s not as though Britain hasn’t been the target of attacks before. The solution seems relatively simple; don’t allow a segment of your population to become dangerously isolated, especially one with a tendency towards fundamentalism. Is that really hard to understand?
The Good Atheist Podcast: 086
This week, my special guest Jeff Jones will be on hand to give us a little perspective on Pastor Steven L. Anderson, and his insane homophobic rants. Also, we’ll be discussing the worsening condition in Pakistan, which has seen an increase in religious violence recently.
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No atheists in birthing centers?
Man, people get gushy when kids are involved. It seems as though the mere sight of these little creatures is enough to send us into irrational fits. How else can you explain this ridiculous article which claims there are no atheists in birthing centers. The author, Peter Heck, is your run of the mill conservative who believes the usual “America is a Christian nation” rhetoric that is so popular nowadays.
Now Peter seems to me to be a kind of educated idiot; a person who devotes all of his time and energy trying in vain to defend ideas and opinions that have no basis in reality. His article is the standard “life is so amazing it must be designed by God” fare, and he isn’t saying anything new in his shitty article.
The reason I thought it was so hilarious is he’s quite obviously wrong; there are plenty of atheists in birthing centers. If he bothered to talk to a few of them, he would discover there is no need to believe in a God to be in awe over the whole process. I’m glad Peter is so happy to have kids, but it certainly doesn’t mean his ideological convictions are correct.
The Independent fights the good fight
Now I’ve often linked from the newspaper on many occasions, but today is a special honor. In January of last year, a young Afghan journalist was sentenced to death for distributing a report criticizing the treatment of women under Islamic Law. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced in a 4 minute trial that was closed to the public, but luckily, the Independent got wind of the story and thanks to their efforts and a lot of international pressure, Sayed has been released.
Of course, not all is well in Afghanistan, and conservative clerics are reacting with anger over what they see as Western interference in their domestic policy. They want him punished for his blasphemy, and only death will appease them.
Luckily, not everyone in the country is out for blood. Many young citizens are happy that the situation has been resolved peacefully, and if there’s any hope for the future of this nation, it lies with the new generation.
So if you aren’t yet a fan of the Independent (I’ll admit that there is a bit too much fucking gossip on this damn site), you should at least give them props for helping to save this man’s life.
The Book of Job explained!
The only lesson I can gather from the story of Job is he was a pawn in a cosmic pissing match between God and the Devil. Had this actually happened, I would have been disgusted, but luckily it’s just your typical desert people myth. Man with lots of wealth gets fucked over but keeps on believing in God. The lesson: don’t expect to have a good life even if you are devout. What a fair deal, no?
Is religion “hard wired” in our brains?
It occurs to me we have a strange interpretation of what the word “natural” means. We tend to think anything natural must inherently be good or desirable. How many consumer products try to play that annoying angle? I also find it fairly telling that behaviors or lifestyles are deemed “unnatural” are also considered undesirable and evil. Of course, just because something is natural certainly doesn’t mean it’s any good. The bubonic plague is entirely a product of nature, but I certainly don’t want to contract the disease.
We should keep this fact in mind when considering the latest study by psychologists at the Bristol University which argues religious and superstitious beliefs are hardwired in our brains. I think if any of you have watched the Derren Brown video exposing how easily human beings acquire strange habits when looking for patterns, I think you may be inclined to believe perhaps there is some truth to the claim.
Of course, the claim that superstition is hardwired in our brain is perhaps the weakest conclusion anyone can draw. The study determined that even completely rational individuals will have superstitious reactions to various stimulus (like refusing to wear the cardigan of a known murderer), but the conclusion that people with superstitious behavior are somehow more fit to function in society is a stretch by any measure.
We know from experimentation on pigeons that superstitious belief derives from the need to find meaningful patterns in nature. Whether or not a pattern exists is of secondary importance; it matters more that we feel the need to explain and conceptualize a world that can often be strange and randomly cruel.
At the end of the day, even if religious or superstitious belief is a natural phenomenon, why would anyone think this is desirable? Does anyone think there is a survival advantage in thinking breaking a mirror will cause bad luck for 7 years, or throwing salt over one’s shoulder wards off evil spirits? Sure it may be completely natural. Cyanide is natural too, but you don’t see me guzzling a gallon of the stuff, do you?
**NOTE** It turns out the Times article was complete bullshit, and totally distorted the findings in order to have a more controversial and “newsworthy” topic. The author of the study wrote a response that I think will help clarify the situation. When are journalists going to stop distorting the truth just so they can get a few more eyeballs reading their shitty stories? It’s embarrassing…
Hitchens talks about the Jesus myth
It wouldn’t be a good morning unless it involves Christopher Hitchens laying the smackdown on the notion that the story of Jesus is anything more than a clever fabrication; an exaggeration and distortion of history.
I gets mail!
I received this email, and I wanted to share “B”‘s story with everyone (he asked that I not include his name, since he works with the boy Scouts and would like to keep his job).
This past summer I staffed a Boy Scout summer camp. I just wanted to share some of my experiences. Before every meal shift, since a scout is “reverent,” we had a volunteer say a “non-denominational” grace. They usually were just speeches and went like this:
Dear God,
Thank you for letting us come to camp this week.
Thank you for the food which we are about to eat.
Please help us complete all of our merit badges.
Please help us have fun during free time.
Please keep everyone safe this week.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.All I got from grace was the impression that Christians are ungrateful. I doubt that anyone thanked their parents for working hard every day to earn enough money for them to come to camp, or thanked their adult leaders for taking a week off from work to spend it with them in the middle of the woods. Very few of them thanked the staff for getting up at 5 AM to unload a food truck, or the kitchen staff who worked all day to prepare it for them. I didn’t feel divinely inspired when I was teaching my class and probably wouldn’t mark off requirements just because God told me to. Most of the scouts took it for granted that we would show up and babysit them for the hour and a half of free time so they could break every possible rule just to have fun. I can’t imagine how many people would have gotten hurt during the week if the staff were godless atheists, except that most of us were. We spent a whole week learning CPR, first aid, and every safety precaution that needed to be taken; God didn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t know that Hindus, Muslims, or Jews believed in Jesus; so much for non-denominational.
One night two staffers and myself were walking back from campsite visits on a dark trail. One of them remarked, “Aren’t you guys scared, there could be ghosts and stuff.” The other one called him stupid for believing in superstitions; I asked him, “Don’t you believe in God?” Neither of them could figure out what that had to do with anything…
One of my better friends while I was there happened to be a home-schooled Catholic. He is really intelligent, he’s writing a 5 act full orchestra musical while in college, and it made me sad to see such a great mind go to waste. Anyway, he had to fill in for the chaplain’s aid one week and give a chapel service. It was supposed to be non-denominational, but he decided it would be better if he became a preacher. At the end of the week, a group of Hindus complained that they didn’t receive a proper chapel service and that it reflected badly on the camp. The camp director, who I was pretty sure was an atheist, had a talk with him. Afterward, I tried to convince him that it was his fault for giving a denominational church service and he should take the punishment for his actions. He wouldn’t accept the fact that he was wrong and went on a tirade against all religions that weren’t Christianity, pointing out that they weren’t real because only his religion was real.
One week I had a student in my class who was slow. He came in during his free time to finish soldering on his electronics kit. While I was talking to him I learned that he was from a local town and considered eating at Whataburger [Jake’s note: I didn’t know what that was, but now I want one] a rare privilege. His favorite movie was Mary Poppins because that was one of the newest movies they had. Somehow we got onto the topic of religion and he mentioned that he didn’t see how anyone could be an atheist, and didn’t think they counted as people. I asked him why he thought that; the only reason he could come up with was that his pastor told him so. When I asked him if he liked me, he told me I was his favorite counselor. It’s really sad how the church is taking advantage of his disability and economic status by brainwashing him into thinking that his religion can do no wrong and that all the others were an unforgivable sin.
It’s sad, but I’m not entirely surprised. They are accustomed to making anyone who doesn’t believe in their theology the “bad guys”. It’s a shame the Boy Scouts are such a religiously motivated organization, because I actually think learning about survival skills, being in the woods with their peers, and sharing positive experiences with others is a great thing for kids. Considering you have to keep your identity secret, I’m sure you feel the same way.
John Safran tells it like it is
This scene is from “John Safran vs God“, a television program from Australia. Although his voice may be shrill and annoying, the guy knows how to make good television (I strongly recommend downloading it). Hopefully, I’m one of those guys who’s smart enough to be an atheist, but hey, you never know…
A Double Standard
Does this cartoon offend you? Personally it’s poorly done, there’s no joke there, and in general it’s insultingly terrible. Still, it’s a fucking cartoon, and should be no big deal, right? Well, not so much. Remember a few years back when a Danish Newspaper published cartoon depicting Mohammed, and the Muslim community basically had a fucking meltdown? Well, it seems as though there was another bit of news going on in the background at the time worth mentioning. The Arab European League published a cartoon during the affair with the intent of offending Jews by denying the Holocaust. Their goal was apparently to show that it’s not only Muslims that get upset over free speech issues, and sure enough it worked; the group is now being prosecuted under Holocaust denial laws.
I’ve always said Holocaust denial laws are both pointless and dangerous; while I am personally repulsed by the notion certain individuals choose to deny the atrocities committed by the Nazis, trying to use the long arm of the law to silence these people has exactly the opposite effect. It demonstrates Europe is incapable of living by the principle of free speech. The truth is when people are allowed to say what they want, occasionally they will say something horrible and offensive; it’s inevitable. How can we blame Muslims for overreacting to simple cartoons when we are prepared to jail people for making a few shitty scribblings?
Muslim actress kidnapped by family for living Western lifestyle
It amazes me how much people hold on to their religion, even after it makes their lives miserable. Sofia Hayat is an actress singer and model who grew up in an extremely religious family. She was routinely beaten and tortured for having a free spirit, and when she left home, she began to live a life her mother and father disapproved of. They kidnapped her, threatened to kill her, and eventually the police had to be involved.
And despite everything, she still believes the problem is not her religion, but rather the fact her parents never read the Koran properly. If they did, she argues, they would have realized it preaches peace and understanding.
Hardly. Yes, I’m sure some people can interpret the text to mean that, but I think by now it should be plainly obvious that the book merely reinforces what you already believe. She likes Western values, so for her, the Koran reflects these values. For her conservative parents and siblings, the book has a completely different meaning. This is the inherent problem of all religions: because they are all ambiguous, inexact, and deeply reflective of their primitive origins, they are completely out of their depth in our modern age. She can ignore the elephant in the room, but the real problem here is that her religion encourages its followers to be submissive, ignorant, stupid and proud of it. You can try placing the blame somewhere else, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any valid reasons why parents should be so cruel and violent towards their own children. Their first love is God, and everything else takes a back seat.
Mark Sanford thinks God is on his side
Remember Mark Sanford? He was caught red handed having an affair with a hot Argentine woman he called his “soul mate”, but the weight of the scandal hasn’t deterred him from leaving his post. Presumably, the man doesn’t know how to do anything other than misuse public funds and break his vows of matrimony. It does sound like he’s tailor made for politics, doesn’t it?
Since no one wants to back him up, he’s decided to turn to his only friend: God. After battling Obama’s stimulus plan (which would have been spent primarily on education in his state), he says he wants to stay and fight for “conservative values”, whatever the hell that means. He’s also delusional enough to think that the reason his approval ratings are so low is because of the need to defend himself rather than the fact that taxpayers are frankly tired of Representatives misusing public funds to go fuck their mistresses in Buenos Aires. But I digress.
Mark, no one is on your side, especially not your invisible friend. Have you considered the fact that perhaps it’s time to seek new employment? Maybe it’s time to go and enjoy life with your Latin lover. At the very least, stop hanging around Congress like some half dead zombie no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole. If you still want a career in politics, try laying low for a few years. Maybe then we’ll forget that you’re just a liar who can’t read the writing on the wall. Ok, probably not, but I’m sure you’d make an excellent car salesman or something.
Kentucky gets a little wiser
After the attacks of 9/11, the US Department of Homeland Security was created to supposedly defend America from terrorist attacks. This very broad mandate has created one of the largest departments in the US government, and considering the frequency of terrorism attacks, I would argue that with an annual budget of roughly 52 billion dollars, they are an utterly useless and pointless organization. Of course, try telling that to Americans petrified by the possibility of another terrorist attack.
Even if terrorists were crashing one Boeing 747 a day, it would still be safer to travel by plane than by car, but that doesn’t stop over 40,000 people from dying on the highway every year (compare that to 120 each year who perish in plane crashes. That makes the odds of dying in a plane roughly 0.00003%). Meanwhile, Americans spend billions of dollars chasing ghosts while more pressing issues are being ignored.
I find the whole organization very suspect, especially in light of the fact that the Bush Administration, already heavily entangled in religion, set it up. I always suspected there were religious undertones to the organization, and this latest story out of Kentucky confirmed some of my fears.
It seems as though some disturbing amendments were added to the state office of Homeland Security when it was created, stressing the “dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth”. American Atheists Inc. and 10 Kentuckians (yes, that is what they call themselves) filed a lawsuit to have the reference to God removed, and to my great surprise, they’ve succeeded!
State Rep. Tom Riner (D-Louisville) added the amendments before anyone was really paying attention, and is disappointed by Judge Thomas Wingate’s ruling that the statement violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
I find it particularly funny Riner seems to think “God is not a religion”, and “God is God”. Hey Riner, what the hell is that supposed to mean, anyways? Don’t you think making reference to an invisible and supposedly all powerful sky god constitutes a religion? Just sayin’.