May 11 2008
Carnival of the Godless #91
Welcome to the 91st Edition of the Carnival of the Godless! This is my deflowering, so please don’t be too harsh! I’m fortunate to have hosted a selected article in an earlier Carnival, and I think the Carnival is one of the best things to happen to the rational community since the passing of the International Rationalist Rights Law.
What? There’s no International Rationalist Rights Law? Damnit, we gotta work on that.
Anyway, there is no particular order to the list that follows, and I’ve refrained from indicating the system of selection. I will let you know, however, that the majority of submissions that didn’t make it failed to meet the COTG guidelines (and I’m fairly flexible with those). The included articles are certainly an interesting and often informative read, and I hope you enjoy and give these authors (and their hosts, if different) a round of virtual applause for standing up for rationality and trying to spread the word through their writing.
Without further blabbering, let the Carnival begin!
The Theistic Me vs The Atheistic Me
The Chaplain from The Apostate’s Chapel questions the value of a theistic mindset.
What does the atheistic you miss, if anything, about the theistic you?
My initial, knee-jerk reaction to this question was, “Absolutely nothing.”
Prayer and Disc Golf
Jeremy from Endcycle compares prayer to social expression.
“Yeah, Jeremy, it’s harmless and pointless.. just like prayer, right?”
Oh.
I get it.
See, he’s making a jab at my pretty staunchly “screw your prayers” atheist position. I ranted at him a bit about how my yelling at a disc isn’t quite like people withholding medicines from a dying child and felt vaguely superior about myself for a moment or 3.
Moral Relativism and Why I do not Embrace it
Divided by Zero refuses to accept moral relativism. Find out why.
[H]istory has shown us that all moral values that we accept in the western society are the result of such processes. A merciless war of ideas where only the ones that were competitively superior could survive. I cannot bring myself to call this process objective for I truly do not see it as such.
Debunking Christianity 25: The Ignorance of Evil
Anath from The Antichristian Phenomenon examines the concept of Evil throughout time, from Plato to Nietzsche.
“[O]bedience”, “selflessness”, and “respect” are labeled as “good” while “violence,” “Anything Non-Christian,” and “nonconformists” are labeled “evil”.
SIWOTI: Someone is Wrong on the Internet
B.T. Murtagh from quarkscrew provides a concise rebuttal to the “Christian Nation” assertion.
Several insisted that the wall of separation between Church and State wasn’t intended to apply to Christianity - in one case while making a big point out of the fact that the phrase doesn’t actually appear in the Constitution. That’s true, if irrelevant: the phrase actually comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association, praising the anti-Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment.
“Self Evidence”: Truth or Truthiness?
At Five Public Opinions, AV questions whether certain moral propositions need justification.
Frankly, I don’t like arguments from self-evidence, and I think we should be very careful with them. In logic they might be OK: “it is self-evident that all bachelors are unmarried,” and so forth. In ethics, appeals to self-evidence seem to me to constitute little more than arrogant presumptiousness on the part of those making them.
Frustration
DagoodS from Thoughts From a Sandwich criticizes a common double standard (hosted by The Barefoot Bum).
It is frustration borne out of deliberate embrace of willful refusal to inform oneself. Past experience has demonstrated these advocates have a complete lack of empathy for any argument that does not exactly conform to their own limited view of the world; therefore I do not expect them to understand the comparison. Perhaps a lurker would like to know.
John Hagee, The Roman Catholic Church, The Antichrist, Hitler, The Holocaust, (all on one convenient chart)
The Whited Sepulchre predicts further Christian sectarian strife as we near the 2008 presidential election.
I think Hagee and Jeremiah Wright will soon put together a vaudeville-style tour, where they’ll bring their theological wisdom to bear on the great issues of the day.
It’s true… God is not the Leading Cause of War
At Disillusioned Words, Jeffrey Stingerstein examines some pitfalls of faith.
I do not think that religions should be outlawed. And the religious should NOT be persecuted for their beliefs. But they only deserve the same respect that belief in Zeus is accorded in today’s society.
They Got Horse Racing in Heaven
The Ridger at The Greenbelt wonders why God killed Eight Belles.
God wanted her in his stable? God put her in the Derby, let her run well, and then killed her?
The Bible is Immoral. Let’s Move on.
At Disillusioned Words, Jeffrey Stingerstein researches client-patron relations and whether they offered some justification for the distinction between perceptions of scripture “then” and “now.”
I was recently told, after quoting Bible passages about infanticide and pillaging villages: “You are reading the text as if it were yesterday’s USA Today - as a 21st Century American. The ancient world was vastly different than the modern world….”
Demons Made my Daughter an Anorexic Lesbian
Sean the Blogonaut F.C.D. uncovers “The hidden danger of narrow faith based mental health provision.”
There seems to be unwritten, or unspoken understanding that anything Christian is both homogenous in the way it will handle social justice and mental health situations and by default have the clients best interests as a priority.
God is Brain-Dead
No More Mr. Nice Guy sees dead people. Brain-dead people, that is.
Walk around any large city and you will see mentally disturbed street people hanging around, picking fights with imaginary companions, and what not. Suppose I told you of a man who spends hours every day standing at a wall, rocking back and forth repetitively, droning on and on in a monotone directed at some invisible person that no-one else can see. You would probably conclude that the man is deluded, at the very least obsessive-compulsive, and in need of treatment lest he harm himself and possibly others.
What Would Convince You That You Were Wrong? The Difference Between Secular and Religious Faith
Is Religious Faith Irrational?
[These two posts from the same site are actually a single article in two parts. I've included both for continuity and clarity. -Pro]
Greta Christina has a unique and interesting take on faith and its distinctions.
I’m irritated by the argument that, because atheists don’t have faith in God, we therefore don’t have faith in anything. And at the same time, I’m irritated by the argument that, because atheists do have faith in things and can take leaps of faith, therefore an atheist’s secular faith in love and whatnot isn’t really any different from religious belief.
The Limits of Respect
Seth Manapio at Whiskey Before Breakfast…The Blog recounts an insightful anecdote about tolerance and respect.
[A]pparently the ex-boss said that she “had to respect” the daughter’s beliefs.
“No,” I said. “She doesn’t.”
Immanentizing the Z-Eschaton
Masks of Eris justifiably fears literal biblical interpretations.
I do not think there is a God, any god. If I did, what would I do? Probably scream in terror, since what follows is the “best” scenario I can think of.
Conservation of Good & Bad
Barry Leiba at Staring at Empty Pages has an interesting theory about the power and casualties of prayer.
Suppose… just suppose… that God’s master plan involves some sort of balance of good things and bad things. And that maybe the plan doesn’t call for a one-for-one sort of thing, but just an overall kind of balance, on a large scale.
Aliens, Mummies, and The Visit
Ordinary Girl (Tales of Ordinary Girl) contemplates experimentation while dealing with her religious relatives.
It’s not just that religion was ingrained in me from birth. I think I have shed most religious indoctrination. But it’s more in the way I interact with the world. I still have that skin of acceptability which I hide behind. You know, be respectful of religion and religious leaders, don’t express disbelief or any kind of skepticism about religious beliefs, and especially don’t encourage anyone else to pursue their skepticism.
Christian Nation, Prison Nation
VJACK at Atheist Revolution correlates prison populations with Christian influence, and suggests causation.
I am intrigued that the people most likely to proclaim that the United States is a Christian nation also tend to be those most responsible for perpetuating our status as the world’s leading prison nation.
A Non-Believer in Church: St. Peter’s Episcopal at Oxford
Oliver at Mississippi Atheists recounts an expedition to an Episcopal church from his non-believing perspective.
Most of the service was foreign to me. The services began with a procession of people in white robes holding various holy relics like a Bible or a Cross. I did not understand a single action of the minister. He had a metal ball that produced smoke that he started swinging at a candle. There is a deeper symbolic reference here I’m sure, but I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover and must have missed the references to a metal ball, the smoke, and the candle.
I don’t Believe in People Who Don’t Believe in Me
Natasha at Homo Academicus critiques an interview with Chris Hedges, author of “I Don’t Believe in Atheists.”
By calling new atheism “fundamentalist” he is not-so-subtly describing it in religious terms, playing into that tired out debate that atheism is a religion too. If you want atheists to take your message seriously, as indeed he must by agreeing to be interviewed on a notoriously atheistic podcast, you can’t start out by insulting them.
The Trouble With Prayer
Aaron Ross Powell explains why prayer is not a suitable replacement for personal responsibility.
Evil people do terrible things. This fact is not in dispute. But why a wholly benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient god allows those terrible acts is a question that has plagued the faith of the religious since the time of the pre-Socratic Greeks. This is known as theodicy, or the problem of evil.
Questions of Morality
Lori at Between Us Girls asks some potent questions about our assumptions and our perceptions of morality.
Psst…I have a secret to tell you. You might find it quite shocking. Religion does not have a corner on the morality market.
Better Evangelism?
Anthroslug questions whether there is a better form of evangelism.
The basic problem that I have encountered with evangelism is that it tends to work from the premise that the person being evangelized needs to be “saved” – and condescension and insult naturally follows from there.
Vengeful Paths to Truth
Mark Koester, the Mystic Atheist, examines justice in light of retribution and forgiveness.
This is a paradox point to our social logic. Justice is about remembering and retribution. Forgiveness is about a kind of forgetting and a way of creating anew as sharing partners and joined story-tellers. Society must seek both, paradoxically.
Ayala to IDers – ‘God is the greatest abortionist’
SocraticGadfly recounts an influential concept that helped him achieve godlessness.
Francisco Ayala, one of the world’s greatest evolutionary biologists, AND one of the most renowned biological scientists openly defending the compatibility of evolution and religious belief, has been a busy man with the controversy over “Expelled.”
Thanks to all the contributors and submitters!
The next edition will be posted in two weeks from May 11, and will be held at Jyunri Kankei - http://jyunri.blogspot.com/.
Make Carnival of the Godless submissions!
ALERT, ATTENTION! COTG NEEDS HOSTS! If COTG doesn’t get hosts, #92 will be the LAST ONE! (that’s from Brent’s fingers to your eyes!). If you’re interested in hosting, or know someone who is, please stop by Brent’s website and let him know. Let’s keep this thing rolling!
