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Sunday 20 July 2008 at 3:00 pm

The price of atheism

Wednesday 11 July 2007 at 2:15 pm American Video about a girl who comes out as an atheist at school because she did not want to join the basketball prayers. As a result she was chased from school by both by the other pupils and basketball team and even by her teachers.

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/64147/detail/

Dawkins root of all evil

Monday 21 May 2007 at 12:00 am For Australian television audiences accustomed to comfortable Sunday evenings spent watching genial English dons strolling through ruined castles speculating about the sex life of 16th-century monarchs, Richard Dawkins will have come as one hell of a shock. So, too, will his message, which strikes at the very things they hold most dear.

Not just God, whom he denounces, in Old Testament guise as "the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist, an ethnic-cleanser urging his people on to acts of genocide". But church schools, miracles, heaven and hell, too. Faith, hope, meaning: things more important, for many people, than life itself.

Dawkins is unapologetic. "The time has come for people of reason to say: enough is enough. Religious faith discourages independent thought. It's divisive and it's dangerous."

Read on: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/.../the-root-of-all-evil/

External Attacks

Tuesday 01 May 2007 at 12:00 am Atheist Strategy in the Age of New Atheism: External Attacks

I remain unconvinced that much is new about the "new atheism," however, I do welcome the attention atheism is receiving in the mainstream media. Used correctly, this is an opportunity for us to put atheism in the mind of the public, correct the many misconceptions, and to encourage believers to question the value of the superstitions to which they cling. At the same time, I encourage my fellow atheists to think strategically about how best to use this opportunity. The price of suddenly finding ourselves in the spotlight is that our mistakes will be amplified, so it is imperative that we remain mindful. Read more

Nurse wants to be declared atheist

Thursday 19 April 2007 at 12:00 am MALACCA: A 58-year-old nurse is seeking a declaration in the High Court to be proclaimed an atheist and not a Muslim as stated in her MyKad.

She also wants her name to be reverted to her original Chinese name. In her affidavit, Nora Koh Abdullah or Koh Kwee Chew said that in 1986 her friend, only known as Siti, had persuaded her to embrace Islam and had taken her to the Malacca Religious Department to be converted.

“I only did it to please my friend Siti. I have never practised the tenets of Islam nor that of Buddhism, which is the faith of my parents.”

Read article on Thestar.com

Atheist Revolution : Your Beliefs Are Not Sacred to Me

Sunday 01 April 2007 at 12:00 am Christians seem to think that their religious beliefs deserve respect, even from persons who do not share them. "You don't have to believe what I do," they say, "but you should at least respect my beliefs." Why? I happen to think that I can defend your right to believe as you wish without having even a trace of respect for what you believe. Moreover, I can respect you as a person without respecting your religious beliefs.

The truly interesting thing is that many religious moderates, freethinkers, and atheists share this viewpoint that religious beliefs should be respected. In other words, many non-Christians would agree that it is okay for me not to share your beliefs as long as I still respect them. Whether this perspective comes from politeness, a desire to avoid conflict, a fear of retribution, or some other source, it remains a powerful factor maintaining religious belief. It erects a force field around religion, preventing meaningful criticism from entering.

The question that needs to be asked is whether your religious beliefs deserve respect.

Read on: atheistrevolution.blogspot.com

Religion has balkanized our world today

Sunday 01 April 2007 at 12:00 am Sam Harris, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Pete Stark, a California Democrat, appears to be the first congressman in U.S. history to acknowledge that he doesn't believe in God. In a country in which 83 percent of the population thinks that the Bible is the literal or "inspired" word of the creator of the universe, this took political courage.

Of course, one can imagine that Cicero's handlers in the 1st century B.C. lost some sleep when he likened the traditional accounts of the Greco-Roman gods to the "dreams of madmen" and to the "insane mythology of Egypt."

Mythology is where all gods go to die, and it seems that Stark has secured a place in U.S. history simply by admitting that a fresh grave should be dug for the God of Abraham “ the jealous, genocidal, priggish and self-contradictory tyrant of the Bible and the Quran. Stark is the first of our leaders to display a level of intellectual honesty befitting a consul of ancient Rome. Bravo.

The truth is, there is not a person on Earth who has a good reason to believe that Jesus rose from the dead or that Muhammad spoke to the angel Gabriel in a cave. And yet billions of people claim to be certain about such things. As a result, Iron Age ideas about everything high and low “ sex, cosmology, gender equality, immortal souls, the end of the world, the validity of prophecy, etc. “ continue to divide our world and subvert our national discourse. Many of these ideas, by their very nature, hobble science, inflame human conflict and squander scarce resources.

Read more...

The blasphemy challenge

Thursday 25 January 2007 at 12:00 am The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 DVDs of The God Who Wasn't There, the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative -- to put it mildly."
There's only one catch: We want your soul.
It's simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn't There DVD. It's that easy.

INSTRUCTIONS:
You may damn yourself to Hell however you would like, but somewhere in your video you must say this phrase: "I deny the Holy Spirit."

Read on: The blasphemy challenge: do you have a soul you're not using?

Austin Cline: Why atheists don't believe in god

Tuesday 19 December 2006 at 12:00 am

Multiple Gods and Religious Traditions:
It is difficult to credit any one religion as being True or any one god as being True when there have been so many throughout human history. None appears to have any greater claim to being more credible or reliable than any other. Why Christianity and not Judaism? Why Islam and not Hinduism? Why monotheism and not polytheism? Every position has had its defenders, all as ardent as those in other traditions. They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong. Too Many Gods...
Contradictory Characteristics in Gods:
Theists often claim that their gods are perfect beings; they describe gods, however, in contradictory and incoherent ways. Numerous characteristics are attributed to their gods, some of which are impossible and some combinations of which are impossible. As described, it's unlikely or impossible for these gods to exist. This doesn't mean that no god could possibly exist, just that the ones theists claim to believe in don't. Contradictory Definitions of Gods...
Religion is Self-Contradictory:
No religion is perfectly consistent when it comes to doctrines, ideas, and history. Every ideology, philosophy, and cultural tradition has inconsistencies and contradictions, so this shouldn't be surprising — but other ideologies and traditions aren't alleged to be divinely created or divinely sanctioned systems for following the wishes of a god. The state of religion in the world today is more consistent with the premise that they are man-made institutions. Contradictory Religions...
Gods Are Too Similar to Believers:
A few cultures, like ancient Greece, have postulated gods which appear to be as natural as human beings, but in general gods are supernatural. This means that they are fundamentally different from human beings or anything on earth. Despite this, however, theists consistently describe their gods in ways that make the supernatural appear almost mundane. Gods share so many characteristics with humans that it has been argued that gods were made in the image of man. Gods Created in the Image of Man...
Gods Just Don't Matter:
Theism means believing in the existence of at least one god, not that one necessarily cares much about any gods. In practice, though, theists typically place a great deal of importance on their god and insist that it and what it wants are the most important things a person can be concerned with. Depending upon the nature of a god, however, this isn't necessarily true. It's not obvious that the existence or desires of gods should matter to us. God Doesn't Matter...
Gods and Believers Behave Immorally:
In most religions, gods are supposed to be the source of all morality. For most believers, their religion represents an institution for promoting perfect morality. In reality, though, religions are responsible for widespread immorality and gods have characteristics or histories which make them worse than the most vile human serial killer. No one would tolerate such behavior on the part of a person, but when with a god it all becomes laudable — even an example to follow. Gods Behave Immorally...
Evil in the World:
Closely associated with taking action that should be considered immoral is the fact that there is so much evil in the world today. If there are any gods, why don't they act to eliminate it? The absence of substantive action against evil would be consistent with the existence of evil or at least indifferent gods, which is not impossible, but few people believe in such gods. Most claim that their gods are loving and powerful; the suffering on Earth makes their existence implausible. Evil & Suffering vs. Gods...
Faith is Unreliable:
A common characteristic of both theism and religion is their reliance on faith: belief in the existence of god and in the truth of religious doctrines is neither founded upon nor defended by logic, reason, evidence, or science. Instead, people are supposed to have faith — a position they wouldn’t consciously adopt with just about any other issue. Faith, though, is an unreliable guide to reality or means for acquiring knowledge. You Can't Rely on Faith...
Life is Material, not Supernatural:
Most religions say that life is much more than the flesh and matter we see around us. In addition, there is supposed to be some sort of spiritual or supernatural realm behind it all and that our "true selves" is spiritual, not material. All evidence, though, points to life being a purely natural phenomenon. All evidence indicates that who we really are — our selves — is material and dependent upon the workings of the brain. If this is so, religious and theistic doctrines are wrong. Life is Matter...
There is No Good Reason to Bother Believing:
Perhaps the most basic reason for not believing in any gods is the absence of good reasons for doing so. The above are decent reasons for not believing and for questioning — and eventually leaving — whatever theistic and religious beliefs a person might have had in the past. Once a person gets beyond the bias in favor of belief, though, they may realize something critical: the burden of support lies with those claiming that belief is rational and/or necessary. Believers fail to meet this burden, though, and thus fail to provide good reasons to accept their claims. No Good Reason to Believe...

Read on: Why do atheists not believe in god?

Austin Cline: Significance of Atheism - Making Atheism Matter

Monday 18 December 2006 at 12:00 am Is Atheism Morally & Intellectually Significant?

Question: Does atheism have any moral or intellectual significance for society today, or is it simply irrelevant?

Response: The mere fact that a person doesn’t happen to believe in any gods isn’t very meaningful. Thus, if atheism is going to have intellectual or moral significance, it must be for other reasons. Those reasons can’t be found simply in critiques of religion or arguments against theism; instead they must be found in a general program of reason, skepticism, and critical inquiry.

George Smith has labeled such a program a “habit of reasonableness.” Unreflective and unthinking atheism is no more rational than unthinking theism — and it is without question that atheists are capable of being as unreasonable and irrational as the most bizarre theist.

Because of this, being a skeptical atheist requires more work and effort than simply being an atheist — it requires consciously and consistently striving to reject intellectual laziness and exercising our reasoning abilities.
What this means is that we must not focus simply on what we think; instead, we should focus on how we think. This is the issue of freethought, the ability to come to independent conclusions on issues without relying on things like authority, tradition, or emotion to make decisions for us. Critical thinking skills must be learned and practiced.

Read on: Austin Cline: Significance of Atheism

Boston Globe about Anthony Pinn: Religion professor backs atheistic view

Monday 18 December 2006 at 12:00 am Written by Rich Barlow, Boston Globe

Religion professor backs atheistic view

Where would African-Americans be without black churches? Many chained by slavery were sustained by belief in a better world awaiting God's people. A century later, gentle armies of the churched, led by a Christian minister named Martin Luther King Jr., forced the national conscience to confront the gap between its ideals and the reality of segregation.

Yet in the month when Christians of all colors celebrate the birth of the man whose teachings inspired King, a professor of religion argued, counterintuitively, to a Harvard audience that blacks who don't believe in God offer his fellow African-Americans a more realistic worldview.

Anthony B. Pinn of Rice University in Texas has been on both sides of the is-there-a-God divide. Once an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he now evangelizes for African-American humanism (atheism to those outside the ivory tower).

Boston Globe: Religion professor backs atheistic view Read more

Brad Spurgeon: Agent provocateur Michel Onfray

Monday 18 December 2006 at 12:00 am Monday, 18 December 2006
He is a self-described hedonist, atheist, libertarian, and left-wing anarchist. He is also France's best-selling philosopher.
At a time when a French high school teacher was forced into hiding after death threats for writing an article in Le Figaro in September calling Islam a violent, hateful religion and Christianity and Judaism non-violent, loving religions, Michel Onfray has already gone a step further: in Atheist Manifesto he dismantles and condemns as dangerous and archaic not only Islam, but Christianity and Judaism as well.

And after more than 30 books, he is finally seeing his ideas spread far beyond his native Normandy. His 2005 book, Traité d'athéologie, became a best-seller not only in France, where it has sold 230,000 copies, but also in Italy and Spain, and has sold well in other Latin countries, and even in Germany and Asia.

In the new year, it will become the first of his books to be translated into English. Published under the title Atheist Manifesto, it will arrive in Canada from Penguin in February.

Brad Spurgeon in Thestar.com: Agent provocateur Michel Onfray

Luigi Cascioli: Who are these atheists?

Sunday 17 December 2006 at 9:49 pm Atheism, believers say, impoverishes mankind and stands in the way of the greatest goods that are given to man: God, the soul,and immortality. The direct causes of atheism are the wrong kind of upbringing, a perverse environment, and a licentious lifestyle.
To counter this, Brandlangh wrote that conscious atheism permits human happiness to be reached which is denied by religions and that the life of true atheists is more virtuous because they are freer and more indulgent than believers are who are in perpetual conflict with themselves and their neighbors due to their faith which makes their behavior irrational.
Among those who have fought against the immorality of religions there are some of the greatest moral figures of history including Lalande, Helvétius, Berthelot, Kropotkine, Bakounine, Tchernychevsky, Myskline, Shelley, Carlyle, Holcroft, d'Owen, William Morris, Sylvain Maréchal, Laplace. These were all models of virtue and science without considering those belonging to a more remote history such as Buddha, Lao-tsèe, Confucious, Socrates, Parmenides, Epicurus and all the other philosophers and scientists who, although they were atheists or agnostics led a life which can be considered an example of what is socially considered most praiseworthy.

Read on: Luigi Cascioli: Who are atheist?

Atheists coming out of the closet

Friday 15 December 2006 at 12:00 am Every soul in Christendom knows that sometimes, a supper is more than just a supper. “We are apostles,” Jim Hong, president of the Mid-Michigan Atheists and Humanists, exhorts at a Sunday, Dec. 3, meeting in East Lansing, Mich. “We need to go out and expand. We need to network.”

In recent months, biologist Richard Dawkins and several other high-profile philosophers and scientists fed up with religious fundamentalism have urged atheists to come out of the closet. Judging by the current membership boom in Hong’s group, a lot of local atheists are doing just that.

In less than two years, Hong, a structural engineering consultant who lives in Jackson, has seen attendance at monthly meetings spike from a single-digit trickle to an average of 20 and a high of 35, with 60 people on the group’s register. Most members are from the Lansing area, but others come from as far away as Lake Orion, Monroe and Flint.

Read on: Atheists coming out of the closet

Eleven theses on the freedom to criticize religion

Sunday 12 February 2006 at 8:35 pm

Religion should be exposed to the same criticism and satire as all other human expressions. The rage among Muslims that stemmed from the publication of a satirical cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed has inspired me to formulate a number of theses. These matters should be up for discussion, with the core idea being that a taboo on criticizing religion, and the demand of particular respect for religion is out of place, and leads to the incapacity to resolve preconceptions, abuse and violence that stems from religion.

Read more