Pamphleteering

Rick was handed a nice tri-fold glossy pamphlet as he was walking to a fireworks display. It’s titled “What If”, and what it is is a collection of — you guessed it — bible quotes to extort your obedience to a goofy religion. Rick has handled the details, so I’ll just cut to the conclusion. It asks, “Based on the authority of these Scriptures, just think, WHAT IF you received Christ today? Just think, WHAT IF you don’t?”

The opening clause covers my response pretty well. “Based on the authority of these scriptures,” which is nonexistent, I don’t have to accept anything they say, and can throw it away. Or, at least, I’d reduce it to the one phrase in the whole mess that I do think is good advice.

“Just think.”

Now, where is our glossy pamphlet like this — only, like, not stupid — that we can give out to glad-handing god-dabblers?

Jefferson was a freethinker

If you’re listening to Atheists Talk radio right now, you’ve been hearing a lot about the secular intent of the founding of the US government. The LA Times has an article on the Jefferson Bible — that greatly abridged version of the Bible that Jefferson made by chopping out all the miracles and unbelievable stuff, reducing it to a work of New Testament philosophy. The article asks,

“Can you imagine the reaction if word got out that a president of the United States cut out Bible passages with scissors, glued them onto paper and said, ‘I only believe these parts?'”

My reaction would be “Hallelujah!” The Religious Right ought to be experiencing some sever cognitive dissonance, since they both revere the founding fathers to a ridiculous degree and insist that this is a Christian nation…but they avoid it by deluding themselves about the radical nature of some of the founding fathers’ religious belief.

We need a president who can do this:

In Jefferson’s version of the Gospels, for example, Jesus is still wrapped in swaddling clothes after his birth in Bethlehem. But there’s no angel telling shepherds watching their flocks by night that a savior has been born. Jefferson retains Jesus’ crucifixion but ends the text with his burial, not with the resurrection.

Stripping miracles from the story of Jesus was among the ambitious projects of a man with a famously restless mind. At 71, he read Plato’s “Republic” in the original Greek and found it lackluster.

We won’t be getting one in the next election.

Wide open thread, free for the taking

I’m about to head off to get coffee and attend this conference and give my own talk, and then zoom, right after the talk I have to head off to the airport and fly back home. I’ll be back this evening, but until then, you’ll all have to entertain yourselves in the comments…which you all seem very good at, anyway.

Just to get you started: Pat Condell.

Maybe one of the fundagelical creobots haunting Pharyngula right now will find something to rave about in that.

Theology is a deceitful strategy

Karl Giberson is interviewed about the subject of his new book, Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll). It looks interesting, in an aggravating sort of way, and it’s on my long list of books to read and use to put dents in my wall. The interview reminds me why I detest the rarefied apologetics of sympathetic theologians as much as I do the bleatings of the purblind literalists — neither one even notices the fundamental flaws in their core of belief.

Let me be nice first. Giberson does say a number of eminently sensible things — he’s a physicist by training, he has no brief for creationism at all, he might wish Intelligent Design were true but he sees it as a betrayal of the scientific enterprise. Don’t mistake him for your corner bible thumper! Here, for instance, is a good argument well spoken:

[Read more…]

Radio reminder

Today is the day of the GLBT Pride Parade in the Twin Cities, so naturally today’s Atheists Talk radio is all about the fight against discrimination and for equal rights for all. Tune in at 9am!

If you’re godless, there’s nothing to prevent you from supporting civil rights for everyone without regard for their sexual orientation. That doesn’t seem to be the case if you’re Catholic, however.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has told a liberal Roman Catholic church in Minneapolis that it can’t hold its annual gay pride prayer service because the event goes against the teachings of the church.

St. Joan of Arc Church has held the prayer service for several years in conjunction with the annual Twin Cities Pride Celebration. The archdiocese, however, suggested that the church hold a “peace” service with no mention of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “That descriptor (LGBT) was not possible on church property. We suggested they shift it, change the nature of it a little bit, and they did,” archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said. “The reason is quite simply because it was a LGBT pride prayer service, and that is really inimical to the teachings of the Catholic church.”

Gays are “inimical” to the Catholic church, and even naming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender is “not possible”. Perhaps the LGBT community should instead admit that rapprochement with the Catholic church is not possible, because their teachings are not compatible with human decency.

The trends, IF they continue, are in our favor

I just got around to reading this very nice article by Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman, which we godless heathen ought to find reassuring and optimistic. They describe how religion is fading, even here in the United States, and that it is a natural consequence of economic trends. In particular, the main reason atheism is growing isn’t that we’ve got lots of wild-eyed proselytizers, it’s simply that security and an absence of fear make religion irrelevant and even unattractive.

[Read more…]