godlessness
pharyngula | June 9, 2007Now this is a different categorization of the differences between bold, brave assertive atheists and the spineless, gutless apologists for religious lunacy: we're "mean", and they're "nice".
When the mean atheists and the nice atheists get together, it's not so much that it annoys the mean atheists to be asked to play nice. It's more that they just want to be able to call the nice atheists names like "sniveling milquetoast" and the like. Y'know, while they're at it. Because when it comes right down to it, the mean atheists just want to have fun. And I respect that.
Yeah, we just want to…
pharyngula | June 9, 2007The first of three potluck picnics sponsored by one of our regional godless groups is being held Sunday, 10 June, at noon, at Columbia Park—Skatje, my wife Mary, and I are planning on being there. Come on out and join the freethought community in the Twin Cities area!
By the way, it's weird how we've got all of these infidel organizations here — the Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists at the University of Minnesota, the Humanists of Minnesota, the Minnesota Atheists, and the Atheists for Human Rights (who in this case aren't participating in the picnics). The Twin Cities has an…
pharyngula | June 5, 2007Jeffrey Shallit explains why. It is rather peculiar, when you get right down to it: isn't it remarkable how just criticizing religion gets people flustered and cowering in a corner?
Now look at this otherwise unnoteworthy article by Associate Press religion reporter Rachel Zoll, about the reaction to recent books by atheists Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. Notice anything, well, trite about the title? Yes, it's the "militant atheist" platitude. Atheists must never be described as intelligent, thoughtful, friendly, questioning, or thought-provoking. Instead, they must be…
pharyngula | June 3, 2007Historical perspective certainly does change one's views of our current little struggle with theism. Kieran Healy identifies the original atheists—those horrible people who were defying cultural mores and denying the traditional deities.
It was those uppity Christians.
Matters were very different with the Christians, who had ex hypothesi abandoned their ancestral religions ... The Christians asserted openly either that the pagan gods did not exist at all or that they were malevolent demons. Not only did they themselves refuse to take part in pagan religious rites: they would not even…
pharyngula | June 3, 2007Oh, come on. This is no surprise. Public schools mostly take religion for granted—it's rife in athletics, in particular, but many of the ceremonies have prayers and ministers involved—so when a valedictorian speech damns her godless classmates to hell, it's just a reflection of the culture.
The valedictorian's speech was about Jesus Christ and suggested those who don't believe would go to hell.
"I want to tell you that Jesus Christ can give you eternal life in heaven," Spaulding said before the crowd. "If we die with that sin on our souls, we will immediately be pulled down to hell to pay…
pharyngula | May 28, 2007
I have no idea what that crazy left-wing nutcase Tom Tomorrow is talking about in this week's comic—it's got these unrealistic aliens babbling unbelievable nonsense that just doesn't belong in the real world. Someone explain it to me.
pharyngula | May 27, 2007If the Creation Museum carnival hasn't got you completely carnivaled out yet, it's also time for the Carnival of the Godless #67. Maybe if we started serving Hurricanes in a 44 oz. cup and tossing bead necklaces around, we could get through it all. And where's the marching atheist jazz band when you need 'em?
The WaPo has roused some ire with its defense of fundamentalist agnostics/humanists against us bold, militant freethinkers. Revere addresses the distinction between militant and non-militant atheists and Ophelia covers the same beat. Can't we all just get along and agree that the weak-…
pharyngula | May 24, 2007
You scored as Scientific Atheist, These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future. Scientific Atheist
100%
Militant Atheist
67%
Angry Atheist
50%
Spiritual Atheist
50%
Apathetic Atheist
42%
Agnostic
42%
Theist
17%
What kind of atheist are you?created with QuizFarm.com
(via Wilkins, who is more agnostic and less militant than I…
pharyngula | May 23, 2007I'll take a leaf from Chris Ho-Stuart's book and urge you to read this post on Positive Liberty before I tackle his post. Jonathan Rowe is making the useful point that we have an interest in shaping religions, even religions with which we do not agree, to make them compatible with a civil, democratic society. He points out that the US founding fathers put an Enlightenment twist on the Christianity they favored, rejecting old notions of exclusivity and intolerance to promote a more benign form of religion — without actually establishing a state religion, they at least exemplified some broader-…
pharyngula | May 15, 2007Alistair McGrath came out with a book called The Dawkins Delusion? a while back, in response to The God Delusion, obviously. It seems to have sank without much of a trace, and what I've read of McGrath on the net has been tediously unimpressive — he's another believer who mistakes criticizing Dawkins for a positive step in defending his faith — so I haven't bothered to read it, especially since right now we're flooded with good books on unbelief. I was sent a scathing critique of McGrath that I'll cite here, though; it looks like his book is nothing but a long tirade against a straw Dawkins.…
pharyngula | May 13, 2007Jason Rennie interviewed me for the Sci Phi podcast, and now you can listen to me babble about religion and science. I have got to do something about my office phone, though — the sound quality is terrible, and I've gotten the same complaint from others.
Or maybe that's what I actually sound like, with a staticky hiss and the occasional feedback ringing. That would be kind of cool. It would almost make up for my mild manner.
pharyngula | May 13, 2007Looking for some ungodly inspiration? Here are some possibilities:
Revere optimistically sees atheism as becoming mainstream. I think this is the virtue of the open and aggressive discussions about atheism going on — there are more freethinkers out there than polls reveal, and they are silent because of the oppression of the majority. We are demolishing the societal avoidance of considering atheism; the goal isn't exactly evangelical, since I don't think we're necessarily "converting" people, but more a matter of giving people the freedom to reject gods.
It's time for the Carnival of the…
pharyngula | May 13, 2007Quick, listen to this realaudio talk by Mark Steel on Thomas Paine while it's still available on the BBC site. It's both hysterically funny and informative. One revelation for me was that America's early fervently godless rabble-rouser began his career by signing on to a ship called the Terrible, under Captain Death, and also sailed as a privateer. I tell you, there's a mystic connection between atheists and pirates!
pharyngula | May 13, 2007Nicole Smalkowski, the young woman discriminated against because she is an atheist, was in the news again on Friday. She was interviewed by John Stossel (who is a colossal douche) for 20/20 and a story about disbelief in America. Stossel makes much of the fact that atheists are a minority and that this is a "Christian nation", but no matter how smarmy he gets, the sincerity of the Smalkowski family and the injustice of Nicole's situation comes through loud and clear.
If you missed the broadcast like I did, have no fear, Norm comes through: it's available at onegoodmove.
We usually called…
pharyngula | May 13, 2007Next week, the Humanists of Minnesota are having their annual banquet and fundraiser. You should all go! It's at the Doubletree Hotel, 1500 Park Place Boulevard, in St Louis Park, at 6:00 on 19 May. Tickets are $37.
Here! A flyer and ticket order form!
The featured speaker at the dinner is, umm, me, but don't let that put you off, there will be lots of opportunity to converse with your fellow freethinkers. There is a kind of generic title for the talk that was invented way back when I was first invited, "Evolution, the Web and Freethought," but I'm not actually going to say much about the web…
pharyngula | May 10, 2007Fox News happily reports that a scientific study has found that Religion is Good for Kids!
Jean Mercer scrutinizes the study, finds it dubious at best, and Dale McGowan suggests that a better title would have been Religion May Make Some First Graders Marginally Easier to Manage.
Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with making first graders more docile—it would make them less likely to turn their priest in to the police, for instance. The paper is making its conclusions from some rather shaky and selective analysis of subjective observations, though, so it isn't even particularly…
pharyngula | May 9, 2007I've been trying to see the Dawkins interview on CBC for the last few days, but it's always in that horrible wmv format, which only seems to work about half the time on my laptop. Cosmic Afterthoughts has the youtube version — it's pretty good. It's a pleasant, relaxed conversation where each side has the opportunity to talk, and the interviewer isn't too intrusive.
pharyngula | May 8, 2007The Rational Response Squad has released an amateur video of their debate with Cameron and Comfort.
I didn't care for the argument that the universe might be infinite, but otherwise, not bad. Not great, either, but then they were just presenting the sensible position. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron were terrible. They quickly abandoned the pretense of providing scientific evidence, and instead reached for the bible and simply asserted its truth.
I just have to expand on something in the face of a lot of criticism of the Rational Response Squad in the comments. I agree that they weren't as…
pharyngula | May 7, 2007I'm seeing some mixed signals on the series "A Brief History of Disbelief" — it's appearing in very few station's schedules right now, and it's tempting to suspect that it's being buried by the media, especially since right wing groups detest it:
That "A Brief History of Disbelief" might be controversial is unsurprising. Right-wing groups, such as the Concerned Women of America, are already ramping up opposition to Miller's program, which originally aired on the BBC in 2005. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council deemed the work of the actor-director-author Miller to be "an evangelistic…
pharyngula | May 7, 2007I may have to learn the words to "O Canada" if Dan Gardner is representative of that great nation. His recent article is marvelous.
So I thought this is an opportune moment to say I think all three of these faiths -- these mighty institutions, these esteemed philosophies, these ancient and honoured traditions -- are ridiculous quackery. Parted seas. Walking corpses. Nocturnal visits to Heaven. For goodness sake, people, the talking wolf in Little Red Riding Hood is more plausible.
Preach it, brother. Referring to the habit of some to who see these "New Atheists" as equivalent to the fanatics…