Dr Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two. This is the world's #1 archaeology blog according to 
"Damn ye, Gods!" Photo by Pär Svensson / Kurtz.
Welcome everyone to Aardvarchaeology and the 71st Carnival of the Godless! The carnival is a bi-weekly roundup of godless blogging from around the net. Aardvarchaeology is mainly about Scandinavian archaeology and various skeptical issues, but I rarely discuss religion much. You see, in my native Sweden, it's not such a big deal. Few people here give much thought to faith issues. Our churches are empty and our political discourse godless. Come visit some time! But now, on to the reality-based blogging.
- George at Dirty Greek explores the polytheistic antecedents of Christian mythology and imagery.
- Tim at Evanescent delivers a rousing Enlightenment sermon. Go science!
- KimBoo at Atheistic Optimism submits her blog's thoughtful mission statement.
- Chickie at Blissful Bedlam reports on a kid kept from enrolling in school because of a perceived Satanic surname.
- Jon Swift makes fun of republican David Vitter, Another Victim of Gay Marriage.
- Tobe at A Load of Bright discusses the difference between religious disputes and scientific ones.
- Sean at the Black Sun Journal discusses atheist "metaphysics" and religious equivocation.
- Francois at Check Your Premises advises nominal Christians to take this whole faith issue seriously.
- Mike at Tangled Up In Blue Guy makes an illuminating comparison between the bigotry against interracial unions and that against same-sex marriage. He then defends Stephen Colbert from attacks by pinko hippies.
- Ebonmuse at Daylight Atheism patiently explains yet another time that religion is neither a necessary nor a good basis for morality.
- Greta Christina discusses whether liberal or conservative Christianity is the truer version of this faith. Then she takes a look at atheistic issues in Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets.
- Hell's Handmaiden reviews a wonderful film, Atheism -- The Religion of Fools. Straight outta Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church!
- Barry at Penitent Atheist wonders, how do you know that God is good?
- vJack at Atheist Revolution asks, what is religious intolerance?
- Chris at The Uncredible Hallq reports that a majority of students at Kalamazoo College identify as atheists or agnostics.
- Mark at the Skwib reports yet another sign of the impending Rapture.
- Russell at Metamagician reviews bioconservative Michael J. Sandel's new book, The Case against Perfection.
- Ridger at The Greenbelt comments on the Hindu Senate-opening prayer and sighs over the futility of non-denominational prayer. I seem to be spotting some redundancy there...
- My own contribution describes some faith-based initiatives I took the other day when re-potting a cactus.
That's all for this time. The next CotG will coalesce out of the quantum froth at Atheist Revolution on 5 August. (Submit goodies here). Until then, hang on to your ego!
Comments
Very nice job - great Carnival to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
ps - I tried to trackback, but for some reason SciBlogs always gives me an error (url doesn't appear to be a valid trackback url)
Posted by: The Ridger | July 22, 2007 8:05 AM
Good job!
As the atheist mentor Nietzsche the Syphillitic tells us: "Elimination of the weak and defective, the first principle of our philosophy! And we should help them to do it." From The AntiChrist, sec 2.
Posted by: Emanuel Goldstein | July 22, 2007 8:25 AM
Great job with the carnival. You make Sweden sound wonderful. I hope I can visit someday. It would be wonderful to spend some time in an enlightened country.
Posted by: vjack | July 22, 2007 8:31 AM
Martin: Great job, as expected. I have three comments -- so far -- here -- one because I can't find a way to comment on the linked article.
First, the 'scientific sermon' is so great it should be required reading -- and I'm sending it to one of my favorite Christians to see her comments. The second is Chickie's piece on the student demied entry into a Catholic school because his last name is Hell. Somebody should tell them that there is a crater on the Moon called "Hell Crater." It is not named for the mythical place, but for Maximillian Hell, Father Maximilliam Hell, S.J., a Catholic priest.
Finally, good to see Manny G. here, since his persistent use of one of the more obvious fallacies is always good for a laugh. His schtick is to argue -- usually using Nietzsche or Stalin -- that "A is X; A believes Y; therefore all X believe Y."
Ironically, given his name -- I am not sure if he is Christian or Jewish in belief, merely that he is 'anti-atheist' -- this argument is not merely fallacious twaddle (imagine arguing about Christian beliefs by using Fred Phelps or a "Kludd" of the KKK as an example) but is one of the prime weapons of bigots, particularly anti-Semitic bigots. Look at the French use of the Stavisky scandal pre-War, for a less than obvious example.
No, Manny, few atheists would consider Nietzsche a 'mentor,' (Ingersoll, Voltaire, Asimov, Paine, perhaps). All your examples demonstrate is what I've called "Prup's first law," that "if you take any position in any religious, political, social, or sexual controversy, you'll have some idiots agreeing with you."
Posted by: Prup aka Jim Benton | July 22, 2007 11:23 AM
I like the way Emanuel mentions syphilis to underline what a bad person Nietzsche was. As we all know, bacteria only infect evil people.
Posted by: Martin R | July 22, 2007 12:32 PM
Dude, I live surrounded by Bible Thumpers of the highly and willfully ignorant sort. Evidently part of my govenment Wants to provoke Armageideon so they can all go straight to heaven. I darest not open my mouth around these folk. Recently, I read a history of Sweden from 1970 (I'm broke and make do with used books)and there was not much indication of what you write about, sounding like they are still Lutheran/Calvinist at that point. I would appreciate some comment on how you country freed itself from this weight. Would you say it was socialism, democracy, reaction against backwards clergy, good schools+sucessful science, great and widespread wealth, social/ethnic homogeneity, long peace?
Posted by: Mary E | July 22, 2007 2:12 PM
All the factors you mention have been important, though I believe two are particularly important: a) a quietly anti-Church Labour party has governed the country for most of the past century, b) Swedes have suffered no oppression or wars in the past two centuries and thus have not felt the need to call out to imaginary friends in the sky.
Many people are still nominally Lutheran here, but numbers have dropped sharply since the Church was separated from the State a few years ago.
Posted by: Martin R | July 22, 2007 2:19 PM
Hey, I just installed HaloScan onto my Blogger blog and I'm getting an error trying to trackback to you. HaloScan says the trackback URL is invalid, and a bunch of other stuff.
Posted by: Aerik | July 22, 2007 3:52 PM
Yeah, sorry, can't help you. Trackback at ScienceBlogs has been broken for ages and nobody with the necessary skills cares enough to fix it.
Posted by: Martin R | July 22, 2007 4:08 PM
Martin, thank you so much for your kind comment about my blog's mission statement! However, thank you even more-better for this great list of links! Looks like my daily reading needs have been met.
Your efforts are appreciated!
::::KBS
Posted by: KimBoo York | July 24, 2007 10:09 AM