Yeah, it’s early for Halloween, but religious belief and dogma are scary year-round. Welcome to another edition of Carnival of the Godless, #128. There are some great articles to follow, many from blogs I’ve never heard of, but will add to my list of blogs to visit again. I hope you enjoy the submissions and visit the blogs, as well.
Transplanted Lawyer examines the frequent claims about Jesus, but this time by an apologist who has supplied his sources, which are examined thoroughly in the excellent article Sourcing The Apologetics at Not A Potted Plant. According to the Transplanted Lawyer, it’s “A handy-dandy guide for refuting a claim by a Christian apologetic that there are dozens of contemporaneous, extra-Biblical references to the life and resurrection of Jesus.”
I found myself stumbling across a guy who claims that there are plentiful contemporaneous, extrabiblical and non-Christian documentations justifying the existence of Jesus and the reports of his resurrection. Since this was news to me, I asked for references to his sources.
I was a little surprised that he identified them. To his credit, the apologist has set out his sources. In so doing, he allows someone else to go back and check the work, which is what I’ve done here.
Alexander Bisignano presents Genetic Engineering: Reanimate the Dead and Bring Fantasy to Life at The Chromosome Chronicles, saying, “I don’t directly address godlessness, though I do talk about the idea of “playing god.” It’s a scientific/fun article that certainly brings up some interesting ideas.”
Bring Back the Dead: Consumer Cloning
What did I just say?! It’s not like you think, I swear. You cannot bring back your lost relatives. Even if you clone your dead loved ones, there is no way (currently) to recreate the memories and experiences that will have shaped the person that you once knew. So, even though the clone will look exactly alike, they are not the same person as your loved one. Also, when a cloning takes place, the person is “born” just like any other baby, and they must grow and mature just like any human being. There is currently no way of speeding up the process of growing up.
Keep reading for how to create a unicorn.
LivingWithMormons presents Mormon Dating a la Elder Hafen at Living With Mormons, saying, “This article hopefully helps highlight the LDS Church’s official views and doctrines about homosexuality.”
Whenever I have official visits from the Church, I really do hope (mainly for my wife’s sake) that no uncomfortable discussions ensue and I don’t have to end showing someone how ignorant their beliefs are, but I’m afraid the latest rambling of the leaders of the church; Elder Bruce C. Hafen must have really enjoyed giving his latest speech (Evergreen International Conference) as an opus to a life lived focused on “the legal rights and needs of children and the legal status of marriage.”
Eric Michael Johnson presents The Republican Christian Nation on the March at The Primate Diaries.
But where exactly is this “Christian Nation” that Santorum, Huckabee and Palin claim that we’ve lost? We are and have always been a nation framed on the laws of men, not God. If you want an idea of what a theocracy would look like, go no further than Iran or Saudi Arabia. It is a very bad idea to try and oppose those who would oppose us by becoming more like them.
Paul Fidalgo presents Cassini astronomer looks to the cultural ascent of science at atheist convention at Secularism Examiner.
The hurdle [for the promotion of rational thinking], according to ["Planetary scientist Carlyn Porco, best known for her work on the imaging for the Cassini probe mission to Saturn,"] was the deeply ingrained image of scientists and technology as negative, the near-universal portrayal of scientists and intellectuals as villains, as cold, or as socially inept. Often set up as archetypes to be ridiculed, hated, or feared, Porco said that popular culture usually associates science with disasters, “Frankensteins”, and people who are “too brilliant for their own good.”
Alex McCullie presents Comment:Pick Your Jesus at Alex’s Heresies – embracing a physical reality.
Most progressives seek to modernise the demon-infested world of the gospels by interpreting the supernatural aspects of the Jesus stories – resurrections, miracles, and exorcisms – metaphorically. The Jesus of faith then becomes a most remarkable spirit-filled sage whose sayings and actions in first century Galilee continue to be relevant today some 2000 years later.
Andrew Heath presents What Jesus Said about Homosexuality at Andrew Heath.
“But we DO love you,” they say. “We love the sinner and hate the sin.” My response to that is if Christians hate the fact that we’re gay, they cannot love us because our sexuality is as much a part of who we are as their sexuality is a part of who they are. Christians not only hate gays, they teach gays to hate themselves and each other. This is wrong. This is absolutely wrong.
Mauzzie presents We Are Legend at Irrationality Itches; and a clarification with Faith and Knowledge.
I wasn’t quite Atheist. I was a starter-Atheist – an Agnostic. I didn’t THINK I believed, but I was a little terrified that maybe I was wrong after all and the devil would ascend out of the living room floor one day and drag me down to hell by my sinner’s ankles. When it didn’t happen, despite some fervent misbehaving, I had to face facts. It was all a little ridiculous. There were no monsters under the bed. There was no man in the clouds controlling everyone. Even the Incredible Hulk was just some guy painted green.
PhillyChief presents Disengaging the auto-pilot at You Made Me Say It!.
I feel that the answers for such things as intuition lie under the hood of our brains where our multi-limbed auto-pilot is hard at work piloting countless, simultaneous activities which we’ve become oblivious to. In our oblivion, when the results come to us, they seem as if they’ve arrived magically, through special psychic abilities or perhaps supernatural entities zapping answers to our brains, perhaps in response to a prayer said to them.
Dave Jackson presents Shadow Minister Speaks Out Against Multiculturalism at Reason Must Triumph, saying, “The British Shadow minister for ‘community cohesion’, who may soon be in Government, seems to think that the key to fostering good relations between communities is to promote yet more religious faith. I disagree.”
Whence cometh this madness? Is it not the same madness that inspires idiots to remove Three Little Pigs from school libraries for fear of causing offence? That suggests removing an advertising campaign using a dog’s picture for fear of causing offence? This is the political correctness which she decries – a correctness born of treading on tip-toes to avoid ‘offending’ some religious cretin or other’s precious nonsense. Again – more religion, more respect for this crap, will inspire more of this political correctness, not less. Religion should be just as open to discussion, to criticism, to critical evaluation as are politics, literature, art, science and any other endeavour of thought.
TechSkeptic presents Argument from Gravity at Effort Sisyphus, saying, “Its just another argument refuting theism, but its one that I have not seen before and is a little snarky.”
[S]omeone in the [atheist] group posted on our discussion board the following Argument From Gravity. I kind of liked it an thought I would share. I modified it a bit to improve it some more. Give it a shot next time you have some Jehovah’s Witnesses or mormons at your door.
Neosnowqueen presents Hating Religion (Hint: It’s Complicated) at Winter Harvest.
I will not deny a certain bitterness against religion, especially when it starts inserting itself in law and into my own life. I’m content to live and let live, yet many religions including Christianity are wired in such a way that they must push themselves into other people’s lives. I resent how Christianity has made me miserable for the last year and a half, but I do not hate Christianity. I hate the Christianity that is inside of me, the Christianity that is as rotten as a bad tooth that was pulled half-ass from my mouth.
Luke Muehlhauser presents Best Atheism Books of the Decade at Common Sense Atheism, saying, “This was the decade that atheism found its voice in America, but the best atheism books were not those written by the popular New Atheists.”
These authors were dubbed the New Atheists, but the only thing new about them was that their books were selling. Nonbelievers have been saying many of the same things as the “New Atheists” since the dawn of recorded history: from Greek philosopher Epicurus (b. 341 BCE) to Arab philosopher Al Ma’arri (b. 973) to Catholic priest Jean Meslier (b. 1664) to political leader Robert Ingersoll (b. 1833) to the world’s greatest living intellectual Noam Chomsky (b. 1928).
Some poetic atheism from Rick Foreman, Forget About Fear at Waiting for the Singularity.
If you fear losing, you are already defeated.
If you fear dying, you are already dead.
If you are afraid of losing what you have, you have nothing.
Grandpa Oddball presents It’s just a theory at GetOddNews.
“It’s just a theory,” dismissively, even derisively uttered often accompanied with the phrase “not a law“. How often have you heard that remark and why does it frequently evoke such strong emotional responses? In fact, just what is a theory and what is a law?
Andrew Bernardin presents Sunday Sacrilege: Nothing by the Hands of a God at The Evolving Mind.
An army is victorious in battle against its foe. Why? Not because they had greater numbers, better weapons or whatnot, but because they had a god on their side. An impressive cathedral is built. Not by human hands alone, but human hands doing the work of their god. The poor are fed. How? By people doing their god’s work.
What’s the unnecessary variable in all of this? A god.
Andrew Bernardin also presents Biological Evolution or Diabolic Design? at The Evolving Mind.
Equipped with the Intelligent Design hypothesis (calling a paper spade a spade) what are we to make of mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease? How are we to explain the existence of transmissible diseases caused by misfolded proteins triggering other proteins to misfold, resulting in degeneration and a truly horrible death? That the Intelligent Designer has a mean streak?
vjack presents Thoughts on Atheist Identity at Atheist Revolution.
It is true that atheism merely refers to the lack of god belief. And yet, for those of us living in the U.S., being an atheist is very different than being someone who doesn’t believe in fairies, monsters under the bed, Santa Claus, or unicorns. While I agree that it wouldn’t make much sense to wear a t-shirt saying “I don’t believe in Santa Claus,” this is not because such a statement is analogous to atheism; it is because such a statement has no significant implications for one’s identity in a culture.
Cubik’s Rube presents The Bible is WRONG! at Cubik’s Rube.
Yeah, that’s right! I’m one of those godless heathen non-believers, and I say that your holy book is full of inaccuracies! It’s not historically reliable at all, let alone divine and inerrant! Contrary to what all those hard-line conservative fundamentalist wackaloons think, it actually contains numerous-
Wait.
What?
Some of the conservative nut-jobs are with me on this?
Jim Linville presents It’s a Tyrannosaur Eat Tyrannosaur World Out There. at Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop & Tea Room.
Now, all this talk of possible dinosaurian cannibalism and big scary toothed critters should be the cause of great humility and shame for one and all, because, as young earth scientists all know, T. Rex and all the other dinosaurs were complete vegetarians in the Garden of Eatin’
Jim Linville also presents Answering the Creationists: What it would take for me to believe in God at Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop & Tea Room.
The vague theories of “intelligent design” and their unspecified designer really amount to theistic creationism warmed over and rebranded to be more palatable to secularists and schoolboards. Its advocates play the science card boldly, but its bluff has been called time and again by mainstream science. The rejoinders in defense of ID claims have been unconvincing to say the least.
That being said, I would probably have the least trouble accepting the disconcerned deity of the deists: a kind of pre-big bang intelligence that established the natural laws billions of years ago and then just watched it all unfold. With that kind of deity in view, I’m at the closest point I get to being an agnostic.
Chris Hallquist presents Marriage, morals, and the green-eyed monster at The Uncredible Hallq.
Recently, I finally got around to picking up a copy of Bertrand Russell’s Marriage and Morals, the notorious book that played a major part of the campaign to get him barred from teaching in New York. I also had brought to my attention a Richard Dawkins piece on sexual jealousy from a couple of years ago, “Banishing the Green-Eyed Monster.” What follows would be a double-header review if only the Dawkins piece were a full book, as it stands, count this as a general reflection on what prominent atheists have said about sexual morality.
Thanks for all the submissions, and I hope everyone enjoys these articles, submits more for future carnivals, and considers hosting a future carnival.
Wanna be in the next Carnival of the Godless? Go submit an article Here.
