10.31.06
Posted in General at 8:57 pm by Hemant Mehta
A little while back, a Christian named Matt sent me a Bible he thought I would enjoy. He wrote, “As a Christian it bothers me so much to hear how stupid Christians are. It’s all a numbers game and it’s just all about how many people you ’share Christ’ with. And to all of them, that just means trying to convince people why Christianity is right.” The Bible he sent was a Holman New Testament (Personal Evangelism Edition)! Matt said to check out the back of this Bible… so I went there and I saw notes on how to share this Bible with others– how to “save” them. Allow me to share some of what irritated Matt … verbatim.
Don’t let these instructions intimidate you. They are simple to follow. Get your pen, a colorful highlighter, and mark your sharing Bible/New Testament as follows:
- In the front of your Bible, write the page number ** of Romans 3:23.
- Highlight Romans 3:23
- Write the page number ** of Romans 6:23 in the top margin. Since I usually sit across from the person with whom I am sharing, I turn the Bible around to face him. In this same manner, with the Bible facing away from you, write the notes in the top margin (now the margin nearest you). This way, while your friend reads the Scripture aloud, you can read your “upside-down” notes.
[Hemant's note: Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."]
- Highlight Romans 6:23 and write the page number ** of John 3:3 in the margin.*
- Circle the word sin.
- Underline the word death.
- Write the word hell over the word death.
- Underline the word in.
- Highlight John 3:3 and write the page number ** of John 14:6 in the margin.*
- Draw a cross and an X next to John 3:3.
- Highlight John 14:6 and write the page number ** of Romans 10:9-11 in the margin.*
- Highlight Romans 10:9-11 and write the page number ** of 2 Corinthians 5:15 in the margin.*
- Highlight 2 Corinthians 5:15 and write the page number ** of Revelation 3:20 in the margin.*
- Highlight Revelation 3:20.
* Don’t forget to turn your Bible around to write your notes in the (top) margin nearest you.
** You may write the page number and/or the Scripture reference.
Anytime an atheist quotes the Bible, we are attacked for taking the Bible out of context. We’re told we’re missing the big picture. So, why is it ok when Christians do it?
Not to mention the whole “circle sin” and “underline death” is just kinda creepy. I can read. I see what it says. Are you trying to scare me into believing?
There are also “36 Response Scripts to Objections” (for being a Christian). One of my favorites is this one:
5. I’m having too much fun.
YOU:
- Why?
- (Echo back what your friend answers. Example:) In other words, you are into the party scene– sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
- According to this, when you die, where are you going?
- Drive carefully. (or) Have a nice day.
- (If he answers, “hell,” with fear and trembling) Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?
First of all, who still considers “rock and roll” a sin? Is rock and roll even in existence anymore…?
Second, “Drive carefully”??? I’m a bit upset that the converter gives up so easily! I would think this person has some tenacity. They did circle “sin” after all.
Third, if anyone is “trembling with fear” after the mere question, “According to this, when you die, where are you going?” their non-Christian beliefs probably aren’t very strong in the first place… it’s like picking low hanging fruit. Is this the type of person any religion wants?
*****
On another note, I received a pre-election email from Focus on the Family, the group headed by James Dobson. Tom Minnery, Senior VP of Government & Public Policy, writes:
The liberals know what a difference values voters made in 2004, so they have tried to discourage you from voting. I hope you’ll help give the liberals one big surprise on Election Night by not only voting yourself, but by doing everything in your power to get friends, family and other likeminded voters to the polls on Nov. 7. Above all, please pray for God’s divine intervention on behalf of righteousness in our nation. (Italics mine)
So apparently, God causes faulty voting machines.
I don’t understand the reasoning behind the last line. Minnery tells conservatives to go out and vote… but then follows that by saying they should pray for God’s intervention in the election. Isn’t that contradictory?
And if Democrats win control of the House and the Senate, by Focus on the Family’s logic, did God sit this one out or did conservatives just not pray hard enough?
[tags]Harmon, Bible, evangelism, New Testament, James Dobson, Focus on the Family, Democrats, Republicans, God, Christian, atheist, Tom Minnery[/tags]
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10.29.06
Posted in FFRF, General, Secular Coalition for America at 6:33 pm by Hemant Mehta
On Tuesday, November 14, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) will hold an event at the National Press Club entitled “Science and Secularism: Defending America’s True Values.” This will be the inaugural event for the Office of Public Policy (OPP). So far, the OPP already has three employees and is trying to raise nearly $1,000,000 for startup costs for the first three years.
According to an email from CFI, the Office of Public Policy will focus on two issues:
1. Defending the Integrity of Science – Science is under attack in Washington today on many fronts:
- Intelligent Design in place of evolution
- Opposition to stem-cell research
- Reluctance to recognize the dangers of global warming and its effects on the environment
- Advocacy of abstinence instead of condoms to reduce AIDS
- Opposition to population policies worldwide and contraception
2. Defending Secularism and the First Amendment against government and religious
- Support of faith-based charities
- Efforts to bridge the separation of church and state
- Support for a “holy war” on terrorism
This comes a mere two years after the start of the Secular Coalition for America, which is the only lobbying organization strictly for non-religious people.
For all that CFI does right (a great podcast, producing wonderful magazines, etc.), one area they constantly fail at is making friends with other secular organizations. CFI seems to prefer CFI-brand-Secular-Humanism than Humanism in general. A student from the Toronto Secular Alliance recently wrote a scathing review of a CFI student leadership conference, where all the students heard all weekend was how great CFI was. (See page 10 of the pdf.)
I’m not sure how the Office of Public Policy would differ from similar groups that already exist, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the National Center for Science Education. Still, it would be nice to see the group succeed. Another voice in the crowd is always helpful, since they’ll inevitably reach out to people who haven’t heard the message yet.
Since CFI is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, one thing they cannot do is lobby (something that 501(c)4 groups like the Secular Coalition for America can do).
Personally, I think the SCA has a better chance of succeeding mostly because it is a coalition of seven already established secular organizations, and if we want to make our viewpoint heard, it’s going to happen only if we work together.
[tags]Center for Inquiry, Office of Public Policy, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Freedom From Religion Foundation, National Center for Science Education, Secular Coalition for American, National Press Club, Toronto Secular Alliance, Intelligent Design, atheist, atheism, Secular Humanism[/tags]
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Posted in General at 5:07 pm by Hemant Mehta
The Sepia Mutiny, a blog for Indian people, made mention of Sam Harris’ endorsement (but not support) of Jainism as a more peaceful religion. They forget to mention he made the same “endorsement” in The End of Faith. But it is interesting to see Indians, often religious and certainly not the target audience for Harris’ book, respond to his take on Jainism.
[tags]Sepia Mutiny, Jainism, atheist, Sam Harris, The End of Faith[/tags]
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10.28.06
Posted in GLBT, General at 6:16 pm by Hemant Mehta
Last week I posted a link to a story about Andrew Marin, a man who was reaching out to the LGBT community as a gay-friendly pastor, but was also leading anti-gay activist training sessions at the same time.
The original Chicago Reader story on him is here. The story of the conflicting interests is here.
Marin responded to this post with the following:
Hello,
I just saw this blog and figured I’d pop in and give my 2 cents worth…whatever it’s worth. Where Mike O. quoted the portion of the article and spoke about Michelangelo asking me four times…in fact, all Michelangelo did was yell, accuse and blame me for about 15 minutes and never gave me the true opportunity to speak my mind. If that is what he means by asking, then I guess we have two different opions of what a conversation is.
Also, the most interesting part of the article was when Steve Forst, the President of Dignity was quoted as not being happy with the foundation and me misleading him. Well, the truth always comes out, and Steve is now on the record through the Advocate and the media as saying that he NEVER said any of what was printed in the article. How interesting?!
The Marin Foundation is here to build bridges, and we would love the opportunity to talk to anyone about what we do and who we are. I will never enter into their one-sided, he-said-she-said debate, so if you would like to learn the truth, feel free to contact me directly.
We have also posted a repsone on our website, www.themarinfoundation.org.
Thank you and God Bless.
Andrew Marin
Logos asked a direct question in response: Is homosexuality a sin?
If Pastor Andrew is still reading this, what are your questions for him?
[tags]Andrew Marin, Chicago Reader, The Advocate, LGBT, Christian, atheist[/tags]
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10.26.06
Posted in General at 12:53 pm by Hemant Mehta
Philip Paulson passed away yesterday. Liver cancer. It wasn’t unexpected– he had known there wasn’t much time left– but it is still upsetting. He had fought for many years to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property in San Diego. This year, President Bush transferred ownership of the cross to the Department of Defense in response to Paulson’s
An article on Paulson can be found here.
[tags]Philip Paulson, Mount Soledad, atheist, President Bush, Department of Defense[/tags]
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10.24.06
Posted in General at 9:00 pm by Hemant Mehta
As I mentioned before, Wired magazine has an article on The New Atheists. It’s getting a lot of circulation and the article itself raises an interesting question:
How are the “new” atheists different from the “old” atheists?
I don’t mention Daniel Dennett very often since I haven’t read his book Breaking the Spell
yet, but a few possible answers to the question are below:
1) Age
When asked about the difference between old and new atheists, someone commenting on Fark.com said of the “old” atheists, “They have canes.”
There is some truth to this. The Wired article only mentions Sam Harris, but there is a whole new generation of atheists coming into the national picture. In terms of making atheism more accessible to others, our predecessors had obstacles of all sorts to overcome and often kicked themselves in the foot. Will a new generation of atheists be able to avoid the same mistakes and extend the bridge? I hope so. Harris, though, isn’t reaching out to anyone new from everything I’ve heard. His readers are primarily those who don’t believe God already. Other young atheists are not going to help the cause by only following this example.
The “old” atheists are still in charge of most of the national secular organizations, they are the ones most often quoted in the press, and they control the image the public sees of us based how how they appear in the media. They’ve had their chance, and they’ve learned many lessons, which are now being passed down to the rising batch of secular students.
2) Intensity
Dawkins has said in previous interviews that The God Delusion was supposed to be written years earlier, but in the wake of 9/11, it was postponed. He wrote The Ancestor’s Tale in that time. But now Dawkins is unleashed and The God Delusion is more scathing of religion than any of his previous works, which often talked about atheism only as an aside. Maybe by pushing the book back a few years, it gave Dawkins the opportunity to be even more forceful about his beliefs than he would have been otherwise.
Are Harris’ books as fierce? Absolutely. He has said in interviews that he turned down requests to translate The End of Faith into Arabic because it would be a death sentence. Would a book that harsh have been published in the mainstream a few years ago? I doubt it.
The “old” atheists did not have the chance to write these types of books, even though they held similar opinions. But the “new” atheists are giving them an outlet they never had.
3) Attention
Now more than ever, people are paying attention to what atheists are saying (not just the Big Three mentioned in the article). There has been a lot of media coverage for different atheist organizations and all have benefitted from the recent surge of interest in the non-religious persective. This is the best chance we’ve ever had to present a less antagonistic, but more honest, picture of what atheism really is and what atheists really believe.
The “old” atheists never had this chance, either. The mere mention of the word “atheist” was enough to end the conversation.
***
I appreciate what HarKinsNett (may this meme carry on) are saying, but it’s not enough. We do need to hear about how religion has gone wrong, but at the same time, there need to be atheists out there doing their part in simply dispelling the stereotypes people have of the non-religious. This happens by having those civil conversations with religious people. Not a debate or a list of logical arguments. But talks where we hear what religious people have to say, and point out any advantages that atheism has to faith.
In a lot of ways, HarKinsNett are reawakening the idea of angry atheism, an image that didn’t get us very far– and one we’ve tried so hard to shed– in the past couple decades. We have reason and logic on our side, and that’s all we should need. We must find a way to spread our message using polite conversation. And that is possible. To point a finger at religious people and call them foolish is not working. And amidst many wonderful arguments for atheism, there are a lot of unnecessary attacks on religion in the popular atheist books that are atop the bestsellers’ lists right now.
We’ll know we’re having some success when religious moderates cross over to the atheist side of the spectrum, or at the very least begin to see atheism as a more respectable outlook on life. That’s not happening yet.
However, while the “New Atheists” don’t speak for all of us, they are giving all atheists a golden opportunity to make our voices heard.
[tags]Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, The End of Faith, Breaking the Spell, The God Delusion, Wired, New atheism, HarKinsNett, atheist[/tags]
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10.23.06
Posted in General at 11:10 pm by Hemant Mehta
I’ll be back to normal posts soon, but just wanted to clear a slight backlog:
– Can someone please explain why contestants on “Deal or No Deal” actually think that case #[whatever] is the lucky one? Because they know it’s right? Because a voice is telling them to do it? Because they feel that it’s the lucky case? Someone tell me there’s not a connection to religion there. And does anyone else also feel *really* good when the contestant picks that case and ends up losing the big money?
– A new article on the “Battle of the New Atheism” appeared on Wired.com. It’s a decent article– anything to get the ideas out there, right? Pharyngula has an interesting take on it.
– This American Life is now podcasting! Best. Radio. Show. Ever. And as I mentioned before, Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go of God was excerpted on the show before (their most requested episode ever).
– What do non-religious people have to celebrate this holiday season? What do we hope for in the future? HumanLight.org is hosting a card and ornament design contest for secularists of all ages as a way to “positively answer these questions and more with artistic expression.” There are different age categories (11 and under, 12-17, 18 and older) and all media (painting, printmaking, collage, digital art, photography, etc.) is accepted. Each prize winner will receive an ornament and set of cards with their image, as well as some HumanLight candy! Entries should be sent as a high resolution (at least 300 dpi) JPEG to humanlightcontest@gmail.com. In the body of the email, include your name, age, what country and state (if it applies) you are from, and what method you used to create the image.
[tags]Deal or No Deal, Wired, Battle of the New Atheism, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Pharyngula, This American Life, Letting Go of God, Julia Sweeney, HumanLight, contest[/tags]
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Posted in General at 9:08 pm by Hemant Mehta
For those who would like to hear the interview from last night, going here is the best way to hear it. Otherwise, you can subscribe to GodTalk on iTunes and hear the podcast.
[tags]GodTalk, CJOB, Winnepeg, Manitoba, eBay atheist, Jim Henderson, Christian, Hemant Mehta[/tags]
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10.22.06
Posted in GLBT, General at 11:02 pm by Hemant Mehta
A couple interesting links:
– A gay-friendly pastor, Andrew Marin, promised to build bridges between evangelicals and the LGBT community. Many groups put their trust in his message. Turns out that at the same time, he was leading training sessions for anti-gay groups and saying on Christian radio that homosexuality was a sin. There’s a conflict of interest if ever there was one…
– A new Bible just cuts out all those confusing, controversial passages. According to this article,
…those troublesome verses about justice for the poor, responsibility for the rich to address their neighbors’ needs, and all that talk about money, are gone. Not just edited out, cut out.
A report from Assist News Service said the Western Bible Foundation published the book to meet the “growing wish of many churches to be market-oriented and more attractive.”
[tags]Andrew Marin, gay, LGBT, atheist, Christian, Bible, Western Bible Foundation, Assist News Service, Advocate[/tags]
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Posted in General at 1:38 am by Hemant Mehta
Tonight (Sunday night) at 8:30 CST, Jim Henderson and I will be guests on GodTalk, a Canadian radio show. If you’d like to call in to the live show and ask questions, the information to do so can be found here.
You can also listen live by going here.
If you can’t make it, I’ll post information on how to listen to the show afterwards.
Any feedback is always appreciated. 
[tags]CJOB, GodTalk, Jim Henderson, Hemant Mehta, atheist, Christian, eBay atheist[/tags]
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