Frivology

Apparently, it’s easier than I thought to be a militant atheist.  Apparently, all you have to do is buy a t-shirt!

Check out how militant the new atheists are by logging on to the website of one of the movement’s patriarchs, Brit Richard Dawkins. There you can buy aT-shirt with a quotation from Dawkins’ best-seller, “The God Delusion.”The quotation spares no punches for those of us who believe in God and the Bible: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist…”

Well there you are! I cut short the intolerant diatribe, but don’t be surprised if you’re walking through the mall some day and you run smack into it - as I say, atheism is out of the closet, preaching their gospel with a fierce pitbull militancy we’ve never before seen here in the Western world.

via Atheists preach with evangelical fervour - The Daily Observer - Ontario, CA .

Well, crap… if a t-shirt makes you a militant, there’s an awful lot more militant Christians out there than there are militant atheists.

John Whitehead asks, “Why don’t you let religion into our schools?” … or, more accurately … “Why don’t you let CHRISTIANITY into our schools?”:

The first incident involves Wade, a fourth grader from Colorado. Wade’s class was given a “Hero” assignment, which required each student to pick a hero, research the person and write an essay. The student would then dress up and portray the chosen hero as part of a “live wax museum” and give an oral report in front of the class.

However, when the 9-year-old chose Jesus as his hero, school officials immediately insisted that he pick another hero. You have to wonder whether school officials would have objected had Wade chosen the Dalai Lama — or even the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — as his hero.

After Wade’s parents objected, the school proposed a compromise: Wade could write the essay on Jesus. He could even dress up like Jesus for the “wax museum.” However, he would have to present his oral report to his teacher in private, with no one else present, rather than in front of the classroom like the other students.

via Why is religion taboo in American schools? | Reporter-Times / MD Times.

I’ll answer with a story of my own.

When I was a Freshman in High School, I entered my first biology class with youthful glee.  Over the summer, I had purchased - through a church rummage sale - a used micrsocope kit and a used chemistry kit.  I spent a lot of time looking at everything I could find under the microscope and experimenting with all sorts of chemicals in the family garage.  I was excited to start off in biology, and it showed.  I even read ahead in my textbook and was pretty eager to give answers.

It wasn’t long before we were assigned our very first report - an oral one no less, so I can relate to the kid above who had to do an oral report.  Each of us would draw, from a hat, a piece of paper that had a part of human physiology on it.  My choice?  The immune system.  Now, this was back nearly twenty years ago.  The hot-button issue at the time was AIDS, and I, being a pretty media-savvy kid, had heard a lot about it.  I’d also heard about the fact that the religious didn’t want us to talk about AIDS and especially about ways to prevent AIDS.  Many had mentioned, in fact, that it was a disease given to us by god to punish homosexuals.  Being a young, bright scientist, I wanted to set the record straight, so I chose AIDS to do my report on.

My mom drove me to the public library and for a week I studied HIV and AIDS relentlessly.  By the time my first draft was ready, I knew the ins and outs of the history of AIDS, where it started, who it affected, and WHY it affected hose people in particular.  I knew all the ways it could be transmitted, what it did to the body, and how it ended up killing it’s victim.  Iwas ready to bring truth to the classroom… unfortunately, the classroom wasn’t ready to receive it.  Upon inspection of my first draft, my science teacher made one of those faces that one makes when stuck between a rock and a hard place - in his case a student who really wanted to learn and an admistration terrified by religion - he told me that he’d have to talk to the principal about whether or not I could give my report.

I was two things… crushed that my hard work was going to get shot down, and confused as to why it was so terribly controversial to talk about a disease.  If HIV had been transferred solely through blood transfusions or solely through saliva, it wouldn’t have been questioned at all.  It might have even gone under the radar if heterosexuals had been the ones to pass the virus through their communities - but because this particular disease spread through the homosexual communities first, it was taboo.  Taboo to talk about it’s history.  Taboo to talk about how one contracts the disease.  Taboo to talk about how to prevent the contraction.  Taboo to talk about what the virus does to the body.  Taboo because of religion.

I tried to fight the decision a little, but it rapidly became clear that I had no voice in this world.  The school was afraid of controversy and I was too small a fish to worry about.  My science teacher tried to get me interested in a new subject, but it wasn’t the same and as a result my interest in science waned because my school gave up on my rights to free speech, my right to learn, because they were afraid of what a church might do.  When I re-did my oral report, I picked a new part of the body - one which allowed me to explore sociopaths and deep depression - so I could tell the group exactly what sort of things lead one to suicide.

So I hope people like Mr. Whitehead will understand when I look upon poor little Wade without a single ounce of pity or remorse.   If the church is going to influence schools so much that they are afraid to allow students to learn about things not related to religion, then the church is going to have to suffer with the inevitable backlash - the rest of us not wanting the church anywhere near our schools.  If that means that Wade can’t tell his classmates about how Jesus Christ is his hero, then so be it.  Save that sort of thing for Sunday School, where it belongs.  If Wade had, instead, chosen Muhammad as his ‘hero’, what do you think Mr. Whitehead would have said?  Praise Allah?

I never really understood these extremely silly religious activities, but I especially don’t understand ones that get warped by humanity’s selfishness like… Lent. 

Traditionally in the Catholic Church, Lent was a time of fasting — defined as abstaining from meat and limiting oneself to one full meal a day, usually around noon. The Lenten fast is intended to recall Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert before he began his public ministry.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his Lenten message this year, called for a renewed commitment to fasting, saying the practice “is a great help to avoid sin,” a way to combat “disordered attachment to ourselves” and a daily reminder that many around the world live in poverty and hunger.

The tradition of fasting led, in modern times, to a broader (if less rigorous) notion of “giving something up” for Lent — if not food, then at least ice cream; if not meat, then at least pepperoni pizza.

via RELIGION Blog | The Dallas Morning News .

So let me get this straight… Jesus walked around in the desert fasting for 40 days and 40 nights… thus, to “honor” him, some idiot in the new world is going to give up Pepperoni Pizza to become less sinful? How do people swallow this crap whole?

Evangelical Examiner Jake Jones is trying to piss off Atheists again: 

The problem as I see it is that Atheists seem to have a great deal of passion about …ah…ah…um……nothing. You got it, they have a passion for nothing. They don’t believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Heaven or Hell! So what do they believe in………nothing, that’s what.

Their passion for promoting their beloved Atheism is misplaced, and actually it’s a false passion. How do I come by this conclusion you ask? All one has to do is to read Atheist literature, listen to one speak, or simply have a discussion with an Atheist and you will soon find out that on the subject of Christianity, they defend their beloved Atheism so passionately that they actually make Christianity sound great because Christianity has a real foundation, Atheism has no foundation other than “they don’t believe”, and oh yeah, Darwin!

via Evangelical Examiner: The false passion of Atheism.

That’s a pretty sad worldview.  I can’t imagine someone having such a narrow view on life that the only thing they believe is worth having passion over is … god.  Something they can’t even see or touch or hear.  That’s a pretty big statement as to why religion can be so  harmful to people.  It fills up all the gaps with god so that there’s no room for … anything else.  At all.  Nothing bad, surely, but also nothing good.  Like having passion for nature or logic or, as someone put in the comments, “An atheist can be passionate about anything. Sunny days, dark chocolate, education, great art, football, you name it. Are you suggesting that you have no passion except for your faith”?

I popped a quick post up earlier form Google Reader linking to PZ’s account of a woman in Washington trying to get an anti-atheist initiative on the state ballot.  I didn’t realize, at the time, that the woman was actually from the area I grew up in - Whatcom County.  In particular, she lives in Blaine, goes to some church events in Bellingham and works in Lynden.  After discovering this, I figured it was no wonder she’s crazy.  This is a crazy part of the country, and, as will eventually come out in my ‘Losing My Religion’ series, that area is part of why I’m an atheist today. 

First, some crazy: 

“I think probably at least that more creation science is overlooked as not belonging in the public school system because of the religion (aspect),” she said.

Citing the state Constitution, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the initiative states it “is about requiring our government to do its job, to protect our liberty, a liberty which has been endowed by our Creator, the one responsible for Blessing us, the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”

via: Blaine woman trying to get anti-evolution initiative on state ballot

Next, some insight into the crazy that is this part of the country.  Whatcom County is situated in the far Northwest corner of the United States.  Blaine is practically Canada.  I grew up in Bellingham, which was considered “the big city” compared to the other parts of the area - Lynden, Ferndale, Blaine and surrounding itty bitty towns, almost all of which are crazy religious.  Lynden is the worst, which has several Blue Laws on the books, including laws prohibiting liquor to be sold on Sundays, prohibiting establishments that allow dancing and drinking in the same place and prohibiting certain activities to be performed on Sundays.  It’s a real ‘Stepford’ kind of place, with perfectly mowed lawns and perfect little blocks with perfect little churches on every corner.  If you don’t mow your lawn in a timely fashion, the city will mow it for you and then send you the bill.  I used to get chills whenever we’d drive through the place.  That kind of crazy. 

The surrounding other cities weren’t much better.  Rumors persisted year after year that teen pregnancy and alcohol and substance abuse were much higher than in the city where we lived, and I even had a friend who told me she wasn’t allowed to have a prom.  Remember Footloose?  Yeah.  That.  Funny story… the relatively progressive church that we attended slowly got overrun by the Stepford wives.  My mom - a Sunday School teacher, Calvinette volunteer (it’s girl scouts for presbyterians) and choir member hated these women to a last one.  So, during one of our youth lock-in sleepovers, when it was our job to rent the movies she was sure to pick up … you guessed it … Footloose.  She just loved making those women squirm. 

Anyhow, Washington is a fairly progressive state, and it’s considered ‘blue’, but this particular bit of nutso comes from a rather nutso part of the state.  Yes, it’s really that bad and really that stupid.  I highly doubt it’ll actually turn into anything, but once you understand the people in the ara, you can understand how it could happen.

via: Atheist Media Blog

At the very end of this, you get this gem:  “…and which suggests that the universe is essentially purposeless and undirected, and one where people have perfect moral freedom to do exactly what they want because there’s no higher purpose to which they’re accountable.”

Every time I hear this argument I bristle.  Again, it is a denunciation of the power of mankind.  By announcing that we MUST absolutely have a higher authority to respond to otherwise we’ll go bonkers and do all sorts of crazy things, we’re saying that we have little to no faith in ourselves.  Mature humans are smart enough and reasonable enough to understand that actions have reactions associated with them.  You can’t just run about and murder everyone you don’t like, or someone you don’t like is going to murder you.  You can’t go around stealing everyone’s money because eventually someone will steal your money.  Then, there’s empathy with others, a trait, again, shared by mature humans.  If you hurt someone in some less tangible way, say by cheating on them in a relationship, you empathize with their pain and naturally think ‘what if I were in her shoes’?

I think, personally, that religion short-circuits our natural ability to form natural morals by giving people an easy out.  That’s why you see people running into crowds and blowing themselves up in the name of god, but you don’t see atheists doing the same thing.  If you’re religiously motivated to something it’s right, even if the rest of your nature-given intelligence tells you otherwise.

Then there’s purpose.  Purpose is something given to you, either by yourself or by another human being.  If your ‘purpose’ is to earn enough brownie points with god to get into heaven, that’s not something divinely attached to you.  It’s given to you through your church which is run by humans, not deities.  Those of us without belief in god still believe in purpose just as that definition – it’s just that we give ourselves our own purpose rather than waiting for someone else to come along and give it to us for us.  Again, in this case, religion short-circuits nature.

So today is Darwin Day, and I’ve been mulling over in my head for the past couple of weeks just what I wanted to say in this post.  I’m not a scientist by any means, and my understanding of Darwin goes as far back as high school, wich is around 15 years ago.  I’m reading ‘Why Evolution is True‘, but I don’t have a whole lot of time to read these days, being busy with work and a few other hobbies.  So, I stumbled along with idea after idea until something finally dawned on me… it’s something I’m sort of working slowly up to in my Losing My Religion series here at Frivology.  The series is about all of the different religions I hopped in and out of before I finally found peace in no religion and no belief, but the underlying theme to it is a personal bit of anecdotal evidence that there are certain people in this world who are hard-wired to be atheists.  Natural born atheists, so to speak… and I have to wonder, are human beings evolving into disbelief? 

About a year ago, I listened to Julia Sweeney’s ‘Letting Go of God’.  It moved me because Julia described all of the different beliefs she went through before she allowed herself to stop believing.  I did much the same thing.  Also like her, I wanted desperately to be a part of the moving ritual and beauty that religion can offer the world.  I, however, was cognitive enough of my own disbelief that I spent a great deal of time lying about what I felt.  I lied and said that I was wounded and needed Christianity to heal me.  I lied and said that I felt the warmth of God.  I lied and said that I felt the love of the Goddess… so on and so forth.  Some part of me knew I was lying, yet I craved the companionship, warmth and peace that so many “believers” seemed to have.  For me, though, I didn’t get that peace until I finally completely let go and admitted that I didn’t believe.  From the beginning, I never believed - couldn’t believe.  I was always meant to be an atheist.  It dawned on me, then, that I probably wasn’t alone.  Whatever made other people believe just wasn’t part of me. 

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For the record, I’m on the fence as to whether or not Atheists should be loud-mouths.  I can both see the benefits of being rather vocally out in the public sector and the drawbacks.  I literally sway back and forth.  I tend to, personally, sway more toward the being loud part, no matter what the message is – but that’s because I don’t believe that the religious should have a monopoly on free speech.

No matter what, though, I have a real problem with people who describe themselves as religious essentially telling Atheists to STFU.  Mark Fefer of Seattle Weekly has done just that.  I actually caught up with him on his follow-up, but I think his first article is worth quoting.

I happen to be a religious person myself. But to have any reverend stand before the country and start directly addressing— on our behalf—a kindergarten version of God (old male, up there, controlling everything) as our government leaders bow their heads just seems wrong on its face. We all elected this president, and it’s not a religious office.

The trouble is that the only people speaking up loudly for separation of church and state are people who hate the church part.

via: Not Praying Along With Obama

Kind of a harsh introduction to what he thinks about atheists, don’t you think?  I certainly do. 

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You won’t believe this, but in this case it’s Christians complaining that they are being persecuted because children in Canada are being taught ethics and religious culture.  I can see where they’re coming from on this.  I had to take a few culture courses in High School and there are plenty on my required list for my college GE credits.  The effort is to make people understand all of the different people in the world.  Oddly, though, this doesn’t seem to sit well with Christians who want to teach their children to hate and revile those of other religions.

Paul Donovan, the principal at Loyola High School in Montreal, told the National Post his school has initiated a court challenge against the class, which he said does not ask students to distinguish between right and wrong.
"What it essentially says is that religion is just, ‘You like tomato soup and I like pea soup, so don’t be all offended because someone likes tomato soup. It’s really just a matter of preference,’" he said. "Religion could be Wiccan or Raelian or any of the new movements or atheism or agnosticism."

This, apparently, is terribly offensive, and persecutes Christians who want to teach their children that tomato soup is the only soup anyone is allowed to like, and those who like pea soup will burn in soup hell.

Another disturbing bit…

A Voice of the Martyrs blog post commended the students for their opposition to state religious teaching.
"We believe that the state has no right to mandate religious education, force students to learn the content of other religious and to deliberately seek to undermine the religious convictions of those who refuse to accept a relativistic view of truth," VOM said.
"It is the right and responsibility of parents to train their own children according to their own religious beliefs, not those of the state," the persecution watchdog group said. "Religious courses, if offered, should be optional or alternatives provided. But the state must not mandate what religious content will or will not be taught to children, especially against the wishes of their parents."

Train?  Train?  Beyond potty-training, do you really "train" your children?  They aren’t dogs.  You can’t click a little toy and offer them a treat when they sit down when they’re told.  They are human beings.  Geez.

Wow.  I noticed a link today in my RSS reader to an article stating rather boldly that "Conservative Groups Declare Obama’s Stimulus Bill a War on Prayer".  Now, rightfully, seeing that this was a link to Fox News, I probably should have avoided clicking on it all together, but silly me, I did.  It seems all of the fuss is over the fact that the bill *shock, horror*, obeys the constitution.

According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."

Critics say that could include public schools that permit religious groups to meet on campus. The House provided $20 billion for the infrastructure improvements, of which $6 billion would go to higher education facilities where the limitations would be applied.

Let’s get this straight.  First, the Neocons don’t want us to spend any money in the first place, because spending is bad (though Dubya didn’t seem to believe this).  Then, when it comes out that the stimulus bill actually includes text that obeys the constitution, they start whining that their base - the fundies - won’t be getting some of it.

As if this isn’t ridiculous enough on it’s face, there’s comments on the news story.

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