9
POPSAtheists Need Better Liturgists "Both meanings are very suitable for the presentation and contemplation of Christian doctrine and there are many more meanings to these Christian symbols. A good symbol also requires no label, unlike the atheist hairdryer labeled "Reason". The symbol for "Reason" should be obvious and powerful enough that it requires no label. But there is no clear connection between a hairdryer and "Reason". Someone who labels things is more of a sloppy editorial cartoonist than a powerful image maker. Isn't that one reason we hated those 70s felt banners? Leaving that aside, what does a hairdryer do? It blows hot air. Umm, on second thought maybe they picked a revealing symbol for atheism after all."
8
POPSAtheists Sue to Remove "In God We Trust" ..."This lawsuit is another attempt by liberal activists to rewrite history and deny that America's Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
4
POPSBl. Miguel Pro, S.J. As the firing squad took aim, Pro spoke his last words. In a firm, clear voice, he said: "Viva Cristo Rey!" Long live Christ the King.
1
POPSCalles Law ...Designed to put teeth into the constitutional articles, it spelled out in specific terms the penalties for violations -- 500 pesos for wearing clerical garb, five years imprisonment for criticizing the laws or inducing a minor to join a monastic order, etc. The trouble came when Calles mulishly attempted to enforce the laws in strongly Catholic west-central Mexico, particularly the states of Jalisco, Colima, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Michoacán and even more particularly the Los Altos ranch country of northeast Jalisco, focal point of what would turn out to be the terrible 1926-29 Cristero War. Shouting their battle cry of Viva Cristo Rey! ("Long live Christ the King!"), a motley assortment of ranchers, Catholic students and workers from Guadalajara and Indians from Jalisco's northern sierra held off the cream of the federal army for three years.
3
POPSConstitutional Separation of Church and State, pt. 3 ...There must be in every church building a representative who is responsible to the authorities for compliance with the laws on religious worship in such building, and for the objects pertaining to the worship. Periodical publications of a religious character, whether they be such because of their program, title, or merely because of their general tendencies, may not comment on national political matters or public information on acts of the authorities of the country or of private persons directly related to the functioning of public institutions . The formation of any kind of political group, the name of which contains any word or indication whatever that it is related to any religious denomination, is strictly prohibited. Meetings of a political character may not be held in places of worship. Trials for violation of the above provisions shall never be heard before a jury.
3
POPSConstitutional Separation of Church and State, pt. 2 ...Places of public worship are the property of the Nation, as represented by the Federal Government, which shall determine which of them may continue to be devoted to their present purposes. Bishoprics, rectories, seminaries, asylums, and schools belonging to religious orders, convents, or any other buildings built or intended for the administration, propagation, or teaching of a religious creed shall at once become the property of the Nation by inherent right, to be used exclusively for the public services of the Federal or State Governments, within their respective jurisdictions. All places of public worship hereafter erected shall be the property of the Nation.
8
POPSConfessions of a Lapsed Atheist "And enlightened as they are, they've come up with quite the pretense for justifying the righteousness of their bigotry: they are defending the vision of our Founding Fathers from a dominionist conspiracy to establish Christianity as the state religion." "You see, for liberal Atheists, the only thing worse than religion is the Religious Right, a term they use to encompass all Christian conservatives. And what better way to siphon fuel from the Religious Right than to convince Americans that the government is perpetually on the verge of becoming a theocracy? " "But above all, Atheists stoke fear among religious and nonreligious alike that conservatives view government as a tool to force religion down your throat."
3
POPSPraying for Atheists But there is, of course, another approach. We can also rejoice that most atheists are what I call "eupocrites": which is to say they are better and more human than their ugly materialist philosophy. http://www.mark-shea.com/eupocrisy.html
7
POPSPillar of Unbelief - Sartre But this is not the only freedom. There's also the freedom to say yes. Sartre thinks we compromise our freedom when we say yes, when we choose to affirm the values we've been taught by our parents, our society, or our Church. So what Sartre means by freedom is very close to what the beatniks of the `50s and the hippies of the `60s called "doing your own thing," and what the Me generation of the `70s called "looking out for No. 1." He says, "We have learned to take Evil seriously...Evil is not an appearance...Knowing its causes does not dispel it. Evil cannot be redeemed." Yet he also says that since there is no God and since we therefore create our own values and laws, there really is no evil: "To choose to be this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil." So Sartre gives both too much reality to evil ("Evil cannot be redeemed") and too little ("We can never choose evil").
5
POPSPillar of Unbelief - Marx Monism: the idea that everything is one and that common sense's distinction between matter and spirit is illusory. Pantheism: the notion that the distinction between Creator and creature, the distinctively Jewish idea, is false. For Hegel, the world is made into an aspect of God (Hegel was a pantheist); for Marx, God is reduced to the world (Marx was an atheist). Historicism: the idea that everything changes, even truth; that there is nothing above history to judge it; and that therefore what is true in one era becomes false in another, or vice versa. Dialectic: the idea that history moves only by conflicts between opposing forces, a "thesis" vs. an "antithesis" evolving a "higher synthesis." Necessitarianism, or fatalism: the idea that the dialectic and its outcome are inevitable and necessary, not free. Statism: the idea that since there is no eternal, trans-historical truth or law, the state is supreme and uncriticizable. Militarism: (read article)
2
POPSPillar of Unbelief - Freud First, Freud's "super-ego" is not the intellect or conscience, but the unfree, passive reflection in the individual's psyche of society's restrictions on his desires—"thou shalt nots." What we take to be our own insight into real good and evil is only a mirror of man-made social laws, according to Freud. Second, the "ego" is not free will but a mere facade. Freud denied the existence of free will, he was a determinist and saw man as a complex animal-machine. Finally, the "id" ("it") is the only real self, according to Freud, and it's comprised simply of animal desires. It is impersonal; thus the name "it." Freud thus is denying the existence of a real personality, individual I-ness. Just as he denied God ("I Am"), he denies God's image, the human "I."