Atheism and Patriotism
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Category Archives: Christianity
Quote: Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinsky, Ph.B. (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972)
American Community Organizer, and Writer
In this world irrationality clings to man like his shadow . . . a world of religious institutions that have, in the main, come to support and justify the status quo so that today religion is materially solvent and spiritually bankrupt. We live with a Judaeo-Christian ethic that has not only accommodated itself to but justified slavery, war, and every other ugly human exploitation of whichever status quo happened to prevail.
Student Faces Town’s Wrath in Protest Against a Prayer
CRANSTON, R.I. — She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves Harry Potter and Facebook. But Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years. . .
For Jessica, who was baptized in the Catholic Church but said she stopped believing in God at age 10, the prayer was an affront. “It seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, ‘You don’t belong here,’ ” she said the other night during an interview at a Starbucks here. . .
New England is not the sort of place where battles over the division of church and state tend to crop up. It is the least religious region of the country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Rhode Island is an exception: it is the nation’s most Catholic state, and dust-ups over religion are not infrequent. . .
Does she empathize in any way with members of her community who want the prayer to stay?
“I’ve never been asked this before,” she said. A pause, and then: “It’s almost like making a child get a shot even though they don’t want to. It’s for their own good. I feel like they might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I’m defending their Constitution, too.”
‘Fertility gap’ Helps Explain Political Divide
Republican House members overwhelmingly come from districts that have high percentages of married people and lots of children. . .
Many Democrats represent areas that have many single people and relatively few children. Democratic districts that have large numbers of children tend to be predominantly Hispanic or, to a lesser extent, African-American.
This “fertility gap” is crucial to understanding the differences between liberals and conservatives, says Arthur Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University. These childbearing patterns shape divisions over issues such as welfare, education and child tax credits, he says.
Why Evangelicals Don’t Care When Rich White Conservatives Defile Marriage
[F]or the Republican base, “family values” don’t actually matter, but are just a gloss painted over what really motivates them: reactionary rage.
The sexual double standard is the most obvious way the us vs. them mentality works. There’s nothing the modern American conservative loves more than to decry our country’s supposedly declining sexual morals.
Sex is a weapon being used against all those classes of Americans they don’t like: non-white people, gays, non-Christians, liberals, Democrats, people who have to work for a living, poor people, Democratic politicians.
Conservatives seem sick and tired of paying lip service to equality and family values, and instead are just enjoying the ride of cheering for the screw-you-I-got-mine guy.
Richard Dawkins: Education Is The Only Antidote To Religion
Richard Dawkins believes that education is the only ‘antidote’ to religion. “We need to protect children from being indoctrinated. It goes on to the next generation and then they see that their children get indoctrinated.”
“If children are taught, however moderately, that faith is a virtue, they are taught that they don’t need evidence to believe something; that they can believe something just because it’s their faith. . .
He believes that atheism will soon become a more popular framework for people. “There seems to be a correlation with education. It’s certainly true within the US — the more educated people are more likely to give up religion.”
Ariane Noelle Patterson, Student, Dies After Tweeting ‘Thank You God for Another Year Of Life’
It was Ariane Noelle Patterson’s 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive. The Gardner-Webb University student took to her Twitter account on Jan. 17 and posted the message: “Thank you God for another year of life.” Hours later, she collapsed during a religion class and was rushed to nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reports. The senior at the North Carolina Christian college was originally from Delaware and majored in religious studies, the Shelby Star reports.
The university released the following statement on its Facebook page: We are deeply saddened and in shock by this monumental loss. We pray for Ariane’s family and friends during this difficult time . . .
Another peer acknowledged he had never met Patterson in person, but recalls her cheerful character: Her presence on the quad and at certain events I attended was joyous and positive . . . I bet she got the greatest birthday present of all-time. To make it to heaven with our heavenly father.
The power to define is the power to destroy
So here’s the thing: Christians want the right to define what marriage is, and that in itself is not a bad thing. Christians should have the right to decide for themselves what the true definition of marriage is. The problem is that they not only want to define marriage for themselves, they want to define it for everyone else as well. They want to deny to others the right of definition that they claim exclusively for themselves.
That’s Christian supremacist thinking, as well as being bigoted and unjust.
Santorum: Google Me!
Let’s Stop Voting in Churches
A Baylor University study just published in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion found that having a church in clear sight can influence people’s answers to questions. Co-author Wade Rowatt pointed out that the “important finding here is that people near a religious building reported slightly but significantly more conservative social and political attitudes than similar people near a government building.” The Baylor study confirms an earlier Stanford University study that shows the same effect when looking specifically at how people’s voting place influences their vote. Stanford researcher Jonah Berger said, “Voting in a church could activate norms of following church doctrine. Such effects may even occur outside an individual’s awareness.”
Since polling place influences the vote, governments and election boards should do all they can to find neutral voting locations. And it would seem very unlikely that churches would be chosen if neutrality were the aim. Why not use schools, courthouses, firehouses and the like instead?
Always Question Authority 