Category Archives: Atheism

Atheists often adhere to their views religiously.

Is atheism a religion? This is a question that many Christians ask when confronted with the various beliefs of atheists. It is also a hot topic of debate. Here is one perspective.

Is atheism a religion?

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- Atheists are accused of having a religion, of having belief, faith, possessing dogma, and even proselytizing as Christians do.

According to many Christians, the atheist faith is as follows:

The atheist rejects belief in God; they instead adopt a faith-filled confidence in science and materialism. Materialism is the notion that the only thing which exists is the material world. The supernatural does not exist, and cannot be demonstrated to exist by science precisely because it is supernatural; what units would one use to measure a god? Atheists accept as a matter of dogma, that the universe came from nothing, and that the Big Bang Theory, and evolution are facts.

First, let's deal with whether atheism is a religion or not.

A religion has a set of beliefs, dogma, rites and rituals, and often a hierarchy responsible for shepherding believers and maintaining the faith. Atheism does not have these features.

Atheism, in its most basic form, is merely the rejection of the belief that gods exist.

Although atheism is not a religion, it is certainly a belief. Atheism is the belief that God does not exist. Ask an atheist if they believe God does not exist, and they will say yes. Off is not a television channel and bald is not a hair color, but both are still states of being. As far as saying God does not exist, according to the norms of philosophical debate, the person who makes the claim also bears the burden of proof. No atheist can prove God does not exist, and none ever has. Christians who claim God exists also have the burden of proof. It isn't difficult to prove the existence of God per se, at least using logic, and evidence that Christians accept, but atheists are often steadfast in their demand for scientific evidence. The problem is that the supernatural is impossible to quantify. As a result, atheists have insulated themselves from Christian apologists because no matter what evidence a Christian may offer, it can always be dismissed as "unscientific." An analogy might be a blind person arguing that colors do not exist because they cannot see them and you cannot describe them. How do you describe color to a person who has never seen color?

What about all those other beliefs, such as the universe from nothing, the Big Bang, and evolution? It is generally true that atheists accept these beliefs, but there is no rule requiring it. And there are rare atheists who reject them. Some atheists also claim to believe in other supernatural phenomena such as ghosts. Just because a person does not believe in God does not mean they must believe anything else. Christian apologists should avoid making such a leap in logic.

To convert an atheist is a process and it requires less debate and a lot more love. From the debate perspective, it is logical to conclude God exists because the universe has a cause. That cause is certain to be more powerful than the universe because we have never observed an inferior thing give rise to something superior; to wit, energy does not give rise to a surplus of matter or matter to a surplus of energy. The two trade equally, hence the equation, E=MC2.

Whatever the cause of the universe, it must be greater than the universe we inhabit. We can call that creative force God, the same as we can call it by any other name. By application of Occam's razor, we can assume the creative force is a singular thing. That thing, or God, has clearly arranged the universe in a manner that is conducive to life on Earth. God has given humanity a purpose and instructions, although those instructions are often misunderstood. God has sent prophets and a teacher to us to help us understand those instructions. God has also left us with the Holy Spirit and the Church to guide us. And when we open ourselves to the idea that there is evidence that does not fit into a test tube, then we can finally encounter God on His terms, as it must always be.

The logic above is debatable. There are no clincher arguments that work. If such arguments existed, we would live in a world with no Christians or with no atheists. Millions of people have already covered this debate, and despite a few high-profile conversions on each side, the world continues much as it has since creation. Some people are simply going to believe and others not.

The trick for Christians is to get atheists to open up to the possibility that there is more out there than what can be revealed by a microscope or a telescope. It's like convincing an indigenous native who only knows about drums that radio waves exist and carry music. You must be the radio.

You can accomplish this by avoiding adversarial debate. In a debate, people often strive for their own side, not the truth. Instead, both people should be seeking truth, not victory. As a Christian, you know the truth, there is more out there than mere matter and energy. But unless your rapport with the atheist is warm, it will be difficult for you to convey that message.

Kindness, even in the face of ridicule, is essential. Love and support, even for people who may not deserve it, is always the way to be. The early Christians were persecuted terribly, yet their faith conquered the Roman Empire. They did not win this victory by arguing in the forums. They won by evangelizing, showing kindness at every turn, and sharing the Gospel when the listener was ready.

In conclusion, atheism is not a religion, but it is a belief. The person who makes the claim bears the burden of proof. But the way to win against the atheist is not to debate so much as to love. The way to do this is threefold, perform good works, perform good works, and perform good works. By your actions, the atheist will judge you. People are always attracted to love and kindness. They are repulsed by conflict. You cannot draw a person close by being adversarial. Be the radio that channels God's love for all people, including the atheist, and perhaps they too will hear the sweet music of God's welcoming grace.

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Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for JUNE 2017 National Leaders. That national leaders may firmly commit themselves to ending the arms trade, which victimizes so many innocent people.

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Is Atheism a religion? - Catholic Online

Marie Alena Castle is the communications director for Atheists for Human Rights. Raised Roman Catholic she became an atheist later in life. She has since been an important figure within the atheistmovement through her involvement with Minnesota Atheists,The Moral Atheist,National Organization of Women, andwroteCulture Wars: The Threat to Your Family and Your Freedom(2013). She has a lifetime of knowledge and activist experience, explored and crystallised in an educational series.

Following is the second half of an interview of Ms. Castle by Scott Douglas Jacobsen. The first part of this interview can be found here Session 1

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Jacobsen: With your four decades of experience in activism for atheism, human rights, and womens rights, you earlier described the victory for womens right to vote and pursue careers and for reproductive rights. Who has formed the main resistance to the massive pro-life lobby from Catholic and other Christian religious groups?

Alena Castle:Groups such as NARAL and NOW and Planned Parenthood have been the most publicly visible opponents of the Catholic/Protestant fundamentalist assaults on reproductive health care. However, the most effective has been the political organising within the Democratic party. I was extensively involved in getting the Democratic party platform to support abortion rights and in getting pro-choice candidates endorsed and elected. Having a major political party oppose the Republican partys misogynistic position was key to holding the line against them.

Jacobsen: In the current battleground over abortion, reproductive health and rights,modern attacks on Margaret Sangers characterhave been launched to indirectly take down abortion activists and clinics, and argueagainst such rights for women. What can best protect abortion access and Sangers legacy and work?

Alena Castle:The attacks on Sanger amount to alternative facts and seriously distorted history. Womens rights leaders of the past, including Sanger as well as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are sometimes quoted in opposition to abortion but their concern was that so many women died from abortions that were either self-induced or done by incompetent quacks or because of the inadequate medical knowledge of the time.

Sanger has been accused of favouring eugenics (birth control to prevent the birth of genetically defective babies). These viewshave been deliberately misconstruedregarding their intent when in fact they were intended to save womens lives and help ensure a better life for the babies they gave birth to. Today the anti-abortionists arestill making upfake horror stories about foetal development and abortion and its effect on women that are outright lies. Nothing will stop this dishonest distortion of history and the absurd lies but more should be done to assert, often and vigorously, the actual medical facts about abortion and the moral rightness and integrity of Sangers and other feminists views and of the women who have abortions.

Jacobsen: What would you say has been most effective as a preventive mechanism against the encroachment on the rights of women from the hyper-religious Right, or the religious Right?

Alena Castle:Political activism! That is the only thing that will work. We need to focus on putting a majority of elected officials in office at all levels who support womens rights and the rights of the nonreligious. You cant make changes by just talking about them it takes laws and their enforcement. Only politicians make laws not NARAL or NOW or atheist organisations or people who march in the streets.

Jacobsen: As an atheist and feminist, what have been the most educational experiences in your personal or professional life as to the objectives of the anti-atheist and anti-feminist movements in North America and, indeed, across the world?

Alena Castle:I have personally experienced the effect of the religious rights political agendaon my life and on the lives of others. The first funeral I went to was when I was 10 years old. Our lovely 22-year-old neighbour had died of a botched illegal abortion. (At the time, such deaths were listed as obstruction of the bowels to save the familys embarrassment and I only learned several years later what the true cause was). And then there were the funerals of good friends who were gay and died of AIDS while the religious right did everything to hinder medical research for treatment. And almost worse was seeing the total lack of compassion by advocates for that agenda for the harm it causes. Example:

I had a discussion with a very nice, polite woman about a news report of how an 11-year-old girl, somewhat retarded, had been raped by her father, was pregnant, begged for an abortion, and was denied by a court order. Soon after she had the baby, she was back in court on a charge of being an unfit mother. I asked this nice woman if she thought that girl should have been allowed to have an abortion. She said no, that forcing her to continue the pregnancy was the right and moral thing to do. Her religious beliefs had hardened her heart and I told her so.

How do we talk to people with such a warped sense of morality? This woman also believed in personhood from the moment of conception. At that moment, her person is a microscopic fertilised egg undifferentiated at the cellular level, and no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. The anti-abortion people put up billboards with a picture of a year-old real baby and a statement that the babys heartbeat is detected at a foetal age of a few weeks. They dont explain that it is then a two-chambered heart at the lizard level of development. (The adorable always white baby on the billboard has the fully developed four-chambered heart). Abortion never kills a baby; it just keeps one from forming. The religious right thinks preserving that development outweighs any harm it is causing the women. We have the words of the Pope and the Protestant reformers to thank for this inhumanity. Martin Luthers associate, Philip Melancthon said, If a woman weary of bearing children, it matters not. Let her only die from bearing; she is there to do it. Pope Pius XI said, However we may pity the mother whose health and even life is imperilled by the performance of her natural duty, there yet remains no sufficient reason for condoning the direct murder of the innocent.

There is no baby, biologically speaking until the beginning of the third trimester the rhetoric about innocence skips that convenient fact. After that, its a medical emergency affecting the woman, the fetus or both, that requires removal of the fetus. If these anti-abortion hard-hearts have a problem with this, they should go ahead and die from bearing if they find themselves in such a situation, but leave the rest of us alone.

Thank you for your time, Ms. Alena Castle! Your words and experiences are of even greater relevance at this time withwomens lives under attackagain.

This post was originally published at conatusnews.com and is republished here with permission from the author.

Do you want to be part of creating a kinder, more inclusive society?

Scott Douglas Jacobsen founded In: Sight Publishing and In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. He works as an Associate Editor for Conatus News, Board Member and Chair of Social Media for the Almas Jiwani Foundation, Executive Administrator for Trusted Clothes, and Councillor at the Athabasca University Students Union. He contributes to the Basic Income Earth Network, The Beam, Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Check Your Head, Conatus News, Humanist Voices, The Voice Magazine, and Trusted Clothes. If you want to contact Scott: [emailprotected]; website: http://www.in-sightjournal.com; article publciation: http://www.conatusnews.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/InSight_Journal.

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Atheism, Women's Rights, and Human Rights with Marie Alena Castle Q&A Session 2 - The Good Men Project (blog)

Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Iraqi National Alliance party, speaks during a news conference with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani in Baghdad, Iraq, Sept. 29, 2016.(photo byREUTERS/Khalid al Mousily)

Author:Ali Mamouri Posted June 22, 2017

NAJAF, Iraq Iraq's Islamicmovements and political parties have intensified their rhetoric in recent weeks against atheism,warning Iraqisabout its spread and the need to confront atheists. Suchmovements and parties worry that public sentiment is turning against Islamicparties in politics and that this could be reflected in upcoming elections, scheduled for the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.

TranslatorSahar Ghoussoub

In alecture this month in Baghdad, Ammar al-Hakimhead of the mostly Shiite Iraqi National Alliance party, whichholds the overwhelming political majority in parliament and governmentwarned against the prevalence of atheism.

Some people resent Iraqi societys adherence to religious principles and its connection to God Almighty, hesaid. Hakimcalled for confronting these extraneous atheistic ideas with good thinking and with an iron fist against the supporters of such ideasby exposing the methods they use in disseminating their ideas.

Hakims message is contrary to the Iraqi Constitution, which guarantees freedom of belief and expression and criminalizes incitement against others and against compelling others to adopt or reject a specific faith.

During Ramadan,religious lectures in Shiite cities in Iraq's center and south the main base of the Islamic parties attackedthe spread of secular and atheistic ideas, which are viewed as threats to Iraqi society.

Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikihas extensive influence among the politically ambitiouspro-Iranian factions within the Popular Mobilization Unitsmilitary organization. Hewarned May 30 of a supposeddangerous conspiracy by secular and nonreligious movementsto take power from Islamic parties and gain control for themselves.

Atheism in Arab culture, as described by contemporary Egyptian philosopher Abdel Rahman Badawiin his book, The History of Atheism, covers a vast range of ideas and behaviors. To Badawi, atheism includes agnostics, emerging secular movementsthatrejectthe political role of religion, andthose who criticize various aspects of religion.Secularism and atheism are thus often intertwined in the discourse of political Islam through the use of terms such assecular atheist trends and ideas.These ideas inspire fear in manypolitically-oriented Islamic movements.

According to Sayyid Qutb, a founderof political Islamwho is widely studied by Islamists in Iraq, separating religion frompolitical rule is tantamount to infidelity to Godanddenying divine governance.

DefunctKurdish news agencyAKnews conducted a nonscientificpoll in 2011about faith. When asked if they believed in God,67% of respondentsansweredyes;21%, probably yes;4%, probably no;7%, no;and 1% had no answer.

In a country that has not seen a national census for three decades, it's not possible to provide official numbers for members of different faiths and beliefs. It isespecially difficult to know the size ofthose communities thatholdtaboo beliefsin a conservative society such as Iraq, which views these outsiders with disdain and wherethey are threatened by military groups andpoliticalleaders, some of whom demand theybe beaten "with an iron fist." Much of what information can be gleaned comes inanecdotal form. Since 2014, after the Islamic State swept through Iraqi territory, many reportsfrom various quarters have observed that more people are skeptical ofIslamic beliefs and are rejecting Islam altogether,influenced by the negative image of Islam portrayed by extremist groups.

A prominent book storein Baghdad has seen more young people buying books on atheism fromprominent nonbelievers such as Saudi writer Abdullah al-Qasemiand British philosopher Richard Dawkins.Even in a holy city like Najaf and within the Shiite religious establishments, Al-Monitor spoke to several religious students who not only have begun to question the fundamental beliefs of Islam, but the basic principles of religionin general. They would be ostracized by society in a heartbeat if they expressed their views freely.

Human rights activist, writer and satirist Faisal Saeed al-Mutartold Al-Monitor that atheists in Iraq face very difficult circumstances under a government with a majority of Islamic parties and with the dominance of Islamic militias over society.

Faisal, who followsIraqi atheists'activities on social media, said, I clearly see that the numbers of atheists is rising in different areas in Iraq. Faisal recently founded the Ideas Beyond Bordersorganization, which defendsIraqi atheists and helpsthem organize and claim their rights.

Many atheists have been forced to flee Iraq because of harassmentand threats.Jamal al-Bahadly, an atheist who is vocal about his views on social networking sites, said he received death threats from Shiite militias in Baghdad, forcing him to leave the country in 2015. He emigrated to Germany.

As an atheist, I was deprived of the most basic civil rights in Iraq. I feel that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not include me and my fellow atheists in Iraq,"Bahadly told Al-Monitor.Iraq voted in favor of the declaration in 1948 at the United Nations General Assembly.

Leaders of Islamic movements repeatedly say they've seen a rise in the number of atheists in Iraq. Their statements of concernfuel even more concern amongthe ruling Islamic parties, who feara decline in their political power.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/06/iraq-atheism-political-islam-human-rights.html

More here:
Islamic parties intimidate, fear atheists in Iraq - Al-Monitor - Al-Monitor

by Michael Nugent on June 22, 2017

The Pope is scheduled to visit Ireland in August 2018. I discussed this with Jonathan Healy of Newstalk Radio.

by Michael Nugent on June 7, 2017

For the first time ever, Irish Atheists, Evangelicals and Ahmadiyya Muslims are jointly challenging human rights abuses in Pakistan at the United Nations.

Yesterday we made a written submission to the UN, which is now on the UN website, and in July we will be addressing the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

The UN Human Rights Committee will be questioning Pakistan about its human rights record under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland will be raising human rights abuses against our communities and other minorities in Pakistan.

Here is the text of our written submission.

[click to continue]

by Michael Nugent on June 6, 2017

The attack on our friends in the Ahmadi Muslim mosque in Galway yesterday evening was both immoral and senseless.

It was immoral because it was an attack on innocent people, and on the principle of freedom of religion and belief. And it was senseless because the Ahmadi Muslim community are at the forefront of promoting peace and tolerance.

[click to continue]

by Michael Nugent on May 25, 2017

Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince gave an entertaining, educational and inspirational performance about the origins of the universe and life, at the 3 Arena in Dublin tonight. If you get a chance to see them live, dont miss it!

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Michael Nugent Atheism, Reason, Skepticism, Happiness

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Its been a wild three days in the City of Brotherly Love at the first annual Atheism, How to Fail Conference. The godless flocked to the Pennsylvania Convention Center to hear prominent academics, bloggers, and the mentally ill speak on how they are ruining the secular cause in America.

This is a matter of Build it, and they will come, stated conference organizer, Andrew Canard. This was only a dream a year ago. There was no doubt in my mind that atheists were doing their best to undermine the fight against religious fundamentalism in America. However, we needed this conference to put the stake in the heart of the secular movement.

The Pennsylvania Convention Center offered an ideal place for the thousands of anti-activists to meet. The one million square feet of available retail space allowed authors to parade their books like Dont Call Your Legislator, Its a Waste of Time!, Apathy is Your Ally, and theall-time bestseller If You Dont Like Another Atheist, Go on Twitter and Act Like a Psychotic TwelveYear Old. I got two copies of the Twitter book one for me and one for my buddy whos really into talking smack anonymously online, said one convention goer who refused to state his name.

I got two copies of the Twitter book one for me and one for my buddy whos really into talking smack anonymously online, said one convention goer who refused to state his name.

Spirits were high as seminars were packed to the max. The popular writer of the blog Skeptically Rambling, Jonathan Adams, gave a moving talk titled: Leftfielding, How to Derail Atheist Meetups by Saying Irrelevant but Nerdy Facts. Mr. Adams issued forth interesting points on a small French hamlet during the Hundred Years War for 90 minutes. A lengthy question and answer period ensued on topics that had nothing to do with atheism or the Hundred Years War.

The most popular seminar, however, was held by Richard Galley, Ph.D., titled You Dont Agree With Me? You Suck! The professor spent two hours detailing the nuances of how much people suck who dont find his particular psychiatric diagnosis agreeable.

The crowd ate up impassioned lines like, Would a crazy person be calling other people crazy? Of course not!

The conference ended with Andrew Canards speech detailing the necessity of presenting the worst possible ad campaigns to the public and never ever doing any local organizing:

Look, nobody likes doing the grunt work of community organizing. Dont do it. Tell other people not to do it. Make some really bad ads to demoralize the community. Above all be a dick to everyone. All. The. Time.

It was no surprise his message was met with thunderous applause. After all, he was preaching gospel to the choir.

Note: This post means nothing. Atheists have only a shared non-belief in gods and have no common interests.

I first wrote this bit back in 2013. I saw David Smalleys postReasonably Controversial: How The Regressive Left is Killing The Atheist Movementand thought it was time to shine it up and share it.

I have a Patreon account just in case you wish to show your appreciation for my work here on Laughing in Disbelief.

Andrew Hall is the author of Laughing in Disbelief. Besides writing a blog, co-hosting the Naked Diner, he wrote two books, Vampires, Lovers, and Other Strangers and Gods Diary: January 2017 . Andrew is reading through the Bible and making videos about his journey on YouTube. He is a talented stand-up comedian. You can find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Report From: Atheism, How To Fail - Patheos (blog)

The last verse of Chapter 8 in Gita perhaps contains the kernel of all Vedantic thought. The chapter, as is well known, begins with Arjun asking Krishna about the nature of Brahm, adhyatma and karma, and how they might be interrelated.

Having explained the first two albeit in the aphoristic way typical of the Vedantic spiritual tradition Krishna focuses on the third element of the triad.

Karma, or action, he says, is the real-life bridge that links the two. The ontological or transcendental realm of Brahm (or absolute), on the one hand, and atma, or individuated consciousness rooted in the here and now, on the other.

It is not easy to see this link in a logical or material sense how does one associate that which exists in time and space with that which is both beyond time (without beginning) and space (boundless)?

The true being of atma, attached to the corporeal body, is of course clouded by desire. In a paradigmatic sense, this desire is the desire for the rewards of action. The Gita makes no category distinction between different kinds of action.

Depending on ones worldly calling, or svadharma, going to war is on the same footing as going to a temple or pursuing politics. The key then is not what you do but with what intent or motivation you do it.

The true yogi, as the Gita declares, is one who goes beyond whatever fruit or merit is declared to accrue from the Vedas, sacrifices austerities, gifts. The path to moksha lies in overcoming desire and is described as liberation from the inexorable law of karma.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Excerpt from:
Spiritual Atheism - Economic Times (blog)

The single most annoying thing a nonreligious person can say, writes a Hollywood screenwriter, isnt that religion is oppressive or that religious people are brainwashed. Dorothy Fortenberry is writing in The Los Angeles Review of Books, not a place youd expect to find a Catholic explaining why shes Catholic. They even ran it in the print edition.

The most annoying thing is the kind, patronizing way that nonreligious people have of saying, You know, sometimes IwishI were religious. IwishI could have that certainty. It just seems socomfortingnever to doubt things.

Fortenberry wishes she were as certain as her atheist friends. She doesnt quite say so, but she suggests that if she were certain that God doesnt exist, shed be happier with herself. Catholicism comforts us, sure, but weirdly enough, its not as comforting as atheism.

Broken individuals travelling together

The comforts she finds in the Church are the comforts of membership in such a body. She likes singing and praying together. She likes being one of the crowd. I am not special at church, she says. The Church tells us that God loves us all equally. We are all exactly the same amount of special. The things that I feel proud of cant help me here, and the things that I feel embarrassed by are beside the point. Im a person but, for 60 minutes, Im not a personality.

Unfortunately, she doesnt draw enough on the comforts of the Churchs teaching, because she doesnt believe it all consistently, as she admits. Thought about with even a smidgen of rationality, prayer makes no sense, she says. Hold a second, I want to say, lets talk about your defective idea of rationality. If she keeps praying, as she seems intent on doing, someday she should see the reason of it.

I think, if I read her right, she doesnt really want the comfort of being an atheist. It has a kind of specious attraction, because its so simple and easy. No God, nothing to worry about. No God, no Hell below us, all the people living for today, sharing the world. Imagine that.

It doesnt work out that way. As Flannery OConnors Misfit famously noted, if theres no God, then its nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.Imagine theres no Heaven. See the Misfit shoot your family.

Gods in His heaven, but

The atheist seems to think Christianity means the cheerful happy vision of life Robert Browning put in the short passage known as Pippas Song from his verse play Pippa Passes: The year s at the spring, / And day s at the morn; / The lark s on the wing; / The snail s on the thorn; / God s in His heaven / All s right with the world!

Only sometimes, but basically no. Christianity comforts, but it comforts through the Cross. It requires a subtler, more sophisticated vision of life than the atheists or Pippas. Among other things, it forces you to see yourself more clearly. Gods in His heaven, and alls right with the world, except me.

Really not except me. Because Im not all right, Jesus became man and let the Romans torture him to death. A relief to hear? Yes. But comforting? Yes and no. The Christian sees both sides: the self that sent Him to the Cross and the once dead Jesus walking out of the grave. As the great Lutheran hymn O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded asks: Ah, keep my heart thus moved / To stand Thy cross beneath, / To mourn Thee, well-beloved, / Yet thank Thee for Thy death.

Seeing yourself more clearly

Fortenberry explains what its like to see yourself more clearly. It is not comforting to know quite as much as I do about how weaselly and weak-willed I am when it comes to being as generous as Jesus demands, she writes. The Church shows her the kind of person she wants to be but therefore also the ways she fails to be that person:

Nothing promotes self-awareness like turning down an opportunity to bring children to visit their incarcerated parents. Or avoiding shifts at the food bank. Or calculating just how much I will put in the collection basket. Thanks to church, I have looked deeply into my own heart and found it to be of merely small-to-medium size. None of this is particularly comforting.

Church, she says, is a group of broken individuals united only by our brokenness traveling together to ask to be fixed.

Comforting? Not in the way the atheists think. But yes.

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The comfort of atheism and the consolation of faith - Aleteia EN

Seriously gents: just because Richard Dawkins says weird things about women on the internet doesn't mean you have to as well.

Dear god, it's hard to be an atheist sometimes.

That's not just because Australia's non-atheist community get to have cozy little get-togethers in Parliament House, in which a subset of a subset of a subset of Australian Christians buddy up with politicians that continue to ensure that LGBTIQ citizens have fewer civil rights and less protection from schoolyardbullying.

No, it's also because atheists have failed to make a strong organisational case to become a meaningful lobby group because we have a tendency to well, act like a bunch of jerks.

On the face of it there's nothing super-controversial about atheism. After all, it's basically just a statement along the lines of "I don't believe in the supernatural".

The greatest exponent of this sort of worldview was the late, great Carl Sagan via his groundbreaking science and cosmology series Cosmos in the earlyeighties. When talking about the still-unknown origins of the universe in the episode 'The Edge of Forever', he laid out a case for scientific thought that struck me then and now as having a gentle humility to it:

"In many cultures, the customary answer is that a God or Gods created the Universe out of nothing," he explained. "But if we wish to pursue this question courageously, we must of course ask the next question: where did God come from? If we decide that this is an unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the Universe is an unanswerable question? Or, if we say that God always existed, why not save a step, and conclude that the Universe always existed?"

However, that attitude - that the unknown is a wonderful thing to explore, not something to be closed off by adhering to dogma - has been less in evidence in recent times as atheism seems to have become less a travelling companion to science and knowledge and morean excuse to jump on the Islam-creates-terrorists bandwagon(out of which the US atheist author Sam Harris has made a career) orto express remarkably misogynist opinions.

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It's become a massive problem in the international atheist community, due in no small part to comments made by the likes of Richard Dawkins, whose ill-considered "Dear Muslima" letter basically told women that since they didn't experience the level of repression of those in Muslim theocracies they should shut the hell up when guys get pushy - and though he later apologised for that, he did subsequentlytweet that women that drink can't be trusted when they claim to have beensexually attacked.

Harris, for his part, weighed in to let women know that "There's something about that critical posture that is to some degree instrinsically maleit doesn't obviously have this nurturing, coherence-building extra estrogen vibe." In his defence, "Estrogen Vibe" would be a pretty decent name for a jam band.

Even sceptical pioneer James Randi, a personal hero of mine, has rationalised reports of an employee making unwanted advances at Randi's annual Amazing Meeting in 2008 as "he misbehaved himself with the women, which I guess is what men do when they are drunk."

Thus in recent times there hasbeen a concerted, deliberate effortto overcome the not-inaccurate perception that atheism is exclusively a boys' club. And there has been predictable pushback from members of said community who are deeply concerned that this progressive attitudemay yet expose them to dangerous levels of girl germs.

The latest example came on Tuesdaywhen the upcoming Atheist Global Convention in Melbourne announced that feminist author and commentator Clementine Ford would be one of the speakers.

Predictably, this made a few people unhappy - but the venom levelled at Ford and the conference generally for daring to have a line up of speakers which approached gender parity was a shock.

And that's despite the moderators on the Facebook page makingclearthat "we have been deleting specific rape and death threats as they occurthere have been substantial numbers", just in case there was any doubt about the calibre of awesome dudes weighing in with their important opinions about the line up.

And this breaks my little non-theistic heart, because this is exactly why women and men who aren't terrified cowards think twice aboutjoining atheist groups. It also means such groups end up much like the Australian Christian Lobby: filled with reactionary voices that don't remotely represent the diverse community for which they're claiming to speak.

The likes of Sagan made atheism seem like a welcoming way to escape from the dangerous constraints of superstition and enter a wider, more spectacularuniverse. These sorts of atheistsreduce it to a tatty ideologyexactly as small, petty, violent and exclusionary as their own cartoonish portrayal of religion.

It's also proof, if any was needed, that faith - or not-faith -isn't what makes people behave like jerks: it's an excuse that jerks use to justify their jerkiness.

Here is the original post:
Why do public atheists have to behave like such jerks? - The Sydney Morning Herald

CHANNEL INTRODUCTION: Atheism TV is an educational channel dedicated to promoting rational thinking, defend the separation of church and state, and providing support for atheists worldwide.

About the video: It's about time this channel gets a trailer video. Thanks a lot to Rictus Gate for his great acoustic interpretation of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing". Thanks to BionicDance for 3D graphics that look pretty much exactly like the original music video, except with the Tom and Al characters featured in a few previous videos such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Lyrics can be seen by turning on the captions, as well as at the end of this description section.

No religious fucktards were hurt during the making of this video.

CREDITS Lyrics: AtheismTV Music: Rictus Gate http://www.youtube.com/user... Graphics: BionicDance http://www.youtube.com/user...

====== LYRICS

Many will watch it (x3) AtheismTV Many will watch it (x3) AtheismTV

Now look at'em Infidels, deconverting to it Watchin' the news and celebrities Well they ain't kiddin', deconverting to it Many will watch it: AtheismTV Now They ain't kiddin', deconverting to it Wacky World: worshipers are so dumb Maybe watch it in with a good beer, Maybe watch it with a little rum.

We gotta watch those annoying morons Get their ass pwned repeatedly We gotta watch religious fucktards We gotta watch AtheismTV

See that little muslim wants shariah thrusted upon us Yea little buddy, go fuck yourself

See that little muslim Exploding his own car Hear that little muslim scream "allahu akbar"

We gotta watch those annoying morons Get their ass pwned repeatedly We gotta watch religious fucktards We gotta watch AtheismTV

I shoulda learned about the bible I shoulda learned about the qur'an

Look at that mother, she got indoctrinated children And the father who's giving them the rod

And what's up there, What's that? Invisible sky daddy? Prayin' to the ceiling Like a schizo-crazy That ain't workin' That's no way to do it Nothing fails like prayer And wishful thinkin'

We gotta watch those annoying morons Get their ass pwned repeatedly We gotta watch religious fucktards We gotta watch AtheismTV

Look at 'em Infidels deconverting to it Many will watch it: AtheismTV That ain't workin' That's no way to do it Nothing fails like prayer And wishful thinkin'

Many will watch it (x2) AtheismTV

Many will watch it (x3) AtheismTV

Many will watch it Look at it, look at it Many will watch it AtheismTV

Many will watch it (x2) AtheismTV Look at it, look at it Show less

Link:
Atheism TV - YouTube

Marie Alena Castle is the communications director for Atheists for Human Rights.

She was raised Roman Catholicbut became an atheist. She has been important to atheism, Minnesota Atheists, The Moral Atheist,National Organization of Women, andwrote Culture Wars: The Threat to Your Family and Your Freedom (2013). She has a lifetime of knowledge and activist experience, which I wanted to explore and crystallise in an educational series. Here are the results.

Scott Jacobsen: You have a lifetime of experience in atheism, womens rights, and human rights. Of course, you were raised a Catholic, but this changed over the course of life. In fact, you have raised a number of children who became atheists themselves, and have been deeply involved in the issues on the political left around womens rights and human rights.

To start this series, what has been the major impediment to the progress of womens rights in the United States over the last 17 years?

Marie Alena Castle: Its actually at least the last 40 years. In the U.S., control of women is no longer about the right to vote or pursue careers. Those battles have been won. What is left is the religious rights last stand: womens right to abortion and the ultimate control over their own bodies. An anti-women legislative agenda began and has been going on ever since the Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v Wade decision.

Almost immediately, the U.S. Catholic Bishops established a Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities that reached down to every Catholic parish in the country. The bishops recruited Catholic academics, journalists, and political commentators to disseminate pro-life propaganda. They drew in Protestant fundamentalists and provided them with leaders such as Jerry Falwell. They organized to get pro-life politicians elected at every political level and eventually took over the Republican party.

I was there and watched it happen. We, Democratic feminists, worked almost non-stop to prevent a similar takeover of the Democratic party and, thankfully, were successful. The pro-life campaign has never stopped. Over a thousand bills have been, and are, proposed at the state and federal level to restrict womens access to contraceptives and abortion, as well as advantageous reproductive technologies that dont conform to irrational religious doctrines.

(Stephen Mumford has documented this in full detail in his book, The Life and Death of NSSM 200, which describes how the Catholic Church prevented any action on a Nixon-era national security memorandum that warned of the dangers of overpopulation and advocated the accessibility of contraceptives and abortion.)

Jacobsen: Who do you consider the most important womens rights and human rights activist in American history?

Castle: No contest. Its Margaret Sanger, hands down. Many people have spoken out and worked for womens rights throughout history, not just American history. But Sanger got us birth control. Without that, women remain slaves to natures reproductive mandate and can do little beyond producing and raising children.

This is often claimed to be a noble task. True enough. However, it always reminds me of the biblical story of Moses, who had the noble task of leading his people to the Promised Land, but because of some vague offense against Yahweh, he was condemned to see that Promised Land only from afar and never go there himself.

Women have raised children over the ages and have led them to the Promised Land of scientific achievements, Noble Prize Awards, academic honours, and so many others. But they and their daughters have seen that Promised Land only from afar and almost never allowed to go their themselves.

Sanger opened a path to that Promised Land by fighting to make contraceptives legal and available. The ability to control the time and circumstances of ones childbearing has made the fight for womens rights achievable in practical not just philosophical terms. She founded Planned Parenthood and we see how threatening that has been to the theocratic religious right. They cant seem to pass or try to pass enough laws to hinder womens ability to control their own bodies.

As for human rights in general, a good argument can be made that by freeing women half of the human population we free up everyone. As Robert Ingersoll said, There will never be a generation of great men until there has been a generation of free women.

Jacobsen: What is one of the more egregious public perceptions of atheists by the mainstream of the religious in America?

Castle: Its that atheists have no moral compass and therefore cannot be trusted to behave in a civilized manner. No one ever comes up with any evidence for that. Most people in prison identify themselves as religious. Studies that rank levels of prejudice for racism, sexism, and homophobia show nonbelievers at the lowest end of the graph generally below 10% and evangelicals at the very highest almost off the chart.

Ive had religious people tell me it is religious beliefs that keep people, including themselves, from committing violent crimes. I tell them I hope they hang onto their beliefs because otherwise, they would be a threat to public safety. As physicist Steven Weinberg said, Good people will do good and evil people will do evil, but for good people to do evil, that takes religion. I have known good and evil atheists and good and evil religionists, but the only time I have seen a good person do evil, it was due to a religious belief.

I have also observed that liberal religionists generally share the same humanitarian values as most atheists, but to have that moral sense they had to abandon traditional religious beliefs. There is a lot of evil in religious doctrines. The 10 Commandments are almost totally evil. Read them and the descriptions of the penalties that follow. Read the part about what you are to sacrifice to Yahweh the firstborn of your livestock, your firstborn son Yup, thats what it says.

So they include dont kill, steal or bear false witness. There is nothing new about that. Its common civic virtue any community needs to function effectively. So religion promises a blissful afterlife. Ever stop to think what that might be like, forever and ever and ever and ever and ever? People believe that!? I so hope theyre wrong.

Jacobsen: Your life speaks to the convergence of atheism, womens rights, and human rights activism. How do these, in your own mind, weave into a single activist thread? What is the smallest thing American citizens, and youth, can do to become involved in this fabric?

Castle: We all are what we are. Im an activist because I cant help myself. Its who I am. Others would rather hang by their thumbs than do what I do. They like to get out in the yard and do gardening. You couldnt pay me enough or threaten me enough to get me to do that. We should just try to be honest and compassionate and cut everyone some slack as long as no one is getting hurt. Live and let live.

We are a fragile species, making the best of our short life spans, stuck here on this hunk of rock circling a ball of flaming gas that could eject a solar flare at any time that wipes us out. Life is, as Shakespeare said, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Just accept that. Its reality. Just be decent and helpful and try not to hurt anyone. If thats the limit of your activism, its still pretty good.

If you think it would be great to be able to do more and to be politically active but that is just not in your DNA, then settle for the next best thing: Find a political activist whose views you agree with and vote the way they tell you. That is the smallest thing you can do. If you did not vote in the last election you made yourself part of the problem and you see what we got. From now on, try to be part of the solution.

Previously published on Conatus News

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Continued here:
Atheism, Women's Rights, and Human Rights with Marie Alena Castle Q&A Session 1 - The Good Men Project (blog)