Atheists can now marry in Tulsa County without going before a minister or a judge The Republic Atheists can now marry in Tulsa County without having the ceremony performed by a minister or a judge. Leaders of the Tulsa Coalition of Reason, the Atheist Community of Tulsa and the Tulsa County chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation have ... Freedom From Religion Foundation approved to perform marriages |
Apr
30
Apr
30
I don’t understand the premise of Republican opposition to abortion. If you want to protect the voiceless millions who are weak and helpless, why not stand up for liberals?
Apr
30
Jessica Hagy explains how religious people cling to their faith no matter how much evidence there is against the existence of a god. Ok, that may not have been the intended interpretation, but it still works! (via Indexed) Bookmark on ...
Apr
30
Drop prosecution of Polk County atheist leader Lake Wales News EllenBeth Wachs, a noted Polk County atheist who belongs to Atheists of Florida, was arrested in early March, charged with practicing law without a license, simply based upon the say-so of three individuals with whom she has clashed: Gow Fields, ... |
Apr
30
How Easter and Christianity undermine atheism From USA Today. Quote: By Anthony DeStefano. This Easter it seems that atheists have a lot to rejoice about. According to the latest data in the American Religious Identification Survey, ...
Apr
30
How Easter and Christianity undermine atheism From USA Today. Quote: By Anthony DeStefano. This Easter it seems that atheists have a lot to rejoice about. According to the latest data in the American Religious Identification Survey, ...
Apr
30
Obama Issues National Day of Prayer Proclamation Christian Post The court ruled that Wisconsin-based atheist and agnostic group Freedom from Religion Foundation lacked the legal standing to challenge the National Day of Prayer, saying that a "feeling of alienation" was not sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit. ... |
Apr
30
Of course, it's not quite fair to say that atheists believe in nothing. They do believe in something — the philosophical theory known as Materialism, which states that the only thing that exists is matter; that all substances and all ...
Apr
30
PZ Myers has posted on morality from the perspective of William Lane Craig. If this is morality, is there evil?
It's always interesting when some god-walloper honestly follows through on the logical implications of his beliefs — he basically is compelled to admit that if you worship a tyrannical monster, you have to end up rationalizing monstrous tyrannies. The latest to enlighten us with excuses for bronze age barbarisms and brutalities is William Lane Craig, who thinks that tales from the Bible of God's Chosen People slaughtering babies is A-OK:
Moreover, if we believe, as I do, that God's grace is extended to those who die in infancy or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation. We are so wedded to an earthly, naturalistic perspective that we forget that those who die are happy to quit this earth for heaven's incomparable joy. Therefore, God does these children no wrong in taking their lives.
Therefore, if I station myself outside a church door with an AK-47 and murder all the happy saved Christians exiting the service, I am doing the Lord's work. Well, gosh, Willie, not only do I get to be a mass-murderer for fun, I can be self-righteous about it, too! It's too bad I'm one of those atheists who doesn't believe in a Happy Fun Land for the dead, so I can't honestly do that in good conscience.
I will be interested to see if Craig now has a Christian perspective on abortion, that is, that it is a process that releases blameless innocents to heaven's incomparable joy, and is therefore to be encouraged.
But you know who was really suffering when soldiers rampaged through a village, smashing babies' heads against walls and raping the women and stabbing them to death afterwards? Not the women and children, oh no. Think of the rapists and murderers!
So whom does God wrong in commanding the destruction of the Canaanites? Not the Canaanite adults, for they were corrupt and deserving of judgement. Not the children, for they inherit eternal life. So who is wronged? Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers themselves. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to break into some house and kill a terrified woman and her children? The brutalizing effect on these Israeli soldiers is disturbing.
No. No, I can't imagine that. I can imagine parts of it: I can imagine a long, heavy piece of sharp metal in my hands. I can imagine a frightened, unarmed woman in front of me, trying to shelter her children. The part I can't imagine, the stuff I'm having real trouble with, is imagining voluntarily raising my hand and hacking them to death. I have a choice in that situation, and I know myself well enough that if have to choose between killing people and letting them live, I'd let them live, not that it would be a difficult decision at all. I also have no illusion that, in this imaginary situation where I have all the power and my 'enemies' are weak and helpless, I am the one who is being wronged.
I also tried imagining myself with a nasty cruel weapon standing before a cowering William Lane Craig. Nope, still doesn't work; I'd set the blade aside. Except in this case I'd take a great more care to make sure Craig couldn't get his hands on it — I don't trust that amoral bastard.
Greta Christina makes a very good point about this. I don't think William Lane Craig is an intrinsically evil human being. But this is a case where it is clear that religion is a tool that allows good people to bypass decent moral positions and find justification to do evil.
Apr
30
Army group says there ARE atheists in foxholes Hattiesburg American 5:33 pm Army Sgt. Justin Griffith poses for photographs at home in Fayetteville, NC Griffith, an atheist before he joined the Army, decided to become a public advocate for other members of the Army who shared his lack of belief in God. ... |
Apr
30
Recently, I seem to have run into a number of examples of the phenomenon of people hanging on like grim death to cherished ideas for which the evidence against is far stronger than the evidence for.
I suppose it's a natural enough tendency; no one likes to be wrong. Plus, if you've invested a lot of time, effort, and emotional energy into a theory, acknowledging that your logic had gone off the rails would be humiliating at best.
I was chatting with a student yesterday, and the subject of Crystal Skulls came up. For those of you who don't know about these, they are skulls made of crystal (duh) that are said to have been made in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Aficionados of woo-woo imbue these artifacts with a variety of mystical powers, including the healing of the sick, and "focusing psychic energy" to allow the sensitive to receive premonitions of the future. Another legend is that there are thirteen Crystal Skulls, and they will all be reunited in December of 2012 for the festivities, celebrations, and complete obliteration of the human race that is predicted for the end of the Mayan calendar cycle. (Admit it, as soon as you saw the word "Mesoamerica" you knew that 2012 and the Mayan calendar had to be involved somehow.)
In any case, the young man with whom I was talking was relating a conversation he'd had with another student, who is apparently an ardent believer in all of this stuff. So, the skeptical student and SkullBoy had a conversation which went something like this:
Skeptic: You really believe all that crap about the Crystal Skulls?
SkullBoy: Yeah! They were made of solid crystal, before anyone had any power tools or anything, and crystal is so hard it can't be cut. So they must have had some kind of alien technology.
Skeptic: Or, possibly, they're fakes.
SkullBoy: They're in museums! They've been analyzed!
Skeptic: ... aaaaand, they could be fakes. And in any case, even if they are genuine, there's no way they have any psychic powers.
SkullBoy: The ancients knew all sorts of things we didn't know. Like the pyramids! How could the Egyptians have built the pyramids without any sort of machinery?
Skeptic: It's called "slave labor." If you have millions of slaves, and a bunch of guys with whips to keep them in line, you can accomplish damn near anything.
And so on and so forth. Needless to say, SkullBoy never was convinced; every comment that the skeptical student made was answered with a side-step, red herring, or rationalization. (In point of fact, the most famous of the Crystal Skulls, the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, currently owned by a private collector in Indiana, has been conclusively shown to be a fake -- microanalysis of the surface shows grooves that were almost certainly cut with a rotary power tool, and there are inclusions in the quartz that match crystals only found in Madagascar -- which would have been kind of difficult to obtain in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The artifact was almost certainly carved in the 19th century.)
The whole thing is reminiscent of the whole idiotic "birther" controversy. The claim that President Obama was not born in the United States, which has simmered on for several years, was put to rest a few days ago when Obama released his long-form birth certificate showing that he was born in Honolulu, as he'd always claimed. The fact is, it should have been put to rest ages ago, when newspaper announcements, eyewitnesses, and a short-form certificate were produced. But when someone has a cherished theory, it takes more than a bunch of silly facts to convince them. Orly Taitz, the "Birther Queen," who seems to have the IQ of rock salt, and Donald Trump, whose thought processes have probably been disrupted by the mangy weasel clinging to his scalp, have managed to keep this ridiculous claim in the news.
Of course, now that the long-form birth certificate was released, Taitz and Trump have been effectively silenced. Taitz said, "Wow. I have wasted so much time and money and effort on this, and I see now that I was wrong." Trump told reporters for Fox News, "It would have been so much better had I focused on the issues rather than on such a ridiculous blind alley as questioning Obama's citizenship." Even Trump's weasel gave a sickly little squeak of humiliation.
Ha-ha! I just made up the entire preceding paragraph. There is nothing on earth that will make idiots like Trump and Taitz give up. If you invented a time machine, and took them back to Honolulu in 1961, and brought them into the hospital and had them witness Obama's mother giving birth, they would claim that they were witnessing a decoy who looked just like Mrs. Obama, rather like the Princess Amidala clones in The Phantom Menace. Apparently now they are implying that the birth certificate is a fake, that there's some problem with the number of the certificate being higher than those for babies born after Obama, and that in 1961 they would have put down his father's race as "Negro" or "Black" and not "African."
I would like to think that deep in their heart of hearts, Trump and Taitz know they've been proven wrong, and are just hanging on because it would be pretty embarrassing to admit it at this point. But honestly, I think it's worse than that. I think they're a little like SkullBoy; so invested in their belief about how the world works that they will explain away anything that contradicts it. Of course, the difference between them and SkullBoy is that SkullBoy is not running for president, nor being given time on national television to broadcast his ideas.
I keep hoping that people will eventually get fed up enough with this anti-logical nonsense, and say to Trump, "You're fired. Your weasel, too." But for some reason, everything he does just seems to make him more popular. The whole thing leaves me feeling like banging my head on the wall, but that wouldn't really accomplish anything. I will say, though, that if Trump ends up being elected president in 2012, I will begin to believe in Mayan prophecies of the end of civilization.
I suppose it's a natural enough tendency; no one likes to be wrong. Plus, if you've invested a lot of time, effort, and emotional energy into a theory, acknowledging that your logic had gone off the rails would be humiliating at best.
I was chatting with a student yesterday, and the subject of Crystal Skulls came up. For those of you who don't know about these, they are skulls made of crystal (duh) that are said to have been made in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Aficionados of woo-woo imbue these artifacts with a variety of mystical powers, including the healing of the sick, and "focusing psychic energy" to allow the sensitive to receive premonitions of the future. Another legend is that there are thirteen Crystal Skulls, and they will all be reunited in December of 2012 for the festivities, celebrations, and complete obliteration of the human race that is predicted for the end of the Mayan calendar cycle. (Admit it, as soon as you saw the word "Mesoamerica" you knew that 2012 and the Mayan calendar had to be involved somehow.)
In any case, the young man with whom I was talking was relating a conversation he'd had with another student, who is apparently an ardent believer in all of this stuff. So, the skeptical student and SkullBoy had a conversation which went something like this:
Skeptic: You really believe all that crap about the Crystal Skulls?
SkullBoy: Yeah! They were made of solid crystal, before anyone had any power tools or anything, and crystal is so hard it can't be cut. So they must have had some kind of alien technology.
Skeptic: Or, possibly, they're fakes.
SkullBoy: They're in museums! They've been analyzed!
Skeptic: ... aaaaand, they could be fakes. And in any case, even if they are genuine, there's no way they have any psychic powers.
SkullBoy: The ancients knew all sorts of things we didn't know. Like the pyramids! How could the Egyptians have built the pyramids without any sort of machinery?
Skeptic: It's called "slave labor." If you have millions of slaves, and a bunch of guys with whips to keep them in line, you can accomplish damn near anything.
And so on and so forth. Needless to say, SkullBoy never was convinced; every comment that the skeptical student made was answered with a side-step, red herring, or rationalization. (In point of fact, the most famous of the Crystal Skulls, the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, currently owned by a private collector in Indiana, has been conclusively shown to be a fake -- microanalysis of the surface shows grooves that were almost certainly cut with a rotary power tool, and there are inclusions in the quartz that match crystals only found in Madagascar -- which would have been kind of difficult to obtain in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The artifact was almost certainly carved in the 19th century.)
The whole thing is reminiscent of the whole idiotic "birther" controversy. The claim that President Obama was not born in the United States, which has simmered on for several years, was put to rest a few days ago when Obama released his long-form birth certificate showing that he was born in Honolulu, as he'd always claimed. The fact is, it should have been put to rest ages ago, when newspaper announcements, eyewitnesses, and a short-form certificate were produced. But when someone has a cherished theory, it takes more than a bunch of silly facts to convince them. Orly Taitz, the "Birther Queen," who seems to have the IQ of rock salt, and Donald Trump, whose thought processes have probably been disrupted by the mangy weasel clinging to his scalp, have managed to keep this ridiculous claim in the news.
Of course, now that the long-form birth certificate was released, Taitz and Trump have been effectively silenced. Taitz said, "Wow. I have wasted so much time and money and effort on this, and I see now that I was wrong." Trump told reporters for Fox News, "It would have been so much better had I focused on the issues rather than on such a ridiculous blind alley as questioning Obama's citizenship." Even Trump's weasel gave a sickly little squeak of humiliation.
Ha-ha! I just made up the entire preceding paragraph. There is nothing on earth that will make idiots like Trump and Taitz give up. If you invented a time machine, and took them back to Honolulu in 1961, and brought them into the hospital and had them witness Obama's mother giving birth, they would claim that they were witnessing a decoy who looked just like Mrs. Obama, rather like the Princess Amidala clones in The Phantom Menace. Apparently now they are implying that the birth certificate is a fake, that there's some problem with the number of the certificate being higher than those for babies born after Obama, and that in 1961 they would have put down his father's race as "Negro" or "Black" and not "African."
I would like to think that deep in their heart of hearts, Trump and Taitz know they've been proven wrong, and are just hanging on because it would be pretty embarrassing to admit it at this point. But honestly, I think it's worse than that. I think they're a little like SkullBoy; so invested in their belief about how the world works that they will explain away anything that contradicts it. Of course, the difference between them and SkullBoy is that SkullBoy is not running for president, nor being given time on national television to broadcast his ideas.
I keep hoping that people will eventually get fed up enough with this anti-logical nonsense, and say to Trump, "You're fired. Your weasel, too." But for some reason, everything he does just seems to make him more popular. The whole thing leaves me feeling like banging my head on the wall, but that wouldn't really accomplish anything. I will say, though, that if Trump ends up being elected president in 2012, I will begin to believe in Mayan prophecies of the end of civilization.
Apr
30
Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don't like much: atheists.
Apr
30
Would we have a better world if we had followed the teachings of Aristotle, Confucius and Baudelaire instead of the religious teachings of the Koran or the Bible? British academic A.C. Grayling believes we would, so he's written his own version of a bible called "The Good Book: A Humanist Bible." It's an anthology of hundreds of philosophers and ...
Apr
30
Since they no longer kill people they find immoral, we ought to describe Christians as “loving” and “full of grace,” got that? To paraphrase a commenter on David Hayward's site, we've gone from putting gay people out of their misery to ...
Apr
30
Christians could learn a thing or two from humanists Vineland Daily Journal But first you need to know that Grayling doesn't follow the anti-religious atheism espoused by the likes of Richard Dawkins. Called by some the velvet atheist, Grayling avoids the militant and is more comfortable with the word humanist. ... |
Apr
30
Freedom From Religion Foundation approved to perform marriages Tulsa World Atheists who want to get married in Tulsa County without going before a minister or a judge may now do so. Three leaders of local atheist organizations registered Thursday with the county court clerk to officiate ... Atheist group to perform Tulsa County weddings |
Apr
30
Can a Christian become an atheist and then reconvert back to Christianity? - 1990s (mid) – Theta Zeta – Stonegate – Christian, Sammy, Susan, Mike – 27 Question by awe9311: Can a Christian become an atheist a...
Apr
30
Atheist-agnostic doesn't believe in God but can't disprove His existence The Spokesman Review I said, “Well, it's probably easiest just to call me an atheist.” And, honest to God and for heavens to Betsy and for cripes and Pete's sakes, I heard a loud gasp from at least one of the other potential jurors. Say what? But then, electing a known ... Celebrating a lack of faith |
Apr
30
Focusing on things that don't matter Salt Lake Tribune The third president of the United States said that before he overcame widespread, politically motivated, accusations that he was, among other sins real and imagined, an atheist, to win the election of 1800. So, as Jefferson saw, it's a lot easier to ... |
