Miscellanea Agnostica

In a move that will, now doubt, enrage lots of theists — especially religionists of the “there-can-be-no-morality-without-God” variety, Queen Elizabeth II commented recently that atheists aren’t entirely bad. The (UK) Guardian reports on these comments to an Anglican Church synod (WebCite cached article):

People of faith do not have a monopoly on virtue as British society was now “more diverse and secular”, the Queen told the Church of England today in an address to its governing body.

Speaking at Church House, central London, she told members of General Synod that believers and atheists were equally able to contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of the country.

The Queen, who is supreme governor of the Church of England, said: “In our more diverse and secular society, the place of religion has come to be a matter of lively discussion. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue and that the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation depend on the contribution of individuals and groups of all faiths and none.”

The irony here is that Queen Elizabeth — as the Guardian story mentions — is technically the head of the Church of England, as all English/UK monarchs have been, ever since Henry VIII cut off the church within his realm from the Holy See in Rome. Expect the furious retorts to the Queen to begin … not so much in her own realm or even the Commonwealth, but within the US, among the vocal militant Christianists.

Photo credit: Wpa Pool/Getty Images via The Guardian.

Tags: anglican church, atheism, atheist, atheists, christianism, christianist, christianists, church of england, elizabeth ii, general syond, morality, queen elizabeth ii, rowan williams

Were you aware that atheism is a parasitic infection in humanity? No? I guess you’re just not up on the latest developments in religionism. There’s even a blog devoted to exposing this malady, called A Field Guide to Atheist Parasites, whose first entry explains this staggering revelation, a diagnosis delivered by Rabbi Daniel Lapin on the Glenn Beck show (WebCite cached article):

Here is a transcript of Rabbi Lapin’s words of divine wisdom:

“I do believe that atheists are parasites in the sense that they are benefiting from everything that religious culture has built in America, but they’re doing nothing to add energy into the system.”

Here’s the Youtube video of Lapin jabbering on like a crazed, hyperreligious, sanctimonious moron:

How the Rabbi can claim that there are “benefits” to “the religious culture” is beyond me. “Religious culture” has given us a legacy of intolerance and hatred. Are these “benefits” for which atheists must express their thanks, by converting en masse?

Moreover, he claims atheists don’t “add energy to the system” … is he suggesting that atheists never donate to charity? Or volunteer in their communities? Or serve in potentially-dangerous capacities such as police, firefighters, soldiers or sailors? Really? He may subscribe to the notion that there are no atheists in foxholes, but in fact, there are plenty of them, and he’d know it if only he bothered to look for them.

I’m a little astounded that the Rabbi would dare talk about how horrible atheists are, given his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal. You see, in order to help ingratiate Abramoff among the Religious Right in Washington, Lapin and his group, Toward Tradition, gave Abramoff a phony award (cached). In return, Abramoff convinced some of his clients to swing a contract in excess of $1 million to a company Lapin ran (cached).

Wow. What a bastion of sound ethical behavior! Why, that only proves that religion makes people behave morally. Doesn’t it?

What, it doesn’t? … Woops!

Anyway, before Lapin goes around accusing atheists of being “parasites,” he’d best start owning up to his own parasitic ways (e.g. using his personal connection to the crooked Jack Abramoff to get business). What a fucking joke this guy is.

Hat tip: Friendly Atheist.

Photo credit: aacool.

Tags: abramoff scandal, atheism, atheist, atheists, daniel lapin, fox news, glenn beck, glenn beck show, jack abramoff, jew, jewish, judaism, parasite, parasites, parasitism, rabbi, rabbi daniel lapin, Religion, religionism, religionist, religionists, toward tradition

The tactic of using a reductio ad Hitlerum — or an appeal to Hitler or the Nazis — to condemn one’s opponents and ostensibly “prove” they’re bad or wrong, is decades old. It’s not logical, of course, since comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis are rarely based on facts. I’ve caught people at this particular fallacious game before. I assumed back then, that I would again.

And I did.

This time the perpetrator was none other than Pope Benedict XVI, on a state visit in the UK. As the BBC reports, he attempted to link atheism and secularism with Nazism (WebCite cached article):

A speech in which the Pope appeared to associate atheism with the Nazis has prompted criticism from humanist organizations.

However, the Catholic Church has moved to play down the controversy, saying the Pope knew “rather well what the Nazi ideology is about”. …

In his address, the Pope spoke of “a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society”.

He went on to urge the UK to guard against “aggressive forms of secularism”. …

He said: “Even in our own lifetimes we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live.

“As we reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus a reductive vision of a person and his destiny.”

First, let’s get this right out of the way, up front: The Nazis were not atheists; their movement was not an atheist one; and they did nothing whatever to abolish religion. The religion of members of the Nazi party was, as far as can be told, similar to, if not the same as, that of the population of Germany as a whole; the majority of them were Christians (with Lutherans and other Protestant churches dominating, and a large minority of Catholics). Whatever the individual religious beliefs of Hitler and Goebbels and Göring and Himmler and the rest of that crew may have been, the majority of the Germans who (initially at least) obeyed and supported them, were Christians.

Far from trying to eradicate religion from the lives of Germans, the Nazis actually got themselves involved in Christianity at its most basic level. They welded Germany’s Protestant churches into a federated entity under their own control, the Reichskirche. Hitler’s party also negotiated a formal accord with the Roman Catholic Church (i.e. the Reichskonkordat). There is no logical way that either of these acts could possibly be viewed as the product of an inherently anti-religious or anti-theistic regime.

Next, the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, grew up in Germany during the Third Reich. He knows what Nazism was, and who the Nazis were, at least as well as anyone on the planet. Thus, he knows full well what I just said — that the Nazi regime was not an atheistic one — and therefore has zero excuse for having made this comparison.

Third, as I pointed out in my earlier post on this matter, details matter. You can’t call people Nazis — or imply somehow that they’re Nazis — unless you can point to some details of their actions or policies that match those of the Nazis. I’m not aware of any atheist militias (similar to the Sturmabteilung or “brownshirts”); I’m not aware that atheists are locking people away in concentration camps (emulating the Nazis’ policy of rounding up “enemies” and keeping them out of the way). I’m not aware that atheists have outlawed labor unions or rival political parties (both of which the Nazis did). I’m not aware that atheists have ever done anything even remotely close to what the Nazis did.

Fourth, in addition to being honest about the Nazis’ religious motivations, we also need to be honest about the anti-Semitism that drove them: If not for centuries of Christian hatred for and vilification of Jews, the Nazis would never even have dreamed up the Holocaust, much less carried it out. While Christianity may view Judaism as a “rival contender” religion, and the mere existence of Jews as an insult to its teaching that Jesus was the “Messiah,” atheism has no particular motive to despise Jews so especially. None.

I get that the Pope dislikes atheists. It’s OK, this is a free world and he’s entitled to hate anyone he wants, for any reason he wants. He is not, however, entitled to lie about those he hates … especially when he, personally, knows his claims about them to be untrue.

Photo credit: Wikipedia.

Tags: appeal to hitler, atheism, atheist, atheists, benedict xvi, catholic church, fallacious, fallacy, germany, hitler, holy see, humanism, humanist, humanists, illogic, logic, nazi, nazi germany, nazis, nazism, pope, pope benedict, pope benedict xvi, reductio ad hitlerum, roman catholic, roman catholic church, secular, secularism, third reich, uk, vatican, vatican city

The Religious Right has launched a ferocious Neocrusade against Islam in the US, which includes several planned Qur’an burnings, as well as assertions that “freedom of religion” doesn’t apply to Muslims. Generally speaking, the Religious Right isn’t holding back its contempt for Islam or its belief that Muslims don’t belong in the US. But curiously, they can’t manage to stomach any criticism, themselves. (OK, so this is no surprise … we’ve long known they’re thin-skinned and childish.)

Here’s but one example of how this is so: The AP reports via Google News that Christians in the Oklahoma City area are offended by the local Coalition of Reason putting up atheism signs (WebCite cached article):

Atheists in Oklahoma City have erected a billboard seeking fellow non-believers, and Satanists have scheduled a conference in a city-owned building, drawing criticism from ministers in a state where more than eight out of 10 people say they are Christians.

“It’s not a question of ‘Can you?’ It’s a question of ‘Should you?’” said Dan Fisher, pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. “It’s kind of like they’re poking a finger in your eye.”

Nick Singer, the coordinator of a local atheists’ group called “Coalition of Reason,” recently received $5,250 from its national counterpart to erect the billboard along Interstate 44 near the Oklahoma State Fair, which opens Wednesday. Its message reads, “Don’t believe in God? Join the club.”

I’m not sure how or why these signs are offensive. All they do is tell those people who already do not believe in God, that they aren’t alone. It doesn’t say that belief in God is bad, or erroneous; it doesn’t tell people they shouldn’t believe in God; it doesn’t tell them they’re idiots for being theists; or anything like that. In fact, the wording of these signs is not directed at believers at all.

Yet, they are nonetheless offended. Wah wah wah.

I love how Christians can dish out the criticism of other religions and of irreligion, but cannot handle anything contrary, themselves … not even signs whose message is not for them. What hypocritical crybabies.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki (cached).

Tags: atheism, atheist, atheist billboard, atheist billboards, atheist sign, atheists, god, oklahoma, oklahoma city, oklahoma city OK, religionism, religionist, religionists, theism, theist, theists, vandalism

The latest issue of the Jehovah’s Witness magazine, Awake, has an article on those horrific atheists … you know, the ones who are too uppity to stay in their place and dare not to keep silent (WebCite cached version). Yeah, those atheists. Awake‘s whining screed includes the following gripe:

A new group of atheists has arisen in society. Called the new atheists, they are not content to keep their views to themselves. Rather, they are on a crusade, “actively, angrily, passionately trying to persuade the religious to their point of view,” wrote columnist Richard Bernstein.

Now, what makes this a case of “the pot calling the kettle black”? Why, nothing less than the well-known proclivity of Jehovah’s Witnesses (one they admit to, even!) to proselytize door-to-door! In other words … they are saying that atheists are wrong to make their thinking known to others … yet it’s perfectly fine for themselves to go around pounding on doors, telling everyone else what they must think!

Fucking hypocrites.

Wait … didn’t Jesus say something to his followers about hypocrisy? What was that … ? … hmm … let me see here … oh yeah, here it is! He told them, clearly, not to be hypocritical!

On top of this, Awake spews another misconception about agnosticism:

Even agnostics are in their sights, for these new atheists allow no room for doubt.

Agnostics are not, by and large, “doubters.” Lots of religious believers have “doubts,” either as part of their faiths or temporarily as they struggle with them. Most agnostics, however, do not “doubt” their position. If the writers and editors of Awake need help in understanding agnosticism, may I humbly suggest they read my own Agnosticism FAQ, which explains this in detail. Not that I expect any JW would give a damn about what it is that agnostics actually think … like most theists — and even some atheists — they’re more than happy just to keep assuming whatever they want to, without regard to the facts.

Hat tip: AlterNet.

Photo credit: Picture Taker 2.

Tags: atheism, atheist, atheists, awake, awake magazine, christian, christian hypocrisy, Christianity, christians, hypocrisy, hypocrite, hypocrites, jehovah's witness, jehovah's witnesses, jw, jws, new atheists, proseltyzing, proselytization, proselytize

Perhaps you’ve heard that Christopher Hitchens — one of the three so-called “New Atheists” whom theists despise more than anything else in the world — has come down with cancer, and ended a book tour abruptly in order to get it treated. This news has caused theists to lick their chops and salivate at the prospect that Hitchens might convert to worship as a result of it. The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, for example, opines as follows (WebCite cached article):

But Hitchens’ rebellion against God has been so public that God may require a very public humbling.

The author is saying that cancer is God’s humiliating retribution against Hitchens for having written God Is Not Great. I suppose this kind of tactic is natural to the deity who tortured Job outrageously, then railed at him over it.

This comes after the obligatory … but factually incorrect … claim that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Of course there are atheists in foxholes — I can even introduce you to some, if you don’t believe me!

Then there’s this little number from the (UK) Catholic Herald (cached article):

Perhaps visiting his doctor will be a wake-up call for Hitchens?

Again with the belief that God is using a physical affliction to coerce Hitchens into converting … coming from a member of the so-called “Religion of Love” (aka Christianity).

Isn’t it amazing the kinds of truly wicked contortions Christians will engage in, in order to think better of themselves and of their God, and worse of their non-believing foes? What childish nonsense.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Hat tip: USA Today Faith & Reason blog.

Tags: atheism, atheist, atheists, atheists in foxholes, cancer, Christianity, christians, christopher hitchens, conversion, deathbed conversion, foxhole atheists, god is not great, illness, new atheist, new atheists, religion of love

As of just over a week ago, Australia has a new prime minister, Julia Gillard. Shortly after taking office she revealed she is an atheist. The (UK) Daily Mail reports on this revelation (WebCite cached article):

Australia’s new Prime Minister has revealed she does not believe in God.

Julia Gillard told ABC radio in Melbourne that she was not prepared to go through ‘religious rituals’ for the sake of appearances.

Ms Gillard added: ‘I am, of course, a great respecter of religious beliefs, but they are not my beliefs.

‘For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay them is to respect their genuinely-held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine.

There is a fervent religionist constituency in Australia — which had strongly supported the prior P.M., Kevin Rudd — and which will, no doubt, try to undermine her. I’m glad that she’s made her beliefs (or lack of them) known publicly, though; there aren’t many world leaders who possess the courage to run counter to theists in their countries. I wish her the best of luck!

Photo credit: maxmilne.

Tags: atheism, atheist, australia, canberra, faith, julia gillard, prime minister, theism

The atheist billboards keep going up around the country, and as one expects, religious people don’t like them. And I mean, really don’t like them. One such billboard in Sacremento, has been vandalized. It had originally said, “Are you good without God? Millions are.” and the words “Also Lost?” were added at the end. TV station KOVR (CBS13) offers this report (WebCite cached article):

One or more vandals used spray paint to deface part of a billboard on Interstate 80 midway between Sacramento and Davis, California, that reads “Are you good without God? Millions are.” The words “also lost?” were added below the “Millions are.” …

The defaced billboard is located on the north side of I-80, just west of exit 78, and faces east. For a hi-res image, free for media use, click HERE.

Maybe someday this country will grow up enough that Christians don’t feel the need to vandalize for Jesus … but apparently that “someday” is not now.

Tags: atheism, atheist, atheist billboard, atheist billboards, atheists, billboard, billboards, sacramento CA, united coalition of reason, vandalism, vandalism for jesus, vandalized, vandals