tagged w/ Atheism
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"When Alex Aan picked up a copy of Karen Armstrong's Holy War from his local library in west Sumatra in 2005, he had little inkling of his own religious battle to come. But after posting "God doesn't exist" on Facebook, the soft-spoken civil servant, 30, faces up to 11 years in jail for what is considered blasphemy in Indonesia.
His case has stoked a debate in the world's most populous Muslim nation, whose 240 million citizens are technically guaranteed freedom of religion but protected by law only if they believe in one of six credos: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. Those who question any of those face five years in prison for "insulting a major religion", plus an additional six years if they use the internet to spread such "blasphemy" to others.
Activists say Aan's is the first case in which an atheist is being tried in relation to the first pillar of Indonesia's state philosophy – pancasila, which requires belief in one god. From the medium-security rural prison where he has been held for the past two months, Aan has little hope for the future. He has been beaten by angry mobs, rejected by his community and endured public calls for his beheading. For now he is lying low in his cramped cell, awaiting an imminent verdict and has told none of his fellow inmates about his supposed crime.
"The truth is way too dangerous," says Aan quietly, his hands clasped together over his prison-issue blue jeans and button-down shirt. "I'm really worried about my future. And I'm only just now starting to think about how I'm going to deal with it."
Authorities moved Aan from his local prison in west Sumatra's capital, Padang, after he was badly beaten by a group of inmates who knew his case. To see their client for 15 minutes, Aan's lawyers must drive for four hours along a treacherous mountain road that bisects the dwindling Sumatran rainforest and crisscrosses valleys until it ends in a cul-de-sac at the prison's gates.""When Alex Aan picked up a copy of Karen Armstrong's Holy War from his local... more
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Scientific American...
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Losing Your Religion: Analytic Thinking Can Undermine Belief
A series of new experiments shows that analytic thinking can override intuitive assumptions, including those that underlie religious belief
By Marina Krakovsky | April 26, 2012 | 38
The Thinker Musee Rodin Image: Wikimedia Commons/innoxiuss
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People who are intuitive thinkers are more likely to be religious, but getting them to think analytically even in subtle ways decreases the strength of their belief, according to a new study in Science.
The research, conducted by University of British Columbia psychologists Will Gervais and Ara Norenzayan, does not take sides in the debate between religion and atheism, but aims instead to illuminate one of the origins of belief and disbelief. "To understand religion in humans," Gervais says, "you need to accommodate for the fact that there are many millions of believers and nonbelievers."
One of their studies correlated measures of religious belief with people's scores on a popular test of analytic thinking. The test poses three deceptively simple math problems. One asks: "If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?" The first answer that comes to mind—100 minutes—turns out to be wrong. People who take the time to reason out the correct answer (five minutes) are, by definition, more analytical—and these analytical types tend to score lower on the researchers' tests of religious belief.
But the researchers went beyond this interesting link, running four experiments showing that analytic thinking actually causes disbelief. In one experiment, they randomly assigned participants to either the analytic or control condition. They then showed them photos of either Rodin's The Thinker or, in the control condition, of the ancient Greek sculpture Discobolus, which depicts an athlete poised to throw a discus. (The Thinker was used because it is such an iconic image of deep reflection that, in a separate test with different participants, seeing the statue improved how well subjects reasoned through logical syllogisms.) After seeing the images, participants took a test measuring their belief in God on a scale of 0 to 100. Their scores on the test varied widely, with a standard deviation of about 35 in the control group. But it is the difference in the averages that tells the real story: In the control group, the average score for belief in God was 61.55, or somewhat above the scale's midpoint. On the other hand, for the group who had just seen The Thinker, the resulting average was only 41.42. Such a gap is large enough to indicate a mild believer is responding as a mild nonbeliever—all from being visually reminded of the human capacity to think.
Another experiment used a different method to show a similar effect. It exploited the tendency, previously identified by psychologists, of people to override their intuition when faced with the demands of reading a text in a hard-to-read typeface. Gervais and Norenzayan did this by giving two groups a test of participants' belief in supernatural agents like God and angels, varying only the font in which the test was printed. People who took the belief test in the unclear font (a typewriterlike font set in italics) expressed less belief than those who took it in a more common, easy-to-read typeface. "It's such a subtle manipulation," Norenzayan says. "Yet something that seemingly trivial can lead to a change that people consider important in their religious belief system." On a belief scale of 3 to 21, participants in the analytic condition scored an average of almost two points lower than those in the control group.
Analytic thinking undermines belief because, as cognitive psychologists have shown, it can override intuition. And we know from past research that religious beliefs—such as the idea that objects and events don't simply exist but have a purpose—are rooted in intuition. "Analytic processing inhibits these intuitions, which in turn discourages religious belief," Norenzayan explains.
Harvard University psychologist Joshua Greene, who last year published a paper on the same subject with colleagues Amitai Shenhav and David Rand, praises this work for its rigorous methodology. "Any one of their experiments can be reinterpreted, but when you've got [multiple] different kinds of evidence pointing in the same direction, it's very impressive."
The study also gets high marks from University of California, Irvine, evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala, the only former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to have once been ordained as a Catholic priest, and who continues to assert that science and religion are compatible. Ayala calls the studies ingenious, and is surprised only that the effects are not even stronger. "You would expect that the people who challenge the general assumptions of their culture—in this case, their culture's religious beliefs—are obviously the people who are more analytical," he says.
The researchers, for their part, point out that both reason and intuition have their place. "Our intuitions can be phenomenally useful," Gervais says, "and analytic thinking isn't some oracle of the truth."
Greene concurs, while also raising a provocative question implicit in the findings: "Obviously, there are millions of very smart and generally rational people who believe in God," he says. "Obviously, this study doesn't prove the nonexistence of God. But it poses a challenge to believers: If God exists, and if believing in God is perfectly rational, then why does increasing rational thinking tend to decrease belief in God?"
.Scientific American...
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Losing Your Religion: Analytic Thinking Can Undermine... more
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Today, I came across the above image on facebook and thought at first, HOW SILLY that people who believe in this Mormon faith would actually wear magic underwear to protect them from danger. Then I thought, IT'S NO CRAZIER THAN SOME OF THE OTHER suppositions that religions teach their flocks to assert as true; thus, today's blog.
The magic underwear (or undergarment) is just another fairytale belief from a supernatural and superstitious world that religions EVERYWHERE project. Mormonism, in my ‘book’ is not any stranger than the other belief systems that rely on some enchanted faith. They all tell their followers to TRUST ME AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED IN AN AFTERLIFE. Now who in the HELL can disprove that??? The sycophants of MOST religions are led to believe that they will win the lottery once their earthly existence has expired. Why and how can they possibly believe in such a ridiculous delusion?
Because it was written down on parchment or paper by some other delusional (but educated enough to know how to write) human being and these antiquated essays were gathered together through the years, put in a binder and labeled SCRIPTURE.
Well, for me, I’d rather view a sunset and feel gloriously part of the greatest mystery mankind can experience; the unfathomable, unknowable truth of existence.
So please, don't subject to ridicule another person's belief system when you, yourself believe in the same ridiculous notions of the supernatural in your own orthodoxy. thinkingblue
PS: I once knew a very religious (Catholic) person who would make endless fun of those who believed in UFO's and aliens from another planet... WTF?
Excerpt below from this article: http://davewhittle.net/2012/04/05/truth/what-mormons-really-believe-get-ready-for-the-anti-mormon-bigotry-parade
EXCERPT: “Do Mormons REALLY believe all that?”
The answer is usually no – but I’ll admit: we Mormons believe some rather strange things. For example, we believe God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to a 14-year old boy in upstate New York in 1820. We believe that same boy, with the utterly unremarkable name of Joseph Smith, received engraved plates of gold from an angel and, through revelation, translated those plates, published the translation that is now The Book of Mormon, and established a church with hundreds of adherents – all before he reached the age of 25. We believe in modern prophets and in personal revelation. The practice of our religion makes us objects of ridicule as well. No coffee, tea, tobacco or alcohol? No pre-marital or extramarital sex? Mormons in good standing pay a full tithe? Once polygamy was OK but now it’s not? A previous policy preventing the blacks from receiving the Priesthood that was rescinded by revelation as recently as 1978? Proxy baptisms for our deceased ancestors and other secret (we say sacred) ceremonies inside temples? Ceremonial undergarments as a remembrance of our temple covenants? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.Today, I came across the above image on facebook and thought at first, HOW SILLY that... more
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Religion is an obstacle to progress, claims a transhumanist. Amoral murderous "nature" must be conquered by humanity; we need to establish our superior system and guide our own evolution. http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20120501Religion is an obstacle to progress, claims a transhumanist. Amoral murderous... more
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By Andy Norman
The biblical story of Abraham and Isaac poses a crucial test for believers. If God commanded you, as he did Abraham, to slaughter your own son, would you do it? If, like Abraham, you’d plunge a knife into his chest, then congratulations! You’ve passed the test! Your faith is true, your priorities correct, and you understand the kind of unquestioning devotion that God demands of us. That, presumably, is the moral of the story: unthinking obedience above all.
The story pits devotion to God against basic moral decency and celebrates the subjugation of the latter to the former. This speaks volumes about the value system at the heart of the so-called “Abrahamic” faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So what if you have to traumatize your son, or even kill him, to win God’s favor? The former is temporary, the latter is forever. What’s a child’s life worth, next to eternal salvation? The Bible’s answer is clear: not much.
In fairness to the adherents of the Abrahamic faiths, most would fail God’s test. They don’t allow the official priorities of their faith to derange their value systems so completely. For this, we can thank goodness. (No, really: copycat expressions of Abrahamic devotion would presumably be much more common were it not for our innate, and evolved, sense of goodness.) Of course, those of us with a functioning moral compass are apt to regard Abraham as having failed a basic test of moral decency. Celebrate Abraham for traumatizing his son? Now that’s crazy, not to mention morally abhorrent! The Abraham story is a litmus test for us, too.
To read the rest of this article on Humanist Network News, click here: http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-04-humanisms-moral-depths-an-abraham-and-isaac-story-foBy Andy Norman
The biblical story of Abraham and Isaac poses a crucial test for... more
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The atheist book project "A Better Life" is close to its fundraising goal via Kickstarter and now has a generous backer who has agreed to match dollar-for-dollar every new pledge or pledge increase up to $10,000!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/802369111/a-better-lifeThe atheist book project "A Better Life" is close to its fundraising goal... more
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Yahoo!...
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Thousands of US atheists turn out for 'Reason Rally'
AFP
By Robert MacPherson | AFP – 1 hr 14 mins ago
Thousands of atheists, agnostics and other non-believers turned out in the US capital on Saturday to celebrate their rejection of the idea of God and to claim a bigger place in public life.
The Reason Rally, sponsored by 20 atheist, secular and humanist groups, was billed as the biggest-ever "coming-out" party for the fastest-growing religious group in the United States -- those with no religion.
"There are too many people in this country who have been cowed into fear of coming out as atheists, secularists or agnostics," said the event's star turn, Richard Dawkins, the British scientist and best-selling atheist author.
"We are far more numerous than anybody realizes," he said, prompting a loud cheer from the youthful crowd that defied grey skies and drizzle for an afternoon of speeches, music and satire on the National Mall.
Jesse Galef of the Secular Student Alliance, a spokesman for the rally, told AFP he conservatively estimated the turnout at 10,000. The National Park Service, which oversees the mall, had issued a permit for 15,000.
In the center of the good-humored crowd rose a crucifix with an affixed sign that declared: "Banish the Ten Commandments to the dustbin of history." Other posters read: "Good without a god" and "Hi Mom! I'm an atheist."
"This country was not built on religion and God," said another of the day's speaker, Michael Shermer, a self-defined "skeptic" and columnist for the respected Scientific American magazine. "It was built on reason."
"God fixation won't fix our nation, because nothing fails like prayer," added Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is contesting Pennsylvania's declaration of 2012 as "the year of the Bible."
On the edges of the Mall, atheists engaged in vigorous debates with a handful of Christians who turned up with their own placards that read: "Study and obey the Bible" and "Jesus forgives sin."
"Jesus Christ is your only hope," exclaimed one soapbox preacher through a bullhorn. "Humble yourself today."
In no other Western country does religion figure so highly in society as in the United States, where "In God We Trust" appears on bank notes and "one nation under God" is part of the national Pledge of Allegiance.
Yet the most recent American Religious Identification Survey, published in 2009, found that Americans with no religious affiliations -- "the nones" in sociological jargon -- make up 15 percent of the total adult population.
"That is more than Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists combined and doubled," said David Silverman, president of American Atheists, which campaigns for the civil rights of non-believers.
David Roozen of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut said the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has "about doubled" in the last 20 years.
"It's probably the fastest-growing category of religion in the United States," the sociologist told AFP in a telephone interview earlier this week.
Silverman, who defines atheism simply as "the lack of belief in a god," said a deep-seated fear of prejudice and discrimination leads many Americans with no religious affiliation not to acknowledge themselves as atheists.
Such discrimination, atheists say, includes a virtual inability to serve in public office, the risk of being fired by a religiously devout employer, denial of reproductive health care and religiously biased school texts.
"These are battles that homosexuals have won, people of color have won, women have won," said journalist Jamila Bey, who recalled losing a job after her Christian boss learned she was an atheist. "We can't stay silent anymore."
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Thousands of US atheists turn out for 'Reason Rally'... more
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The Tennessee state Senate passed a bill Monday that protects teachers who allow student to question and criticize "controversial" scientific theories like evolution.
The Senate voted 24-8 for SB 893, which would allow teachers to help students "understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories" like "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning."
"The idea behind this bill is that students should be encouraged to challenge current scientific thought and theory," Republican state Sen. Bo Watson told The Tennesseean. Watson is the bill's sponsor.
The proposal also instructs teachers on how to comfortably and appropriately "address students' concerns about certain scientific theories" within a curriculum established by the Board of Education. The bill would not affect the state's science curriculum.
Democratic opponents of the bill, however, question whether the motives behind the measure are more political than educational. Democratic Sen. Andy Berke said the bill would cast Tennessee in a negative light, referencing the state's historical battleground for evolution in education.
"We're simply dredging up the problems of our past with this bill that will affect our future," Berke told The Tennessean. "I'm a person of faith. If my children ask, 'How does that mesh with my faith?' I don't want their teacher answering that question."
The measure has also drawn staunch opposition from several groups, including the National Center for Science Education and the American Civil Liberties Union. In a statement to legislators, eight Tennesseans who are members of the National Academy of Science said the bill will likely lead to "scientifically unwarranted criticisms of evolution," the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.
"By undermining the teaching of evolution in Tennessee's public schools, HB368 and SB893 would miseducate students, harm the state's national reputation, and weaken its efforts to compete in a science-driven global economy," the statement reads.
A version of the legislation passed the state House last April, and now the revised Senate version returns to the House for a vote. Gov. Bill Haslam said Monday he would discuss the bill with the state Board of Education.
"It is a fair question what the general assembly's role is," he said. "That's why we have a state board of education."
The move among Tennessee lawmakers is one of several across the country that seeks more wiggle room for discussion or of intelligent design in public schools. Indiana legislators in January moved forward on a bill that would allow school districts to decide whether to include creationism alongside teachings of evolution in science curriculum.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/indiana-senate-creationism-teaching-bill_n_1234185.html?ir=Education
Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Missouri have also considered similar bills designed to encourage critical examination of evolution theory.
Research from two Pennsylvania State University professors revealed last year that the majority of public school biology teachers in the U.S. shy away from teaching evolution because they're either unwilling or unprepared to teach it: some advocate creationism while others are afraid to address the topic for fear of controversy.
According to results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test known as the Nation's Report Card, less than half of U.S. fourth-, eighth- and 12-th grade students were considered proficient in science.The Tennessee state Senate passed a bill Monday that protects teachers who allow... more
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WASHINGTON -- The atheists are coming! So are the non-atheists.
Saturday's "Reason Rally," billed as the "largest gathering of the secular movement in world history," is expected to to draw as many as 30,000 nonbelievers to the National Mall for the public celebration of secular values.
The event brings a long list of famously godless speakers to nation's capital, including Dr. Richard Dawkins, Jessica Ahlquist -- the Rhode Island student who successfully challenged a prayer banner display at her high school, comedian Eddie Izzard, The Amazing Randi and "Mythbusters" co-host Adam Savage.
Activities run from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., when, according to the official schedule, the event will close with hugs.
Highlights of the Reason Rally include a performance by the band "Bad Religion," a tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens and a video from Congress' only open atheist, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.).
A counter-rally going by the name of "True Reason" will be held on the Mall at the same time as the Reason Rally. The goal of True Reason, according to the event's website, is for those who believe Christianity is a reasonable worldview "to demonstrate a humble, loving and thoughtful response to the Reason Rally."
How will they do this? Per the event website, by handing out summaries of a soon-to-be-published e-book on the topic of Christianity and reason -- the book is also called "True Reason." Also, by "shar[ing] Christ person to person as opportunity arises" and giving away bottles of water.WASHINGTON -- The atheists are coming! So are the non-atheists.
Saturday's... more
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Because if there’s a genuine ethics out there that applies because it actually is so, maybe just maybe I’m actually obligated to do something about whatever it is I see wrong in the world, and I see plenty. I don’t just mean living a green lifestyle with as little footprint as is practical, donating to charities, voting one ticket or another, writing letters, or protesting. That’s all well and good. But might I not be obliged to take up something more direct like clearing minefields? Or contributing to the general welfare by a more judicious use of my time and talents? Is free time a luxury? Is luxury a guilty pleasure? Because if so, I should rather be off my ass somewhere agitating for change for the better in some way. I should be placing myself in harm’s way commensurate with my ability to make a positive difference. Depending on which way a person believes, I may even need to join the military (a thought which has actually crossed my mind with varying degrees of seriousness in the past).Because if there’s a genuine ethics out there that applies because it actually... more
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AmericanAtheists...
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18 March 2012
Have You Ever Pretended To Be A Christian?
Author: BlairScott
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(The events described herein occured in 1992. I was 21 back then... it's amazing how much my life has changed in the past 20 years.)
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Have You Ever Pretended To Be A Christian?
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Yes, I have.
I was a Christian when I was really young. Well, at least my parents said I was. After leaving a small and quaint farmer’s Presbyterian Church outside of Omaha, Nebraska, I began to explore Christianity on my own away from my parents. Between the sixth and seventh grade I attended several different Sunday schools in Bellevue, Nebraska. I finally settled on one and caught a Sunday school bus every Sunday and took it to the school gym at Logan Fontanelle Junior High School. I participated in the programs and songs and I did all the silly activities.
It was later in my life that I realized that I was not really a Christian that summer. I was pretending and “searching.” I was attending Sunday school and playing along in order to fit in with a theistic society in order to avoid retaliation. I was doing it because everyone else was.
Theater MasksI played along and searched on my own not just because of religious peer pressure, but also because I honestly thought something was wrong with me. All my family and friends and neighbors were Christians. Christian churches were everywhere and religious events and programs were all over television. So why did I have a hard time getting it? Why was I so skeptical? There had to be something wrong with me that was preventing me from getting it.
In my late teens and early twenties, I began to understand my atheism better and I learned not to be afraid of retaliation and more importantly, I began to understand why I was different. I learned that there was nothing wrong with me – that I was actually the rational one. In hindsight it is clear as to why I had such a hard time accepting Christianity and religion in general: my love of science.
When I was stationed in Italy, I met my ex-wife through a mutual friend. My friend thought I needed to go to church, but he knew I was an atheist. He convinced me to go by saying that he and a bunch of friends were meeting at his house and wanted to know if I would like to meet his friends. He never told me it was a church. After I realized what was going on, I told my friend that I would never go back. I was disappointed in him for deceiving me. However, there was this woman there and I wanted to see her again. So I kept going back just to see her. I knew that her parents were fundamentalists and that they had gone beyond religious to being radical (borderline occult). This was going to be a challenge.
In order to see her again and gain the trust of her parents, I had to pretend to be a Christian – and not just a regular Christian – a fundamentalist Christian. It was actually easy to play the role, and I even considered it a little fun sometimes. I allowed her parents to baptize me in their bathtub and later in the Mediterranean for their benefit. I was convincing enough as a fundamentalist Christian that they allowed me to move in with them and become part of their family. Ultimately they allowed me to marry that woman I met at the in-house church at my friend’s.
We had to get married in Italy first so that we would be married “in the eyes of God” before we flew to the states to get legally married. The idea of being married “in the eyes of God” was to avoid pre-marital sex (too late). We got married in La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy: it was a very religious ceremony and the military chaplain was a bumbling idiot (he had protested our marriage, but ultimately gave in). My ex-wife and I ignored everything around us and just stared at each other’s eyes. I was doing such a good job of ignoring the chaplain that he had to ask me twice to “repeat after me.” I had toned him out completely.
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CONTINUED...
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18 March 2012
Have You Ever Pretended To Be A... more
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CNN...
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March 1st, 2012
05:00 AM ET
Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews with ‘myth’ billboards in Arabic and Hebrew
By Dan Merica, CNN
(CNN) – The billboard wars between atheists and believers have raged for years now, especially around New York City, and a national atheist group is poised to take the battle a step further with billboards in Muslim and Jewish enclaves bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew.
American Atheists, a national organization, will unveil the billboards Monday on Broadway in heavily Muslim Paterson, New Jersey and in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, immediately after the Williamsburg Bridge.
“You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards say. The Patterson version is in English and Arabic, and the Brooklyn one in English and Hebrew. To the right of the text on the Arabic sign is the word for God, Allah. To the right of the text on the Hebrew sign is the word for God, Yahweh.
Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers.
“Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don't have to live that way if they don’t want to.”
CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
Silverman says the signs advertise the American Atheists’ upcoming convention and an atheist rally, called the Reason Rally, in Washington next month.
Atheists have long pointed to surveys that suggest atheists and agnostics make up between 3% and 4% of the U.S. population. That number increases when Americans unaffiliated with any religion are included. The Pew Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that 16% are unaffiliated, though only a fraction of those are avowed atheists and agnostics.
Silverman acknowledges that the pair of new billboards will likely cause a stir.
“People are going to be upset,” he says. “That is not our concern.”
“We are not trying to inflame anything,” he continued. “We are trying to advertise our existence to atheist in those communities. The objective is not to inflame but rather to advertise the atheist movement in the Muslim and Jewish community.”
The billboards will be up for one month and cost American Atheists, based in New Jersey, less than $15,000 each, according to Silverman.
Mohamed Elfilali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, laughed when he learned the Arabic billboard would go up in the same town as his office. He says he’s surprised that someone is spending money on such a sign.
“It is not the first and won’t be the last time people have said things about God or religion,” Elfilali says. “I respect people’s opinion about God; obviously they are entitled to it. I don’t think God is a myth, but that doesn’t exclude people to have a different opinion.”
But Elfilali bemoaned the billboards as another example of a hyper-polarized world.
“Sadly, there is a need to polarize society as opposed to build bridges,” he says. “That is the century that we live in. It is very polarized, very politicized.”
Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue had a similar response.
“The great thing about America is we are marketplace for ideas,” he says. “People put up awful, inappropriate billboards expressing their ideas and that is embraced.”
But Lippe acknowledged that there are a lot of agnostic and atheist Jews. A recent Gallup survey found 53% of Jews identified as nonreligious. Among American Jews, 17% identified as very religious and 30% identified as moderately religious.
“When you have two Jews in the room, you have three opinions,” joked Lippe.
American Atheists have used the word “myth” to describe religion and God on billboards before. Last November, the organization went up with a billboard immediately before the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln tunnel that showed the three wise men heading to Bethlehem and stated “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.”
At the time, the American Atheists said the billboard was to encourage Atheists to come out of the closet with their beliefs and to dispel the myth that Christianity owns the solstice season.
The Christmas billboard led to a “counter punch” by the Catholic League, a New York-based Catholic advocacy group. The Catholic League put up a competing billboard that said, “You Know It's Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus."
Silverman says his group’s billboard campaigns will continue long into the future.
“There will be more billboards,” Silverman says. “We are not going to be limiting to Muslims and Jews, we are going to be putting up multiple billboards in multiple communities in order to get atheists to come out of the closet.”
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Dan Merica - Dan Merica
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March 1st, 2012
05:00 AM ET
Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews... more
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"There was surprise when Prof Dawkins acknowledged that he was less than 100 per cent certain of his conviction that there is no creator.
The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, who chaired the discussion, interjected: “Why don’t you call yourself an agnostic?” Prof Dawkins answered that he did.
An incredulous Sir Anthony replied: “You are described as the world’s most famous atheist.”"There was surprise when Prof Dawkins acknowledged that he was less than 100 per... more
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If you have a child currently enrolled in public school be warned: a heavy dose of religion may accompany his or her studies.
According to Kimberly Winston of Religion News Service, a number of state legislators are now pushing some legislation that would introduce studying the Bible as a choice in their state's public schools, and other legislation that would teach creationism as valid.
Bible courses, offered as elective "literature" classes, are being considered by lawmakers in Arizona and have already been approved in South Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Since these classes are not mandatory and are supposed to be taught with religious neutrality, there has not been a great deal of public opposition to them. Some school districts within the states where they are allowed still choose to not offer them at all.
To read the rest of this article by AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt, click here: http://hmn.st/xXKSCIIf you have a child currently enrolled in public school be warned: a heavy dose of... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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COLUMN ONE
A meeting of hearts if not minds
Some Jehovah's Witnesses with leukemia turn to an atheist Cedars-Sinai doctor who respects their refusal to accept blood transfusions.
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PHOTO:
Dr. Michael Lill examines Jehovah's Witness leukemia patient Christina Blouvan-Cervantes, 27, while her husband, Andres Cervantes, 21, observes during a weekly checkup at Cedars-Sinai's outpatient cancer center.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / January 10, 2012)
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By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
February 2, 2012
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PART ONE...
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Christina Blouvan-Cervantes had been battling aggressive leukemia when her blood count plummeted and she landed in the emergency room in Fresno. Her doctors told her a blood transfusion was her only hope. But her faith wouldn't allow her to receive one.
So she turned to one of the only doctors who could possibly keep her alive: a committed atheist who views her belief system as wholly irrational.
Dr. Michael Lill, head of the blood and marrow transplant program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, is a last recourse for Jehovah's Witnesses with advanced leukemia.
They arrive at Lill's door out of desperation and a desire to live. Many specialists decline to treat them because of their biblically centered refusal to accept blood transfusions, a mainstay of conventional care for the cancer.
Lill thinks their refusal is risky and illogical but nevertheless has devised a way to treat them that accommodates their religious convictions.
Despite his belief that God doesn't exist, he has become a hero to many devout believers.
"We don't care if he believes in God or not," said David Goldfarb, chairman of the Los Angeles-area Hospital Liaison Committee for the Jehovah's Witnesses. "What we really believe in is, 'Are you a skilled and great doctor … and can you respect our belief system?'"
Lill, a 52-year-old Australian native, said ideological differences between doctor and patient are beside the point.
"Just because someone makes a decision which I would view as the wrong decision … doesn't mean at that point in time I say, 'No, I am not going to look after you anymore,' " he said. "I try and treat people's religious beliefs with respect."
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COLUMN ONE
A meeting of hearts if not minds
Some... more
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OSU Football Player Asks Twitter Followers to “Show Some Hate” To An Atheist
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Hate, as an emotion, can be a very powerful motivator for both good and bad. The hatred of racism has helped propel civil rights. The hatred of sexism has helped propel women’s suffrage. When one sees hate fuel good things, it is usually hate directed at an unjust or cruel idea or social norm.
It is the hatred of the other kind that concerns most of us: hatred toward people, especially when manifested physically, such as the brutal beatings of homosexuals, lynching of black southerners during the Civil Rights era, etc. This is the type of hate that normally brings about bad things. History is certainly rife with examples.
Everyone is perfectly free to hate anyone they want. But when someone directs hate at an individual or group of people or asks others to “bring the hate” or “visit the hate” upon someone else, then one’s freedom of thought is now a physical manifestation of and subject to criticism, laws, and the appropriate consequences and repercussions associated with the physical action or manifestation.
We have a prime example of this at The Ohio State University: the difference between hating someone and bringing the hate upon someone. OSU football player Jake Russell (#21, punter) tweeted late night on January 24th, “my roommate max rouse (look him up on Facebook) is an atheist, please show him some hate.”
The tweet was deleted later on by Mr. Russell, but not before it was captured for the entire world to see Mr. Russell’s bigotry on display (see image above). Why did Mr. Russell want his 1,400+ followers to show some hate to an atheist? And what exactly does it mean to “show hate?”
Clearly concerned about the well being of Mr. Rouse, the screen capture was emailed to OSU Vice President of Student Life, Javaune Adams-Gaston. Mrs. Adams-Gaston assured American Atheists (via Greg Lammers, our Missouri State Director, who saw and reported the tweet) that the school will investigate the matter immediately. Thank you to Mrs. Adams-Gaston and The Ohio State University for not sitting idly by while this happens.
As for Mr. Russell, we hope sir that no one ever asks anyone else to show you some hate. We hope that one day you will learn the pluralism that exists at your school and in your future places of employment and residence. If anything happens to Mr. Rouse, you will be directly responsible for instigating such action and inciting someone else to violence or harassment. Mr. Russell has brought dishonor to his team and to his school. He has disgraced himself by displaying his bigotry in public. In a way we owe Mr. Russell an thank you for displaying his bigotry so we now know to be wary of him and his possible actions.
To Mr. Rouse, may we point you to The Ohio State University Students for Freethought on campus, an affiliate of the Secular Student Alliance. May you find like-minded friends there, where we can practically guarantee no one will “show you some hate.”
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By Blair Scott.
OSU Football Player Asks Twitter Followers to “Show Some Hate” To An... more
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Atheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is stealing from that very religious tradition by erecting a temple of worship.
Author Alain de Botton announced plans to build an Atheist temple in the U.K., reports DeZeen magazine.
A collaboration with Tom Greenall Architects, the structure will be built in the City of London.
Dedicated to the idea of perspective, the black tower will scale 46 meters (150 ft), with each centimeter honoring earth's age of 4.6 billion years, notes Wired.
But a place of worship isn't the only attribute from organized religion that Atheists can benefit from, says de Botton. In his newly released book "Religion For Atheists," the author points to design, art and community to inspire and attract a following.
Though de Botton has yet to announce a final date for opening the temple, he hopes to create a network of such buildings across the U.K., according to BLOUIN ARTINFO.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/atheists-temple_n_1231848.htmlAtheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is... more
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Leo Igwe, a prominent Nigerian human rights activist, delivers this manifesto decrying the limits of religosityLeo Igwe, a prominent Nigerian human rights activist, delivers this manifesto decrying... more
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