Why the discussion of religion is so important.

I often get blowback for my "attacks" on religion.

Those attacks of course are often simply a post about the lack of historic evidence or the ignorance of accepting things without a factual basis to support their existence.

However as I often suggest there is probably no more important topic to openly discuss, argue, and examine than the impact of religion in the world today.

For instance the case can be made that much of terrorism is fueled by religious fanaticism.

It also holds true that much of our current prejudices stem from a religious origin.

The same is of course true of sexism, after all patriarchal ideals are pervasive throughout the Old Testament.

And perhaps most currently impactful is that blind faith also opens one up to the kinds of manipulations that served the Russians so well when they interfered in our last presidential election.

Yes, I am suggesting that religious faith is a large part of the reason that we have Donald Trump as our president.

So yes, openly discussing religion is quite, quite important.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Rabbis warn that a university education is "dangerous" for young women.

Courtesy of the Independent:  

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis have banned women from going to university, The Independent has learned. 

The strict Satmar sect issued the decree, seen by The Independent, warning that university education for women is “dangerous”. Written in Yiddish, the decree warns: “It has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education. Some attend classes and others online. And so we’d like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah. 

“We will be very strict about this. No girls attending our school are allowed to study and get a degree. It is dangerous. Girls who will not abide will be forced to leave our school. Also, we will not give any jobs or teaching position in the school to girls who’ve been to college or have a degree. 

"We have to keep our school safe and we can’t allow any secular influences in our holy environment. It is against the base upon which our Mosed was built.”

The day that becoming more educated threatens your belief system, that is the day that you need to change your belief system.

You know I spend a lot of time going after Christianity here on IM.

But the main reason that I single out that particular religion is because it is the one whose negative effects we feel the most strongly here in America, and that one that negatively impacts our politics and education.

Trust me when I say I have the same disdain for ALL religions which argue against both men and women learning more about the world and universe which surrounds us.

And that certainly includes Judaism Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, and even some forms of Buddhism. (Yes, I realize there are other religions, but I don't have all day to list them all.)

If I have any belief at all it is that as human beings it is our right and our responsibility to learn as much as we can and to help push forward the limits of human understanding.

If any religion interferes with that, then it is undermining who we are as sentient beings.

Supporters of Catholic school basketball team chant "You killed Jesus" at Jewish opposing team members.

Courtesy of the National Post:  

An ugly thing happened at a high school basketball game in a suburb of Boston on Friday night. 

It occurred at a division title game between the all-boys Catholic Memorial School and the public Newton North High School, which has a large Jewish community of students. The game was held at Newton South High School, where an estimated 100 young men sitting in the student section cheering for Catholic Memorial shouted, “You killed Jesus, you killed Jesus,” according to several witnesses who asked not to be identified. Most of those chanting fans wore red shirts as a display of support for their team. Some of the witnesses, who were Jewish, said they found the chant alarming. 

One spectator who was shaken by the events — and who asked not to be identified — is a native of Skokie, Illinois, where in the mid-1970s, a controversy erupted when neo-Nazis wanted to march through the heavily Jewish town. Skokie officials tried to stop it but lost the case in court. This spectator, whose parents are survivors of World War II concentration camps, said, “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I just can’t believe it.”

Nothing like religion to bring people together, don't you think?

Apparently Bernie Sanders and I share the same religion. Update!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

"Every great religion in the world -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism --essentially comes to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you," he said during CNN's Democratic town hall event on Tuesday night. 

Though Sanders was raised Jewish and believes in God, he identifies as a secular rather than a religious Jew. He doesn't often address his religion, and The New York Times notes that he sometimes even shies away from using the term "Jewish." 

But asked about his faith on Tuesday, he boiled it down to the belief that "we have got to work together." 

"It's very easy to turn our backs on kids who are hungry or veterans who are sleeping on the street, but I believe that what human nature is about is that everybody in this room impacts everybody else in all kinds of ways that we can't understand." he said. "That's my religion. That's what I believe in."

You know that's also what I believe in.

I obviously would not characterize it as my religion, but it is my philosophy.

I have to admit this is the answer concerning religion that I have been waiting to hear from a presidential candidate, and it is like music to my ears.

However having said that, it is also yet another reason why Sanders is unlikely to win a general election.

For all intents and purposes Bernie has just outed himself as an Atheist, more or less. And NOBODY is more reviled and mistrusted in this country than Atheists.

Christians especially are terrified of those who do not identify as religious, believing that morality is impossible without an all encompassing belief in God.

Preferably their god.

So even though Bernie Sanders has lived an incredibly ethical and honest life, the mere fact that he refuses to identify as religious, or let's face it Christian, makes winning the presidency a fantasy.

And believe me, probably nobody wishes that were less true than I.

Update: For those doubting my premise about the mistrust felt toward Atheists:   

Social science has long revealed high rates of secularphobia – the irrational dislike, distrust, fear, or hatred of nonreligious people – within American society. For example, a study by Penny Edgell of the University of Minnesota, from back in 2006, found that atheists come in last place when Americans are asked to rank members of certain racial, ethnic, or religious groups as potential spouses for their kids. And a Gallup poll from 2012 found that 43 pecent of Americans said that they would not vote for an atheist for president, putting atheists in last/worst place, behind Muslims (40 percent of Americans said they wouldn’t vote for a Muslim for president), homosexuals (30 percent wouldn’t), Mormons (18 percent wouldn’t), Latinos (7 percent wouldn’t), Jews (6 percent wouldn’t), Catholics (5 percent wouldn’t), women (5 percent wouldn’t) and African Americans (4 percent wouldn’t). 

Additionally, psychology professor Adrian Furnham found that people give lower priority to patients with atheist or agnostic views than to Christian patients when asked to rank them on a waiting list to receive a kidney, and legal scholar Eugene Volokh has documented the degree to which atheist parents have been denied custody rights in the wake of a divorce.

THAT is why no national politician in America will actually cop to being an Atheist, though in my opinion Bernie comes the closest.

I have read other interviews with him where he is even more blunt that belief in God plays virtually no part in his day to day life, nor on his political point of view.

Conversation between Richard Dawkins and biblical scholar Dr. John Huddlestun essentially destroys Christian mythology.

Over thirty minutes long, but well worth your time to listen. Unless of course you like you biblical mythology to remain undisturbed.

I remember back in the 1980's when I first started to learn that the facts uncovered by biblical scholars completely refuted claims made in the Bible.

Even though I was already a non-believer I have to admit that I was stunned by the fact that essentially EVERYTHING in the book is revealed as false by the facts.

I think the two that stunned me the most, was first that the Egyptians did not keep Jewish slaves, and therefore the Exodus of the Old Testament is pure fiction, and second that in the early stages of Judaism there were multiple gods and not one all powerful god.

Remember Christians today are taught that the Jews ALWAYS worshiped the one true God, and that the story of Adam and Eve is revealed truth that has been passed down since the beginning of time.

And all of that is pure biblical bullshit.

Fundie Filters.

My favorite part:

Warning: side-effects may include racism, crusades, intolerance, self-delusion, self-righteousness, xenophobia, luddism,  misogyny, irrational fears, false prophets, idolatry, President Jeb Bush.

Ain't that the truth!

(H/T to The Friendly Atheist.)

Boise woman tries to convert Jewish friend by stomping on her neck. Must make Jesus proud.

Courtesy of KTVB:  

A Boise woman is facing felony charges after police say she attacked a Jewish acquaintance, stomping on the woman's neck as part of a bizarre bid to convert her to Christianity. 

Margurite Dawn Haragan, 58, has been charged with two counts of malicious harassment in an attack police have labeled a hate crime. 

Prosecutors say the incident started when Haragan showed up at the victim's home Feb. 5. It's not clear how the two women know each other. 

"The defendant was banging on the front window yelling at her that she better believe in Jesus and she was not going to leave until she did believe in Jesus," Ada County Prosecutor Dave Rothcheck said. He said the victim, identified in court only as "A.G.," opened her door to tell Haragan to leave and to write down her license plate number. 

That's when the suspect slapped her in the face and dragged her to the ground by her hair, Roscheck said. 

"The defendant began kicking the victim in the stomach and thigh area," he said. "During this time the defendant was screaming at the victim that she better accept Jesus or she would not let up."

I must have skipped that part after the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus waded into the crowd and started bitch slapping them toward salvation. 

So I guess it's not JUST Muslims who will kick your ass for not converting to their faith.

Good to know.

Do religions cause violent behavior. No. Do they provide a convenient excuse for violence? Oh hell yeah!

Courtesy of Salon:  

With the possible exception of Buddhism, the world’s most powerful religions give wildly contradictory messages about violence. The Christian Bible is full of exhortations to kindness, compassion, humility, mercy and justice. It is also full of exhortations to stoning, burning, slavery, torture, and slaughter. If the Bible were law, most people you know would qualify for the death penalty. The same can be said of the Quran. The same can be said of the Torah. Believers who claim that Islam or Christianity or Judaism is a religion of peace are speaking a half-truth—and a naive falsehood. 

The human inclination toward peacemaking or violence exists on a continuum. Happy, healthy people who are inherently inclined toward peacemaking focus on sacred texts and spiritual practices that encourage peace. Those who are bitter, angry, fearful or prone to self-righteousness are attracted to texts that sanction violence and teachers who encourage the same. People along the middle of this continuum can be drawn in either direction by charismatic religious leaders who selectively focus on one or the other. 

Each person’s individual violence risk is shaped by a host of factors: genetics, early learning, health, culture, social networks, life circumstances, and acute triggers. To blame any act of violence on religion alone is as silly as blaming an act of violence on guns or alcohol. But to deny that religion plays a role is as silly as denying that alcohol and guns play a role. It is to pretend that religions are inert, that our deepest values and beliefs about reality and morality have no impact on our behavior. From a psychological standpoint, religions often put a god’s name on impulses that have subconscious, pre-verbal roots. They elicit peak experiences like mystic euphoria, dominance, submission, love and joy. They claim credit for the moral emotions (e.g. shame, guilt, disgust and empathy) that incline us toward fair play and altruism, and they direct these emotions toward specific persons or activities. In a similar way, religions elicit and channel protective reactions like anger and fear, the emotions most likely to underlie violence.

.....

Despite the fact that violence is repeatedly endorsed in sacred texts, most Christians, Muslims and Jews never commit acts of violence in the service of their religion. Similarly, millions of people consume alcohol without insulting, hitting, kicking, stabbing or shooting anyone. Most of us are peaceful drinkers and peaceful believers. Yet, statistically we know that without alcohol assaults would be less common. So too, we all know that when suicide bombings happen, or blasphemers and apostates are condemned to die, or a rape victim is stoned to death, Islam is likely to be involved. And when we hear that an obstetrics doctor has been shot or a gay teen beaten and left for dead, or a U.S. president has announced a “crusade”, we know that Christianity was likely a part of the mix.

I have essentially been saying this very thing for years.

We keep hearing that we get our morality from God, but the facts are that the sacred texts which purport to speak for these gods are as morally ambiguous as the human beings who wrote them. (Strange how that works out.)

Unfortunately because we are indoctrinated to believe that the lessons of these manuscripts are divinely inspired many of us never question them or subject them to the same critical thinking that we use when we select which neighborhood to live in or which car to drive.

And of course it also lowers the defenses of believers, allowing them to be manipulated by those claiming a direct line to the god that they worship.

In my opinion doing away with these religions would force humans to take responsibility for their own morality,  that may seem a little messy to some but ultimately it would force people to examine their choices and learn from their missteps rather than follow a blueprint written thousands of years ago by primitive sand dwellers

This needs to stop.

Of course the most famous example of this misdirection is the argument that took place on Real Time between Bill Maher and Sam Harris on one side and an almost hysterical Ben Affleck on the other.

As an Atheist I see ALL religions as equally ridiculous and unnecessary, but when the definition of a religion is co-opted as the definition of a race of people that makes challenging their beliefs an attack on their ethnicity. Which of course it is not.

The most complicated example of this, in my mind, is the Jewish people.

They self identify as Jewish, and of course they usually embrace Judaism. So where the religious identity ends and the racial identity takes over is almost imperceptible.

Even non-practicing Jews often cannot separate their identity and heritage from the religion of their parents and grandparents.

But the problem with this is that in reality no child is born a Christian, or Muslim, or Jew, or Buddhist, and if they were taken out of the hospital to live in a non-religious household they would have no concept of the yoke of religion that their ancestors labored under for centuries.  They would in effect be free.

Personally I think the blurred line between ethnicity and religion is purposeful and designed to keep people from criticizing religion, and Islam in particular.

And that is really fucked up, because currently there are probably few religions that desperately need to be challenged as forcefully as Islam right now. I mean the Saudi Arabian religious leader just recently refused to condemn the idea of adult men marrying girls younger than fifteen years of age for fuck's sake.

So yes that needs to be challenged not just in the United States, where we have the right to mock any religion or set of beliefs that we choose, but also in other countries many of who are still able to murder such critics in the name of apostasy.

Egypt bans movie "Exodus." Gee I wonder what they found offensive?

Courtesy of the BBC:  

Egypt has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as "historical inaccuracies". 

The head of the censorship board said these included the film's depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by Moses, caused the Red Sea to part. 

According to the book of Exodus, Jewish slaves were led to freedom by Moses after God inflicted a series of plagues on Egypt. 

The Pyramids are believed to have been built about 1,000 years before the story of the Exodus. 

The Biblical story tells how the Red Sea was parted by a miracle performed by God through Moses, allowing the Jewish people to escape from the pursuing Egyptian army.

So being accused of enslaving the Jewish people, having a god drop toads on the heads of your people, and having many of your forefathers drowned in the Red Sea for trying to murder a religious icon. all of which is completely false, apparently rubs some people the wrong way.

Go figure.

Just another one of those Jewish liberals attacking praying in public again.

Seriously I don't know where this guy gets off.

You would think he felt he had the right to explain Christianity to Christians or something.

The audacity of the man!

CNN removes reporter after she tweets that Israelis cheering the bombing of Gaza are "scum." Apparently no truth telling for CNN reporters.

Courtesy of the Huffington Post: 

CNN has removed correspondent Diana Magnay from covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after she tweeted that Israelis who were cheering the bombing of Gaza, and who had allegedly threatened her, were “scum.” 

“After being threatened and harassed before and during a liveshot, Diana reacted angrily on Twitter,” a CNN spokeswoman said in a statement to The Huffington Post. 

“She deeply regrets the language used, which was aimed directly at those who had been targeting our crew," the spokeswoman continued. "She certainly meant no offense to anyone beyond that group, and she and CNN apologize for any offense that may have been taken.” 

The spokeswoman said Magnay has been assigned to Moscow. 

Magnay appeared on CNN Thursday from a hill overlooking the Israel-Gaza border. While she reported, Israelis could be heard near her cheering as missiles were fired at Gaza. 

After the liveshot, Magnay tweeted: “Israelis on hill above Sderot cheer as bombs land on #gaza; threaten to ‘destroy our car if I say a word wrong’. Scum.” The tweet was quickly removed, but not before it had been retweeted more than 200 times.

 I am not going to argue whether or not in her capacity as a CNN anchor Magnay should have chosen her words more carefully, but her feelings toward those who would celebrate the killing of innocent people with bombs seems quite reasonable.

These people are fighting a conflict based almost entirely on their differing religious views, and the fact that people are still killing each other over the belief that their faith is right while all others are false is shameful and should not be supported or excused by rational people.

Very interesting.

If image does not enlarge click here.

If you want to see a Christian's head explode go ahead and tell them that religions evolved one from another.

Something to keep in mind.

To be fair there are quite a number of Jewish people and Muslims who believe the Christian version as well.

But remember if 5 billion people believe in something stupid, it does not make it any less stupid.

One in five Americans say that religion is not that important to them.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Americans are losing faith. At least, that's the conclusion of a new poll on religion. 

Jointly conducted by NBC and The Wall Street Journal, the poll found that 21 percent of Americans feel religion is "not that important" in their lives. 

This, NBC News writes, is the "highest percentage" recorded since the survey was first conducted in 1997. "The poll showed that these less religious Americans are more likely to be men, have an income over $75,000, to live in the Northeast or West and to be under the age of 35," says NBC.

Progress can sometimes move inexorably slow, but move it does.

Every year we are seeing faith receding and critical thinking expanding.

It is almost enough to make this godless heathen shed a tear.

Good news for Christians, 4000 year old tablet relates the earliest version of the great flood and Ark. Bad news, wrong God, wrong religion, wrong time.

Courtesy of News.com.au:  

The British Museum yesterday put the recently deciphered clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia - now Iraq - on display. 

It's claimed to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever. 

What it contains are specifications for the legendary Ark which was said to have saved two of each animal - and a handful of humans - from a catastrophic flood. 

But some of the details are different to the generally known version. 

It describes a circular vessel known as a coracle, not the rectangular vessel of modern mythology. 

"It was really a heart-stopping moment - the discovery that the boat was to be a round boat," the tablet's discoverer, Irving Finkel said. "That was a real surprise."

Ah, but that was not the ONLY surprise.

The tablet records a Mesopotamian god's instructions for building a giant vessel - two-thirds the size of a soccer field in area - made of rope, reinforced with wooden ribs and coated in bitumen. 

Etched in the clay is one of the story's key elements: It describes how the animals must enter "two by two".

Wait, a Mesopotamian god?  But doesn't that mean....

This is not the first time the ancient story of the ark has been found outside of the bible. But it is the earliest. 

The flood story recurs in later Mesopotamian writings including the "Epic of Gilgamesh." 

Finkel says the discovery may cause dissent among believers in the biblical story. When 19th-century British Museum scholars first learned from cuneiform tablets that the Babylonians had a flood myth, they were disturbed by its similarities to the story of Noah. 

"Already in 1872 people were writing about it in a worried way - What does it mean that Holy Writ appears on this piece of Weetabix?" he joked to Fox News, referring to a cereal similar in shape to the tablet. 

"I'm sure the story of the flood and a boat to rescue life is a Babylonian invention," he said.

Of course it does not come as a surprise to most Atheists that the stories of the Bible, and Christianity itself, are made up of fables and traditions from a wide variety of  previous mythologies and religions. However it is always important to point out that the arguments used by Creationists to attack the teaching of Evolution and science in the public school classroom are based on myths that predate the "history" and the God on which their religion is based.

Ultimately science will provide the answers, just like it provided an answer to the mystery of Noah's Ark.

So MUCH better than the other Ten Commandments.

Source

Have you ever read the Bible's Ten Commandments?

The first three are all to stroke God's humongous ego, the fourth tells us not to work on Sunday which millions of people break every week, the next three seem fairly reasonable, and essentially EVERY OTHER religion has them as rules too, and the last one flies in the very face of what it is to an American. 

I tell you after reading the Ten Commandments as a kid I realized right away that only a douchebag would ask human beings to follow those rules.

The Creation Museum's handy dandy tips for determining the geological age of a fossil. (Spoiler alert: It does NOT involve any science.)

That's right kids, who needs science in a museum?

After all everything you need to know about EVERYTHING is contained in book written thousands of years ago by a people who thought that sickness was the result of demon possession, that crops failed because the sacrifice to God was not pleasing enough, and that stars were embedded in an ocean which hung above the earth.

Oh, and good luck getting a job.

Your Christianity WTF of the day.

How people can quote this book as historic, or use it as the foundation for their morality has always eluded me.

The five nasty traits all religious fundamentalists share.

Courtesy of Current TV: 

“It’s those hardcore true believers, addicted to believing they’re always on God’s side. Those are the ones making planet Earth so complicated for the rest of us — be you secular, aetheist or religious. And truth be told, the fires of most of our conflicts today are fanned most ferociously by the fundamentalist wings of every religion. And they all hate each other, and they don’t care how many of us get killed in their cross-fire.” —John Fugelsang 

I thought this was awesome! And, the not so awesome part, is that it is true.