godlessness
pharyngula | July 9, 2006Today, we have a little something for the neuroscientists, and something for the atheists. Godless neuroscientists are especially fortunate.
The Synapse 1(2)
Carnival of the Godless #44
Carnival of Socialism #6
pharyngula | July 9, 2006You may recall that distressing story of discrimination against atheists in Oklahoma—it worked out well in the end, but the family involved was raked through the coals first. I recently received some email that is purportedly written by the defendant in that case, Chuck Smalkowski. I haven't been able to get more information to verify it, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere else on the web, and the mail does trace back to an origin in Hardesty, OK, so I'm accepting it as legitimate. It's Smalkowski's own perspective on the events in his trial.
You might also want to read this account by…
pharyngula | July 8, 2006Like rats deserting a sinking ship…atheism is in trouble. We've lost a beloved leading light of atheism, a highbrow master of humanist ethical conduct, a highly principled representative of secularism. One of our own has converted to Christianity. Oh, how shall we bear it? The Christians will be trumpeting this news ecstatically.
Alas. Larry Darby, holocaust denier, racist sleazebag, and opportunistic maggot, has embraced Jesus.
pharyngula | July 8, 2006DarkSyde interviews Brent Rasmussen of UTI today. The interview is good, but skip the comments—they descend into the usual mush-mouthed yammering about dictionary definitions of "agnostic" and "atheist," ignoring the fact that for all practical purposes they're exactly the same, and they're both going to get burned at the stake for apostasy and heresy when the theocracy comes.
I've decided that when I invent my time machine, my first stop is going to be 19th century England, where I shall slap Tom Huxley upside the head and tell him that he's being a waffling coward by inventing a word that'…
pharyngula | July 8, 2006In superficial morphology, surprisingly little. The lizard looks a little more friendly to me.
The lizard is probably a little less concerned about where other lizards put their hemipenes, though, and certainly isn't at all worried about this:
Benedict, a German, has made combating a Europe of empty churches and religious apathy a priority of his papacy. Vatican officials have declared that such former Catholic bedrocks as Spain are in need of what they call a "new evangelization."
Empty churches and religious apathy? What an excellent idea! I'm thinking we need to begin some secular…
pharyngula | July 5, 2006Reading some of my favorite blogs today, I can't help but feel the looming hand of fate preparing to destroy us all.
Jon Voisey is praising a director of the Oklahoma ACLU, Joanne Bell. You're in Kansas, Jon. It's not that far from Oklahoma. What happened to Bell could happen to you.
Ophelia Benson is saying harsh words about Mother Theresa. An uppity woman criticizing an icon of Christian charity? Someday, you could be in a hospital with a hatchet-faced nun looming over you, contemplating how best to chastise your body before your immortal soul meets the god who will fling you into the…
pharyngula | July 4, 2006Since it is the Fourth of July, it seems only right to post something from the Revolution. Our reading for the day is the Age of Reason, by that fierce freethinking firebrand, Thomas Paine.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to…
pharyngula | July 3, 2006
The picture says it all, doesn't it?
Well, maybe not everything. There's lots that could be said, but personally, I find it hard to get much beyond shocked silence.
Can we please take our country back from the christianists soon?
Here's something else to prompt your disgust.
pharyngula | July 2, 2006Jesus. If we get a few more signing on, we'll have the start of a movement.
pharyngula | June 30, 2006I seem to have struck a nerve. I'm getting lots of irate email over this post I made yesterday…not the usual cranky, ungrammatical rants I get from creationists, but literate notes with a hint of desperation. They're still wrong.
Everyone is mangling the question. It's not, "What should a scientist think about morals?", or "Should all scientists be atheists?", it's "What should a scientist think about religion?" I'm also not trying to argue that science or atheism is a better way of living your life (not here, at any rate).
If a scientist looks at an idea, like religion, how does he evaluate…
pharyngula | June 29, 2006In a thread that will not die at the Panda's Thumb, the argument has settled into a more reasonable back-and-forth on the issue of the entanglement of atheism and science. There are a number of people, including many of the contributors to the Panda's Thumb, who are adamant that evolution must maintain a plausible deniability from atheism—that atheism is not a necessary consequence of accepting good science (a point with which I agree), and that atheism is basically a scary thing that will alienate many potential supporters (a point with which I strongly disagree). One comment, though,…
pharyngula | June 28, 2006What else can I think, when reading Echidne of the Snakes, I run across this astonishing gem of self-loathing femininity.
If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt and politics, what would you do? Hoo-boy, this is where I get in trouble, and that starts with "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for "pool." I'd like to jump in a pool right now. Some may tell me to jump in a river for this one: I would remove women's suffrage, and I might even consider making voting rights tied to property ownership.
Well, actually, she doesn't get in trouble: read the comments…
pharyngula | June 28, 2006Oh, geez, Oklahoma.
There was a weird court case there recently. Well, maybe not so weird, unfortunately—I could see it happening here. To make it short, an atheist girl in high school was kicked off a sports team because she wouldn't join in team prayers; abuse ensued; school officials lied; the principal assaulted the father; police and principal perjured themselves to press charges against him; threats were made to try and drive the family out of the state. It's actually a little bit hard to believe such stuff could go on in 21st century America, but it went to trial, and this next little…
pharyngula | June 24, 2006
Since it was brought up in the comments, I thought I'd bring back my statement on the "Brights."
There’s a lot of noise on the net right now about The Brights, the idea that we can invent a pleasant new name for godless atheists and thereby improve our image. It’s being pushed by luminaries like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. Here’s a nice quote that summarizes my opinion:
Perhaps the best of the available euphemisms for atheist is nontheist. It lacks the connotation of positive conviction that there is definitely no god, and it could therefore easily be embraced by Teapot or Tooth…
pharyngula | June 24, 2006Here's a dilemma: I think Ron Numbers, the philosopher and historian of science, is a smart fellow and a net asset to the opposition to creationism, and I agree with him that a diversity of approaches to the issue is a good thing. My opinion could change, though, because I am experiencing considerable exasperation with the apologists for religion on the evolution side, and this interview with Numbers isn't helping things. Here's an example of the kind of nonsense that drives me nuts.
QUESTION: Are scientists in general atheistic?
MR. NUMBERS: The public often gets the impression that most…
pharyngula | June 23, 2006I suspect that soon there will be at least one religious person who will claim he converted from atheism who I will believe. The Raving Atheist is getting ripe: he's been ramping up the irrationality for some time now, precessing like a top slowing down, and I expect that soon enough he'll flop over for Jesus. I'm not questioning his sincerity—he is an atheist, all right, and there is no doubt about it—but his sympathies are getting weirder and weirder.
This is not a new development. I've discussed his radical pro-life position before, and now Punkassblog and Amanda bring to my attention his…
pharyngula | June 20, 2006A reader sent me a link to this highly entertaining debate between Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz on religion. You can download the mp3 and have the two Alans shouting at each other on the stereo while you fix your bowl of oatmeal in the morning, like I did. I think Dershowitz kicked butt—if nothing else, he got Keyes to admit that if he'd been president, he wouldn't have allowed any atheists to have positions of responsibility in the government—and there's a lot of good, healthy shouting going on. My only reservation is that, well, it's Dershowitz, who has supported torture, vs. Keyes, who…
pharyngula | June 19, 2006
They've elected a new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. You have to look at her biography to see why I'm even mentioning a new religious leader:
As a scientist and an Episcopalian, I cherish the prayer that follows a baptism, that the newly baptized may receive "the gift of joy and wonder in all God's works." I spent the early years of my adulthood as an oceanographer, studying squid and octopuses, including their evolutionary relationships. I have always found that God's creation is "strange and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139). ...
The vast preponderance of scientific evidence,…
pharyngula | June 19, 2006That's what it all boils down to, isn't it? People are afraid of reason, because they know it erodes faith—better to foster ignorance than risk encouraging people to think. Brian Flemming, of The God Who Wasn't There, links to an interesting account of what happened when an 'open-minded' church offered to screen his movie: they only showed two clips and bracketed them with lots of apologetic padding. I think they know what would happen if they let that bomb go off in the minds of their faithful congregants.
This stuff is going to get out there, though. Dawkins' series, The Root of All Evil?…
pharyngula | June 18, 2006One more thing about the odious Coulter…Amanda takes note of the bigotry lurking under her schtick in the way she uses "Jew" like it was a dirty word. But look at her book: her weird attitude is right there in the title, Godless. I really thought nothing of it except, well, she's at least acknowledging us irreligious people, until I saw her on Leno where she made this same point, and read this Townhall column, Party of rapist proud to be godless.
My book makes a stark assertion: Liberalism is a godless religion. Hello! Anyone there? I've leapt beyond calling you traitors and am now calling…