This quote was taken from an August 2010 discussion of Proposition 8, the law that would put a statewide ban on gay marriage in California.
Found on MoveOn.org 12.14.2011
Why Voting On Gay Rights Is Just Plain Stupid
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Category Archives: Activism & Advocacy
The Faux Rage About a False War on Christmas
The divide in our society is not between rich and poor, or Catholic and Protestant, or Christian and Muslim, but between those have faith and those who have reason. . . Those who accept the idea of god tend to divide the world into believers and atheists. Yet that is incorrect. Atheist means “without god” and one cannot be without something that does not exist. . . But a more reasonable and neutral description of the two world views would be theists and rationalists (or humanists, take your pick). . . his hubris and conceit of human superiority as the only creature close to god is not benign, leading to catastrophic consequences for humanity. The species-centric arrogance of religion cultivates a dangerous attitude about our relationship with the environment and the resources that sustain us. Humanists tend to view sustainability as a moral imperative while theists often view environmental concerns as liberal interference with god’s will.
New Statesman Interview Preview: Richard Dawkins Interviews Christopher Hitchens
Fascism and the Catholic Church
RD The people who did Hitler’s dirty work were almost all religious.
CH I’m afraid the SS’s relationship with the Catholic Church is something the Church still has to deal with and does not deny.
RD Can you talk a bit about that – the relationship of Nazism with the Catholic Church?
CH The way I put it is this: if you’re writing about the history of the 1930s and the rise of totalitarianism, you can take out the word “fascist,” if you want, for Italy, Portugal, Spain, Czechoslovakia and Austria and replace it with “extreme-right Catholic party.”
Almost all of those regimes were in place with the help of the Vatican and with understandings from the Holy See. It’s not denied. These understandings quite often persisted after the Second World War was over and extended to comparable regimes in Argentina and elsewhere.
To XMAS And Beyond!
From: TheThinkingAtheist | Dec 11, 2011 | 21,282 views
Merry Christmas! People would be amazed that 1) many non-Christians celebrate the holiday season and 2) many Christians unknowingly implement pagan traditions into their commemoration of the baby Jesus.
This video takes a quick glance at just a few beloved Christmas traditions and some of their origins.
Politics, Religion and the Tea Party
With a powerful Tea Party movement framing Republican policy in Washington and across the US, Fault Lines looks into the links between the Tea Party movement, the Christian conservative movement and Republican politics ahead of the GOP primaries.
As the race for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2012 elections heats up, Fault Lines follows the Iowa campaign trail to investigate the underlying forces shaping candidates’ strategies.
How have politics, religion and the far-right conservative movement reshaped the political landscape of the US?
I Got Your “Tolerance” Right Here…
. . . The fact that the Christian or Muslim does not obey their holy books does not change what is in the books, and when you redact the few and far-between messages about peace, love and understanding, you are left [with] books that are basically manuals on how to hate people who don’t agree with you and the various methods of punishment that should be meted out, up to and including death.
Until we can all agree that diplomacy should not even be on the table until the religious leaders of the world agree to remove the bigoted, hateful and discriminatory doctrines and beliefs from their official doctrines, even if that means redacting huge chunks of their holy books, there will be no hope of compromise or co-existence.
Christianity is marketed as a religion of love and tolerance and Islam is marketed as a religion of peace. However, on their fundamental levels, these belief systems causes division, promote willful ignorance and retard intellectual growth.
Secular Public Education
Richard Dawkins attacks David Cameron over faith schools
Modern society requires and deserves a truly secular state, by which I do not mean state atheism, but state neutrality in all matters pertaining to religion: the recognition that faith is personal and no business of the state.
Read more . . .
Posted by New Statesman – 12 December 2011 11:05
Robert Redford: Keystone XL and Jobs: Just More Pipe Dreams
The project would provide, at most, 6,000 temporary construction jobs, very few of which would be local hires, according to an analysis performed by the U.S. State Department. Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute did its own evaluation, concluding that the project would employ between 2,500 and 4,650 construction workers. “Most jobs created will be temporary and non-local,” the institute concluded in its report, appropriately titled, “Pipe Dreams?” The real jobs in the region come from the ranches and farms, more than a quarter of a million of them in the Great Plains states the pipeline would pass through. Why would we put these fertile croplands, and the wheat, corn, and cattle they produce, at risk for the profits of the oil industry? It had, by the way, more than $100 billion in profits during just the first nine months of the year. Nothing wrong with profits, but let’s not pretend this is about anything else.
Bill Moyers: Why ‘We The People’ Must Triumph Over Corporate Power
Citizens United is but the latest battle in the class war waged for thirty years from the top down by the corporate and political right. Instead of creating a fair and level playing field for all, government would become the agent of the powerful and privileged. . . We have already amended the Constitution twenty-seven times. Amendment campaigns are how we have always made the promise of equality and liberty more real. Difficult? Of course; as Frederick Douglass taught us, power concedes nothing without a struggle. To contend with power, Clements and his colleague John Bonifaz founded Free Speech for People, a nationwide nonpartisan effort to overturn Citizens United and corporate rights doctrines that unduly leverage corporate economic power into political power.
Always Question Authority 