Diary of an Irreligious Kid

The other night, I was coming home from the movie theater with my 6th grade son after having watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid (cute movie). Somehow the conversation turned to a discussion he had recently had with a boy at school over the existence of God. I don't know how the topic arose between the two boys as my son did not provide those details. However, according to him, this was the verbatim conversation:

R (my son): "I don't mean to offend you, or to say that one of us is any more right than the other, but I don't believe in God." (and I can't believe he was that polite, but I guess he wanted to keep his friend)

J (other boy): "How can you not believe in God?"

R: "What proof do you have that God exists?"

J: "Food, life, heaven, hell...If you don't believe in God, you'll go down to hell when you die."

R: "Dude, I'm already in hell. It's called school, the bus, other kids and geography class with Burgos the Devil. Seriously though, Hell is just a place made up by some guy to frighten Christians into being good...and you can't expect me to believe that some other guy got a message from God and wrote a book called the Bible." (I think he might've confused Christianity with Islam on this one & might need a refresher course in basic belief systems of the major religions.)

J: "If you don't believe in God, you must not believe in food." (huh?)

R: "Obviously, I believe in food because I'm eating it right now. What I don't believe in is an invisible guy in the sky that there is no evidence for. I have my own free will and I can believe what I want. I think maybe we should just agree that we have different opinions and change the subject."


Needless to say, while I have not deliberately attempted to raise atheist children (it goes against my core anti-indoctrination philosophy), there is no doubt that they have been influenced by the beliefs/nonbeliefs of their parents and our very academic treatment of all things religious. All in all though, I have to admit to feeling a bit proud of the way he handled the situation, (i.e., trying not to come off as self-righteous or adversarial, yet standing up for his beliefs) as those are tricky enough waters to navigate as an adult, let alone as an 11-year-old.

As a quick aside though, while I was writing this, I was consulting with my 6th grader over the finer points of the conversation when his younger brother came in and decided to join the conversation. Apparently in his belief system, God did exist at one time, but now he is dead...Perhaps the atheists killed him.  

Sunday Morning Funnies

Science Can Answer Moral Questions

I found this short talk by Sam Harris to be rather well done. He includes some interesting support for the idea that there is or should be no such thing as moral relativity...something that Fundamentalists seem to unanimously agree upon in theory...although Mr. Harris' basis for this assertion (that morality can be derived from fact/science) couldn't be more different from that of religious fundamentalists.



Quote of the Day:


"There is no pestilence in a state like a zeal for religion, independent of morality."


--Jeremy Bentham

Atheist Humor--Part 4: More Signs of the Times

Ok...I admit to feeling a bit ornery today.

Not all church signs require words to get the message across. (You might have to look a bit more closely at this one to get the point.)

Anyone still wondering why the Vatican has such a problem with clergy-related pedophilia?

The Psychoanalytical Foundations of Atheism (or...It's All Your Dad's Fault You're an Atheist)

While searching the web for some funny atheist humor with which to tag my friends, I came across this article (see below). As a person with a graduate-level background in psychology, I was particularly fascinated with the way this "Christian Philosopher" explained how people become atheists. All I can say is...Freud would have a fit if he was alive today!! Enjoy! :)

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100318/christian-philosopher-explores-causes-of-atheism/index.html

Quotes of the Day:

"The God-Creator is openly called Father. Psychoanalysis concludes that he really is the father, clothed in the grandeur in which he once appeared to the small child.... The emotional strength of this memory-image and the lasting nature of his need for protection are the two supports for [the religious man's] belief in God."

"Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing the personal one."

--Sigmund Freud

Two Mass-ive Scandals for the Vatican

The following Daily Show clip illustrates quite clearly (yet again), the utter hypocrisy, foolishness, and danger posed by this titan of religious organizations. How is it that followers so willingly accept that their spiritual leader is infallible when practices that he  condones (or at the very least does not act upon) violate not only the same religious dogma he represents and to which he demands adherence, but also violate nearly universal standards for moral/ethical behavior?

For my part, I could care less about what consenting adults do behind closed doors--with or without pay--but I have a major problem with adults behaving in the same way with children.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-march-16-2010/holy-sh-t

Quote of the Day:

"Of all possible sexual perversions, religion is the only one to have been scientifically systematized."

--Louis Aragon

U.S. History, Texas-style

Recently, the Huffington Post ran an article about the latest round of public school textbook standards adoption controversy occurring in the state of Texas. Apparently, the ultra right-wing Christian conservatives on the board overseeing the standards for that state have made it their personal mission to rewrite American history, government, and even economics to suit their own factually distorted, religious worldviews.

The reason I bother to pass this information on, despite the fact that I do not live in Texas or have children who will attend the public schools there, is that as the largest consumer of public school textbooks in the country, what happens to textbooks and/or curricular standards in Texas influences textbooks/curricula for the rest of the country. To see what changes have been initially approved by the Board, follow the link below. It's enough to knock the powder right out of your wig.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html#s73775

Quote of the Day:

"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States...practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government is essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States."

--James Madison