godlessness
pharyngula | March 28, 2009Who's going to the American Humanist meeting in June? I know I am — I'm getting an award, and I felt quite cocky about it. Then I saw all the other people being recognized, and I'm suddenly having one of those "I am not worthy" moments. Yikes. At least it guarantees that we'll have a really good meeting.
And if that isn't enough to convince you to show up, I think I've talked my wife into going, too. And Skatje is going to be in town.
pharyngula | March 24, 2009More than five years ago, I was griping about the pretense of compatibility between science and religion, prompted by an otherwise good site at the University of California Berkeley that offered the usual pablum:
Science and religion deal with different things. Science tries to figure out how things work and religion teaches about morality and spirituality. There doesn't need to be a conflict.
Complete bullshit. I'd rather get my morality from reason and real world experience, from science, and religion teaches nothing about morality. Religion is about obedience to arbitrary rules. As for…
grrlscientist | March 22, 2009tags: Christianity, war, humor, streaming video
Wow, this insightful little video shows that war happens because of made-up religions from the Middle East and, as a bonus, it also proves that the Muslim "god" is fake! [3:14]
pharyngula | March 21, 2009The subject of Sunday's Atheists Talk radio (9am Central) will be denialism, in an interview with PalMD. This should be a good one, tune in. Call in and tell him how horrible those vaccines are, too — let's rile things up.
pharyngula | March 21, 2009Our spring break is almost over. I hope none of our students wasted their time fishing for souls for Jesus. Follow that link; it's a story on Salon.com of a young man who goes undercover at Liberty University and goes on a Spring Break proselytizing trip to Florida. It's depressing — mindless zealots on fire for the Lord wander the streets, asking people if they've found Jesus, and almost always getting turned down. Even the few who say "Hallelujah!" are unlikely to join the church. This is truly desperate angling.
The issue of post-salvation behavior is an interesting one. I thought, when…
grrlscientist | March 21, 2009tags: religion, atheism, humor, streaming video
Christians know that science is wrong about a lot of things. But if you just use your own eyes, and your faith, you can make your own scientific discoveries. And you don't have to be a God-hating know-it-all to do it [3:46]
grrlscientist | March 20, 2009tags: religion, atheism, humor, streaming video
The deluded, ignorant followers of Darwin believe that man is actually a type of animal. This video disprove this godless blasphemy with totally real facts [3:46]
grrlscientist | March 19, 2009tags: religion, atheism, humor, streaming video
This video discusses the burning question: What would the world be like without a god [3:33]
pharyngula | March 18, 2009Not all of my email consists of metaphorical daggers hurled my way. I actually get a fair amount of praise and comments about how I've won people over to the cause of atheism — I just tend not to post those, because of my awesome modesty and because you all know this stuff, anyway. This one is interesting because I didn't convince the fellow to be an atheist, but instead made him think…which is what we're all after, anyway.
Good day, Mr. Myers.
My name is Josh. I just wanted to send you a message about how you, in the strangest way, changed my life, and my faith for the better.
I'm quite…
grrlscientist | March 18, 2009tags: religion, atheism, science, streaming video
Wow, this insightful little video presents indisputable Biblical proof that scientists and atheists are deluded and stupid [3:07]
pharyngula | March 15, 2009The freethinkers of Montgomery, Alabama are looking to grow. There are lots of you out there, I'm sure — get in touch, link up, build!
grrlscientist | March 15, 2009tags: get religion, religion, godlessness, atheism, streaming video
Here's an ad for one of the world's favorite time and life-wasters: Religion. Presented here as a public service (notice the background music) [1:25]
pharyngula | March 14, 2009I just got home at this absurdly late hour, after an exceptionally miserable long day of screwed-up air travel, but I'm still going to try to get up by 9a to listen to Atheists Talk radio.
grrlscientist | March 14, 2009tags: books, memoir, godlessness, losing faith, William Lobdell
I am most pleased to tell you that William Lobdell, an award-winning journalist from the LATimes, who is also a new book author, as well as a blog writer, college lecturer and public speaker and media consultant, will be in NYC this coming Saturday to talk about and read from his hot-off-the-presses book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace.
When: Saturday, March 14, 300pm - 430pm
Where: The third floor of the Muhlenberg Branch of the Public Library, 209 W.…
pharyngula | March 10, 2009There's a sense of glee in the American atheist community over the results of a recent survey: religion is in decline. As the site summarizes, "Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death." The "New Atheist" approach is working…
pharyngula | March 9, 2009A new poll gives me cheerful results:
A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.
Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.
Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share…
grrlscientist | March 8, 2009tags: books, memoir, godlessness, losing faith, William Lobdell
I am most pleased to tell you that William Lobdell, an award-winning journalist from the LATimes, who is also a new book author, as well as a blog writer, college lecturer and public speaker and media consultant, will be in NYC this coming Saturday to talk about and read from his hot-off-the-presses book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace.
When: Saturday, March 14, 300pm - 430pm
Where: The third floor of the Muhlenberg Branch of the Public Library, 209 W.…
grrlscientist | March 8, 2009tags: atheism, godlessness, religion, Religion in America, streaming video
This streaming video highlights what would happen if all atheists were to leave America. It tells you who would leave, what would change, and gives a look at other countries that have virtually no Atheists. [2:18]
pharyngula | March 7, 2009NEEERRRRRRRDDDS! They're turning over the radio show to seriously geeky humanists: Scott Lohman, Minnesota's King Trek Fan, will be interviewed on Atheists Talk radio on Sunday, at 9am Central time (keep in mind that tonight is the night we jigger our clocks forward an hour, just to make everything a little more confusing).