In Japan, Conan, a male chihuahua, has been imitating Buddhist priest Joei Yoshikuni in the prayer stance.
Since Conan started doing this, the number of visitors to the temple has increased 30%.
“He may be showing his thanks for treats and walks,” speculated one priest at the Jigenin temple on Okinawa island.
Priest Joel Yoshikuni said it took Conan just a few days to master the appearance of prayer. “I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it, too,” he said.
Hmm… let me get this straight. The dog started praying, not because he had put any real thought into it, but because he saw someone else doing it?
Thank goodness that never happens in other churches…
The Cumberland County Courthouse in Tennessee has several expressions of free speech on its front lawn.
The displays include an Iraq and Afghanistan Soldier’s Memorial, Statue of Liberty, chainsaw-carved monkeys and bears, Jesus carrying a cross, and the most recent display added — a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue. Here, we are all able to share the issues close to our hearts whether it is through a memorial to the soldiers killed fighting for our country, the Statue of Liberty honoring our nations welcoming promise to all, a group’s fight to stop homelessness, or powerful symbols of faith. I greatly treasure this open forum between everyone in the community.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a pile of noodles and meatballs, but it is meant to open up discussion and provoke thought. Being able to put up a statue is a celebration of our freedom as Americans; a freedom to be different, to express those differences, and to do it amongst neighbors -— even if it is in a noodley way.
It’s making news, too:
What has County Mayor Brock Hill said about this?
We are basically operating it as a freedom of speech venue. We don’t deny the constitutional rights of anyone, but we certainly don’t endorse all the displays. I feel the Flying Spaghetti Monster is an effort on the part of non-Christians to try and minimize Christianity and the images that have been placed there. I’ll go as far as to say that I think it’s an attempt to minimize and ridicule the good intentions of Christians in Cumberland County, but I don’t deny their right.
With all due respect Mayor Hill- the Flying Spaghetti Monster sculpture is not an attempt to ridicule any religion. It should not be used as an opportunity to play the values of one religion off another. And I think if you read the comments on this blog, it is clear that many many people in our county understand that symbol and agree. Rather, the Spaghetti Monster is intended to create discourse on the role of religion on public property.
…
Spaghetti and meatballs is meant to bring a touch of levity to a serious discourse. The statue has no intention to ridicule. It calls attention to a situation that has deeply concerned many residents over the past two years. Whether made of wood or spaghetti all religious statues are inappropriate for our courthouse lawn.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. It’s a terrific way to make a point.
Some of you may recall the “Smut for Smut” campaign a college atheist group ran a while back. If you handed the atheists your Bible (smut), they would give you back pornography (smut) in return. Because, really, it’s the same thing…
Lots of publicity. Negative publicity. It’s cute and clever, but it doesn’t get the point across to the people you’re trying to reach. If anything, it offends them.
Jennifer at Purdue University is thinking of doing something a little less… well… blasphemous.
… we were thinking of doing a “Fiction for Fiction” event. Same idea - turn in religious texts, but we give fiction novels in return. Our general message is this: while religious texts may give some moral guidance, that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily true. Morals and insight into human life can be taken from nearly any fiction novel. You have to critically think about what you’re reading and not just take it at face value, or how someone is telling you that you should understand it.
That’s just an explanation I typed up this moment, but the ones we’d have on posters and fliers and such would be better. Does this sound like a good idea at all? Any suggestions on how to word things as to minimize the pissing off factor? I realize this will anger some people, and anger alone isn’t our goal. We want people to think about their believes, and if that takes some shock factor, then so be it.
I think this is much more of an acceptable idea. It still has the shock value she’s going for, but I don’t see it warranting the rage response. Plus, there are plenty of Christians who don’t take the Bible literally, either…
Any advice on how to make it more palatable to Christians?
That’s the title of the piece from a recent Nightline story.
It refers to the “atheist Sunday school” held in Palo Alto, CA and other locations around the country. It’s also the topic of an article in Time magazine over four months ago. (Nice job being current, Nightline!)
At first, I was a bit taken aback — disturbed — by the comparison to a church. To most atheists, that would be an insult, given the churches many of us are familiar with.
Turns out there are a few similarities:
What’s interesting about this non-church is some of its churchlike aspects. There’s a hymn book, talks that sound like homilies and, at one point, an actual collection plate passed through the aisles after one song.
And of course, there’s the atheist named [Peter] Bishop. The manner in which he teaches is similar to how some fired-up preachers preach. But if he’s not preaching faith and he has a Sunday school, what is Bishop teaching?
“Community,” he said, “a sense of community, that they get to know other kids… It’s a place where, I don’t know, Jane, what do you think?”
“It’s cool ’cause you can, like, think freely by yourself,” [eight-year-old Jane Kovak] said.
The similarities end there. There is one striking difference between this “church” and most Christian churches:
As for Jane, her parents believe that her religious beliefs, or lack thereof, should be up to her.
“They have had many discussions about this, and we’ve had our discussions too,” said her mother. “I think that we just give our view, I always tell Jane that she has to make up her own mind, she has to experience her experiences — figure it out for herself.”
And Jane is doing just that — trying to figure out for herself the answers to life’s difficult questions, like what happens when people die. “Well, usually you kind of go in the earth, but I don’t believe that heaven’s not really real,” she says. “It would be cool if it was real. But there is a possibility that it is real, but I don’t think so. ”
The parents can teach but they don’t indoctrinate. At no point, I imagine, would the parents at this Humanist Center tell the children to believe in anything because they said so — or because Charles Darwin said so. The children must discover these truths for themselves by asking the right questions. The parents teach the kids how to think critically; they teach them how to think, not what to think.
If they simply said that evolution (or what-have-you) is true because the scientists say so, they would be committing the same crime a pastor does when he says the Bible is a source of literal truth. You have to have a way to know if the authority figure is telling the truth or not.
You won’t see that here, though.
Also, as the piece notes, one of the most important reason for having this “Sunday school” is not to teach the children these lessons. It’s to provide them (and their parents) with a community of like-minded people. You can discuss how to raise children without religion rearing its head. It’s an aspect of living an atheist lifestyle that’s not sufficiently addressed outside the few good sources that are out there.
The tragic story of Madeline Kara Neumann never needed to happen. She’s the 11-year-old girl who needed medical help for her ketoacidosis but got prayer instead. Thanks to her ignorant parents, she’s dead.
Charges against the parents are pending.
The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.
They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.
The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.
I’ve read some reports that say Madeline’s three siblings are staying with relatives while other say they are still in their parents’ custody. The police chief Dan Vergin has previous said this about the siblings:
“They are still in the home,” he said. “There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see.”
Which is absurd. When religious belief turns into preventable homicide, it’s abuse. The kids need to be protected from the parents, who knew what had to be done (calling the doctors) but chose otherwise.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has put out a release that calls for Wisconsin legislators to “remove from the statutes its exemption sanctifying child homicide in the name of faith.”
It’s one thing for an adult to choose prayer over medicine. But it is sheer child sacrifice to permit parents to eschew medical diagnosis and treatment of ill offspring. Parents do not own their children, much less have the right to endanger their children’s lives by callously disregarding medical needs in the name of religion.
…
Their “best” was not good enough. Nor is the religious exemption provided for by Wisconsin statutes, similar to what many states have adopted under pressure of the Christian Science lobby. What they don’t realize is that doing nothing to help their daughter is parental negligence, which is criminal. The parents can still be charged, at least with some form of negligence or child abuse. But more action is required.
As a memorial to the painful, frightening and needless death of Madeline Kara Neumann, the Wisconsin Legislature needs to finally show some gumption, and remove from the statutes its callous exemption sanctifying child homicide in the name of faith.
That exemption refers to the part of the WI statutes that defines various types of abuse (PDF). The part in question says this:
EXCEPTION. Nothing in this section may be construed to mean that an individual at risk is abused solely because he or she consistently relies upon treatment by spiritual means through prayer for healing, in lieu of medical care, in accordance with his or her religious tradition.
That exception is what may get Madeline’s parents off the hook.
They need to face the consequences for what they’ve done. And the state needs to use the Neumanns as an example — to show others that needless negligence in the name of religion will be prosecuted.
(Thanks to everyone who sent links to this story.)
Harvard’s Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein was featured on Speaking of Faith, a show from American Public Media, this weekend.
The website says Greg “is passionate about articulating an atheist identity that is not driven by a stance against religion but by positive ethical beliefs and actions.”
Mr. Epstein: Well, Krista, the most important thing that I can say about this issue is that I am in fact a believer, but I’m not a believer in the traditional sense. Humanists, we don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist; that’s what I don’t believe in, and humanism is what I do believe in.
Ms. Tippett: Right.
Mr. Epstein: And it’s simply that to me what’s much more important is what I do believe in. And —
Ms. Tippett: Right. I guess what I’m saying is you wouldn’t define yourself in terms of what you don’t believe in.
Mr. Epstein: Sure. No. But, I mean, I also — one thing, though, is that, you know, for some people, and I think one of the reasons why we run into problems around this subject is that for a long time in this country the word “atheism” has been treated as some kind of dirty word.
Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm.
Mr. Epstein: And that, you know, it’s really, to me, it’s not morally acceptable that more people than any other group, you know, say that they wouldn’t vote for an atheist — a qualified atheist who was running for president, that this is not morally good or acceptable that people say that. And I think that we need people of all sides of the religious, of all parts of the religious spectrum, to speak out against that and to say, ‘Listen, you know, we in this country don’t have religious tests for public office and we don’t have religious tests for who’s a good person.’ And I’m not interested in talking about this sort of old canard that you can’t be good without God. That’s an issue of prejudice if you feel that way. But what I am interested in talking about is what does it mean to be good without God? And that’s — that to me is what humanism is all about. That’s why I define myself primarily as a humanist.
It’s a long in-depth interview about various aspects of Humanism — the kind you rarely see in the mainstream media. While the overall ideas of Humanism are discussed and are well worth noting, a few other parts stood out to me:
I go away from my computer all weekend (putting posts on autopilot), and as soon as I leave, PZ Myers gets into another Expelledkerfuffle.
If you haven’t heard, the Expelled folks held a one-way conference call, and PZ managed to acquire the code which allowed two-way conversation… Good times were held by all. (Except the liars behind the movie.)
And it was losing business for nearby companies in Orange County, Florida:
The billboard was on Colonial Drive near the Old Cheney Highway. Although the popular Straub’s Seafood restaurant often advertises on it, this wasn’t their billboard. The sign was taken down after Channel 9 started asking questions.
The billboard came down around 4:00 Friday afternoon and nearby business owners are relieved. Straub’s restaurant can replace the sign with the night’s specials.
At first glance the sign looked like a children’s cartoon, but the message next to the fairy princess stirred emotions.
“When you condemn all religions and say they are a fairytale that is wrong,” said Rich Stormes, a nearby business owner.
The billboard went up a week before Easter and business at the restaurant went down.
“Easter Sunday is usually a busy good day,” said John Russel, an employee at Straub’s. “Easter Sunday business was down by two thirds.”
Since there’s no website or group name on the billboard, there’s no telling who put it up. And no group that I know of has claimed ownership of it.
The billboard rents for $1,400 a month. If an anti-religious group paid to rent it legitimately there is [no] telling how long it would have been up.
The company that owns the billboard says it didn’t approve the message, though. They say someone “put it up illegally in the middle of the night.” Which means no one would have paid for it.
In any case, the billboard has been taken down.
That’s unfortunate. It’s hard to pass judgment on either side until more details are available, but the billboard would be protected by free speech.
If someone paid for it, it should be allowed to stay up. Let it start some conversations. Let it make people upset. It’ll get some of them thinking about why the statement was made.
