Carnival of the Godless #121

To start us off, it’s the Rick Foreman Hat Trick!, first offering up an illuminating dichotomy in The Tales of Two Believers at Waiting for the Singularity.

Up until that time he had considered himself to be an atheist. But as he stood in the last junkyard, he looked up and declared that if he found the part needed to fix his car that he would believe in God and begin to worship him. When he looked down he saw something metallic half way buried in the dirt.

Second, scooping up some Ice Cream and the Freedom of Dessert.

Many ice cream lovers encourage the availability of ice cream in public school cafeterias. If parents wish their children to eat ice cream then it should be consumed at home. I am a firm believer in the separation of dessert and state.

(If you didn’t just laugh, then you really need a break.)

And finally, encouraging everyone to Be Free from the Need to be Right

But the problem doesn’t lie with the myriad perceptions. The problem is in the inflexible minds of the perceivers. This inflexibility lies not only in the insistence of the perceiver in being right but more in the fear of being wrong.

Greg Laden summarizes and explains his mission to describe Missions for what they really are, and drops a line or two about our common misconceptions about Africans. This, and his linked essays on Missions are must reads. Find it at Dirty poor people living in slime: Missionaries and American Idol via Greg Laden’s Blog.

The average American will see a photograph of a mud hut with a grass roof and a family positioned outside the hut staring into the camera and this average American will think, “Oh, those poor people” without any understanding of the fact that they could be looking at the happiest people they’ve ever seen living in relative comfort, with fulfilling lives. They are just not the lives that the average Westerner has determined, in their privileged, middle class, suburban mindset, to be ideal. But who cares what you think?

BH suggests causation in addition to correlation in 7 Out of Top 10 Failed States are Muslim States at Bangladeshi Hindu.

This shows the high uncertainty that exists on most of the Muslim states. Corrupted government, rise of Islamic fascism and fundamentalism are tearing these countries apart.

Adrian Hayter shares his recent experience vying for the Executive position of Secretary of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist, and Secular Student Societies (AHS) AGM, (whose website is HERE), in The AHS AGM via The Atheist Blogger. Congrats, Adrian!

Both myself and a guy named Michael put ourselves forward for the Secretary position, and we were grilled by a series of questions from the committee. I aimed my “campaign” at working with national and international organisations (BHA, NSS, Secular Student Alliance, etc) and making administration more effective.

Daniel Fincke describes the symbiotic relationship between moderate and extreme religious adherence in Objections To Religious Moderates and Intellectuals at Camels With Hammers.

When you teach people that their religion comes before all else, you teach them that their in-group loyalty supercedes their connection to their fellow human beings. When you teach them that God speaks through books and then they read those books are littered with genocides against members of out-groups (infidels, the impure neighboring populations, etc.), they are not without logic when they make deductions that such enforcements of God’s will are morally acceptable.

Jennifurret performs a potentially dangerous “social experiment” in Atheist Shirt & Airports at Blag Hag.

As I was getting off of my plane in Indianapolis, a guy probably in his late 30s or early 40s moved in front of me, turned to me looking at my shirt, and mumbled something. All I heard was “*mumble* shirt.” For all I knew, it could have been “nice shirt” or “fucking shirt” or who knows what. I just sort of smiled awkwardly, but then he kept talking.

And then Jennifurret asks a question many of us have pondered, Where are our future atheist politicians?

A lot of atheists tell us not to despair; that as atheism spreads and becomes more and more accepted, we’ll start seeing more and more atheist politicians. But as of right now, coming out as an atheist is a gamble that you’d be committing political suicide.

Joel asks Which Hell is Michael Jackson In? at Your religion is false.

Muslim Hell
Argument for:
inclusion of Mohammed caricature on Off the Wall album liner
Argument against:
professed Shahadah at Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro’s house in 1998

Michael Fridman “Explores what it means for someone to call themselves a “true” follower of their religion and why we shouldn’t let religionists define those they disagree with out of existence,” in No True Scotsman and Labelling “True” Religions at a Nadder!

Person A: Oh, they weren’t true Christians.

Person A is attempting to show that Christians are moral by defining them as moral. The trick A uses is to slide in a characteristic (being moral) as a necessary part of the definition — even though there’s no agreement about whether this should be part of the definition (and A does not attempt to argue for it).

Greta Christina (Must read!) asks Why Do Atheists Have to Talk About Atheism?, “In defense of atheists talking publicly about atheism and trying to convince others that we’re right. Thinking you’re right and trying to persuade other people you’re right is not intolerant or close-minded — it’s a cornerstone of democracy.” at AlterNet.

Besides, it’s not like we’re standing outside anyone’s window with a bullhorn at 3 a.m. We’re not holding a gun to anyone’s head and making them read Pharyngula. We’re not even knocking on people’s doors at 8 o’clock on Saturday morning to share the good word about Darwin. (Well, except for that one guy…)

Mike Haubrich, FCD reminds us of a very important lesson in the struggles between religion and science in The Interloper at Quiche Moraine — “Science is a dirty bastard.”

If, then, religion depends on a creator in order to provide a purpose to life, what happens when that creator is no longer a necessary function in the life equation? Religion steps back in and says it can still help find purpose because science is limited to a natural methodology, whereas through faith there are “other ways of knowing” and science can’t approach those other ways.

Russell Blackford, in light of the media frenzy over Sarkozy’s objection to the Islamic custom, asks, Should we ban the burka? at Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.

We can’t be allowed to harass others merely for how they dress, but we are quite within our rights not to be as friendly to people whose dress offends or disturbs us in some way as we are to people who dress in a way that appeals to our values. If I’m vain enough to enjoy having shop assistants flirting with me from behind the counter … well, I’ll have to wear the tweed jacket, not the g-string. We all make these choices.

Chris Hallquist fleshes out a religious blogger’s partial acknowledgment of the reasons Why Religion Causes Violence at The Uncredible Hallq

One of Vic’s commenters suggested free will as a trump card. It’s an often used trump card in a lot of debates. But here it’s especially hard to see how free will could be relevant, because we’re talking about human actions, and humans do things to influence eachother’s behavior all the time without, presumably, messing with free will in unacceptable ways. Most Christians would not take seriously for a second the idea that police work or missionary work should be prohibited for fear of violating people’s free will.

Side Note: I don’t consider “50 Best Blogs for Zen-Like Living” an appropriate entry for a carnival of the Godless. Neither do I consider appropriate the top 10 online memorials that people are currently visiting (highlighting, oh, like I couldn’t guess, Michael Jackson’s memorial), or especially “50 Awesome Online Communities for Christians” (come on, people; spammers I can understand, but Christians posting to the Carnival of the Godless their pro-Christian bullshit? Go find some friends, some wood, some nails, and a hammer, and let’s see how Christ-like you really are, you fucking wankers. Stop submitting, damnit!).

Oh, wait, and then I get another pro-God entry: “God Religion : Why we are confused?” Ehm, we’re not confused, Lalit Bhatt. Religion sine qua non belief in God. However, gotta love your eloquent insights, like, “It is a paradox that such a noble concept like god is tarnished with blood of human.” Eh, no, it’s not a paradox. Humans invented god, and use that invention to shed blood, which, appropriately, stains that god image. You know what, I’m going to post the link anyway, so that, when we atheists get sleepy reading what we already know to be true, as written by each other, we can get a laugh at the “let’s just all get along, as long as you non-believers shut up” rhetoric perpetuated by self-proclaimed moderates (See Daniel Fincke’s article above) as espoused in Lalit Bhatt’s accusation, God Religion : Why we are confused? at Random. Yes, “Random.” Bwhahhah.

One more misfire: Rich Bordner runs a popular Christian blog, The Pugnacious Irishman, in which he asserts that “Jesus is my King, and making an impact on people’s lives for His sake is my passion; all the rest are afterthoughts.” Although he submitted an article to COTG, and although he’s written some fairly neutral and rational things in the past, his submission was a compilation of his own articles dealing with the subject of torture, and since neither his site nor those articles had a godless element, I felt the submission lacked the principle requirement for this carnival. (At most, his articles were, in culmination, a pro-torture, anti-torture regulation political argument that I don’t feel belong in this carnival, sorry.)

Back to reality…

Angus Stocking shares with us An Interview With Lon Milo Duquette, an American writer, lecturer, and occultist best known as an author who applies humor in the field of Western Hermeticism, at Belief Systems & Other BS.
Angus tells us,

Lon Milo Duquette is among the most visible and eminent modern ceremonial magicians. He’s an authority on Aleister Crowley and his magical systems, a high ranking member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and a prolific and exceptionally talented author who has published some of the very best and most accessible modern expositions of ancient magical systems such as Enochian and Goetic magick. His writing is marked by grace, humility, and humor, and authority based on extensive research and experience. That he is a member of the Illuminati seems obvious, though he has yet to admit as much in public.

Jack Carlson is “Having a bit of fun with the idea of animals and heaven.” in Do all dogs go to heaven? at Heathen Queer

But I’ve noticed that adult, otherwise rational, theists continue to debate this question amongst themselves. Some even have “animal blessing” rituals. They are so conflicted about this issue. They have to acknowledge they love their own pets (those who do have pets and like other animals) but their Bible appears to rule out the possibility that animals of any kind (except humans, thank god!) will get to enter heaven.

(((Billy))) The Atheist scratches up an awesome and appropriate flowchart in How Do Christians Make Decisions at (((Billy))) The Atheist.

…these are the people who consistently claim that atheists cannot be moral, that Democrats are out to destroy the family, that gay marriage will destroy marriage and that liberals are out to destroy all that is good.

Jason offers a “Case study of a religious founding myth that sure looks wacky when it’s (a) modern; and (b) not supported by a navy.” in 1947: The avatar of Doctor Wonder at Executed Today

Now, every theology looks like mummery to an outsider practically by definition, and far be it from Executed Today to calumniate anyone’s spiritual truth. But: you might want to strap yourself in for Dahesh.

larryniven entertains us with a deft attack in Peter Kreeft, shut up already at Rust Belt Philosophy.

So here we go: the Kreeft argument in favor of magical flying reindeer is, and I am not making this up, that “[w]e ourselves defy gravity whenever we decide to jump, because while we live we are not merely physical entities, but have souls or minds or wills, which interfere with matter, as a hand interferes with a sword’s tendency to fall whenever that hand swings the sword.”

DR. JIM (Linville) CRASHES THE CHRISTIAN HERITAGE (HOMO)SEXY PARTY! (you gotta click the link, if not just to see the hilarious imagery) at Dr. Jim’s (Thinking Shop and Tea Room).

“Freedom to do evil”? Consenting adults playing with each other is “evil?” What about all the child molestation that churches cover up? Why no uproar about that?

But he doesn’t stop there! Dr. Jim then goes on to proffer A SOBER GOVERNMENT: The Selective Biblical Principles Party on the rights of the downtrodden

“Outlook determines outcome”, as they say. What better way for people to pull themselves out of poverty than by making sure they forget that they are poor and/or miserable? But also note the verb in the clause “Give strong drink”. If our plan to solve the problem of national uncheeriness is going to work, our government must provide the people with the resources to do it!

Gregory Lawrence addresses The Road to Damascus and the Angry, Bitter Atheist at skin hunger.

We are storytelling creatures, and the urge to fit the details of our lives into Story is irresistible. The story appeals to the Christian mind because the Christian path is largely seen in those terms — Road to Damascus, Amazing Grace, the moment of salvation in the Dark Wood. Atheists must be the same way, right?

Finally, but not least, Cubik’s Rube comments on the new Turkish “convert the atheist” game show in Play your gods right at Cubik’s Rube.

I wonder if there’s a lightning round. “Okay, heathens, fingers on buzzers. You will have sixty seconds to be convinced of the absolute truth on one of these subjects: the transubstantiation of the host wafer, the divinity of Muhammad’s revelation, or that only through Nirvana can true peace of mind and freedom from suffering by attained. You may confer. Unfounded claims and fallacious reasoning are permitted. Your time starts… now!”

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