02.28.09
Posted in General, Politics at 11:48 pm by Hemant Mehta
Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason and Freethinkers, explains the history and problems with the faith-based initiatives in today’s edition of The New York Times.
President Obama has only blurred the lines between church and state even more.
The fact is that many people served by these projects — including children with absent fathers, addicts and prisoners — form a captive audience. It cannot be easy to say no to a proselytizer if saying yes means a warm bed in a homeless shelter, extra help for a child or more privileges while serving jail time. Embrace Jesus as your savior and, who knows, you may get early parole.
…
Back in 2003, there was a flurry of excitement surrounding a study that at first glance seemed to suggest that participants in Mr. Colson’s prison programs in Texas had been rearrested at much lower rates than other released prisoners. There was just one problem: the study excluded everyone who quit the program in prison — two-thirds of the starting group. It is as if the Department of Education were to measure the success of public schools by not counting dropouts. This ought to give pause to Mr. Obama, who has spoken so often about restoring evidence and science to public policy-making.
…
… we are moving blindly ahead with faith-based federal spending as if it were not a radical break with our past. If faith-based initiatives, first institutionalized by the executive fiat of a conservative Republican president, become even more entrenched under a liberal Democratic administration, there will be no going back. In place of the First Amendment, we will have a sacred cash cow.
For all the lip-service Obama has given us, it’s all undermined if he not only allows money to be given strictly to religious groups, but also if they can discriminate in hiring and proselytize with the funding.
Right now, as Jacoby points out, his faith-based team headed by Pentecostal minister Josh DuBois has said they will handle these issues on a case-by-case basis. I hope liberals remain vigilant and get vocal the moment they slip up and allow a religious group to misuse the money.
For a Constitutional scholar such as himself, it’d be nice to see Obama match his words with some real action and keep religion out of politics as it should be.
The faith-based programs need to come to an end.
(Thanks to Joe for the link!)
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Posted in General at 10:46 pm by Hemant Mehta
A new image based on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey shows us the following:
What can we learn from this…?
(Thanks to Mike for the link!)
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Posted in General at 8:00 pm by Hemant Mehta
It’s like you’re in an alternate universe in which Al Gore was president and Sanjaya won American Idol.
Peter Steinfels writes all about it in The New York Times.
Phil Zuckerman spent 14 months in Scandinavia, talking to hundreds of Danes and Swedes about religion. It wasn’t easy.
Anyone who has paid attention knows that Denmark and Sweden are among the least religious nations in the world. Polls asking about belief in God, the importance of religion in people’s lives, belief in life after death or church attendance consistently bear this out.
Zuckerman writes all about his findings in the book Society Without God.
How weird is this alternate non-religious universe?
Thoughtful, well-educated Danes and Swedes reacted to Mr. Zuckerman’s basic questions about God, Jesus, death and so on as completely novel. “I really have never thought about that,” one of his interviewees answered, adding, “It’s been fun to get these kinds of questions that I never, never think about.”
This indifference or obliviousness to religious matters was sometimes subtly enforced. “In Denmark,” a pastor told Mr. Zuckerman, “the word ‘God’ is one of the most embarrassing words you can say. You would rather go naked through the city than talk about God.”
One man recounted the shock he felt when a colleague, after a few drinks, confessed to believing in God. “I hope you don’t feel I’m a bad person,” the colleague pleaded.
Are you shitting me? This is so not fair. In my world, religion has the power and we still have to argue about evolution and gay marriage.
We find out that Scandinavia was “a society — a markedly irreligious society — that was, above all, moral, stable, humane and deeply good.” We find out “many of his interviewees spoke of death, without fear or anxiety, and their notable lack of existential searching for any ultimate meaning of life.”
They didn’t like the word “atheist,” though. And why would they? Why would they need a word to describe something that is so obvious to everyone? It’s what Sam Harris was alluding to a couple years ago in his remarks at the Atheist Alliance International conference when he said we need to drop the “a-word” label.
Scandinavia has kept some of the cultural aspects of religion — baptisms and marriages in church — but without any of the superstitious beliefs that go along with them. I’m ok with that.
How long will it take for America to become more like Sweden and Denmark? (And why do I even have to ask that question?)
(via Secular Right)
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Posted in College Atheists, General at 5:10 pm by Hemant Mehta
This hits kinda close to home.
A student at Johnsburg High School in northwestern McHenry County, IL wants to start an atheist group at her school, but she’s facing a few challenges. Here’s what reporter Diana Sroka writes:
Savannah Lanz doesn’t believe in God, follow religion, or look to any higher powers, and she’s hoping to form a student group at Johnsburg High School that echoes those beliefs.
“The goal of the group is just to prove people can lead ethical and moral lives without religion, and you don’t have to believe in God,” said Lanz, 16. “It’s basically a group for people who consider themselves free-thinkers, atheists, agnostics or humanists.”
However, she’s meeting obstacles as dispute brews over the group’s purpose, potential activities, and whether it’s been approved by school administrators.
Assuming this is student-led, there shouldn’t be any problem here. So long as students can surround the flagpole or discuss the Bible, atheists can gather, too.
And according to Savannah, there is indeed a Christian group at the school. (Assuming this is really her) she writes in a comment following the article:
We already have an official, [sponsored] group at our school called the Fellowship of Christian [S]tudents. Why can’t I have my group as well? Also, most of our meetings will be just consist of discussing different philosophies and issues.
Here’s an excerpt from the article that really gets to me:
Meanwhile, Lanz said she was under the impression that the group — named the Johnsburg Freethinkers Society — had been approved by an assistant principal at the school, and simply wouldn’t be allowed to advertise with fliers in the building.
Again, the school is crossing into illegal waters. As long as the fliers are school-appropriate, the group must be allowed to advertise. You can’t deny their advertising simply because it’s for an atheist club.
Plus, I’m sure everyone would want to know about the first meeting. It sounds awesome:
Group members already are planning their first event, a night when members dress up as pirates and eat spaghetti in honor of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
I’ve tried reaching out to Savannah — the Secular Student Alliance has plenty of experience with students facing challenges when starting atheist groups — and I hope to hear back from her.
It’s really exciting and inspiring that any high school student would have the courage to begin a group like this — especially in a fairly conservative area. Good luck to her in getting the group started!
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Posted in General at 4:14 pm by Hemant Mehta
Ray Comfort doesn’t need to ask for a debate with Richard Dawkins anymore.
The debate is already over. Comfort and banana-pal Kirk Cameron have lost.
The Creationism proponents used to say that if evolution were true, we should expect to see a crocoduck (a crocodile/duck transitional form) in the fossil records:
They said we haven’t seen that hybrid, thus evolution is untrue.
…
Now comes news of a new fossil that was found…
The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago was found on Peru’s arid southern coast, researchers said Friday.
…
The museum said in a statement that the birds had wingspans of up to 20 feet (6 meters) and may have used the toothlike projections on their beaks to prey on slippery fish and squid. But studying members of the Pelagornithidae family has been difficult because their extremely thin bones — while helpful for keeping the avian giants aloft — tended not to survive as fossils.
…
With fossils discovered in North America, North Africa and even Antarctica, Kepska said, the birds were ubiquitous only a few million years before humans evolved and scientists puzzle over why they died out. Some believe they are related to gannets and pelicans, while other say they are related to ducks.
It’s not exactly what Comfort had in mind, but close enough, dammit. It had toothlike projections, it flew… what else do you need.
It also means the scientific name for a crocoduck is pelagornithid.
(Photo for AP by Martin Mejia)
That thing is freaky.
But if it pwns Comfort and Cameron, I’ll deal with it.
(Thanks to everyone who sent in the link!)
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Posted in General at 3:29 pm by Hemant Mehta
James Dobson has stepped down from his role as Chairman of Focus on Your Family. Yippee…?
I wish I could celebrate, but nothing’s really going to change. Dobson was FotF’s biggest asset but he was also their biggest liability. With him out of the picture, someone else will step up and spearhead the bigotry. So it’s not like FotF is going to be in favor of gay marriage anytime soon. They’ll still be the organization of choice for people with whom I have all sorts of disagreements, to say the least.
(Dobson may have just been worried about all the crazy shit he thinks will happen now that Barack Obama is president and wanted to get out of the way.)
His wife Shirley is also stepping down. I assume the National Day of Prayer (which she had headed) will also go on under new leadership.
One upside to all this: Since everyone and their mother is commenting on this story, you get to hear some fantastic one-liners.
A couple of my favorites so far:
“Dobson intends to continue his daily radio program and monthly mailings. He has also said he will keep handing out political endorsements. Many who listen to Dobson’s daily radio broadcast may not even be aware of this change.
Focus on the Family is merely rearranging the deck chairs on its big, intolerant ship.”
(Barry Lynn of Americans United)
…
“Dobson stepping down as Chairman of Focus on the Family should change things about as much as Philip Morris changing its name to Altria.”
(Religion Dispatches‘ Managing Editor, Evan Derkacz)
Heard any other good lines?
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02.27.09
Posted in General, Politics at 7:24 pm by Hemant Mehta
Christianity Today has this poll up on its website regarding President Obama and the fact that he has not yet chosen a DC church to attend:
I’d like to crash it, but all the choices make my head hurt…
What fifth option do they need?
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Posted in General, Humor at 4:00 pm by Hemant Mehta
It’s definitely one way for atheists to follow Christ:
Bad news for us: Jesus is already on Twitter. However, he stopped updating months ago. Not sure what that means…
(via grrrl meets world)
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Posted in Atheist Advertising, General at 12:00 pm by Hemant Mehta
Remember the atheist bus ad that was put up by the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association?
Well, there’s now a Christian response ad to it — similar to the ones put up in Britain:
It reads “There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.”
But what’s that writing underneath? Can anyone even read it? (It’s supposed to be on a moving streetcar, right?)
Thankfully, reader Doug let me know what it says:
Text AMEN to 96527 to subscribe to the Christian Party News Alert Service and become a registered supporter of the Christian Party. Registration by text costs $9.99 per month + standard charges. Maximum 3 messages per week. Text HELP for help. Text STOP for stop.
That’s what we like to call “classy”…
I’m not suggesting the atheist ads (in New Orleans and elsewhere) aren’t intended to raise a bit of revenue, but it’s the wording itself that is the focus of our ads, without any plea for donations. The atheists don’t have fine print for people to read. It’s all right there for everyone to see.
It’s not a huge deal, but I think we have the upper hand here.
(Christian ad pic courtesy of J. Michael Malec — Copyright 2009.)
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Posted in General at 6:00 am by Hemant Mehta
Austin Cline wrote this article last year, but it’s a great idea, so why not bring it up again during this time of Lent:
The principle behind Lent is asceticism: denying material, physical pleasures for the sake of the soul. Atheists reject Christian mythology and can turn Lent on its head by observing anti-Lent. If Christians do penance for their sins, you can rack up new “sins” by test driving new material, physical pleasures. This life is the only one we have, so expand your comfort zone by trying new things.
To hell with giving anything up!
Austin offers up a few examples of things atheists should take up this time of year: “Try a Dangerous Hobby,” “Test Your Clothing Comfort Zone,” “Experiment Sexually.” Excellent.
What other anti-Lent activities are you actively pursuing this time of year?
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