11.28.2012

Responding to False Claims

Beware of false claimsAs a teacher, I spend much of my time providing corrective feedback to students who make mistakes. This may involve something simple like helping them write a sentence so it more clearly expresses their thought, or it may involve something as complex as helping them challenge long-held but incorrect assumptions about the world. Responding to false statements with the goal of changing minds is a core part of what I must do in this role.

Since I started Atheist Revolution in 2005, one conflict that has haunted me more than any other has involved how (or if) to respond to the category of false claims that are made with the goal of manufacturing controversy or getting attention (e.g., the "war on Christmas," everything that comes out of Ann Coulter's mouth). As will be obvious to most readers, I have landed on the side of responding, sometimes with mockery when I believe it is warranted. Again and again, I have called out false claims. It would probably be accurate to say that I have written as many posts doing this here as any other type.

And yet, one thought has always been in the back of my mind as I have done so:
Am I making a mistake by calling attention to this? Am I falling for a form of troll-bait? Am I really just giving publicity to someone who does not deserve it? Instead of responding, should I be ignoring more of this stuff?

11.25.2012

Claims Can Be Questioned

The Believing Brain

I don't have nearly as much time for reading as I would like to these days, but I was reading Michael Shermer's The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths last night and it made me realize something about my own journey to atheism that I'd like to share here.

For those who are not familiar with Shermer, he's a very interesting guy. Despite being raised in a non-religious family, he became a born-again Christian and did the evangelical thing for several years. It sounds like he took it quite seriously and sought to share his Jesus with as many people as possible. Fortunately for us, he discovered skepticism along the way to becoming an experimental psychologist. He became an atheist and has been an influential figure in the skeptical movement ever since.

11.23.2012

Have You Been Possessed By Sexual Demons?

South park

I may be what you'd consider an adult, but I rarely miss a new episode of South Park. My friends and I continue to talk about it and quote it to each other (and yes, we do realize how annoying that is). Well, perhaps I should note that it is only my male friends who do this. Sadly, I still have not found a woman who will admit loving South Park like I do. But that is another post.

One of my favorite things about the show is how thoroughly they mock nearly every belief system. I have to remind myself periodically while watching that there are actually people who believe the things they are mocking, even the really absurd ones.

Credibility in the Atheist Community

credibility

Given sufficient time, I think we can expect every community of any size to exhibit signs of some sort of hierarchy. Some gain reputation and status in the community, even if they are merely symbolic in nature. Leaders and followers emerge, with most of us falling leading some and following others. Few of us put much thought into this process as it happens, but that does not seem to stop it from happening.

The components of reputation and status vary from community-to-community. One's seniority might be highly advantageous in one community and perceived as a liability in another. In the atheist community, I think one important aspect of reputation and status might involve credibility. Whether you are thinking about a blogger, a speaker, or an activist, credibility is probably one of the attributes you value.

11.20.2012

'Are You Saved?' Is a Silly Question

Are you saved

Time and time again, I have heard from Christians that all I have to do in order to be "saved" is accept their Jesus as my "savior." This appears to be Christianspeak for believing in Jesus. They present some version of Pascal's wager in an effort to convince me that even if I don't believe in heaven and hell, I should believe in Jesus in case I'm wrong. All I need to do to curry favor with their god and protect myself against the possibility of hell is believe in Jesus like they do. That sounds simple enough. But does belief really work like this? Can you or I simply start believing in something in which we do not believe?

When asked whether they could voluntarily accept theism, most of the atheists I have asked say "no." Believing in Jesus may sound easy for someone who already does so, but it does not strike me as something I could do even if I wanted to. I could certainly fake it, but that would be about the best I could do. The Jesus stuff lacks the evidence and the emotional resonance that could lead me to belief.

11.19.2012

Catholic Church Defends Convicted Child Molesters

Pope ShameCan you imagine the uproar that would result if the public learned that a charitable organization had been paying the legal fees of repeat sex offenders who perpetrate against children? I'm not talking about criminal defendants accused of molesting children but those who had been convicted multiple times.

At a minimum, donors would be outraged, and donations would abruptly halt. Those who had previously supported such an organization would take pains to distance themselves from it, and the public image of the organization would take a beating from which it might never recover. We can be fairly confident that all of this would happen…unless the organization involved was the Catholic Church.

11.17.2012

Atheists, We Are Costing People Eternal Life

angry computer user

Write an atheist blog, and you will receive your share of interesting email from Christians. Here is the latest:

It is my opinion that your useless propaganda is costing people eternal life in heaven with Jesus. It is my belief that NONE OF YOU HAVE ANY CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. You may not believe in God but when you die there is beyond a shadow of any doubt whatsoever that you will stand before God and be judged. Period. I dare and CHALLENGE YOU TO TAKE THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE AND PROVE. THERE IS NO GOD. I DARE YOU TO DISPROVE THE BIBLE. I DARE YOU. YOU WILL NEVER CONTACT ME BECAUSE YOU KNOW I AM RIGHT. God is real and there is nothing you can do about it. Unless you are afraid of my challenge I DARE you to email me proof that there is no God.....which you could NEVER DO AND IN RETURN I WILL SHOW YOU IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE THAT God is indeed real and show you just how much God loves you.

11.15.2012

Christianity and the Paths to Delusion

Jesus

Of the various paths one must be willing to take in order to end up at Christianity, I find one more puzzling than the others. What do I mean by the paths one must take to arrive at Christianity? I am referring to the various "leaps of faith" one must take to reach something approximating what modern Christians claim to believe. I see three central paths, which must be traveled in order (i.e., the first is foundational to the second; the first and second are foundational to the third).

  1. Some sort of god exists.
  2. The sort of god that exists is personally interested and involved in the affairs of humanity at the present time.
  3. Jesus lived, died, and returned from the dead, all for you.

An Obligation to Challenge Stupidity

christopher hitchens on stupidityThe first time I heard this quote, I really liked it. I'm not a fan of apathy, and this quote seemed like a perfect reminder of the importance of acting to address the wrongs around us. I still like the quote, but I recognize that it could be misused as a license to be an asshole.

I agree completely with what it says about unfairness, and I would add cruelty to the list. When faced with unfairness or cruelty, we should not remain silent. We should act. What I'm not so sure about anymore is the inclusion of "stupidity" in the list. I don't know about you, but if I spoke out or took action every time I was confronted by stupidity, it would be all I'd have time to do. Like most of you, I do not have the luxury of making a living as a social critic and provocateur.

11.11.2012

Veterans Day

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day in the United States. It is an occasion where we extend our gratitude to those who have served our country in the armed forces. It is a day to honor their commitment and sacrifice.

These are worthy activities, and yet, we would be remiss in not doing something beyond paying lip service to these ideals. When we see that the same political party that pushes "strong national defense" at every opportunity has been calling for cuts to Veterans' benefits, we owe it to our Veterans to shine a spotlight on it. Supporting our Veterans should be one of those rare priorities with real bipartisan support.

With this in mind, I'd like to suggest that we take a moment to do three things today:

  1. Give some thought to the costs of war and recognize that U.S. involvement in various wars comes at a high price, not merely in the form of taking funds away from every other way we might use them (e.g., healthcare, infrastructure, education) but also to the young men and women fighting and dying;
  2. Pledge that we will continue to pressure our elected officials to support funding for Veterans' services so that our Veterans will receive the assistance they have earned; and
  3. Support the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and their efforts to defend the rights of secular men and women in uniform from those seeking to promote Christian extremism in this context.

11.09.2012

Atheists and Interfaith Dialogue

Faitheist

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the most positive associations with interfaith coalitions. While I would not deny that a diverse coalition of various religious groups can accomplish some good, it seems that these coalitions often exclude atheists, humanists, and other secular groups from participating. I realize that these groups are not faith-based, but I wonder if their exclusion somewhat defeats the point of the coalition.

Moreover, I do not believe the U.S. government has any business funding or promoting interfaith work as the Obama administration has done. Doing so strikes me as an unacceptable violation of church-state separation. Our government has no business promoting any religiosity, and this includes interfaith organizations and coalitions.

Religion Dispatches posted an interesting interview with Chris Stedman about his new book, Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious. If you have heard of Stedman, you probably know that his is one of the few atheist voices calling for atheists to be more involved in interfaith work alongside religious believers.

In explaining what led him to write the book, Stedman writes,

I wrote Faitheist because, as I started doing interfaith work, I noticed that there was a paucity of nonreligious people involved. At the same time, I started to explore the atheist movement. I noticed that my colleagues in the interfaith movement were quite connected to their own communities, and I was studying religious communities as a graduate student, so I wanted to see how atheist communities functioned. Frankly, I was a bit astonished by what I found. I noticed right away that one of the only unifying characteristics among many people in attendance at atheist meetings was that many maintained a very strong disdain for religion—one that often carried over into a strong disdain for religious believers.

11.08.2012

Ignorance, Laziness, or Something Else?

ignorance

I found this image on Facebook, and it got me thinking. For many of us, information on nearly any subject is only a few keystrokes away. This is particularly true when it comes to "how to" advice. For example, when my 3.5 year-old Android phone stopped working, I described the problem I was experiencing in Google and found an effective step-by-step solution in an Internet forum dedicated to the aging device. Problem solved. I didn't want to buy a new phone, and I didn't have to.

With the amount of information available and the ease with which it can be accessed, there does seem to be a bit of merit in the suggestion that ignorance may be a choice. Except that I'm not sure what we're really talking about is ignorance. I think it might be laziness. I'm always helping my co-workers with various computer-related problems even though doing so is not even close to being part of my job. "How do you know so much about this stuff?" I show them where I find the solution to their problem and how easy it was to find. And yet, they rarely bother to look for themselves. Is this ignorance or laziness?

11.06.2012

Obstacles to Atheist Activism: Apathy

ApathyIf you missed the introduction to this series, you might want to read it first.

In the context of atheist activism, I think you'll agree that apathy is one of the biggest challenges we face. That is, one important obstacle to successful activism by a few is the lack of interest of the many. This appears to be true of any activist effort, so I see little reason why movement atheism should be any different.

Apathy is absolutely toxic to activism in that it undermines organization, enthusiasm, and other critical components of activist efforts. It saps the energy of those in an activist movement, making them feel less and less connected to the larger community. But most of all, apathy guarantees that we will never reach our potential.

11.05.2012

Many Americans Still Believe in Demonic Possession

Demonic possession

This time of year, virtually everything one hears about polls inevitable concerns politics. Fortunately, this is not the only kind of polls being conducted. Public Policy Polling had an interesting one the day before Halloween in which they asked registered U.S. voters a number of questions about their plans for Halloween and their beliefs regarding various Halloween-related phenomena.

Some of the highlights from the poll included:

  • 37% believe in ghosts, and 26% claim they have seen one
  • 52% believe houses can be haunted
  • 57% think people can be possessed by demons

The finding about demonic possession was the one I found most interesting. And by interesting, I mean absolutely terrifying that people can still believe this garbage these days. I say this not merely because we live in an age of science but because the belief in possession has caused so much suffering for so many people.

When the finding was split by respondents' political identity (of which there were apparently only two choices provided), 68% of Republicans and 49% of Democrats indicated that they believe in demonic possession. That difference was not nearly as large as I would have predicted, but it is a potent reminder that irrationality and superstition remain widespread and are not limited to those with certain political leanings.

What is the take-home message from surveys like this? Perhaps the briefest way to sum it up would be to note that it reflects a sad failure to apply skepticism. Along with continuing to facilitate the erosion of faith, I cannot help thinking that we desperately need to improve our system of public education. Critical thinking, skepticism, and the scientific method are areas of necessary improvement. These are not skills with which people are born, but they can be taught and practiced. This is more than an academic exercise; these beliefs are impacting people in unfortunate ways.

11.04.2012

When Mississippi Christians Are Compelled to Bless Strangers

God Bless You

During a recent trip to the grocery store, the young male cashier who checked me out said something unusual as we completed our transaction. While nearly everyone else with whom I've interacted at this store says something like, "Thank you. Have a good day," this particular employee said, "Bless you." Given that I was at a grocery store and not in church, I found this odd. This person was a cashier and not an identifiable member of any recognized clergy. Did he really presume to have the power to bless me or to ask some sort of a god to do so?

It does not seem to matter how long I live in Mississippi; this sort of thing captures my attention each and every time it happens. I have not habituated to it or any of the other religion-infused statements often directed at me. Not only do I still notice them, but they often leave me in stunned silence wondering whether I heard the speaker correctly. In this particular area, my "culture shock" continues.

11.01.2012

Are the Boy Scouts Trying to Emulate the Catholic Church?

Andy joke Catholic Boy ScoutsBack in February, I wrote about the pressure many of us receive in our places of employment to donate to religious charities. I noted that my employer, which happens to be the state government, pushes us to donate to our local United Way chapter. The local United Way chapter then distributes the funds to local chapters of the Salvation Army, Boy Scouts, and a mission that promotes Christian bible study. Needless to say, I do not donate to this agency no matter how much pressure I face to do so. I've also managed to inform a few co-workers about how this works so that they too are refusing to donate.

Now I have yet another reason to offer besides my standard line about not being interested in supporting religiously-motivated bigotry. It appears that the Boy Scouts of America have not been much better than the Catholic Church when it comes to handling matters of child sexual abuse.

I understand that no organization is going to be eager to broadcast something that makes them look bad. At the same time, I would think that a group focused on children would want to do everything it could to show that it was taking child abuse seriously and making the protection of children its highest priority. The Boy Scouts already has an awful record when it comes to discrimination. I sincerely hope that they improve the manner in which they handle child abuse.