godlessness
pharyngula | February 28, 2010Sacrilege can get people killed. It can cause riots and economic mayhem. People die over a sense of offended propriety. And whose fault is that?
You know what I'm talking about. Almost all religions have odd proscriptions that are taken with extraordinary seriousness by their followers — they are markers for who belongs in the group, and who is the outsider. Violate them, especially if you knowingly violate them, immediately marks you as The Enemy, and justifies taking any action against you.
The Muslim outrage about cartoon portrayals of their prophet was a recent example. It's utterly…
pharyngula | February 24, 2010Collins has a new book coming out, titled Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith. It's the same old drivel: CS Lewis, old chestnuts re-roasted on a dying fire, nature and science somehow testifying to the truth of faith, moral law, fine-tuning, the Big Bang, etc. Jerry Coyne says it just right:
Enough is enough. Collins is director of the NIH, and is using his office to argue publicly that scientific evidence—the Big Bang, the "Moral Law" and so forth—points to the existence of a God. That is blurring the lines between faith and science: exactly what I hoped he would not do when he took…
pharyngula | February 21, 2010I just had to add this one. In Meghalaya, India, students taking instruction in cursive writing found an interesting illustration in their textbooks.
Christians in the area (this is a region of India with a Christian majority) are very upset and have banned the books and are considering legal action. The Archbishop of Shillong has protested.
We are deeply hurt by the insensitivity of the publisher. How can one show such total disrespect for a religion?
Wait a minute…the Archbishop of Shillong? I'm not going to take this seriously until Cardinal Wangadoodle and the Reverend Mother Punitang…
pharyngula | February 21, 2010There is something heretics do that I never anticipated would generate such fury in the godly — an act of heresy so profane, so vile, so revolting that it triggers legal action all across the country and expressions of outrage everywhere. Don't read through this post: the images below the fold will sear your eyeballs and invoke the wrath of God, just like opening the Ark of the Covenant did in that Indiana Jones movie.
Apparently, the worst thing you can do is put up a sign somewhere that suggests that God might be superfluous.
These signs incite furious letters to the editors of local…
pharyngula | February 20, 2010I was briefly interviewed for Sunday Night Safran, with John Safran and Father Bob Maguire. It'll be broadcast on Triple J radio at 9pm Sunday, and will be available as a download sometime the day after.
Don't expect too much — it was a short interview. I think they're just beginning to warm Australian audiences up for the big conference next month.
pharyngula | February 19, 2010As are we all, of course, but Ebert is setting an example for us all.
Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it.
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled "Go Gently into That Good Night." I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime…
pharyngula | February 18, 2010We've lost one of the lively voices of freethought.
HELEN KAGIN died early this evening following complications from cancer surgery. She was 76.
Kagin was a heroine and activist in the Atheist movement. Along with her husband, attorney Edwin Kagin, she co-founded Camp Quest, a summer camp for the children of nonbelievers, which has grown into an international outreach. She and Edwin were frequent guests at various conventions, and belonged to several freethought groups.
In 2005, Helen and Edwin were named "Atheists of the Year" at the National Convention of American Atheists. Helen was…
pharyngula | February 17, 2010On a trip to the grocery store this evening, I kept running into little old ladies with these hideous ash smudges on their foreheads — I had to resist the urge to pull out a hankie, spit on it, and clean them up. I was wondering what was going on, but then discovered what was up: They were honoring the victims of Catholic dogma.
On this date in 1600, Giordano Bruno (née Filippo Bruno) was executed for heresy. The Italian philosopher was burned alive at the stake at age 52 for refusing to recant heretical ideas. Born Filippo Bruno in 1548, he entered the Dominican Order at Naples at age 15,…
pharyngula | February 16, 2010I think I'm the main course. Anyway, Bride of Shrek is trying to organize the seating for the dinner in Melbourne on the 13th of March, and the plan is for the Pharyngula horde to sit together (I think it is so our uprising and assault will be more effective), and in order to do that, the she needs you to send her your conference booking confirmation number, which should be on your ticket or receipt. Then she'll get that information to the conference organizers, and they'll put you at the same table with me. I think.
Send the magic number to Bride of Shrek soon.
If you aren't going to the…
pharyngula | February 15, 2010I'm sad now. Jen has a video of Greta Christina talking about atheism and sexuality, and for several days I've been trying to get it to work…and no matter what I do, it won't play. Greta is great, though, so it's almost certainly an excellent talk…maybe it will work for you.
Greta Christina on Atheism & Sexuality from Jennifer McCreight on Vimeo.
Jen also has the results (and more) of a survey of her readers, with the somewhat sorta kinda surprising result that even as a young feminist atheist writer, 75% of her audience are male. We need to encourage more women to participate and lead…
pharyngula | February 14, 2010When I was visiting Iowa, I learned about the UNIFI blog, and the students told me that they have a weekly series called Blasphemy Friday, sort of like the Friday Cephalopod, only with heresy instead of molluscs. I thought that was brilliant, so I decided to steal their idea (it's OK, atheist, you know), and just change it around a little, and do it on Sunday instead of Friday for extra sacriliciousness, and I'm going to focus on blasphemous imagery.
There's real peril here. After all, if these images are so horrific that they make gods weep in anger, then think what they'll do to minds of…
pharyngula | February 11, 2010In an appalling act of bias, Judge Cherie Blair suspended the sentence of a man convicted of assaulting another and breaking his jaw because the assailant was a "religious man". Apparently just being a member of a particular cult is sufficient to get your criminal penalties reduced by a few years in her court; the scales of justice aren't quite fairly balanced for the godless.
At least we have AC Grayling on the case, who sharply points out the ethical bankruptcy of Blair's position, and then turns around and also slaps around the people who defended Blair. I wouldn't want to be Hugo Rifkind…
pharyngula | February 9, 2010Bored and godless? Want something fun to do?
Visit the Phillipines! The Filipino Freethinkers are having a film festival on 27 February. It'll be a whole day of classic atheist documentaries and comedy films.
Quick, catch a plane to Australia: the Adelaide Atheists are having a youtube party. This is a cool idea: show up at a bar with a laptop and a video projector, and browse through a series of youtube clips on atheism.
See? Lots to do!
pharyngula | February 9, 2010Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland made a few more videos of me babbling before I left, and has posted them to the website. I'm terrible in them — no fault to Michael, I was just worn out and burned out on the last night of my trip. You can poke fun at me if you want.
The interesting thing about them, though, is that they were made in the Oonagh Young gallery in Dublin, which is currently hosting an exhibit of blasphemous art, in blatant defiance of the blasphemy laws. Everything in there is offensive to someone; the exhibits mock religion and religious beliefs with words and pictures.
The…
pharyngula | February 8, 2010Here's a thoughtful video about one person's deconversion process: the interesting thing about it is that he was a believer who reasoned himself out of religion.
Although I was brought up in a religion, I've discovered that there is a large difference between those who were seriously immersed in a faith, like this fellow, and people who just got a fairly brief and not very deep exposure, like myself. I was rather easily disabused of religion — when I first was taught the tenets of the faith, my reaction was more like, "You believe what? And you expect me to believe it too? That's batty!" I…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: religion, cults, humor, funny, silly, hypocrisy, Edward Current, streaming video
"I just found out that my favorite YouTuber for Christ is actually a godless atheist God-mocker. Blocked!"
pharyngula | February 2, 2010The Global Atheist Convention is now officially sold out. If you want to get in, you'll have to find a scalper.
I am still surprised at how oblivious some commentary on the convention can be. Some people can't imagine what we could have to talk about without any gods in the room.
But, if the atheists who post on this blog are to be believed, they have nothing in common with each other except a lack of belief in "imaginary friends". They stand for nothing together, hold no ethical precepts in common, hold no ambitions in common (except, perhaps, a desire to see a religionless world). So what…
pharyngula | January 31, 2010I have arrived in Dublin, and am having a lovely time. I had a taxi driver with the most wonderful accent get me to a nice hotel, and am contemplating a stroll around the area to find some Guinness. This is my strategy for handling jet lag: I stayed awake through the entire flight, jogged about through Heathrow (what's with all the weird post-industrial corrugated metal tubes you've got to go through to get to your gate?), got to the Dublin airport, fumbled my way on to a bus, and wandered about finding a place to stay…and now I'll just push on for several more hours until I collapse in…
pharyngula | January 28, 2010There is an account of my Stanford visit in the Stanford Daily. I've definitely gotta work on my rabidity.
pharyngula | January 24, 2010Camp Quest is growing fast and is increasingly popular — they're expecting at least 48 campers to show up at the Minnesota Camp Quest. They need more assistants! If you think you'd enjoy a week at a campground with a group of smart, secular kids, write and get more information and volunteer.