Not atheism-related.
I help coach the Speech Team at my school. The state tournament’s coming up. Good luck to us.
Anyway.
While our Varsity squad was kicking butt at one tournament, our JV squad took second place at another (considering we were up against other schools’ varsity teams, it wasn’t a disappointing showing at all).
The best part? This was the trophy we received:
We were all amused 
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
John Shore (a Christian) wrote up his list of the Top 10 Ways Christians Tend to Fail:
- Too much money
- Too confident that God thinks we’re all that and a leather-bound gift Bible.
- Too quick to believe that we know what God really means by what he says in the Bible.
- Too action-oriented.
- Too invasive of others generally.
- Too invasive of others personally.
- Too quick to abandon logic.
- Too fixated on gays and lesbians.
- Too insular.
- Too quick to condemn fellow Christians.
The explanations don’t all satisfy me.
#8, about being fixated on gays and lesbians, doesn’t condemn the Christian practice of shunning or mistreating homosexuals. He just asks them to lay low for a little bit. (And then? Will they resume their gay-bashing ways?)
Also, for #10, I disagree with Shore. It would be better if “liberal” Christians did rebuke the fundamentalists. Change is only going to come from within. Why would you want to link yourself with the fundamentalists? You’d be implicitly endorsing the anti-Science, anti-homosexual, anti-woman, anti-freedom, anti-everything beliefs they have. I would think moderate Christians would want to sever those ties, not build them up.
There are some rebukes, though, of Christians who evangelize to you:
… what we seem to too often lose sight of is how impossible it is to talk someone who isn’t a Christian into being one. I think maybe we should spend more time “just” living as Christians, and letting God worry about the non-Christians. I’m pretty sure he can handle that job. He saved me, and that phenomenon sure didn’t have anything to do with anyone ever telling me I should become a Christian. Trust me on this: I was saved in spite of Christians trying to save me, not because of them.
This one (#7) was my favorite:
I think when talking to others about our faith, we Christians too often resort to a language and line of reasoning that leaves good ol’ fashion logic sitting on the ground behind us, waving a sad good-bye. “It’s true because the Bible says it’s true” can’t mean anything to a non-Christian, because (hurt though it does to admit it, I know) it’s such a manifestly illogical assertion. ”It’s true because the Bible says it’s true” is no more a reason for anything actually (as in objectively) being true than was your parents’ old, infinitely frustrating ”Because I said so!” As a logical argument, “It’s true because someone with a vested interest in it being true says it’s true” is Beyond Useless. Why in our dealings with non-Christians we so often fail to grasp that is a total mystery to me.
Check out the full list here.
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
This time of the year, a number of pastors (and their churches) get in trouble for endorsing candidates for local, state and national offices. Even when withholding an endorsement, many churches allow the candidates to speak to their congregations.
But not Joel Osteen.
Jeremy Leaming of Americans United for Separation of Church and State says this:
… it is refreshing to hear of Pastor Joel Osteen’s policy of keeping partisan politics out of his pulpit. Osteen leads Lakewood Church in Houston, a megachurch that according to Newsweek, is the nation’s largest congregation with 47,000 weekly visitors.
…
Osteen told Newsweek that he understands the allure of his church for politicians, saying “who wouldn’t want to come to speak to 40,000 people here?” But he says he doesn’t want his church’s enormous platform to be used for partisan politics. He acknowledged to Newsweek that while he may recognize office holders who attend his services, he won’t allow them to address the congregation.
“The way our services are structured here at the church, we have to keep it, if we can, 100 percent worship,” Osteen said.
…
“My father … kept it out of the pulpit,” he told the periodical. “I think that part of our goal is to reach as many people as we can. Our reach is very broad. Even in the church we are diverse. There are Republicans, Democrats, independents – everything … I don’t want somebody saying, ‘He’s for this party or that party, and that turns me off.’”
…
Regardless of what one thinks of Osteen’s style, his policy of keeping his pulpit free of politics is praiseworthy.
Agreed.
There are plenty of opportunities to pander to the people. Church doesn’t need to be one of them.
That goes for you, too, Barack…
[tags]atheist, atheism, politics, religion[/tags]
Some of you submitted dating profiles after I put out a request for them. I’m posting the “datees’” information below! If you’re interested, feel free to contact them directly.
And if you’d like to submit a profile for future postings, feel free to contact me.
Let’s see if this works!
…
I was raised Mormon in Eastern Washington (state), and even managed to go through the temple before I realized what I was being asked to believe in. I’m a full time person and part time student, splitting my time between breathing, playing guitar, and reading. More after the jump.
Don’t rule yourself out, but don’t feel bad if I don’t reply. I have anomalous taste in women, and I have a tendency to be far too polite when I oughtn’t.
…
I like to travel, read, see movies, garden, swim, attend the theatre, snorkel and try interesting restaurants. I’m a great cook, but cooking for one isn’t much fun. I have a small apartment new campus and own a big run-down house west of Nashville. No kids except some friendly canines.
…
[tags]atheist, atheism, relationship, dating[/tags]
This video has a bit of a retro feel to it. The premise is that the claims of Scientology and fundamental Christianity are equally absurd:
Christian rock does tend to sound alike… Comedian Mike Birbiglia also creates songs for other religions.
There needs to be an atheist rock song, too!
My non-prayers have been answered:
In case you wanted them, here are all the lyrics.
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
I have a blogroll page, and each of the websites there has an RSS feed that is in my Google Reader. Most are atheist sites, though there are some Christian sites and others that are purely science-related.
I also check out a number of other sites that have nothing to do with religion — ones written by friends, or local blogs, or others that are just amusing or fascinating in their own right.
That’s a hell of a lot of postings to check out on a daily basis.
At one point several months ago, there were several hundred postings in the Reader each day. Fine over the summer; not so fine when school is in session and teaching becomes my top priority.
So I organized them. Now, I can get through everything I “need” to get through in a relatively short amount of time.
I essentially sort my Reader into three categories: Must Reads, Others, and Good If I Have Time.
The Must Reads include a number of atheist sites that provide interesting commentary/opinions. I read through postings in this category much more carefully than I do others. Some sites post several times a day while others post once a week.
The Others category includes sites that rarely provide me with new or interesting information. They *might* have something worth reading, but not all that often. I usually don’t link to these sites, so if I’m in a time crunch, these posts get pushed back on my reading list. When I do read them, I check out the post title and the first couple sentences to see if it’s worth reading any further. It sounds remarkably superficial, but it’s worked pretty well.
The Good If I Have Time category (which contains the bulk of the postings in the Reader) includes a handful of sites that post 3298423 times a day. Sometimes they’re useful. Usually, it’s just fluff. I tend not to read them even if I do have time, but they’re nice to include in a search if I need information.
Also useful? The “j” key which lets me skip to the next post in a particular folder. I’ll spend less than a second looking at a posting unless it strikes me as worth reading.
I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions that will allow me to read through posts more efficiently.
And if you’re not already on my blogroll, feel free to send a message or leave a link to your site in the comments so I can check it out
[tags]atheist, atheism, organization[/tags]
Sally Cramer is the new president of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadephia. She had a nice article about her published in Sunday’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Cramer is a 24-year-old graduate of West Chester University, lives in West Chester and is an office worker at the Deveraux Foundation, which deals with troubled youths.
Her atheism was inherited, she said, from her mother’s experience “growing up with her eight siblings in East Stroudsburg, in a Catholic family.”
Her mother, who she said now practices no religion, “went to Catholic school and told me horror stories. She didn’t like it and she didn’t want to force anything like that on her children.”
Her identity as a humanist atheist, she said, “means not only do I not believe in God, but that I believe in good.
“I believe that humans are ultimately good and trying to understand each other better and working toward world peace.”
And like many social activists, Sally works with other groups which also have a progressive agenda:
In August 2006 she joined the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Chester County and, afer a year, was elected to its executive committee.
And in her senior year at WCU, she became president of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and Ally Association.
As a college sophomore she said, she realized that she was bisexual.
“I had been engaged to my high school sweetheart,” she said, “and I just realized that love knows no gender.”
Cramer said she “dumped him. I was really cruel. I was going through some tough emotional, psychological [thinking].”
“I identify as queer,” she said. Though the term is a perjorative in the straight world, she said for her, “queer means that you’re attracted to the person, not the gender.”
It’s never easy to follow Margaret Downey (the immediate past president of FSGP) in any of her endeavors, but Sally looks like she’ll be a great representative for atheists in Philly.
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
I Sold My Soul on eBay
Jim and Casper Go To Church
