Category Archives: Humanities

Most Of The Religious Right Are Not Stupid, Just Willfully Ignorant

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The proliferation and public acceptance of willful ignorance is evident when we realize there are millions of history revisionists and creationists among us, many of who hold graduate and post-graduate degrees and occupy high-ranking positions in academia and the political arena
. . . Ultimately, it is the mind that defines our species. The ability to discern fact from fiction is what advances our society. Religious indoctrination of our educators, legislators and political leaders only serve to dilute our collective evolution as a species, stymie our collective intellectual growth and come at a great cost to our mental and physical of existence, especially in the realm of education and politics.
Read more . . . 

Tea Baggers are Christian Theocrats

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Apologists for the Tea Party like to claim that it’s a new, grass-roots movement aimed at reducing the size of government and promoting a non-partisan, American political agenda. The truth is radically different: it’s just a warmed-over version of the usual white, conservative, evangelical, Christian Right political agenda . . . The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government . . . So the primary concern of Tea Baggers is to mix religion and government — which means getting their brand of Christianity injected into government in more ways. In short, their Christian Dominionists to one extent or another. Read more . . .  

Millions of taxpayer dollars used to convert soldiers and their children to Christianity

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My education, health, salary, and pension are shrinking… How about we lose all of this Spiritual Fitness stuff instead? In a time when national debt is relatively common discussion, it seems that unconstitutional spending of hundreds of millions of dollars would be a natural choice for the chopping block. Read more . . . 

Richard Dawkins, “Children are indoctrinated. I want to open their minds”

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Dawkins continues to argue not just against faith but — as an evolutionary biologist — for inheritance, in terms of the chemical genes we are born with and the cultural “memes” that may be transmitted from generation to generation . . . “I’m very aware that people try to get their hands on children and indoctrinate them and I want to open their eyes, open their minds, show them the thrill of science — of really understanding so much of why we exist, why the universe exists, what life is .” . . . It was from his father, Dawkins says, that he learnt a “scientific attitude”. I ask him to define that. He replies: “Ceaseless questioning, scepticism, wanting to know what the evidence is, understanding what evidence means.” Read more . . . 

God And Galileo: Why People Who Believe The Universe Should Revolve Around Their Religion Are Dangerous

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There really is a movement of religious zealots who are convinced Galileo was wrong. They are called “geocentrists.” How do these geocentrists know that the Earth is the center of the universe? The Bible tells them so!
. . . Yeah, we scoff at geocentrists today, but as Sungenis points out, they had their day. It lasted something like 1,500 years. Church and state were one, and if you didn’t like it, well, they had a torture rack and possibly a pyre just for you. Read more . . . 

Five Facts About Dominionism

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“Dominionism” generally describes the belief that Christians are biblically mandated to control all earthly institutions until the second coming of Jesus. Experts identify two main schools of Dominionism: Christian Reconstructionists, who believe biblical law, including stoning as punishment for adultery and other transgressions, should replace secular law; and the New Apostolic Reformation, which advocates for Christians to “reclaim the seven mountains of culture”: government, religion, media, family, business, education, and arts and entertainment . . . Perry is expected to need strong support from conservative Christians in his run for the presidency, as is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who has expressed admiration for writers accused of espousing Dominionist ideas. Read more . . . 

On Morals: Why Atheism Trumps Christianity

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Any religion that requires the acceptance of its ideas on faith alone is admitting that its doctrines cannot stand on their own merits nor withstand any critical examination . . . The belief in a god is irrational, as are those who accepts the belief in a god. Once this leap of faith is made, it only takes short steps to abandon the standards of rationality and lose the ability to distinguish truth from falsehoods . . . The basic problem with Christian morality comes down to it being little more than a primitive system of reward and punishment. Be good, don’t ask questions and stay in line and you will be rewarded.  Be skeptical, ask questions and use your mind in a reasonable and rational manner and you are consigned to eternal punishment in the most horrible place, forever . . . Of course, Christianity, by design, demands ignorance.  Both naiveté and willful ignorance is at the core of a faith that is contrary to the development of knowledge through reason and rationality.  It clearly teaches people not to trust in reason, and to only accept – without question – the dogmas of the church. Read more . . .