This Saturday, for the third year in a row, the leaders of nearly all the major atheist/humanist organizations in the country will be meeting in Washington D.C. to discuss ways to collaborate, share resources, and decide best methods to share our message with others.
Bollywood star (and former Miss World) Aishwarya Rai is engaged to Abhishek Bachchan. (That’s like the Indian celebrity equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.)
Aishwarya is said to be a manglik. This means she was born at a time when “Mars [was] in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house of the Vedic astrology lunar chart.”
If two mangliks get married, it’s ok.
But if a manglik marries a non-manglik, all hell breaks loose.
Guess what Abhishek is…?
According to some *brilliant* astrologers, the marriage of a manglik girl and non-manglik boy could result in the death of the male. Because, you know, Mars is evil like that.
A peepal tree or a banana tree. Well, either that, or she’ll have to marry Lord Vishnu’s idol. But only if the idol is made of gold or silver. (Incidentally, Vishnu is said to have been born under a peepal tree. So this makes complete sense…)
Because doing one of these things will “take on the bad effects of Mars.”
Got all that?
This ceremony, called a Kumbh Vivah, is performed for manglik girls, but not manglik boys. Because as we all know, the position of the planets doesn’t affect the Y chromosome. Duh.
Apparently, Indian parents have one hell of a time trying to marry off their manglik-born daughters.
And for the record, Shaadi.com asked me if I was a manglik.
But I didn’t know how to answer that… because I have a &*%#ing brain.
(Do you want to be depressed? Read some of the comments on this thread.)
And you thought a Scientologist wedding was all f’ed up…
So, once again, there you go, mom and dad. This is why I probably won’t end up with an Indian girl.
Dave Bruemmer of Cal State Fullerton wrote a couple articles regarding his de-conversion from Christianity in the school’s newspaper, The Daily Titan.
In the first article, he talks about the time he finally decided to become “Bible literate”:
Had I kept my studies narrowed to evangelical interpretations and listened to only a specific genre of Christians, I doubt that I ever would have changed my mind or questioned things. It was when I opened my mind up to outside ideas, including other Christian groups and atheist thinkers that I began to see things for what they really are.
In the second article, Dave talks about why he is so passionate about his atheism:
… I do feel an obligation to take an aggressive and even an evangelistic approach to debunking religious claims on some level, especially God’s very existence. Most non-believers simply do not believe nor do they give it any thought. The believers out there who go to church and pray in order to find happiness, guidance and support are fine. But the fundamentalists who are intolerant to others who do not share their worldview, move me to action. There is a huge difference between a belief and a fact, and these people often confuse their beliefs with facts.
And these are the individuals who want to impose their beliefs upon everyone else…
…
We atheists are always being accosted about our beliefs, and that is why there is a need to defend the position…
Dave closes with some not-new, but sorely needed, words:
What I would like to see is for everyone to respect each other’s right to believe or not believe what they want, so long as they are not causing anyone harm. That is far more productive than denigrating or threatening them with Hell for not agreeing with you. If you believe Orthodox Jews or Muslims are treating their women like slaves and you want to speak out against it, that’s fine. But there is nothing wrong with those groups because they don’t believe that Jesus was God. Let us judge each other, not by what we believe, but rather by our actions and the way we treat one another.
Mike Jones, the male escort who outed evangelical leader Ted Haggard, is back in the news.
Jones was doing some research for his forthcoming book (published by Seven Stories Press) and visited New Life Church to get a first-hand account of what it’s like in there. He said of his visit:
“It wasn’t to rub anyone’s face in it by any means. I was wanting to get some perspective, to see where they are coming from, what the magnet is.”
(It is here that other bloggers might make comments about the sexual innuendo overload in the preceding sentence. But I will do nosuchthing.)
Associate pastor Rob Brendle appreciated Jones’ visit and had only kind words for him:
“I told Mike, ‘I don’t want to impose my religious beliefs on you, but I believe God used you to correct us…’ The church’s response to him was overwhelmingly warm. One of the wonderful and enduring truths of Christianity is to love people the world sets up to be your enemies.”
(And in case you were wondering: Yes, the sole purpose of this posting was to provide links to Urban Dictionary.)
Will this book have any resources listed in the back? Like websites, organizations, etc.?
Dale’s response:
Oh you betcha. I spent a full year compiling a list of the best additional resources (imho) — books, videos, and websites. They are divided by topic and listed at the back of each chapter. Some include brief synopses and/or reviews. I think we have over ninety recommendations in all. The book’s website (www.ParentingBeyondBelief.com) will have a page of links to every item mentioned in the book. That’ll be late February or so — my webmaster is currently in a sensory deprivation chamber after getting the site ready in record time.
One more question:
One thing I didn’t see addressed that I would like to read more about: How do you teach morality (both personal values and general compassion) without religious training that often emphasizes those things? Having been brought up in a very religious household and bringing up my kids the same when they were younger, I find myself somewhat at a loss now in instilling “values.”
Dale responds (with a bit of sarcasm :)):
Well the silly thing wouldn’t be of much use without that, would it? Fortunately, those are among the central topics of the book. Chapter 4, titled “On Being and Doing Good,” is devoted entirely to the question of moral development without religion. Gareth Matthews (an author-expert on the philosophy of childhood) wrote an essay for the chapter titled “Morality and Evil”; philosopher David Koepsell lays out the difference between principles and commandments, concluding that our practical morality includes both; and psychologist Jean Mercer presents a clear and compelling case for how moral development actually occurs. (I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it turns out that propping stone tablets in front of them at breakfast isn’t the way it works. Shocked me too.)
And even though morality and values are often conflated in popular usage, I separated them into different chapters since they are, in fact, different things. Whether defined as social contract or divine command, morality denotes a shared conception of right and wrong, whereas values can be self-selected. I can value solitude, for example, without insisting that you share that value. Different strokes. I can even consider generosity a virtue and think you should exhibit it, but I’m not going to make it a misdemeanor to tip 5%. Steal my car, though — that’s a Chapter 4 issue, and I’ll see you hang.
We get into trouble when we think our values should actually be moral dictates for others to follow (shall I name a social issue or three by way of illustration?). So Chapter 5 (”Values and Virtues, Meaning and Purpose”) explores ways to help children reason their way through these areas. Lots of great contributors in that chapter, including Matt and Shannon Cherry, Annie Laurie Gaylor, James Herrick, and Donald Ardell.
You can see a preview of the episode here. (Watch from 35 to 58 seconds)
And if you’re free tomorrow night, watch the segment live with Brian Sapient and other RRS members in their webcam room tomorrow night at 11:30 pm EST.
Last summer, I was invited to participate in a dialogue on stage with the pastor of Parkview Christian Church during his three weekend services. (More on that here.)
Then there was a whole debacle because of a Creationism pamphlet on the church’s website. (Read about it here and here.)
Anyway, I just recently noticed that they took down the pamphlet in question from their website. Which is good to hear, since the pamphlet was just embarrassing.
There was one recent addition to the site I hadn’t seen until now, though.
Hadyn Shaw, a preaching pastor at the church, wrote this response (PDF) to some of the questions I had raised during that weekend’s sermons.
It’s wonderful to see this discussion happening. Though I do disagree on many of his answers. Let’s talk about them.
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