Atheism

In Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's newly released book, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future, they roundly condemn ScienceBlogger PZ Myers and other "New Atheists" for their uncompromising stance against religion. When PZ, in return, posted a scathing review of the book on Pharyngula—calling it a "hypocritical and ignorant paean to mealy-mouthedness" and "utterly useless"—a vehement debate was launched across the blogosphere. PZ and others claimed that the authors misrepresent the doctrines they attack in the book, and that by attributing a public…
Greg Laden, trying to toss a line between the "New Atheists" and 'Accommodationists" who are currently squabbling about a dust-up featuring PZ Myers v Chris Mooney & Sheril Kirshenbaum (who apparently rough Myers up a bit in their book Unscientific America), writes: Now, I just want to make this point: I learned early on (when I was still an altar boy) that where religion and life conflict -- where the religion was not doing a good job at explaining the bits and pieces of life that were not making sense -- it was OK to drop the details of the religion part and chalk it up to mystery. I'…
Pew has a new survey out, Public Praises Science; Scientists Fault Public, Media. Lots of interesting facts, though most are not too surprising. Scientists accept evolution at a far greater rate, are less religious and more liberal, than the general public. This is all known. But the report is worth reading, there's a lot of data. One point which might surprise some, young scientists are much more God-believing than older ones. I think one explanation for this might be that older scientists are selection biased.We know that NAS members are far more godless than the general scientariat, so I…
... In which I narrow the gulf between two allied factions enough that with a running start you can jump across ... maybe. It has been suggested that Accommodationism is "a more moderate atheist perspective on the nature of religion and science."1 In this view, religion and science are not antithetical, and can exist side by side. I think this is a fair description of accommodationism, and it is what bothers me about accommodationism itself or the description of accommodationism, depending on who's doing the talking, but I also don't think that this is what certain people who have been…
Who: Dr. Jeff SchweitzerWhat: free public presentation, "Moral Life in a Random World"Where: SLC Conference Center, 352 7th avenue (between 29th and 30th streets), 16th floor.When: 700pm, Thursday, 9 July Dr. Jeff Schweitzer is a scientist who has written extensively on morality, religion, politics and science -- and who served as science advisor to former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Schweitzer will talk about how we each have within us the awesome power to create our own meaning in life, our own sense of purpose, our own destiny. He will address how…
Tom Rees of Epiphenom has a new paper out, Is Personal Insecurity a Cause of Cross-National Differences in the Intensity of Religious Belief?. The abstract: Previous research has shown an apparent relationship between "societal health" and religiosity, with nations that exhibit higher mean personal religiosity also tending to provide worse social environments. A possible cause is that exposure to stressful situations (i.e. personal insecurity) increases personal religiosity. To test this hypothesis, income inequality, a widely available proxy for personal insecurity, was compared with other…
Who: Dr. Jeff SchweitzerWhat: free public presentation, "Moral Life in a Random World"Where: SLC Conference Center, 352 7th avenue (between 29th and 30th streets), 16th floor.When: 700pm, Thursday, 9 July Dr. Jeff Schweitzer is a scientist who has written extensively on morality, religion, politics and science -- and who served as science advisor to former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Schweitzer will talk about how we each have within us the awesome power to create our own meaning in life, our own sense of purpose, our own destiny. He will address how happiness…
Who: Dr. Jeff SchweitzerWhat: free public presentation, "Moral Life in a Random World"Where: SLC Conference Center, 352 7th avenue (between 29th and 30th streets), 16th floor.When: 700pm, Thursday, 9 July Dr. Jeff Schweitzer is a scientist who has written extensively on morality, religion, politics and science -- and who served as science advisor to former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Schweitzer will talk about how we each have within us the awesome power to create our own meaning in life, our own sense of purpose, our own destiny. He will address how…
Inspired by the nation's birthday, Larry Arnhart at Darwinian Conservatism has a few thoughts about the term "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" as it appears in the Declaration of Independence: That phrase provokes questions. Do the "Laws of Nature" depend on some religious belief in "Nature's God"? Does "Nature's God" suggest some kind of natural theology--some conception of the divine that is manifest in nature without need for revelation? Could "Nature's God" suggest a deistic notion of God as the uncaused cause of Nature? Or do we need a more biblical conception of God as a divine…
We get Harry Potter too. "I'm an atheist, but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do. Anything he does on television, I will watch."-- Daniel Radcliffe Win!
Who: Dr. Jeff SchweitzerWhat: free public presentation, "Moral Life in a Random World"Where: SLC Conference Center, 352 7th avenue (between 29th and 30th streets), 16th floor.When: 700pm, Thursday, 9 July Dr. Jeff Schweitzer is a scientist who has written extensively on morality, religion, politics and science -- and who served as science advisor to former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore. Schweitzer will talk about how we each have within us the awesome power to create our own meaning in life, our own sense of purpose, our own destiny. He will address how happiness…
Who: CFI-NYC Executive Director, Michael De Dora, Jr.What: free public presentation, "CFI and the State of Science and Reason"Where: Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue, 12th floor, Penthouse 1.When: 830pm Tuesday, 23 June 2009 What exactly is the Center for Inquiry? What does CFI stand for? How does CFI carry out its mission? What does CFI -- specifically the New York City office -- have to offer to society? And how can you get involved with CFI and the movement? Come hear the new CFI-NYC Executive Director Michael De Dora Jr. address all these issues…
Who: CFI-NYC Executive Director, Michael De Dora, Jr.What: free public presentation, "CFI and the State of Science and Reason"Where: Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue, 12th floor, Penthouse 1.When: 830pm Tuesday, 23 June 2009 What exactly is the Center for Inquiry? What does CFI stand for? How does CFI carry out its mission? What does CFI -- specifically the New York City office -- have to offer to society? And how can you get involved with CFI and the movement? Come hear the new CFI-NYC Executive Director Michael De Dora Jr. address all these issues…
Who: CFI-NYC Executive Director, Michael De Dora, Jr.What: free public presentation, "CFI and the State of Science and Reason"Where: Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street between Broadway & 8th Avenue, 12th floor, Penthouse 1.When: 830pm Tuesday, 23 June 2009 What exactly is the Center for Inquiry? What does CFI stand for? How does CFI carry out its mission? What does CFI -- specifically the New York City office -- have to offer to society? And how can you get involved with CFI and the movement? Come hear the new CFI-NYC Executive Director Michael De Dora Jr. address all these issues…
There is an interesting post on The Intersection called Civility and the New Atheists, by Chris Mooney. In the post, Chris reviews Barbara Forrest's statements that in engaging int he cross-world-view debate (scientists vs. creationists, atheists, vs religion, etc.) one should maintian etiquette, respect and understand diversity, and practice humility. Atheist and pro-science writer Mooney notes in speaking of a talk by Forrest: Forrest therefore concluded her talk by saying that we need are "epistemological and civic humility"-providing the groundwork for "civic friendship." To which I…
Bart Ehrman is a scholar of The Bible and has published popular works at a rapid clip on the subjects of theodicy and the literary history of the books some refer to as "Scripture." He was an evangelical who believed that The Episcopalian Church in which he was raised was too tame on the teachings of Jesus' Word of Salvation. Dedicating himself to the study of the original Greek versions of the Gospels and New Testaments in order to better understand the word of God, he made the discovery that (Whoops!) the Bible couldn't be an inerrant instruaction manual. There were too many…
The Source is a novel by James A. Michener. It is actually a fun novel to read if you have any interest in the history of the middle east. One of the themes in the novel is the relationship between god and humans. In the earlier part of the history described in this book, god has an intimate relationship with humans, and often manifests as a burning bush in order to speak with specific humans that god might be interested in. But over time the humans get less interesting and god gets into other things, and the whole burning bush thing becomes less and less frequent and eventually, there…
tags: religion, atheism, godlessness, god is nonexistent, humor, funny, satire, edward current, streaming video This video talks about how Our Lord goes to extraordinary lengths to create the illusion that he does nothing. Why? Because he can do anything! [4:20]
Catholics are trained to steal away into closets or back rooms with any babies that happen to be left around, so they can be secretly baptized. You did know this, right? It is true. If you take your baby to a day care provider, check on this first. If you suspect there are Catholics working there, just tell them your baby is named Mark or Mary and mention some funny story about the Baptism and that should do it. You probably knew all that, but what you probably didn't know is that Atheists are trained to do this: CLICK HERE. OK, now click here. OK, now click here. OK, that is all…
tags: religion, prayer in schools, godlessness, atheism, streaming video This video discusses using religion, particularly school prayer, as a mechanism for alienating children who are different. [6:34]