A new study published in the American Sociological Review confirmed something most of us already know: it isn’t theology and spirituality that explains the positive relationship between religion and happiness; it’s the community element.

Our study offers compelling evidence that it is the social aspects of religion rather than theology or spirituality that leads to life satisfaction,” said Chaeyoon Lim, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the study.

The benefits of religion (yes, there are some, admittedly) is largely due to the fact human beings are social animals. There’s nothing revolutionary about that statement, and yet it seems to be largely ignored by everyone. Understandably, religionists want to believe the benefits of religion is in the dogma and belief, since these serve as proof, in their eyes, that their religion is something special. In reality, the fact humans are interacting with one another AFTER the pastor finishes his little speech plays a far more important role in the degree of satisfaction of everyone in attendance.

As atheists we’ve been forced to admit we cannot hope to grow as a movement if we ignore the important fact our species is entirely dependent on being social and having a sense of belonging. We were always too afraid of being labeled as a religion to seriously consider organizing ourselves the way religions do, but in so doing we ignore a fundamentally important aspect of ourselves. The good news is no dogma or preaching is necessary. So long as people have a place to regularly meet and be social, the rest takes care of itself.

I feel this has already been confirmed so many times it personally bores me: yet another study found people with higher intelligence tend to not believe in God. Professor Lynn at Ulster University in the UK published a study that found the “intellectual elite” seriously devoid of religion when compared to their less educated counter-parts. The study also found since the last time the Royal Society was surveyed for religiosity, belief in God actually went down as well (it wasn’t very high to begin with, as you may have guessed).

Of course, there are those who refuse to acknowledge this obvious fact higher education erodes religious beliefs:

…Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.
“Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterization of religion as primitive, which – while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism – is perhaps not the most helpful response,” he said.

Yes, it’s a dangerous trend to be honest, isn’t it?

So religion isn’t primitive, eh? I think your own beliefs betray their ancient origin, my friend. The belief a man was born of a virgin, someone ascended into heaven on a winged horse, or the sun revolved around the earth are all demonstrably false and dumb, and yet billions of people believe in that shit. This survey wasn’t trying to be “helpful” to the delusions of ignorant monkeys; it was trying to determine if religiosity was a matter of education. The conclusion is unmistakable, and for most atheists, completely unsurprising.

Christians are always feeling persecuted (it’s kind of their “thing”). If you bother to have a conversation with one and mention you think his beliefs are about as consistent with objective reality as Greek mythology, there’s no end to the huffing and puffing that will ensue. You’ll be accused of anything from intolerance to persecution. How dare you tell them their beliefs are unsubstantiated? How dare you be proud of your lack of belief in the supernatural?

Reverend Kyev Tatum of the Friendship Rock Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas has called on his obviously broke-ass parishioners to boycott public transport in protest of atheists putting up “Millions of Americans are Good Without God” ads on buses in Dallas. They seem to take offense at our message of “indifference”.

Although there are many who say they will partake in this 30 day boycott, in reality, they will probably have no choice. I mean, these people are poor, not terribly educated, and public transit is essentially their lifeblood.

Now they know how atheists feel every time we’ve had to ride a bus with one of their annoying ads on it. We acted like adults, let shit slide, and when we finally decide to grow a pair and put up our own, Christians flip out. So not only do we get to reach millions of “in the closet” atheists, we also get to expose the childishness of believers at the same time. Can you say win-win?

You know the stereotype that religious people are mostly poor, uneducated and overweight? Well, it looks like there might be something to it. A new book entitled “Born Atheist” compiled two different studies on religiosity and obesity, and unsurprisingly, found the fattest states also turned out to be the most religious.

The CalorieLab 2010 obesity report, based on statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicates the most overweight states, in order, are Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina. All the way down at No. 50, the leanest state is Colorado.

Compare this result with a 2008 Gallup poll of more than 355,000 adult Americans on how important religion is in people’s lives. The top 10 religious states are Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and, finally, Kentucky in a tie with Texas.

The only oddball state was Colorado, which is the leanest state but is still moderately religious. My theory is with all those mountains around, it’s hard to stay chubby.

The relationship between skepticism and atheism is complicated. For starters, skepticism is a process with which you evaluate information and claims, while atheism is merely the absence of belief in the supernatural claims of various religions in regard to a “higher power”. Despite the fact we all agree that skepticism is more of a “toolkit” to evaluate claims rather than an actual belief, invariably there are bound to be strong correlations between hard-nosed skepticism and disbelief in God.

There are serious skeptics who are religious, and undoubtedly these people are upset skeptic conventions are being dominated entirely by religious discussions. Jeff Wagg feels strongly about the fact Skepticon is being invaded with talks that, while critical of religious belief, may have too little to do with skepticism. He called his article “Are Atheists Delusional”. I’ll answer that question Jeff. No, we really aren’t.

Yes, there are many aspects of skepticism which have nothing to do with religion. I think, however, the biggest issue today is how uncritical, faith based reasoning has allowed the majority of the population of this planet to associate themselves with one religion or another. Their beliefs, unsupported by any evidence, are so sacred that society is expected to tolerate and even celebrate views which are, more often than not, in complete opposition to science and skepticism in general.

I think the bigger problem here is the inclusion of atheism is creating a divide in a community that also has religious believers as members. The perhaps uncomfortable discussion which never seems to take place, namely that faith is in direct opposition to skepticism, is now front and center, and it’s bound to leave a lot of folks angry about the “atheist takeover”.

Jeff claims skepticism is entirely a “scientific endeavor”, and God is an untestable hypothesis beyond the purview of skepticism, but that’s simply untrue. Religions make claims about the physical world that are testable: prayer has an effect, a virgin gave birth to a human, and miracles happen, to name only a few. Sure, the Spinozan God is abstract, impersonal, and untestable, but so is the flying spaghetti monster and we have no qualms about rejecting these kinds of hypothesis. Why does religion and God get a free ride on this skeptic train?

If you’re religious and a skeptic, I’m sorry to say you’re shitty at both. Rejecting the claims of iridology, homeopathy, and acupuncture but accepting a god-man was born of a virgin and resurrected after his physical death, means that you really haven’t been applying the “toolkit of skepticism” to all aspects of your belief. Odds are you compartmentalized that part of your beliefs in order to avoid uncomfortable questions about your own faith. It sucks for those skeptics out there who also have a belief in God, but as a species we can’t keep coddling childish beliefs that enslave minds. You may not like it, but trust me when I say the atheist invasion has just begun. Is it a coincidence that Skepticon is now bigger than TAM and CFI’s conferences?

Do you remember the Daniel Dennet lecture a few months ago regarding a pilot study he was conducting about atheist priests still giving sermons? If you never watched it and have an hour to kill, I highly recommend going back and checking it out. If you want the short version of what the hell that must be like, check out this article:  The main theme seems to be: “I can’t quit my job because I’m an expert in nonsense and have no marketable skills.”

If you think about it, the reason these guys can’t leave their shitty jobs is they have bills to pay, and apparently duping people with supernatural nonsense is still where it’s at. I joke around about the fact preachers are experts at fairy tales, but when the reality of that hits home, and in particular threatens your wallet, I’m sure we’d probably do the same thing.

I had a thought while reading the article however; are their skills not marketable at all outside preaching? If they were so effective convincing people  God exists, why couldn’t they do something similar to show people that “He” doesn’t for a living?

Sure, you could say the real problem is there’s really no money in it. Fair enough. But why not? We’ve seen time and time again that religionists have deep pockets, while our measly track record isn’t even in the same league. We’re goddamn amateurs when it comes to this stuff, and I think it’s time we started changing that fact. We’ve got to get in the habit of supporting more organizations, or if you aren’t personally satisfied with the ones existing today, maybe start your own. We need clear, concise goals. We need dedicated and smart people to make them happen, and most of all, we need some fucking money.

Am I alone in thinking it might be time for atheists to start thinking about really doing more to help the cause?

With newfound confidence comes new problems. As atheists, we’re beginning to see a backlash against rationalism from our sectarian counterparts who feel threatened by our lack of faith. They see it as “perverse” and a “threat to society”. That’s according to Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini who called on Muslims, Jews and Christians to unite against atheism, materialism and relativism.

Christians also must be able to forge an agreement with Muslims on how to fight those aspects which, like all extremisms, threaten society. I refer to atheism, materialism and relativism. Christians, Muslims and Jews can work together to reach this common objective. I believe it’s time for a new humanism in order to struggle against these perverse phenomena, because only the centrality of the human being is an antidote to fanaticism and [sic]intolerance.

So the centrality of the human being helped stop the Inquisition, the Crusades and suicide bombings, right?

You can read a great summary of this nonsense here, and I won’t go into any detail other than to say this kind of behavior and rhetoric is bound to get worse, not better. Religionists are frustrated by the fact they haven’t won an argument since the Dark Ages, and their usual M.O. of torture, intimidation and vilification are the only tactics they’ve ever had success with. If you knew how many people would bring back the “good old days” of the Inquisition, you’d probably never leave your house.

We’re the most despised minority in the world, and as we slowly move out of “the closet”, what do we encounter? Fear, distrust and hatred. As the true scope of non-belief around the world becomes known (we aren’t as small a minority as everyone would lead you to believe), we should be weary of those blowing war trumpets. They are calling for our heads, and we must expose these dangerous bigots as the delusional loons they are.

Ok Brits, here’s the deal: a number of you nonbelievers have been filling in “Christian” in your census boxes, and this has to stop. The British Humanist Association has launched a campaign aimed at encouraging atheists and agnostics to fill in “no religion” in order to send a clear message religion is becoming increasingly marginalized in society.

With the growing confidence we’ve been feeling recently, I’m confident the supposed “37 million Christians” will shrink faster than the polar icecaps. And for those of you who think it doesn’t really matter what you fill out, consider the fact your country has thousands of faith schools funded by your taxes, all because of perceived religious needs of Britain.

So do your part and tell the government you have no religious affiliation, and faith schools are a waste of fucking time.

A few fans asked me if I could share my thoughts about the Atheist Alliance International Conference that took place last weekend. As some of you know (and most of you will once you listen to the last podcast), we were asked to do the live podcast for the event. Considering there was no valid excuse NOT to do it, I accepted, even though I had never actually stepped foot in a conference before, let alone an atheist one.

Luckily, I had my trusty co-hosts Ryan and Jeff along for the fun, which eased the stress of doing a show in front of a live audience. We knew going in we’d be relative unknowns, but considering the usual tone of the podcast, I was nervous the reaction from the crowd might be utter shock or dismay. The average age of that audience was about 50, but luckily, everyone seemed to have a good sense of humor and the show went a lot better than I had imagined (or was it feared?), with Ryan overhearing positive comments from some of the attendees.

After the show I was approached by Larry over at Sandwalk who invited all of us to have diner with PZ Myers and a couple from the Center for Inquiry Ottawa. The hotel bar, which had already stolen 40 dollars from us with their overpriced beers (at 10 bucks a pop), managed to take more of our money, although this time we ordered the cheapest thing we could on the menu. The meal was completely ordinary, although the service itself was probably even more atrocious than their prices. It took forever to get our damn bills.

Daniel Dennet was speaking the next morning at 8, but we were all too zonked to make it. Instead we headed out after lunch, catching the tail end of the day’s talks. Jeff and I stuck around waiting for the big dinner, which was supposed to play parts of my interview with Susan Jacoby, but due to technical difficulties it ended up being scrapped. They then showed a movie, “The Evangelist” which cleared the room faster than a dirty-bomb scare, and by the time of the dance party, everyone had vamoosed. I tried doing a few break-dancing moves for laughs, and Jonathan Jerry (the AAI’s photographer) took a few pictures of us striking a pose. After working up a sweat, we headed out with some patrons from Saskatoon and drank till the wee hours of the morning. I was so hung over I missed the entire Sunday lineup. Yep, I suck something fierce.

All in all, it was a great first experience, but I have to say something in the format left me with the impression conferences aren’t really designed to attract a younger crowd. I could count on one hand the amount of people who were in their early 20′s. It made me realize if we’re going to make an impact on the next generation, we have to find a way to entice young people. The hard-core supporters aren’t getting any younger, and we need new blood!