5.31.2011

Visiting Your University Counseling Center: A Guide for Atheist Students

counseling center room

I first addressed the subject of selecting a psychologist or counselor back in 2009, and I'd like to revisit it now in a specific context: the university counseling center. Imagine that you are an atheist student and you'd like to get some professional help. However, you want to make sure that the person you talk to is not a peddler of woo. Maybe you have mental health issues, and maybe you'd just like some objective support to help with career decision-making or another common concern. In any case, you deserve a practitioner of evidence-based services.

5.29.2011

As an Atheist, What Do I Want?

evolution

As an atheist, what do I want? At first glance, this question is a tough one. After all, most of what I want has very little to do with atheism or with being an atheist. When I am asked this question, I find that the person asking it usually has something in mind that is not apparent from the question. They want to know if I am after the complete eradication of religion or whether I might be content with anything short of this unlikely scenario.

What I want, as an atheist, is actually a bit simpler than that:

I would like to see a gradual erosion of the social acceptability of religious belief until it becomes something which most educated adults would be embarrassed to profess.

5.27.2011

The Baffling Era of Religious Suicide-Massacres

This is a guest post by James A. Haught.

Islam Is NOT a Peaceful religionOsama bin Laden achieved a remarkable feat: He mobilized the power of religion to spur devout young men to kill themselves in order to murder defenseless strangers. Grotesquely, the suicide-killers felt they were performing holy acts that would please God and assure them martyr rewards in paradise.

The annals of faith-based killing are long: human sacrifice, the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-hunts, Reformation wars, drowning of Anabaptists, jihads, pogroms against Jews, China's Taiping Rebellion, Mexico's Cristero War, cult horrors, abortion clinic murders, and many modern ethnic conflicts fueled by "religious tribalism." A new phase was led by bin Laden, who orchestrated the 21st-century phenomenon of Islamic suicide-bombing. Mercifully, his personal chapter ended when Navy Seals stormed his Asian hideout on May 1.

5.25.2011

Lessons From the Damon Fowler Case

prayer in schoolI have devoted some time to writing about Damon Fowler, not simply because he's in Louisiana and I'm in neighboring Mississippi and feel a connection to him in that aspect. No, the reason I've continued to address Damon's brave stand to stop school-sanctioned prayer at his public high school graduation and the aftermath of his actions is that I believe that this case highlights much of what is wrong with Christian privilege here in the bible belt. There are a few things about Damon's case that continue to trouble me, and I'd like to address them here.

5.24.2011

Beware of Christian Hell

hell fire

In my experience, most Christians who want to persuade you to believe in their preferred god(s) or other aspects of their religious dogma will eventually mention hell. Some of the fundamentalist Christians will go there immediately in an effort to frighten you into sharing their beliefs. They seem to regard the fear of hell as a powerful motivator. Other Christians may take some time to get there and may even seem somewhat reluctant to do so. It is almost as if they recognize how it sounds. But eventually, most do seem to get there.

I don't usually enjoy hearing about hell because those who bring it up never seem to have anything new to say on the subject. I've heard it all before. One of these days if I find myself feeling sufficiently bored, I might have to indulge the Christian a bit and allow this absurd discussion to play out a bit longer than I usually do.

5.22.2011

Damon Fowler Kicked Out of Parents' Home

Bastrop LAWhen we last left Damon Fowler, the brave Louisiana high school student who complained about the prayer planned for his public school graduation, we saw that the class valedictorian prayed even after the school said they would not have any prayer at the ceremony. Now it appears that Damon's parents have thrown him out of their home, tossing his possessions on the front porch and leaving town. How's that for Christian love?

It sounds like the next step for Damon will probably involve moving to Texas and living with his brother. It certainly is fortunate that he has at least one supportive family member. After all that has happened, I suspect that leaving Bastrop behind is a smart move.

But you know what? It really pisses me off that people are still essentially being run out of town in 2011 in the U.S. merely for standing up for the separation of church and state.

5.20.2011

Damon Fowler is an Atheist Hero

Damon FowlerThe atheist blogosphere has been buzzing about Damon Fowler and for good reason. His case highlights what atheist youth here in the bible belt of the U.S. must endure. But the real story here is Damon's courage. Instead of giving in to fears about what might happen to him if he questioned the illegal prayers taking place at his high school graduation ceremony, he stood up for himself and asked his school to obey the law.

Damon's actions remind us that it is the danger inherent in atheist activism that makes it necessary in the first place.

5.18.2011

Atheists Thrown Under the Bus By Progressives

Godless Liberal

One would think that persons on the same side of the political spectrum (i.e., those who lean left and describe themselves as liberal or progressive) might recognize that they are stronger when they have more allies and weaker when they go out of their way to dismiss or alienate like-minded persons. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.

Austin Cline wrote a thought-provoking post on the subject of progressives marginalizing atheists (update: link no longer active). As someone who is both a progressive (or at least a liberal) and an atheist, I read it with great interest. And having been on the receiving end of this sort of treatment by a few on the left, it certainly rang true to me.

In the U.S., we have all seen how this scenario happens again and again. Conservatives constantly attack liberals and progressives, in part by suggesting that there is a link between liberalism and atheism. Of course, what they don't say is that they maintain this relationship by exploiting public misunderstanding about the meaning of secularism and making the demonization of atheists a central part of their position.

5.16.2011

Why Doesn't Pascal's Wager Apply to Christians Too?

But what if you are wrong about God?
Gate of hellYou've undoubtedly heard this question from Christians many times. They begin a conversation by assuming that you believe in their god. You correct them, explaining that you do not. They then ask you this question, determined to show you the error of your ways. They point out that if you are wrong about their god, you will be tortured forever in their hell.

Eventually, they'll get around to some version of Pascal's Wager (i.e., the idea that you should believe in their god to protect yourself in case you end up being wrong). These Christians do not seem to realize that there are at least two serious problems with this argument.

5.04.2011

We Cannot Rely on the Churches to Provide Public Assistance

Church

Conservative politicians generally seem to agree that the government should not be in the business of providing any sort of assistance to unemployed or impoverished Americans. Let the churches do that, they say. By shifting this burden from the government to the faith-based sector, they aim to relieve the wealthiest 2% of most of their already minimal tax burden and shrink the size of government (at least in certain areas to which they are ideologically opposed).

But look at what happens if we let this scenario play out. The public has to count on churches to provide the safety net. These are the same churches the conservative politicians have been working hard to free from any sort of regulations about who they hire and who they may choose to help. Aid comes with strings attached once churches are so freed. The government cannot legally discriminate when they provide public assistance, but churches would have few such constraints. If they could make providing assistance contingent on conversion, some would undoubtedly do so. If you needed help, you'd need to let them "save" you.

Being a fiscal conservative who prefers a smaller government is one thing; supporting policies that would require the needy to grovel before the churches to receive aid is something else entirely. It seems like a plan designed to bypass the wall between church and state. Needless to say, it is not something we should welcome in a secular democracy if we would like it to remain a secular democracy. We need effective public assistance (not to mention secular public education) from the government precisely because that is the only way we can prevent this sort of thing from happening. If they have taught us one thing countless times, it is that we cannot rely on the churches to provide effective public assistance without discrimination or proselytizing.

5.01.2011

The Right Kind of Islam

Some of my posts are inspired by hours - even days - of introspection and reflection. Others are sparked by mere seconds of exposure to something interesting. This is one of the latter, prompted by a brief snippet of a discussion on BBC radio I heard this morning.

A Muslim woman was commenting about how someone "practiced the right kind of Islam." Because it was so brief, I don't have any context for this statement. Nevertheless, it stuck with me. Is there a "right kind of Islam?"

Islam