No, Bryan Johnson Didn’t Clone Himself
11 hours ago
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Goldstein's arguments for a fictional god
At Edge.org, John Brockman introduces a brief excerpt from the first chapter of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's forthcoming 2010 novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. Especially interesting in this preview, is the nonfiction appendix from the book -- it lists 36 arguments for the existence of god, and the reasons they each fail. Including "15. The Argument from the Inconceivability of Personal Annihilation":
- I cannot conceive of my own annihilation: as soon as I start to think about what it would be like not to exist, I am thinking, which implies that I would exist (as in Descartes' Cogito ergo sum), which implies that I would not be thinking about what it is like not to exist.
- My annihilation is inconceivable (from 1).
- What cannot be conceived, cannot be.
- I cannot be annihilated (from 2 & 3).
- I survive after my death (from 4)
[The argument now proceeds on as in the argument from Survival After Death, only substituting in 'I' for 'a person,' until we get to:]- God exists.
FLAW 1: Premise 2 confuses psychological inconceivability with logical inconceivability. The sense in which I can't conceive of my own annihilation is like the sense in which I can't conceive of those whom I love may betray me—a failure of the imagination, not an impossible state of affairs. Thus Premise 2 ought to read "My annihilation is inconceivable to me.", which is a fact about what my brain can conceive, not a fact about what exists.
FLAW 2: Same as Flaw 3 from The Argument from the Survival of Death.
COMMENT: Though logically unsound, this is among the most powerful psychological impulses to believe in a soul, and an afterlife, and God. It genuinely is difficult—not to speak of disheartening— to conceive of oneself not existing!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
Boston Atheists Report 1.16
Our end-of-October podcast (having skipped our middle-of-October session), recorded 11/1/2009. Topics: Atheists celebrate Halloween in Boston; Religious zealotry still in Salem; spirituality threatens health care reform. Roundtable: Being good without gods
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
- Spiritual Health Care Bills Alert (Freedom From Religion Foundation)
- Keep Nonsense Out of Health Care Reform (Ed Brayton)
- Haunted Happenings - Salem, MA Halloween
- The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow - Review
- Church burns "witchcraft" children (Daily Telegraph)
- Decomposing Humanism: Why Replace Religion?
- Does Morality Depend on God? The Problem of Circularity
- Trust your Gut? Study Explores Religion, Morality, and Trust in Authority (Science Daily)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Scientology self-destructs a bit more
Ah, Boston -- the Athens of American, home to dozens of schools of higher learning. But even here, in this Beanpot of bibliophiles and brainiacs, the worst forms of collective delusion are able to survive. One of the more incredible organizations is Scientology, which houses its Boston programs in a lovely old brownstone building on Beacon Street in the Back Bay. In the past two years, Anonymous protesters have made a bit out noise out in front of their facility, but the Hubbardites are pretty snug in there... I don't think they're really considering dissolving their local activities just because a group of Guy Fawkes clones are inciting passing cars to honk their horns. The Church of Xenu, it often seems to me, is here to stay.
Which is why it is good to read about the increasingly bizarre public behavior, and increasingly rancorous internal politics, of Scientology's upper echelon. Optimistically, I'd like to label as just the latest step toward the cult's eventual collapse.
Which is why it is good to read about the increasingly bizarre public behavior, and increasingly rancorous internal politics, of Scientology's upper echelon. Optimistically, I'd like to label as just the latest step toward the cult's eventual collapse.
What Hitchens has learned from debating the religious
I haven't yet run into an argument that has made me want to change my mind. After all, a believing religious person, however brilliant or however good in debate, is compelled to stick fairly closely to a "script" that is known in advance, and known to me, too. However, I have discovered that the so-called Christian right is much less monolithic, and very much more polite and hospitable, than I would once have thought, or than most liberals believe.-- Christopher Hitchens, the meanest Atheist in the world, in his latest column for Slate magazine.
Boston CoR ads on the Red Line, and in the Globe
Visit the website of the Boston Coalition of Reason, or read about the BostonCor ad campaign in the Globe.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Hello, Atheists who saw the Chronicle show!
We've seen a surge in our web traffic today, which must have something to do with Channel 5's feature on the nonreligious community, those of us who are good without gods.
To those of you who are here looking for more information about the secular community in Boston, I suggest you start with the website of the Boston Coalition of Reason. This website will lead you to the individual websites for all of the most active local secular resources -- social groups, campus organizations, and secular congregations.
Attending a Boston Atheists brunch or pub night is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people in the area. Our events calendar is managed at our Meetup.com page.
Jackie Lavache is the Boston Atheist Examiner, and writes about life in Boston from an Atheist perspective as well as about events of interest to the secular community. Her articles are a great and often entertaining blend of blogger commentary and journalism -- check it out at Examiner.com.
As the Director of the Boston Atheists, I work with our group's assistant organizers to plan events, create a programming calendar, and work toward a greater sense of shared interests among our members. Feel free to email me if you'd like to ask questions directly about our organization. I am also the State Director of the American Atheists, and happy to answer your questions about that educational organization.
The Chronicle broadcast could only offer a limit ed view of our community. We're happy to meet new people, answer questions, and share our experiences. So please, come on out!
UPDATE 11:51 pm, 10/27/09:
PS: I am marginally irritated that the Mormons are riding on our bespoke secular coattails. The video advertisement preceding the fourth segment of the Channel 5 Chronicle web broadcast is selling LDS snake oil.
To those of you who are here looking for more information about the secular community in Boston, I suggest you start with the website of the Boston Coalition of Reason. This website will lead you to the individual websites for all of the most active local secular resources -- social groups, campus organizations, and secular congregations.
Attending a Boston Atheists brunch or pub night is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people in the area. Our events calendar is managed at our Meetup.com page.
Jackie Lavache is the Boston Atheist Examiner, and writes about life in Boston from an Atheist perspective as well as about events of interest to the secular community. Her articles are a great and often entertaining blend of blogger commentary and journalism -- check it out at Examiner.com.
As the Director of the Boston Atheists, I work with our group's assistant organizers to plan events, create a programming calendar, and work toward a greater sense of shared interests among our members. Feel free to email me if you'd like to ask questions directly about our organization. I am also the State Director of the American Atheists, and happy to answer your questions about that educational organization.
The Chronicle broadcast could only offer a limit ed view of our community. We're happy to meet new people, answer questions, and share our experiences. So please, come on out!
UPDATE 11:51 pm, 10/27/09:
PS: I am marginally irritated that the Mormons are riding on our bespoke secular coattails. The video advertisement preceding the fourth segment of the Channel 5 Chronicle web broadcast is selling LDS snake oil.
A recent poll...
... suggests that the frequency of rationality among Channel 5 viewers is unusually high. Note: this poll did not control for the higher percentage of rationalists who enjoy participating in web surveys. Nonetheless, it is an exciting number to see. I think we should aim at such numbers, and even higher.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Neumanns are sentenced, Kara still dead
Madeline Kara Neumann, born Dec 31, 1996; died Mar 22, 2008. Cause of death: religious delusion.
Dale and Leilani Neumann prayed over their suffering daughter, instead of procuring medical treatment for their condition. Their 11-year-old daughter died. Now, the Neumanns have been sentenced -- one month a year for the next six years, an unorthodox penalty which the judge hopes will give them time to "think about Kara and what God wants you to learn from this."
I want to view this as a Parthian victory of reason over superstition, but this judge's comment sets me straight. The conflict here was not between modernity and religion but between a religious couple that failed to do what their religious neighbors all do: dilute their faith with enough practical technology so as to avoid the unfortunate and inevitable fallout that occurs when one places one's fate in the hands of nonexistent beings. "Think about what God wants you to learn from this" -- not, "Your child died because you were playing make-believe."
An interesting point was made in the comments section:
More views at The New York Times, The Friendly Atheist, and BBC.
Please support the work of Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty, the non-profit national membership organization established in 1983 to protect children from abusive religious and cultural practices, especially religion-based medical neglect.
Dale and Leilani Neumann prayed over their suffering daughter, instead of procuring medical treatment for their condition. Their 11-year-old daughter died. Now, the Neumanns have been sentenced -- one month a year for the next six years, an unorthodox penalty which the judge hopes will give them time to "think about Kara and what God wants you to learn from this."
I want to view this as a Parthian victory of reason over superstition, but this judge's comment sets me straight. The conflict here was not between modernity and religion but between a religious couple that failed to do what their religious neighbors all do: dilute their faith with enough practical technology so as to avoid the unfortunate and inevitable fallout that occurs when one places one's fate in the hands of nonexistent beings. "Think about what God wants you to learn from this" -- not, "Your child died because you were playing make-believe."
An interesting point was made in the comments section:
And The Lord Said: don't eat shellfish. Because it's easier to say a god disapproves rather than telling people not to s**t in the water near where the bivalves are filtering the water and ingesting the toxins.The implication here seems to be that religion is a way of spoon-feeding common sense to human beings that prefer to spit out their spinach all over their bib. Faced with such options -- a religious majority that uses just enough science to get through the day without upsetting their mythological sensibilities, and a secular minority that employs religious doctrine to save the great mass of humanity from their own self-destructive impulses -- I yearn for a third way.
More views at The New York Times, The Friendly Atheist, and BBC.
Please support the work of Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty, the non-profit national membership organization established in 1983 to protect children from abusive religious and cultural practices, especially religion-based medical neglect.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Jason Vines rebutts ahistorical wonkiness
Carl Wieland's editorial, "The blood-stained 'century of evolution'", is a howler. His opinions seem not to have been formed according to the highest standards of factual accuracy, let us say. As Beltway Atheists member Jason Vines -- operator of the Hypersyllogistic Forums -- writes, "this article has numerous problems." I saw Jason's response making the rounds on a mailing list, and thought it would be worth the read for readers of the BA Blog. Here is his ordered list of concise and matter-of-fact debunkings. - ZB
First, it engages in the logical fallacy we call the appeal to consequences. Any consequences of a proposition, be they good or ill, has no impact on whether the proposition is true or false.
Second, throughout most of human history, religion has sought totalitarian control over everyone's beliefs, thoughts, and actions. Within a religion's dominion, whoever did not submit to the religious authorities faced torture and death. Whomever lived outside religious authorities' control, these authorities often tried to convert through conquest. Few places on Earth have been free of the misery, oppression, and warfare that has resulted. The histories of Europe and Asia are particularly riven with suffering and bloodshed stemming from heretical dissent, sectarian rivalry, and interfaith hatred. If religion hasn't quite achieved the body count of Nazism and Communism, the only reason is that religious police and faithful combatants didn't have remote surveillance, gas chambers, machine guns, warplanes, battleships, tanks, missiles, and nukes.
Third, as a corollary to the above point, no ideological construct in human history has done more than religion to divide people into opposing groups, most of which believed they were the favored of God and hated the other groups. For example, Christians and Muslims hated Jews for centuries, the Christians because they nonsensically held Jews responsible for Christ's death, the Muslims because a group of Jews supposedly thought Mohammed was a charlatan when he told them God was communicating with him. The Nazis didn't invent the anti-Semitic hatred that drove the Holocaust; it was an ancient though still vibrant relic of religion.
Fourth, whereas some individual clergymen bravely resisted the Nazis, the Catholic Church as a political institution supported fascism around the world and collaborated with the Nazis, even to the extent of revealing files to them to help them determine who was sufficiently "pure" to avoid the gas chambers (and who was not). Many Protestant churches also cooperated with the Nazis. And, in Russia, the Orthodox Church served as a puppet of the state instead of resisting. And, of course, in both Germany and Russia, most people were Christians of one kind or another. Even Adolf Hitler was a member of the Catholic Church in good standing, although he made embellishments to the Christian mythos. And Joseph Stalin, even though he became an atheist, had trained as a monk; I guess extensive religious teaching didn't dampen his homicidal tendencies.
Fifth, to the extent that the Nazis and the Communists did aim to supplant religion, the replacement was another kind of unreasoning faith: worship of an all-encompassing state. The totalitarianism that flowed from that had nothing to do with unshackling man's reason or Darwinian evolution by natural selection, but with squashing them.
Sixth, the article mischaracterizes Darwin's work. Darwin was a scientist who merely studied life and recorded what he found. "Might makes right" and other such drivel has nothing to do with Darwin or with evolution, which just concerns inheritance of traits through successive generations and fitness for particular environments. I must note, though, "might makes right" adeptly describes much of religious ideology and history. Think of the admonitions in many religious texts that if the will of a particular deity isn't followed, divine and earthly punishment will ensue.
Seventh, I disagree with the article about the implications of abandoning God and embracing evolution. As I've written before, God is not an alternative to man's will but serves as a vessel into which man pours his will and hopes to escape responsibility for it. The erosion of the God concept doesn't mean an ill-equipped humanity starts making moral decisions; humanity has done that all along. But society might become more self-reflective and willing to deal with its flaws without a divine scapegoat for them.
Also, I think realizing that man is only another animal that evolved over billions of years from microscopic life, and that genetics shreds arbitrary notions of "race" while confirming everyone's unqualified and equal membership in the human species, would encourage treatment of the planet and each other with more humility and respect than religion has engendered. In that respect, Darwinian evolution isn't divisive but unifying.
First, it engages in the logical fallacy we call the appeal to consequences. Any consequences of a proposition, be they good or ill, has no impact on whether the proposition is true or false.
Second, throughout most of human history, religion has sought totalitarian control over everyone's beliefs, thoughts, and actions. Within a religion's dominion, whoever did not submit to the religious authorities faced torture and death. Whomever lived outside religious authorities' control, these authorities often tried to convert through conquest. Few places on Earth have been free of the misery, oppression, and warfare that has resulted. The histories of Europe and Asia are particularly riven with suffering and bloodshed stemming from heretical dissent, sectarian rivalry, and interfaith hatred. If religion hasn't quite achieved the body count of Nazism and Communism, the only reason is that religious police and faithful combatants didn't have remote surveillance, gas chambers, machine guns, warplanes, battleships, tanks, missiles, and nukes.
Third, as a corollary to the above point, no ideological construct in human history has done more than religion to divide people into opposing groups, most of which believed they were the favored of God and hated the other groups. For example, Christians and Muslims hated Jews for centuries, the Christians because they nonsensically held Jews responsible for Christ's death, the Muslims because a group of Jews supposedly thought Mohammed was a charlatan when he told them God was communicating with him. The Nazis didn't invent the anti-Semitic hatred that drove the Holocaust; it was an ancient though still vibrant relic of religion.
Fourth, whereas some individual clergymen bravely resisted the Nazis, the Catholic Church as a political institution supported fascism around the world and collaborated with the Nazis, even to the extent of revealing files to them to help them determine who was sufficiently "pure" to avoid the gas chambers (and who was not). Many Protestant churches also cooperated with the Nazis. And, in Russia, the Orthodox Church served as a puppet of the state instead of resisting. And, of course, in both Germany and Russia, most people were Christians of one kind or another. Even Adolf Hitler was a member of the Catholic Church in good standing, although he made embellishments to the Christian mythos. And Joseph Stalin, even though he became an atheist, had trained as a monk; I guess extensive religious teaching didn't dampen his homicidal tendencies.
Fifth, to the extent that the Nazis and the Communists did aim to supplant religion, the replacement was another kind of unreasoning faith: worship of an all-encompassing state. The totalitarianism that flowed from that had nothing to do with unshackling man's reason or Darwinian evolution by natural selection, but with squashing them.
Sixth, the article mischaracterizes Darwin's work. Darwin was a scientist who merely studied life and recorded what he found. "Might makes right" and other such drivel has nothing to do with Darwin or with evolution, which just concerns inheritance of traits through successive generations and fitness for particular environments. I must note, though, "might makes right" adeptly describes much of religious ideology and history. Think of the admonitions in many religious texts that if the will of a particular deity isn't followed, divine and earthly punishment will ensue.
Seventh, I disagree with the article about the implications of abandoning God and embracing evolution. As I've written before, God is not an alternative to man's will but serves as a vessel into which man pours his will and hopes to escape responsibility for it. The erosion of the God concept doesn't mean an ill-equipped humanity starts making moral decisions; humanity has done that all along. But society might become more self-reflective and willing to deal with its flaws without a divine scapegoat for them.
Also, I think realizing that man is only another animal that evolved over billions of years from microscopic life, and that genetics shreds arbitrary notions of "race" while confirming everyone's unqualified and equal membership in the human species, would encourage treatment of the planet and each other with more humility and respect than religion has engendered. In that respect, Darwinian evolution isn't divisive but unifying.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Give me an S! Give me an E! Give me a...
... P, and (to make a long story short) -A-R-A-T-I-O-N O-F C-H-U-R-C-H A-N-D S-T-A-T-E.
Here's the story. High school cheerleaders in Tennessee have been waving banners with Bible verses on them at school sporting events, an admittedly minor but blazingly obvious violation of church-state separation. The superintendent ended this practice. Some people see this as a problem. The article about this brouhaha has attracted several kinds of readers to the comment thread. Their responses display the full range of predictable attitudes, including:
- calls for complacency,
"I think they should allow the football team and the cheerleaders decide if they want the sign. Obviously the students dont have the problem it is an adult in the audience that has the problem. If that is what the students want then let them do it. Lets not limit their freedom of speech. If more schools would teach bible verses and right and wrong there would be less violence and vain activities going on in our schools. I say let the kids have their say. Let them show their feelings." [Username: Snooksie | On: September 29, 2009 at 9:45 a.m.]
- Aggressive bigotry... "If you READ the Constitution, the First Amendment guarantees Freedom OF Religion, NOT freedom FROM religion. There is a fundamental difference. It also guarantees Freedom of Speach. I would say that some ignorant people are trying to violate the cheerleaders Constitutional Rights. But then again Liberals don't care about anyone's rights but theirs, and the people that follow them blindly. Kind of like taking care of sheep while you're leading them to the packing plant..." [Username: grumpyoldb | On: September 29, 2009 at 4:24 p.m.]
- Complaints of persecution... "As long as it is STUDENT LED there is NO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. All schools should support this and quit letting the select few be the voice for the majority. Pastor Martin Niemoller, who later became head of the World Council of Churches, and was an outspoken critic of the Hitler regime, gave a number of speeches in which he used various versions of the following well-known poem..." [Username: The_Badger | On: September 29, 2009 at 9:48 a.m.]
- Secular criticism... "It's not an uplifting view. It's indoctrination." [Username: rdecredico | On: September 29, 2009 at 10:35 a.m.]
- Rationalistic irritation... "Yes I will agree that I disagree with many here. The worst is people repeating, repeating, repeating totally false statements. That is how stupidity prevails. Opinions are one thing, those will of course vary. I respect your right to have an opinion. Respect mine. I don't respect the right to make false claims (ie prayer taken out of schools)." [Username: FormerChattanoogaResident | On: September 29, 2009 at 11:09 a.m.]
... and so on. Food for thought, all this. A pressing question for our growing secular movement is that of engaging with those on the other side of the belief line. How can we persuade our neighbors that it doesn't serve religious freedom to promote the views of a single religion? These cheerleaders, well-intended though certainly seem to be, are unwitting enemies of reason, and allies to superstition and division.
To be clear, I don't think that these cheerleaders are the victims of overzealous anti-religionists using the Constitution to trample on protected speech (as I write above, the violation of the establishment clause is blatantly obvious). But they are victims -- of religious training. In such cases of mental abuse, I prescribe a strict regime of Sagan, Dawkins, Ingersoll, and critical thinking three times a day. Let us pray for their swift recovery, shall we?
Here's the story. High school cheerleaders in Tennessee have been waving banners with Bible verses on them at school sporting events, an admittedly minor but blazingly obvious violation of church-state separation. The superintendent ended this practice. Some people see this as a problem. The article about this brouhaha has attracted several kinds of readers to the comment thread. Their responses display the full range of predictable attitudes, including:
- calls for complacency,
"I think they should allow the football team and the cheerleaders decide if they want the sign. Obviously the students dont have the problem it is an adult in the audience that has the problem. If that is what the students want then let them do it. Lets not limit their freedom of speech. If more schools would teach bible verses and right and wrong there would be less violence and vain activities going on in our schools. I say let the kids have their say. Let them show their feelings." [Username: Snooksie | On: September 29, 2009 at 9:45 a.m.]
- Aggressive bigotry... "If you READ the Constitution, the First Amendment guarantees Freedom OF Religion, NOT freedom FROM religion. There is a fundamental difference. It also guarantees Freedom of Speach. I would say that some ignorant people are trying to violate the cheerleaders Constitutional Rights. But then again Liberals don't care about anyone's rights but theirs, and the people that follow them blindly. Kind of like taking care of sheep while you're leading them to the packing plant..." [Username: grumpyoldb | On: September 29, 2009 at 4:24 p.m.]
- Complaints of persecution... "As long as it is STUDENT LED there is NO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. All schools should support this and quit letting the select few be the voice for the majority. Pastor Martin Niemoller, who later became head of the World Council of Churches, and was an outspoken critic of the Hitler regime, gave a number of speeches in which he used various versions of the following well-known poem..." [Username: The_Badger | On: September 29, 2009 at 9:48 a.m.]
- Secular criticism... "It's not an uplifting view. It's indoctrination." [Username: rdecredico | On: September 29, 2009 at 10:35 a.m.]
- Rationalistic irritation... "Yes I will agree that I disagree with many here. The worst is people repeating, repeating, repeating totally false statements. That is how stupidity prevails. Opinions are one thing, those will of course vary. I respect your right to have an opinion. Respect mine. I don't respect the right to make false claims (ie prayer taken out of schools)." [Username: FormerChattanoogaResident | On: September 29, 2009 at 11:09 a.m.]
... and so on. Food for thought, all this. A pressing question for our growing secular movement is that of engaging with those on the other side of the belief line. How can we persuade our neighbors that it doesn't serve religious freedom to promote the views of a single religion? These cheerleaders, well-intended though certainly seem to be, are unwitting enemies of reason, and allies to superstition and division.
To be clear, I don't think that these cheerleaders are the victims of overzealous anti-religionists using the Constitution to trample on protected speech (as I write above, the violation of the establishment clause is blatantly obvious). But they are victims -- of religious training. In such cases of mental abuse, I prescribe a strict regime of Sagan, Dawkins, Ingersoll, and critical thinking three times a day. Let us pray for their swift recovery, shall we?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Boston Atheists Report 1.15
Our middle-of-September podcast, recorded 9/16/2009. Topics: Boston on Fire!; Jaycee Dugard Found; atheism mentioned more often in emails on OKCupid; gay rights activist Dan Choi speaks at Harvard; atheists triumph in kickball over... other atheists. Roundtable: the semantics of atheism vs. skepticism vs. humanism.
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
- Fires force evacuations of MBTA stations, disrupt commute (Boston Globe)
- T Service Restored After Fire At South Station (WCVB)
- Kidnap victim, children kept in backyard compound
- OKCupid: Mentioning atheism leads to higher response rates (Friendly Atheist)
- Online Dating Advice: Exactly What To Say In A First Message (OKCupid)
- An evening with Dan Choi (Facebook event)
- Soldiering Against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (By Erasmo Guerra on ColorLines)
- Knights Out.org
- Turtle Sex (YouTube)
Friday, September 04, 2009
Boston Atheists Report 1.14
Our end-of-August podcast, recorded 8/30/2009. Topics: Ted Kennedy dies; Catholic Pope blames atheists for global warming; Richard Dawkins interview with kooky Wendy Wright. Roundtable: healthcare in America.
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
Download this podcast from our website, or, look for us on iTunes!
Sources Cited:
- Ted Kennedy supporter of church-state separation (Examiner.com)
- Kennedy was champion of church-state separation (Americans United)
- On Development That Respects the Environment (Catholic.net)
- Richard Dawkins interviews Wendy Wright (Part 1)
- Pro-life groups organize prayer and protest in response to abortion mandate (dfwcatholic.org)
- Pregnancy as a pre-existing condition (ivillage.com)
- Health care around the world: France (Healthcare Economist)
- "Concerned Women for America" health care letter
- "We Need Help!": The Health Care Clip Every American Should Watch (Huffington Post)
- "Keep your Government hands off my Medicare" - a parody by Josiah Van Vliet
- In Case of Emergency (The Atlantic)
- "Then What Do You Believe?" (Atheist Revolution)
- WHO national health care rankings
- John Rawls and the veil of ignorance (On Philosophy)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
In God They Trust: On Tribal Competition
A chain email came to the BA inbox today, which encourages citizens of quality and conscience to write "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the back of all the envelopes they send through the US Mail. This message has been making the rounds, it seems, garnering many enthusiastic gruntings in the blogosphere. The email reads:
I could understand being frightened by these thoughts. But I'm not really bothered by it. I see a lot of this kind of glurge going around the web, but it is in decline, and where it is seen, it is definitely not mainstream. People simply have less tolerance for this kind of befuddled tribalism. That's a good way to think about it, actually. I'm not frightened -- I'm irritated, by the members of the Jehovah Tribe.
One of the many reasons why this world is in a mess -- why we never come close to fulfilling our potential as citizens and neighbors and fellow human beings -- is because some people are tribalistic. When they see the markings of their tribe being degraded, they react with gleeful defiance, and often with violence. They circulate messages online, encouraging their fellow tribespeople to "take back the nation" from people who disagree with them. They tell those other people to "sit down and shut up."
Call me an optimist, but I happen to think that this kind of primitive thinking is on the way out. It isn't compatible with a modern world, in which computers enable communication between distant parts of the globe, where economic plenty means longer lives and higher standards of living than ever, and where easily accessible education means an escape from Bronze Age tribal beliefs.
There are too many problems that need our attention, to waste time dealing with the hooting ignorance of tribespeople. Who cares if they mark the back of their envelopes with the signs of their superstitious tribe? It will keep them busy while the adults among us keep busy with the real business at hand.
I don't mean to sound disdainful. Most of these folks -- near all of them -- are a lot better than the beliefs they profess. But beliefs can be insidious and hard to uproot, especially without disturbing all the values that they would have anyway but which have become entangled in those religious doctrines. I don't feel disdain for the people who are scared to realize that Christianity is on the wane; I feel bad for them. They have a tough time going. One thing they can feel comforted by is that "the other team" isn't tribalistic, and doesn't have any reason to be anything but reasonable and compassionate. We're all in this together -- notwithstanding the sneering of some folks who would rather be members of tribes locked in competition for national predominance.
For the record, the phrase "In God We Trust" was not recognized as an official U.S. motto until 1956, though it appeared on some coinage as early as 1865. I prefer "E pluribus unum." As for the facts behind the original message, in 2002 the USPS ordered the removal of "In God We Trust" posters that had been printed and distributed by a private party to some post offices in Texas. The problem wasn't the slogan, but rather postal regulations that prohibit "depositing or posting of handbills, flyers, pamphlets, signs, posters, placards, or other literature (except official postal and other governmental notices and announcements) in interior public areas on postal premises."
Payback is fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! WRITE IT ON THE BACK OF YOUR ENVELOPES or front WE THINK THIS IS A GREAT IDEA. WE'LL START WRITING IT ON THE FRONT OF OUR ENVELOPES, TOO! ----------Including Bills You may have heard in the news that a couple of Post Offices in Texas have been forced to take down small posters that say 'IN GOD WE TRUST ,' The law, they say, is being violated. Anyway, we heard proposed on a radio station show, that we should all write ' IN GOD WE TRUST' on the back of all our mail. After all, that's our National Motto, and ----- all the money we use to buy stamps. We think it's a wonderful idea. We must take back our nation from all the people who think that anything that offends them should be removed. If you like this idea, please pass it on and DO IT. The idea of writing or stamping......... 'IN GOD WE TRUST ' on our envelopes sounds good to us. SOME PEOPLE ARE HAVING A STAMP MADE TOO.........lets use it as our signature on e-mails, too! It's been reported that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, we have a very hard time understanding why there's such a mess about having 'In God We Trust!' on our money and having God in the pledge of Allegiance. Could it be that WE just need to take action and tell the 14% to 'sit down and shut up'? If you agree, pass this on, if not, delete!!! BUT REMEMBER IF YOU DELETE THIS, that's one reason why this world is in the mess we're in now. WE SIT BACK & LET IT HAPPEN!! IN GOD WE TRUSTThis message, with its characteristic orthography and paranoia, might be seen as frightening. Who are these irrational people, who believe in absurd gods? Who live vicariously through the Bible, instead of being present here in the real world, which so desperately needs their attention? Do these people vote -- and if so, what kind of irrational policies do they support? Do they raise children -- and if so, what kind of awful indoctrination are these kids having to suffer through?
I could understand being frightened by these thoughts. But I'm not really bothered by it. I see a lot of this kind of glurge going around the web, but it is in decline, and where it is seen, it is definitely not mainstream. People simply have less tolerance for this kind of befuddled tribalism. That's a good way to think about it, actually. I'm not frightened -- I'm irritated, by the members of the Jehovah Tribe.
One of the many reasons why this world is in a mess -- why we never come close to fulfilling our potential as citizens and neighbors and fellow human beings -- is because some people are tribalistic. When they see the markings of their tribe being degraded, they react with gleeful defiance, and often with violence. They circulate messages online, encouraging their fellow tribespeople to "take back the nation" from people who disagree with them. They tell those other people to "sit down and shut up."
Call me an optimist, but I happen to think that this kind of primitive thinking is on the way out. It isn't compatible with a modern world, in which computers enable communication between distant parts of the globe, where economic plenty means longer lives and higher standards of living than ever, and where easily accessible education means an escape from Bronze Age tribal beliefs.
There are too many problems that need our attention, to waste time dealing with the hooting ignorance of tribespeople. Who cares if they mark the back of their envelopes with the signs of their superstitious tribe? It will keep them busy while the adults among us keep busy with the real business at hand.
I don't mean to sound disdainful. Most of these folks -- near all of them -- are a lot better than the beliefs they profess. But beliefs can be insidious and hard to uproot, especially without disturbing all the values that they would have anyway but which have become entangled in those religious doctrines. I don't feel disdain for the people who are scared to realize that Christianity is on the wane; I feel bad for them. They have a tough time going. One thing they can feel comforted by is that "the other team" isn't tribalistic, and doesn't have any reason to be anything but reasonable and compassionate. We're all in this together -- notwithstanding the sneering of some folks who would rather be members of tribes locked in competition for national predominance.
For the record, the phrase "In God We Trust" was not recognized as an official U.S. motto until 1956, though it appeared on some coinage as early as 1865. I prefer "E pluribus unum." As for the facts behind the original message, in 2002 the USPS ordered the removal of "In God We Trust" posters that had been printed and distributed by a private party to some post offices in Texas. The problem wasn't the slogan, but rather postal regulations that prohibit "depositing or posting of handbills, flyers, pamphlets, signs, posters, placards, or other literature (except official postal and other governmental notices and announcements) in interior public areas on postal premises."
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Politics and Irrationality
Johann Hari considers the relationship between Republicans, religion, and unreason, over at The Independent. From the column:
Given the tenor (read: venom) of the ongoing town hall events, I think this is a good time to affirm the utter rationality of abstaining from prejudicial political denouncements of those with whom we disagree. Has anyone else been struck sober and cold by the fury -- formed by and fed by irrational beliefs -- shown at these recent political events? Just goes to show how valuable critical thinking can be, if its absence can lead to such derangement.
How do they train themselves to be so impervious to reality? It begins, I suspect, with religion. They are taught from a young age that it is good to have "faith" – which is, by definition, a belief without any evidence to back it up. You don't have "faith" that Australia exists, or that fire burns: you have evidence. You only need "faith" to believe the untrue or unprovable. Indeed, they are taught that faith is the highest aspiration and most noble cause. Is it any surprise this then percolates into their political views? Faith-based thinking spreads and contaminates the rational.Not that theistic belief compels one to hew to one side or the other of any political divide... we all know intelligent and contentious people who vote for the other party. If you don't, then you should get out there and make some more friends. Political miscegenation saves us from putting on blinders ourselves, and means we're doing our part to mitigate the influence of The Other Team on its adherents.
Given the tenor (read: venom) of the ongoing town hall events, I think this is a good time to affirm the utter rationality of abstaining from prejudicial political denouncements of those with whom we disagree. Has anyone else been struck sober and cold by the fury -- formed by and fed by irrational beliefs -- shown at these recent political events? Just goes to show how valuable critical thinking can be, if its absence can lead to such derangement.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Farewell, Therese
BA member Therese -- you'll know her as being very pleasant and mostly Swedish -- is going to be moving away from Boston shortly. Sad news for us, but good luck to her. As a parting salvo, she's sent us a link to her blog, USAtheists -- a "lighthouse for believers in a life after death." Judging from the most recent entry, this will be worth checking regularly:
America took a good step against religulous intolerance last week when the American Psychological Associations officially declared that homosexuality is natural and cannot be cured. This ethical standpoint is based on extensive examination of the last 40 years of research.
How will this scientific evidence affect the religious fundamentalists in America? Likely not at all as they perceive homosexuality as work of a "devil". Many churches still refuse homosexuals into their clergy (what ever happened to that "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself", Leviticus 19:18?) but others go even further to create victims. This youtube clip from a Connecticut church shows exorcism performed on a 16 year old boy who is in convulsions on the floor.What year it took place? Well... 2009.
But now we have it in black and white: homosexuality cannot be cured. And just to make things absolutely clear: heterosexuality cannot be cured either.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Poem: "Creationism at Calvary Chapel"
And here's to the city of Boston!
The land of the bean and the cod:
Where Harvard taught science to Jeanson
But Jeanson hears nothing but "God".
by Adam Cuerden
The land of the bean and the cod:
Where Harvard taught science to Jeanson
But Jeanson hears nothing but "God".
by Adam Cuerden
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