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POPSPEW Survey Prompts Questions As I noted in a previous clip the PEW Survey claims that 1 in 5 atheists believes in god. I remarked at that time that this simply doesn't make sense. In this clip (and the appended comments) several people suggest reasons why this might have happened.
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POPSFood for Thought One statistic that stood out to me was the strange 1 in 5 self professed atheists that claim to believe in God. Atheism is conventionally defined as holding no belief in a god or gods.
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POPSScientific Framing - Do We Need It? Recently there's been a controversy in the scientific community concerning scientific framing. That's framing in the sense of presenting views and facts in such a way that they appeal to a larger percentage of the population. We hear this mostly in the political realm but it applies equally in the scientific realm particularly where science and politics intersect. Is it the right thing to do? Is it too Orwellian?
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POPSFreedom for All Because of the nationwide special privilege that Christians have come to expect this type of discrimination is common place.
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POPSFacts Do Matter For those Fundamentalists that insist that atheists choose not to believe so they can live a life of debauchery and decadence.
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POPSA Rational Review One can hope that Ben Stein can now be laid to rest as a fraud, a liar, and a snake oil salesman. One would also hope that the mental health profession would lend their services and have counselors on hand after viewing this drivel to reintroduce the viewers gently back to reality.
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POPSBigotry in Illinois Far from being unique, this latest outburst is simply one of the loudest. There is a wide spread prejudice against non-theists in the US that to a large degree is condoned by a large portion of the population. It's only when the bigots become shrill and irrational, like Rep. Davis did, that it becomes news. Maybe this could be a good thing. It brings it out in the open.
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POPSReligious Tests? Once again we're presented with examples of outright bigoted prejudice. Perhaps not surprising if it was put forth from a stereotypical Nascar dad but from a contender to the presidency it seems a bit out of line.
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POPSReligion and Abortion This article makes a cogent argument that religion actually promotes abortions rather than diminishes them. Link to full article for more info.
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POPSCultural Diversity? Or Just Wrong? This is sure to stir up controversy. Knowing what we know today, should be stand quiet and ignore the lives scared by this archaic practice because of cultural diversity? I fervently believe we need to speak out and show our revulsion over such primitive and harmful ideas. We know that practices such as this are harmful to women but hesitate to bring them to the forefront for fear of offending certain segments of the population. I couldn't disagree more. These "traditions" need to be exposed to the light of modern thought and people need to express their outrage for such devastating practices.
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POPSMuslim Bullying How absurd for any religious group to expect for persons of differing faiths or no faith at all to adhere to their quaint religious practices. It reminds me of the resistance to teach evolution in public schools or the attempts to force religion into the public arena. Both spheres have a similar lack of credibility and rationale. Kudos to Wikipedia for not kowtowing to religious fanatics.
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POPSSanity in Thought Reading this one could assume that it's written by one of those left-wing liberal living in sin-filled NY or LA. Actually it's a comment by someone in Malaysia. Naturally, I agree with what this writer says.
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POPSThose Noisy Atheists Cultural taboos against religious criticism are deeply ingrained. But are they justified? Apparently they are not. What happens is that generally people take criticism of their religious beliefs personally. It's as though religious beliefs hold some sort of position that is materially different from other beliefs that they hold. Except for the fact that religious beliefs are not reality based they are still simply ideas that a person has come across and decided to adopt.
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POPSChristian Panic Once again we're presented with the curious sight of grown people (at least in a chronological sense) getting in a lather over a display that is contrary to their sacred view of the world. Fear seems to be the driving force behind most of the actions of religious people and that fear is exhibited here. Predictably, their response is unfortunately representative of a school yard fight instead of adults addressing a difference of opinion. We'll get to it! You can imagine their moral outrage if the shoe was on the other foot. Acceptance is a concept that they have yet to learn.
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POPSSeer Stones Find No Use in White House? It was telling that the speech took place at the library of the countries champion of religious bigotry, George H. W. Bush. For those too young to remember, in 1987 when asked about atheists he responded: “I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.” Romney, during his "I'm a holy, godly, person" speech made no mention of unbelievers at all. He simply regurgitated what would bring the Religious Right back into the fold. His talk, filled with homilies and half-truths should play well among the sheep he's trying to attract. Incidentally, he was also stunningly silent on Mormonism itself. Not too surprising when one considers the sheer idiocy of this belief system.
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POPSOh Goody - I'm Gonna Get Saved Tomorrow Tomorrow's the big day for me! Scads of folks are coming together to electronically pray for me and other heathens at a new website. I can begin to feel the godly tingles already... I found the end of the clip particularly telling as it shows that the concept of rational thought has yet to occur to this person. Too bad...
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POPSComic Opera Of course Ms. Paulson doesn't seem to understand that if a subject is not taught through a religious lens that it is not automatically "atheistic". I don't recall taking Atheist Geometry or Atheist English although no mention was made of religion in these classes. How ridiculous!
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POPSCatholic League Panties Wad Up Again One would be tempted to suggest that if the Catholic Church had put as much energy into clergy misconduct, we'd all be better off. But, of course, this movie is a sincere threat to the very moral fiber of the world and could possibly mark the end of civilization as we know it. :-)
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POPSReligious "Deep Thinking" Looked at in a certain light, this article by Rev. Steve Cornell, is hilarious. I've never seen so many myths about atheism grouped into one article. What Rev. Steve has managed to do is to show how ignorant he really is. What's sad is that people evidently believe this drivel. If you are of the mind, take a look here for answers to Rev Steve's silly assertions: http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismmyths/Atheism_Myths_Misconceptions_How_Theists_Misrepresent_Atheism.htm Atheism Myths & Misconceptions: Exposing the Ways Theists Misrepresent Atheism & Athiests
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POPSBook Flap Remember, this book was published 12 years ago. In all that time the Catholic Church, wonder upon wonders, has managed to survive this grave risk to complete and utter destruction. And as far as I know there have been no reported cases of anyone being corrupted by this evil tome of Satan. Once the movie based on the book was announced the religious whinnying began. Their claims seem to indicate that the movie will be the end of civilization as we know it. Welcome to the "Hyperbole Zone". I for one am not surprised.
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POPSChristianity Doomed! A stark and revealing expose on the end of Christianity and Western Culture as we know it. Domesday is Near!! Oh, wait...this is a review of a friggin movie. Never mind.
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POPSRespect for People - Criticism for Ideas "What is most important in our sharing of beliefs is that we not become judgmental, cynical or mean spirited . No one should suggest that atheists are somehow "bad" or uncaring. Also, no one should suggest that believers are weak minded and living a fantasy. Respect is the operative word." The author is confusing respect for an individual person for respect for an idea. By doing so I suspect he hopes to deflect criticism of theology altogether. A careful reading also indicates that he is getting set up to unveil a defense of Intelligent Design.
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POPSCareful Reportage And I heartily agree. In fact, most gemstones I've talked to hold no opinion one way or the other. Do we depend too much on spell checkers and not enough on careful reading? Check the 4th paragraph above.
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POPSWar on Christmas I'm considering a tree based on Dante. The lower branches could really be interesting in their ornamentation. Now that's a tree that would be interesting to decorate.
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POPSReligious Comic Relief I was given hope that here was the definitive article that would wipe away this fog from religion and bring it into the 21st Century. It promised to disprove atheist claims using reason and science. Now, of course there are no atheist claims to disprove, but it makes for good rhetoric. (Note: atheism is non-belief, not a system of belief). Well, don't hold your breath waiting for any type of definitive rational for believing in a deity here. As they say, this article is all sizzle and no steak.
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POPSReligionists Rely on Faulty Logic and Lies This propaganda from the NCR is a prime example of religion's use of misdirection coupled with failed logic to try to prove to their "customers" that their spiel is legitimate. It has worked for roughly 2,000 years so they stick with the old methods because they are successful. One difference today is that we no longer have to accept this ruse as being grounded in reality but see it for what it is. A naked attempt to dupe a gullible populace that is willing to be lulled into a false sense of childish dependency. The entire screed is brought to you because the NCR feels threatened by a movie! Two thousand years of history and they become unhinged because another piece of fiction challenges their piece of fiction. Of course the stakes are big. Make no mistake, the Church is big business and wants to protect its assets.
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POPSPoor Christians - Thrown to the Lions Again For all the Liberals out there who have fallen in love with Mr. Paul, I suggest they take another look at the real Ron Paul. Sure he's against the war in Iraq but that's not his entire agenda. This quy is more of a nut than most think.
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POPSWorld "Nut" Daily - Usual Tripe I literally laughed out loud after reading the above statement stating how D'Souza used "science" to refute Hitchens. The WND lives up to its reputation of dogma over intelligence by printing this drivel. The tired argument that D'Souza puts forth relies of the argument of improbability, the stock in trade of the ID/Creationist crowd. Although I expect some mouth breathers might find this so startlingly "scientific" cause it refers to numbers and other sciencey stuff that it'll go over big in the church pews. As far as people with even a rudimentary knowledge of science will discover that this is merely another pseudoscience attempt to refute evolution. It's been discredited in too many sources to list. But hey, it's the World Nut Daily. Enough said...
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POPSGovernment as the Hammer of Religion Here we go again. Over the years my enthusiasm has been dampened somewhat by failures to rid this secular country of the self-serving desires of Christian Nationalists seeking unwarranted privilege, but you never know. Maybe reason will prevail this time.
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POPSCatholic League Overboard in Criticism? The clip is a short excerpt from the interview. It addresses a point that we see over and over again these days from the Religious Right. Their primary focus is to make their form of Christianity a State religion. Luckily, the Constitution as prevented this from happening. To be fair, a majority of these folks probably want this to happen because they are genuinely troubled for what, to them, appears to be a moral collapse in the US. They think that a return to an imagined past is the answer to restore their world back to equilibrium. These simplistic desires are often the fuel that powers many of these unfounded protests. Reasoning and logic have no effect on this close minded thinking.
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POPSNew Film Anti-Religious? I can't remember any atheist attacks on the multitude of religious based films that we've been assaulted by over the years (except possibly for the Christian porn movie, The Passion of the Christ). Now the Christian censors are frantic that the movie's tame portrayal of the books it is based on will be too watered down. Their reasoning is that with the meeker film version people will be persuaded to buy the book and that is where the real god bashing occurs. So in their warped view of reality, the film is simply a feature length commercial for the book series. It's no surprise when one realizes that the major criticism for the film and books comes from the Catholic League. A group not known for its tolerance.
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