Why I'm terrified of Sarah Palin and of the Tea Party

Quite simply, it's because the two greatest threats to American liberty and security in the 21st Century are religion and stupidity. I'd be happy to cite examples if anyone wants them.

Christian Atheist?

Can someone please tell me why this person titled his book "Christian Atheist?" Is he simply trying to appropriate the term to misrepresent what atheism is? I'm stumped...

http://mtararat.org/blog/2010/04/20/christian-atheist/#comment-1011

Whopping Lie of the Day

Many thanks to the good clerical leaders of Iran for clearing this one up for me. Apparently, promiscuous women cause earthquakes there:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_earthquakes_promiscuity

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

*Headslap* Of course! It's so obvious, how did I not see it? And to think, I've been listening to geologists and other qualified people this whole time...

More Pope defending

I recently questioned a Catholic blogger on whether he believes the Pope should be held accountable for his role in the Church sex scandal, but my comment was not posted because the blogger did not believe there was evidence that he was involved. Here's the blog post:

http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/militant-atheism-goes-balistic/

Here's the blogger's emailed response to my question:

"And exactly what do you believe the Holy Father s role in the sex scandal was that you believe he should be held accountable , Dave?

I believe he does have a responsibility - a very heavy one - to continue in the task of healing the wounds of the past and making sure that in the future the Church is the safest place for all people.

We believe he has been very successful at this thus far, and that he is continuing to come up with the goods.

We believe that there is no evidence of culpability for any of his actions in the past - the NYT s journalism not withstanding - except maybe a slowness to realise the serious extent of the problem. As soon as he became responsible for the administration of accusations in 2001 he became very aware and very active, all the more so when he entered into the office of pope.

What is your evidence to the contrary?"

So let's look at what this person is saying:

1) The Pope's responsibility is to the Church, not its victims.
2) We think he's doing a great job.
3) There is no evidence that he covered up Church abuse since taking over responsibility for Church discipline in 2001, despite numerous news reports to the contrary.

Here's my response to the email:
"Many news outlets have reported multiple occasions on which Cardinal Ratzinger's office was notified of the abuse and either ignored the warnings or transferred the perpetrators to other jurisdictions. The most prominent recent example was of the head of a school for deaf children in Wisconsin.

Unless you are specifically closing your eyes to these reports, it is hard to imagine that you have not seen them. If you'd like, I'd be happy to provide links to news articles."

Now let's see if they continue to censor my comment. I'll keep you posted...

...which seems to be a trend today.

Here's a piece by a Catholic blogger in which the author makes a sweeping generalization about all atheists; we apparently suffer from "intellectual insecurity:"

http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2010/04/intellectual-security-of-atheist-and.html

Note who he quotes in coming to this conclusion: other Catholics. Really, it would be much easier to take points of view like this seriously if the people stating them knew the first thing about what they were criticizing.

And the idea of a member of the Catholic Church accusing atheists of violence throughout history tripped my irony detector.

Russian patriarch insults a bunch of people he's never met

With no explanation of why he feels this way, the Voice of Russia has quoted Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church as saying atheism turns people into brutes:

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/16/6522817.html

I'd love to respond to that, but I have no clue what his basis for saying that would be, other than plain old bigotry.

Personally, I find ritual cannibalism brutish, but most Christian denominations require it as a sacrament.

Condoms for religious texts

I love it! An atheist student group in Houston is offering to let people trade religious pamphlets for condoms and educational materials about safe sex:

http://media.www.houstonianonline.com/media/storage/paper229/news/2010/04/15/CampusNews/Holy-Text.For.Safer.Sex-3906394.shtml

It doesn't quite counteract the Pope telling people in AIDS-ravaged African nations not to use condoms, but it's a start.

God Vandalism

Evidently, they're not above vandalism either:

http://www.historiccity.com/2010/staugustine/news/florida/controversial-atheist-billboard-severely-damaged-2994

So much for treating others as you'd want to be treated...

God Spam

When I respond to people's blog posts, I always leave my email address, in case the author is interested in opening a dialogue on religion and non-belief. I got the following; apparently, Christians are not above passing my email address along to spammers:

Dearly beloved,
I greet you in the name of our lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am writing from Benin city in Nigeria and I know this letter will bring blessings to you and me.
I was born and brought up in a polygamous family of which I am the sixth child of my father and the second for my mother. I am from a family where idol worshipping is the order of the day.
It will be nice to share with you on how I became a born again Christian and how I became a pastor.
When I was 15 years old, I became sick suffering from a terrible sickness where we spent every thing we had to make sure I was well. We visited many hospitals and they told me I will not be able to survive the sickness that I will die. My parents were afraid, then we decided to visit a native doctor who promised to take care of me but instead he ate my money and ran away. The last native doctor we visited told that it was the curse of my great grandmother that was transferred to me. We were confused and thought all hope were lost. One faithful day a Christian visited me who was my primary school friend and told me that it was only God that was born to save me. My parents did not believe that. I had about five days more to stay on this planet earth. He later invited me a program in their church which I attended the guest speaker called me out and told me that it was only God that could save me. Then I told him all the doctors had said .He spoke and prayed for me, two days later I began to see some improvement even without taking drugs, then I knew God was in control. I stayed more than the five days the doctors promised and I finally became well. My parents had no option other than to throw away their idols and serve God.
The Lord spoke to me in a dream one day that I should get prepared for his work , then I told my pastor then he encouraged me but I was not ready to do the work . After much conviction in my spirit. I immediately joined and headed the evangelical team of the church and I saw many coming to Christ in the team. I let go off my job in 2004 and returned to Edo state my state. I joined a small Local church and was assisting the pastor. In June 18, the pastor spoke to me about the Lord told him that it was time for me to start my ministry. I was not ready yet but my pastor encouraged me and I began the ministry. Heb.13:8 "Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever". We believe on the trinity, the second coming of Christ and Evangelism is our major task. We visit hospitals, orphanage homes and prisons to help and spread God’s word. We are about 50 members now. We meet in a rented land where we built a wooden temporary structure were we pay so much. We need to be grateful for the little to attract more.
I am writing to appeal for assistance in the area of study Bible which will be of help to me in my research and studies as well as lesson preparation as a pastor. These Bibles are very expensive her. I need a Dakes Annotated Reference Bible or Thompson Chain reference Bible either one of the two. If you cannot get any of these please send me any study Bible which you know has study aids. I would prefer a King James Version. Bibles cost much here as they are imported not printed here. There are many in our Local church who do not have bibles and cannot afford to buy. I want to specifically make a request for six elderly couples who cannot work and earn money to buy for themselves. They are very devoted. Please on their behalf I request that you send them 12 bibles the very big letters or super large print would be preferable for them because of their sight. Please used bibles would be appreciated if that is what you can afford. Thank for considering this request. And as you help to meet this kingdom need the Lord will bless your finance abundantly.
Ecclesiastes 11:1"Cast the bread upon the waters, for thou shall find it after many days".
Please send the items through a member’s and we will get them safely. Postal address insured mail P.O.BOX GPO 5733 AIRPORT ROAD,BENIN CITY,NIGERIA.
We will be blessed when we hear from you. I check mail at least thrice a week.
In His Service
Pastor collins Morris
"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:13-14

Questions about the Pope

A blogger at this web address has some good questions about why people would want the Pope arrested:

http://anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/another-anti-pope-diatribe-from-dawkins/#comment-3637

I invite your comments on my answers.

Denial of God

This blog post reprints an article by a Christian philosopher that comes up with all kinds of strange reasons that people become atheists, including inattentive fathers:

http://onlyamustardseed.blogspot.com/2010/04/atheism-philospher-explores-causes.html

Perhaps theories about why people behave in certain ways should be left to behavioral scientists and other people qualified to address such matters.

The interesting part about the article for me, though, was its premise that atheists make a conscious choice to deny God. This is a common misunderstanding among Christians, and it hinges on the implications of the word "deny." That word implies that atheists know that the Christian God exists and are pretending he does not. I suppose this might be understandable if you look at atheists through a Christian lens, but it is a mis-characterization of how atheists see that issue. For an atheist, God has no existence to deny. In my response, to the blog post, I ask the author why she denies the Tooth Fairy. It's a tongue-in-cheek question, but the point is that if one does not think something is real, then the word "deny" is misleading.

Note that the article's author argues that we all know God exists because he revealed himself in the Bible. My response would be that the ancient Greek pantheon revealed themselves in the works of Homer. Why does the author deny them?

Christians and book banning

A Tennessee man named Kurt Zimmerman is demanding that a book be banned for accurately describing the Genesis creation story as mythology:

http://freethinker.co.uk/2010/04/09/tennessee-dad-wants-textbook-banned-for-dismissing-creationism-as-%E2%80%98biblical-myth%E2%80%99/

As shocking as such an idea is in the twenty-first century, it upholds centuries of Christian tradition. It is, after all, much easier to censor an idea then respond to it. Fortunately, reason prevails at the school board.

What's really ludicrous about this one is the comment section. Saying that God created the world in seven days instead of six invalidates the whole textbook, really? Must be nice to find something to justify not actually reading the thing before you criticize it.

Modern Reformation article

There's an article at Modern Reformation that presents a fascinating history of non-belief as developed by philosophers over the years:

http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=911&var3=main

This is an impressive article, well research and thought out. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the historical development of atheism. It does appear that the author is writing this to establish a foundation from which to debunk the New Atheism movement embodied by Christopher Hitchens and other antitheists. The only thing I would point out to the author is that this movement does not represent the mainstream of non-believers in the United States. Most of us could care less whether someone else practices a religion, as long as they don't use violence to attempt to codify their religious beliefs in law.

Topix discussion

Interesting discussion in the comments of this article:

http://www.topix.net/religion/2010/03/nurse-mistakenly-cuts-sikh-mans-beard#lastPost

So far, the only thing that I've learned from the theists there are that I'm cocky and don't know myself, and that there's overwhelming evidence for the existence of God that no one can show me.

Guns and Atheism

David Duringer has written a piece that seems to suggest that Christians are better judges of when and when not to use lethal force that atheists. The piece, along with my question for him, can be found here:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/is-god-necessary-for-a-people-trained-to-arms

Lehigh Valley Live opinion piece

I'd like to start with a simple one:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1269921962318640.xml&coll=3

This is an excellent demonstration of the misconception that the United States is a Christian nation. The piece is in response to another writing, and the author of this one asks the original writer not to "try to change our country and our foundation." My question would be: If this is a Christian nation, what does that mean for the millions of non-Christians who live here? Are we all second-class citizens?

The fact is, this is a secular nation, meaning that it is religion-neutral. Neither Christianity nor any other faith gets preferential treatment. This author would do well to actually read the US Constitution; it contains no reference to gods of any kind.

The author ends with a vague threat that God is so powerful that he will win every battle. Setting aside the disturbing veiled reference to violence, there's a question that this raises. If God is all-powerful, what is the harm in our trying to change things, as the author warns us not to do? If we can't beat God, we should be able to try to eradicate Christianity (or whatever it is she's afraid of) as much as we want. We can't win, right? So if you know this, then why is there a need to warn us not to try?

The fact is, despite this writer's alarmist rhetoric, no one is trying to wipe out Christianity. Most atheists could care less if someone else practices a religion. What many of us ARE trying to do, however, is to preserve the secular nature of our great nation by beating back the encroachment of religion into the political sphere. Though it may disappoint the writer or this piece, the government cannot endorse Christianity or any other religion, and this is a truth that has been upheld by the courts time and time again.

Introduction

Lately, I have been using the Web 2.0 features of many news and opinion websites to challenge misconceptions about atheists, in hopes that the ill-informed might come to a better understanding of us. I've discovered that a significant number of such sites do not offer the option to post a response to a bigoted or inaccurate writing about atheism. I have started this blog in order to address and respond to writings to which I could not reply directly on the hosting websites.