Atheism

I’m sure that most of you watched the Presidential debate on Monday night, just as I did. Over the years, these debates have always always painful for me to watch, given the candidates’ tendency to answer the question they want to answer rather than the question actually answered; to find ways to spew prepackaged talking points into answers, whether they’re related to the question or not; and, above all, to see how much spin they can get away with. Particularly annoying is when they pander to their base with particularly brain dead bon mots. Candidates from both parties do it, of course, but…
Here's my translation of a classic 1979 revue routine by Hans Alfredson and Tage Danielsson. Kramfors is a town of 6000 inhabitants in central Sweden, near the 62nd parallel. ----- TD: New religions keep popping up like mushrooms, and now it's time for the – ubiquitous in entertainment these days – Religious Corner. Sitting next to me is a fellow man [HA: “Flatterer”] ... a co-slipper on the endless unsanded sidewalk of life. And I would like to ask you a straight and direct question: do you believe in God? HA: No, in Lind. Robert Lind in Kramfors. TD: Is that someone you know? HA: No, but I…
I follow the decommissioning of Sweden's churches keenly for several reasons. I like churches, the older the better, but I don't like the Church much. And I take great interest in the West's ongoing secularisation process. Before, I've blogged about how Maglarp Church was torn down, about how Örja church was sold as housing and about the National Heritage Board's advice to congregations that decide to stop heating their churches. Two upscale 1890s dissenter churches in the posh Östermalm precinct of Stockholm have been similarly de-sanctified in the past year. A year ago, a real estate…
Attention those of you in the Atlanta area! The students in Kennesaw State University Atheists United have invited Richard Dawkins to speak on campus, and they are opening up their event to the public! Tickets are available for purchase HERE!   Im gonna get him to sign our Nightwish poster!!!   :-D
October 2012, I got to see Nightwish at a small venue in OKC. 1-- This was one of the first nights Floor Jansen was officially the New Singer for Nightwish. She blew me away. 2-- This was a *tiny* venue. Nightwish fills huge stadiums and auditoriums all over the world, but OKC? Teeny venue. And that band played for us the same way they would have played for an audience of thousands. They *WAILED*. 3-- It was my partners birthday, and while the security guys couldnt let us backstage, he did get us an autographed poster: They are an extremely talented group of musicians and singers, and just…
This is a post I wrote elsewhere, a while ago, and just realized was never put on this blog, so here it is. I thought of this post and the topic because of the recent data of the Ms Jesus Scroll, which does indeed appear to be old. But they are still arguing about it, of course. Post is slightly revised. A while ago I asked on my Facebook page whether anyone had seen the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. As one might expect, a couple of people, who possibly thought I was joking, noted that the Dead Sea scrolls were part of the Bible, and all that stuff was…
Bassam Al-Baghdady (@Al_Baghdady on Twitter) is a Swedish film writer. He's translated Richard Dawkins' 2006 best-seller The God Delusion into Arabic. Bassam tells me the file may be disseminated freely, so go ahead and download Dawkins' God Delusion in Arabic for free! وهم الاله بقلم ريتشارد دوكنز. Two disclaimers, though. 1. Despite numerous contact efforts over many weeks, I haven't received any response from Richard Dawkins or his staff when I've asked for permission to put the book up for download. The reason that I am going ahead anyway is that there is no official Arabic translation of…
It occurs to me that things have been perhaps overly serious here at the ol' blog for the last couple of weeks. Don't get me wrong. I think I done good lately, if I do say so myself. However, the constant drumbeat of quackery and depressing stories takes its toll after a while. I need a break. And our old buddy, Deepak Chopra, was kind enough to give it to me. So what is it this time? Chopra's been a frequent topic of this blog for a long time, albeit nos so much lately. Indeed, longtime readers know that I was the one who coined a term—Choprawoo—for the pseudoprofound metaphysical mystical…
I've been a guest or interviewer on Minnesota Atheist Talk radio a number of times. I never talk about atheism because I'm nothing close to an expert on that or related issues (though I do have a chapter in a book about it, here!). And, of course, I'm very involved, professionally, in certain church-state separation issues (like this and this). But on Atheist Talk Radio I mainly engage in either science (lately climate change science but also evolution) or the afore mentioned church-state separation issues vis-a-vis the evolution-creationism "debate." Anyway, I've been meaning to finally…
Years ago I knew Richard Dawkins as a fellow evolutionary biologist (met him only once, at a memorial event for WD Hamilton, but we have numerous mutual friends and colleagues). To be frank, and I'm only being frank now because I'd prefer not to use my real name, Dawkins was considered a bit of an enigma. He had great fame (and fortune and privilege) but that was without doing much important research. I always defended him back in those days. His fame came from The Selfish Gene and his subsequent books, and his popularization of science was well done and important. Those who complained,and…
I'm weeks late to the party here. If you pay attention to atheist issues you've probably heard that a recent major meta-study* concludes that at the population level, atheists are a bit smarter than religious folks (mainly Protestant Americans and English in this case). Not dramatically so, but in a statistically significant way. The difference persists even if you control for gender and education level. This means that if you look only at poorly educated people, the unbelievers are a bit smarter, and likewise if you look only at highly educated people, or women, or men. Here are some…
If you havent bought your ticket to this years FreeOK, do so ASAP! Theyre in serious danger of selling out this year! This also means that you should get to the event early, because if they are close to selling out, it also means it will be hard to get rows of seats together, if youre coming in a larger group! If you are going to be around the OKC area tomorrow, and you have no idea what Im talking about, CLICK HERE! Its not at all hard to see why this years conference is so popular! Local press with head organizer Aimee Breeze! More press on the secular parenting workshop by Dale McGowan,…
A few weeks ago, The Thinking Atheist was in town-- He gave us a sweet preview of the new video hes planning on officially unveiling at the American Atheists convention and  signing copies of his new book "Deconverted". Beforehand, he set up some camera equipment and did quick impromptu interviews with fellow OK Skeptics Caleb Lack, Red McCall (more on Reds video later!), and me! Due to The Thinking Atheists interests/audience, my answers are a little more atheistic-y themed ;) Of course they are extremely short, so I had to be very general, but if you have any questions or want more info…
Hey! Skeptics within driving radius of Wichita! This weekend is Skeptics of Oz 2013! Here is their Facebook page! Here is their schedule of speakers! And here is a list of speakers with brief bios written up by Skeptics of Oz speaker and fellow Oklahomian Caleb Lack!
Last week, The Thinking Atheist interviewed psychologist/blog cousin Caleb Lack, the president of OKC Atheists Red McCall, and me. After seeing the videos Seth made for Caleb, I AM SCARED TO DEATH. CALEBS VIDS ARE SO GOOD. I didnt say anything nearly that eloquent or interesting! :-| And DAMN Seth! The production quality of those vids! In TWO DAYS, Seth made those videos. TWO DAYS. It takes me that long to make a goddamn figure for a paper! Atheists might not be any smarter than theists, but we at least have some insanely talented people.
American currency uses the phrase "In God We Trust" which is a clear violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This is to the First Amendment roughly like saying "No Guns Allowed" everywhere would be to the Second Amendment, but if we did that to the Second Amendment people would be up in arms (as it were). But since it is merely the First Amendment nobody cares. Anyway, that is what our money says now, but in the past, it did not say that. The "In God We Trust" was added during the Red Scare, when American started putting screenplay writers in jail and neighbors turned in…
I've been lucky. Becoming a secularist and atheist and, to some extent, activist in those areas (though I quickly add my activisms is mostly in other areas) was not to hard. Hey, this very morning Minnesota Atheists had a show on what you do for Christmas and other holidays as a non-believer, and asked for contributions. Even though I was asked directly a few times by the producers, I ended up providing nothing because I've got nothing; What do we do for Christmas? Try to eat the cookies very slowly, unwrap the presents very quickly. It is just not that interesting. Sure, I get harassed…
We were all so excited for this opportunity, but it wasnt supposed to be like this. It wasnt supposed to be a piece on atheists, sandwiched between images of people mourning over slaughtered children and school officials. But thats what it is. And its fine-- CBS didnt do a hack piece on us or anything... It was just supposed to be a happy "YAY! GO US **HIGH-FIVE**" moment, not a 'Well I stopped crying because I quit watching TV, Facebook, Twitter, Newsfeeds, and now Im crying again' moment. Murdered people, devastated communities, were not supposed to be our 'in' to talking about atheism.…
When Atheists talk, people listen. Then, they tell them to shut up. David Phillip Norris of the Twin Cities recently wrote an article for MNPost called With talk of tolerance and equality, one group is still forgotten: atheists. This was written as a reflection on the just finished and rather dramatic fight against an anti same sex marriage constitutional amendment on the ballot in Minnesota. By today's electoral standards, the amendment was soundly defeated. So while I’m thrilled that we can start talking about the possibility of voting “yes” instead of “no” for same-sex marriage in…
I love Oklahoma-- Great school, great cost of living, genuinely nice folks, and believe it or not, a fantastic atheist/skeptic scene. You all know about FreeOK (one and my talk isnt up yet from two... SEEEETH!), organized by Atheist Community of Tulsa and the OKC Atheists.  Those groups are amazing, outside of the conference.  Ive mentioned it numerous before, but whether you are into a quiet night of boardgames or partying it up at karaoke, need support/confidence/advice for dealing with radical theist relatives or want to go see 'The Hobbit' with some folks, want to learn something new at a…