CRITICAL THINKING: George Carlin / “Teach Your Children to Question Everything”
5
Category Archives: Antitheism
EDUCATION: PZ Myers / “Woe is U.S. Academics”
Have you been following Doonesbury for the past few weeks? It’s been all about the progressive destruction of the American university, as the old model is replaced by the for-profit university, a hideous scheme in which state and federal support for higher education gets siphoned off to support lousy schools that grind through massive numbers of students, offering low tuition, flexible hours, and a fast-track to a degree…and with abysmal retention rates, low success, marginally qualified ‘faculty’, and an education that is worth less than you paid for it. These are the colleges you see advertised on cheesy commercials on television, in which some guy proudly testifies about getting his fancy diploma working only a few hours a week at night over two years, and never having to step away from his computer to do it.
SCIENCE – EVOLUTION / COSMOLOGY: Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss / “Something From Nothing?” / 02.04.2012
ATHEISM: Mano Singham / “Casual Mentions of Atheism”
[…]
Once people start mentioning being an atheist casually, as merely one facet of their lives and not their defining characteristic, you know that it has become mainstream.
In fact, it has reached a stage that I get surprised only when I hear writers and artists and other intellectuals mention that they are religious, even mildly so. I do not explicitly seek out atheist writers, so the fact that I encounter so few religious ones must mean something. At the very least, it may signify that the intellectual class as a whole is abandoning religion.
EXPOSITORY ESSAY: John Kelly / “Robert Ingersoll, the ‘Great Agnostic’”
Photo credit: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Robert G. Ingersoll, shown between 1865 and 1880.
What was Robert Ingersoll’s address? Answer Man is confident many readers are wondering, “Who the heck was Robert Ingersoll?”
Well, he is the most famous American you never heard of.
Col. Ingersoll — he fought for the Union in the Civil War after raising a cavalry regiment from Illinois — was a lawyer who counted the wealthy and powerful among his clients. He was a committed Republican who stumped for GOP candidates. He was a silver-tongued orator whose lectures drew thousands — and earned him thousands of dollars a pop. He was also, by all accounts, a really nice guy.
And Ingersoll accomplished all of this without believing in God.
Ingersoll’s disbelief was the quality that most fascinated the 19th-century audiences that packed theaters to hear him speak. He was known as the Great Agnostic. Some called him blasphemer or infidel.
RELIGIOUS PARODY, ART AND SCIENCE: DarkMatter2525 / “The Lambaste Supper (and Sagan)”
CROSS-CULTURAL PEACE: Playing For Change / “Imagine”
h/t: Awakening
RELIGIOSITY: Dusty Smith / “Have You Heard The Good News?”
CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: Jack Cluth / “Bigot-fil-A”
Photo credit: What Would Jack Do?
CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: The Amazing Atheist / “Chick Fil America”
Always Question Authority 