godlessness
pharyngula | April 25, 2011I have a couple of promising events that don't have firm dates yet, but you might want to keep your eyes open for them in the near future.
The paperwork for Rock Beyond Belief has been resubmitted, and with any luck they might be able to pull off an atheist event at Fort Bragg after all.
What are you doing next spring? You might want to think about visiting Washington DC for the big Reason Rally. Several of the big atheist organizations are coordinating for a massive rally on the mall. Everyone must show up! We will all demand a secular nation NOW!
pharyngula | April 23, 2011I am looking forward to reading Anthony Grayling's new book, The Good Book, with considerable anticipation — I've ordered a copy (it's not as if it would be easily available in Morris!) which hasn't arrived yet, but what has arrived are teasers from Grayling himself. Here's a Q&A about the book that might have you itching for a copy as much as I am.
WHEN AND WHY DID YOU BECOME AN ATHEIST?
I was brought up in a non-religious family, and when I first encountered religion it simply seemed incredible, no more believable that the fairy stories and Greek myths that I had read and enjoyed as a…
pharyngula | April 21, 2011Speaking of the American Atheist convention this weekend, there is still space available to sign your kids up for a Mini-Camp Quest. It's a convention with child care — take advantage of it so that more of these events will recognize the importance!
pharyngula | April 20, 2011Chris Matthews gathered a small flock of believers to talk about whether Hell exists or not. Unfortunately, he couldn't be bothered to find someone who wasn't delusional to sit on his panel, so we've just got a gassy series of empty statements like rarefied flatulence that say nothing at all except that they're pretty darned sure they're all experts on the afterlife. Couldn't they have invited even on atheist so that I'd be unable to dismiss the whole pointless exercise as the wanking of idiots?
If you can't bear the thought of listening to this nonsense, Amanda Marcotte has done a fine job…
pharyngula | April 20, 2011He's melting down fast.
So I wrote this piece criticizing R. Joseph Hoffmann's weird praise of martyrs, and today I wondered if maybe he had notice, so I checked his blog. I think he noticed. His response is ironic and unreflective, however…and amusing.
I wrote that we ought to reject the whole concepty of martyrdom, and that it isn't just gods we should reject, but also these peculiar notions of the agonizing death as a virtue that are really born out of an Iron Age morality. Hoffmann's latest comment is a rant about atheist tantrums, calls the New Atheists "negative," "abrasive," "…
pharyngula | April 19, 2011I gave a talk at the Global Atheist Convention in Australia, and now the videos are trickling out. I watched a bit of it and marveled…I've lost some weight since 2010.
By the way, there will be another GAC in 2012. Shall we meet again in Melbourne?
pharyngula | April 14, 2011I've got some flyin' to do — you'll be hearing from me after I arrive in Honolulu, with reports on sun, sand, and science from the West Coast Regional Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology all this coming weekend — but for now you can enjoy this fine article by Paula Kirby. If there were any sense and justice in the world, the next atheist meeting I attend would be populated entirely with angry women looking to overthrow the temples of the patriarchy.
pharyngula | April 12, 2011So why do they have to foist chaplains upon helpless public school children? It's like going to school to be intentionally infested with parasites. If you think supporting chaplains is a bad idea for a secular state, follow the linky and click the little buttons to honk for godlessness.
pharyngula | April 10, 2011Darn, I'm going to have to find some time to re-read Sam Harris's Moral Landscape. It bugged me the first time; I kept trying to make, I think, a judgment based on whether we can declare an absolute morality based on rational, objective criteria. I was basically making the same sort of internal argument that William Lane Craig was making in his debate at Notre Dame, and it's fundamentally wrong — it's getting all twisted up in philosophical head-games based on misconceptions derived from the constant hammering of theological presuppositions in our culture. You can now listen to Sam Harris vs…
pharyngula | April 7, 2011Not in the same place at the same time, unfortunately — that could be an interesting conversation. But they're both out and about talking.
Tonight at 7pm Eastern, Sam Harris will be wasting his time debating William Lane Craig. Rumors are that you will be able to watch the debate live at that link; I'm neck-deep in work, so I don't think I'll be able to watch, but I'm sure I'll here about it.
The other fun event is next week: Rebecca Watson will be speaking on "Women's Intuition and Other Fairytales" at 7 pm Friday, April 15, at CFI-Transnational, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, NY.
Show up,…
pharyngula | April 7, 2011Man, this article is bad.
Perhaps atheism is a luxury of the well-to-do. Put differently, everyone--even the most hardcore atheists, I think--will start believing in God if put under a high amount of stress. Think of the last time you prayed to God, and I will bet that, for many of you (whether you generally classify yourself as an atheist or not), it would have been when you were under stress. For most of us so-called atheists, when things go horribly wrong, we think of God.
PZ raises his hand. Hardcore atheist here. Nope. I've experienced stress, even thought I was dying once…no gods came…
pharyngula | April 6, 2011I have to acknowledge the very silly Mark Vernon, who considers the award a triumph. Apparently, Martin Rees accepted the award to hit back vengefully at Richard Dawkins — oh, how I wish I were in a position to wreak havoc on mine enemies by getting £1,000,000 handed to me.
He really does see this as a Victory for Science, though.
When the cultural history of our times comes to be written, Templeton 2011 could be mentioned, at least in a footnote, as marking a turning point in the "God wars". The power of voices like that of Dawkins and Sam Harris — who will be on the British stage next week…
pharyngula | April 5, 2011For a change of pace, here's an email from a reader who is not a crazy creationist, but instead an atheist scientist with a problem. Hmmm…maybe I should work on being the scientist version of Dan Savage.
I've edited out revealing information, because obviously this woman is in a situation fraught with professional peril.
Hello Professor Myers:
I subscribe to your blog Pharyngula. While enduring Catholic grade school
for eight years, I became an open atheist at age 13. I concur entirely
with you on both the silliness and harm of religious superstition. I
recently encountered an entirely…
pharyngula | March 30, 2011Sikivu Hutchinson has a new book out, Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars, which I have just ordered for myself. You fortunate people in LA, though, could also go hear the words straight from her mouth: she'll be be speaking at Revolution Books on 3 April. Apparently they've moved since the last time I was there: they're now located at 5726 Hollywood Blvd. You should go, if you can, or at least pick up a copy of her book — she's one of the strong sharp voices of modern atheism.
pharyngula | March 30, 2011Ray Comfort called in to the Atheist Experience with Matt Dillahunty and Russell Glasser, and now you can watch the little twit twist and writhe and make circular arguments.
pharyngula | March 22, 2011Greta Christina has an excellent list of prominent atheists of color, so there's no reason every atheist conference should be a sea of uniform pallidness anymore. Think about bringing in some of these people!
And by prominent, I mean really prominent. It's probably non-trivial to book Salman Rushdie, but man, I would love to hear that guy sometime.
pharyngula | March 18, 2011Jennifer Fulwiler is an ex-atheist, she says, and is now a Catholic. With her deep knowledge of both Catholicism and atheism, she is writing a book about her conversion experience and has now posted a short guide to understanding atheists for her Catholic fellows. Oh, did I say deep knowledge? My error, I meant to say "bubble-headed delusions".
She lists five misconceptions Catholics have about atheists, and tries to explain how atheists really think. She gets one right.
First she argues against the idea that atheists feel like they're missing something in their life, which is one of the…
pharyngula | March 17, 2011What kind of chickenshit outfit is this? The US military has been sponsoring evangelical Christian events for the troops, basically subjecting our soldiers to religious propaganda. This past fall, they endorsed an event called "Rock the Fort," in which Christian rock groups, with the support of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, held a large concert on the main parade field of Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. This was clearly a sectarian promotion to a captive audience, and the officers at Fort Bragg knew it. They paid lip service to fair play at the time.
"I have taken steps to ensure…
pharyngula | March 16, 2011Scarcely do I put up a post arguing with Jerry Coyne, when I notice he has put up another with an example of evidence for a god from John Farrell. And lo, I did look, and verily, I did become depressed at how stupid and pathetic it was.
An archeologist working in Israel, discovers an ossuary from the NT era: the inscription on the stone in Aramaic reads: "Twice dead under Pilatus; Twice born of Yeshua in sure hope of resurrection." And the name corresponds to what in Greek would be Lazarus.
There are bones, so presumably with luck there may be some DNA that could be sequenced, but my main…
pharyngula | March 16, 2011Uh-oh. Jerry Coyne is calling me out and reopening our old argument about whether there could be evidence supporting a god. I said no, for a number of reasons, but I haven't convinced Coyne.
The statements by P.Z. and Zara seem to me more akin to prejudices than to fully reasoned positions. They are also, of course, bad for atheists, since they make us look close-minded, but I would never argue that we should hide what we really think because it makes it harder to persuade our opponents. On the positive side, a discussion like this one is really good for sharpening the mind.
He's also gone…