Category Archives: Evolution

Essay: “The Faith-Based Initiative: Flawed in Concept, Constitutionally Threatening, and Ineffective”

Posted on by
Reply

By Madison S. Hughes (11.07.2010)

Abstract

The Faith-Based Initiative (FBI) is a poverty-stricken solution to boosting the nation’s capacity in social services. The idea resonates especially in the current economic climate. Regardless of the economic conditions, the FBI is not a solution to the problem of providing necessary social services. At the same time, the substitution of religious institutions for putatively secular functions represents a clear and present violation to the Establishment Clause regarding the separation of Church and State. This paper will argue that while the objective of providing social services should be a paramount concern, the FBI fails to deliver on this objective on two counts. First, it remains a threat to our most vulnerable citizens because they represent a vehicle to impose specific religious creeds from their social service provider. As such, this initiative, while politically expedient, poses a substantial constitutional infringement, and is unacceptable as public policy. Secondly, to date the FBI has not produced a measurable gain in social service capacity. Continue reading →

Should Atheists Have Lots of Kids?

Posted on by
Reply

If we have lots of kids just so we can breed the next generation of atheists… then how are we any better than the Quiverful families, having lots of kids just so they can breed the next generation of fundamentalist Christians? If we don’t behave better than the religious extremists we’re fighting, then what on earth is the point? Yes, it’s true — religious believers do, on average, have more kids than atheists. And yes, people do tend to stay with the religion they were brought up with. And you know what? Atheists are still winning. Rates of non-belief are going up at a dramatic rate, all over the U.S. and all over the world. The only religious demographic that’s growing in every single state is “None.” Read more . . . 

Death Makes Life More Meaningful

Posted on by
1

The very fact that life is finite is the very thing that makes life meaningful. If we had eternal life, then what would be the point of it? We strive and work hard in life because life is short and so we feel an urgency to live our lives with passion . . . By taking death out of the equation, religious believers also take the passion out of our existence.
Read more . . . 

Job Creators

Posted on by
2

 . . . Boehner’s so-called “job creators” become “job destroyers” as they lay off people and close businesses. That is if we adopt the “employer” definition of “job creators” as opposed to the “consumer” definition . . . Representative Boehner is giving us meaningless political rhetoric rather than meaningful political solutions. Read more . . . 

Richard Dawkins, “A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy”

Posted on by
Reply

His epiphanies follow on the heels of long sessions of reading and thought, and a bit of procrastination. He is an elegant stylist with a taste for metaphor. And he has a knack, a predisposition even, for assailing orthodoxy . . . His impatience with religion is palpable, almost wriggling alive inside him. Belief in the supernatural strikes him as incurious, which is perhaps the worst insult he can imagine. “Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers,” he says. “It’s a sort of crime against childhood.” Read more . . . 

Creationism: An Insult to the Collective of Human Intelligence

Posted on by
Reply

Creationism and it’s kissing cousins “Creation Science” and “Intelligent Design” are not science, nor are they intelligent.  They are departments of fundamental apologetics. The sole purpose of Creationism is to defend the biblical book of Genesis . . . Creationism has been scientifically disproved and any vestiges of science that remained have been discredited due to the inclusion of magic or magical events, which are untestable. Read more . . .