Atheists/Agnostics Know More About Bible Than Believers

I think the headline here should come as no surprise to many non-believers. After all, a great number of us come to atheism/agnosticism through our study of religion and the Bible. It's just nice to see actual data on a phenomenon that has always been something of an intuitive certainty.

Click on the link below to see the brief NPR article discussing the results of the Pew survey.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130191248&sc=fb&cc=fp

Quote of the Day:

"It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity."

--Abraham Lincoln

Richard Dawkins Speaks at the "Protest the Pope" Rally in London

I don't think the 'Protest the Pope' rally in London got much exposure here in the States, so I thought I'd post the brilliant speech of Britain's "most famous atheist" given at the rally. In it, Dawkins addresses the charges made by the Pope that atheists are responsible for 20th century villains such as Hitler, and levels a few in return at Ratzinger and the RCC as well.

To Offend or Not to Offend, That is the Question

I wish I would have had my camera with me this morning on the way to work. There is a fundamentalist church (whose signs I have posted photos of before) boasting this little nugget of wisdom on their marquee:

"The purpose of the Christian life is to fulfill the Master's will."

If I'm not mistaken, that was also the purpose of the slave's life.

As if I didn't already have a pretty good understanding of how slavery was justified by the majority of Southern Christians prior to and during the Civil War, and how obedience was sold to the slaves through the medium of religion, that sentence alone really hammered the point home.

I find this mindset both obnoxious and frightening. The master/slave dichotomy has no place in a free, secular society.

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On the way home from work, I had a different type of experience. While waiting through 2 cycles of a stoplight, I quickly updated my facebook status with a flippant comment about a bumper sticker I saw on the car in front of me. It was a sticker for a local Christian school in town, whose mascot is a lion. My smart-ass remark went something like this:

"Anyone else find it ironic that a Xtian school has a lion for a mascot? Apparently someone did not think that through completely."

Later on, I found that I had apparently offended a couple of my Christian friends. Punctuated with exclamation points and question marks, one friend replied "Lion of Judah!!??!?" and another with "Aslan?"

Now, I have to sheepishly admit, I found the idea of Aslan being the mascot rather appealing. I mean, yes, Narnia was nothing but a big old Christian metaphor, with Aslan filling the role of God, but if I was going to create a deity or mascot, what better one than a big, regal, rideable, child-loving lion? Of course, as I explained in my reply, I didn't think Aslan was the reason for the lion mascot.

As to the Lion of Judah, I also have to confess that that particular metaphor did not cross my mind at all as I was sitting at that light. I was more focused on the idea of lions in the book of Daniel, or the lions of Rome to whom many Christians were more-or-less sacrificed for sport. It was with this in mind that I dashed off what I thought was a witty, if a bit snarky, comment. After all, who would want a Christian-eating lion as the mascot of a Christian school, right?

Unfortunately, I did have to concede (on FB anyway) that my friend was probaly correct with his Lion of Judah interpretation. In my defense though, during my own Christian upbringing, although I was familiar with the Jesus as lion metaphor, it was the metaphor of Jesus as lamb that was emphasized, and with which I was most familiar. Who knew that I'd be able to offend Christians with their own simultaneously contradictory metaphors? After all, it's not like I questioned the wisdom of leaving the Lamb of God alone with the Lion of Judah (which would be a truly blasphemous mixing of the metaphors)!

I suppose that is the point of this whole little story (if there is such a point). Christians find it so easy to get offended when their own religious doctrine offers so much contradiction that almost any silly comment made without intent to offend is bound to ruffle somebody's feathers.

As a sidenote, I also find it absurd that religious believers find it necessary to defend their god from irreverent and flippant commenters such as myself in the first place. I really just want to say, "If I've insulted God, I'm sure he'll let me know. After all, look at what he did to Job...and Job was a righteous man." So far, God's been pretty mum on the whole thing, which leads me to conclude that he obviously has a much better sense of humor than those Christian soldiers who feel compelled to defend his honor.

Finally, Some Hope for America!

Finally, something to celebrate! Sometimes it's difficult to feel optimisitic about the direction the US is heading when our headlines are filled with stories about obscure, fundamentalist cult leaders burning holy books, we find pundits promoting their religio-political agendas on prime time television, or see high profile elected officials spouting ignorant garbage about the "evils" of stem-cell research.

This brief segment at least provides some hope that the flame of the Enlightenment won't be completely extinguished any time real soon; that the values of freethought and skepticism might one day light even the darkest corners of Louisiana. (cue inspirational music)



Quote of the Day:

"Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too."

--Heinrich Heine

Rowan Atkinson in 'We are most amused'

This is just too darn funny on its own for any additional commentary from me.

Richard Dawkins: Faith School Menace

This week, a television documentary entitled 'Faith School Menace?' aired in the UK. Thanks to YouTube, the video is available to us here in the US. It is quite interesting to note that, according to data presented in the documentary, one-third of state funded schools in the UK are "faith schools," which is, of course, what has Dr. Dawkins concerned. In the US, our government doesn't explicitly fund religious private schools, however, through a system of 'faith-based initiatives' and 'school choice' (i.e., private school tuition vouchers), there is also de facto funding being provided by tax-payers to religious schools here in the States. Therefore, many of the issues raised by this documentary apply just as easily to our own secular nation.



Quote of the Day:

"Are faith schools better? Surely God isn't helping pupils with exams."

--Richard Dawkins

A Godless Heathen's Love Affair with a Dead Scientist

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon some videos put out by Symphony of Science, which include several very well-done musical tributes to Carl Sagan and other prominent scientists, as well as the contributions of science itself. (My personal favorite right now is entitled 'We Are All Connected' and features Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Feynman, and Bill Nye. You can check out all of them at the Symphony of Science website linked above.)

Many of the images in the videos were taken directly from Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos. Watching these moving videos stirred vague memories from my childhood of having seen Cosmos before, at least in part, and piqued my interest in experiencing it from start to finish.

Thank goodness for public libraries! At the beginning of the summer, I was fortunate to find that my library had one complete, 13-episode set of Cosmos on DVD and it was immediately available for check-out. From the moment that haunting theme music started and the word Cosmos appeared on the screen, I was hooked. And even though the "look" of the show and many of the special effects are dated, (my kids and I got a good giggle out of the fashions of the day---can anyone say terry cloth, tube socks and afros?), the scientific information was interesting (and surprisingly, little in need of updating) and the timeless humanist message struck such a resonant chord that I don't even remember how many times I found myself choked up or teary-eyed.  

By the end of the first episode, it was pretty clear that I was completely and utterly in love with Carl Sagan.


Like any respectable love-sick fool, I wanted to know more about the object of my affection. Fortunately, when your beloved is a world-reknowned scientist and public figure, it's not hard to find information. I watched clips from old interviews and television appearances, began reading his books, and even downloaded the movie Contact from Netflix and watched it with the family. (I think it should be fairly obvious that I've got a bad case of Saganitis.)

Anyway, in my quest for knowledge about Carl, the first book of his that I chose to read was 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'. As a godless heathen, I figured it would be a comfortable place to start getting to know him better. I couldn't have been more right.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring," he states in the first chapter (p. 12).

Well, that about sums up my worldview.

At the beginning of chapter 2, I nearly wept when I read the following:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time--when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness (p. 25).

How could he have known that I worry about the same basic things today?

Despite being an astronomer and astrophysicist (or maybe because of his profession), it's quite evident that however much time he spent gazing up at the stars, Carl Sagan's feet were quite firmly planted here on Earth. How could anyone NOT love Carl Sagan? Everything that I have learned about him points me to the conclusion that he was (is) the epitomy of the scientific humanist (or is it humanistic scientist?), an incurable optimist, and a hell of a great man.

{Completely Irrelevant Sidenote: If there was an award for "Sexiest Mouth on a Scientist" my vote would definitely go to Sagan. I just love to watch him talk. Ann Druyan was one very lucky woman!}

Quote of the Day:

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

--Carl Sagan