Scientists and atheists tend to be naturalists. Owen Flanagan, a professor of philosophy at Duke University, has written an article titled Buddhism Without the Hocus-Pocus in a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (January 13, 2012, page B4, unfortunately behind a subscription wall) which provides as good a definition of naturalism as any.
Naturalism comes in many varieties, but [Read more…]
Christianity has this two-pronged system to try to keep you within the fold. There is the reward of heaven but also the threat of hell if heaven is not sufficient. There is god as the good cop who cares about you and wants to save but also the devil as the bad cop who just wants the chance to fry you for eternity.
But according to a Gallup poll, Americans are ‘the glass is half full’ kind of people, believing slightly more in god than in the devil, and in heaven more than hell.
As religious beliefs come under siege from science and reason, and believers increasingly realize that they have no effective counter to these critiques that are resulting in nonbelievers becoming the fastest growing group in the world, there will be increasing attempts to stifle any speech that criticizes religion. These will come under different guises such as [Read more…]
BBC1 TV brought together two groups of people to debate the above question. It covers ground that I think readers here will be familiar with but it is fun to watch and the non-religionists are pretty good at making their case. The show consists of four parts of about 15 minutes each. Part 1 is below and the [Read more…]
There has been some ghastly religious violence going on in Nigeria.
A Muslim group known as Boko Haram has committed massacres of Christians, sometimes with bombings and at other times with automatic weapons, in order to drive them out of the Muslim-dominated north of the country to the Christian-dominated south. One attack on a Catholic church on Christmas day killed 37 people. An explosives attack on a Muslim school is suspected of being a retaliation.
Boko Haram is one of those groups that takes their religious texts seriously.
Its followers are said to be influenced by the Koranic phrase which says: “Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors”.
Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.
This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.
I am sure that these murderous thugs fervently believe that they are good people doing god’s will, as can be seen by the group’s official name which is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”.
In response to my post titled More fun with the Jesus people, a commenter mentioned how hard it is not to get annoyed with religious people who refuse to see reason.
Now I greatly value reason and logic. They are, after all, the basic tools of science, which has [Read more…]
My office in the university is in a central location, at the intersection of two main streets that cut through the campus. If I look outside my window, I have a good chance of seeing most of the university community passing by during any given day. As a result, the street corner outside my office is a popular place for people who want to hand out religious tracts.
In days gone by, when approached by such people I would politely decline their offers and walk away. But now, if I am not in a hurry to go somewhere, I take the opportunity to question them about their beliefs. I take the Socratic approach of asking questions and then build on their responses by asking more questions, which I find leads to far more interesting discussions than trying to simply prove to them that they are wrong. (For my previous encounters with Jesus people, see here, here, and here. It’s all good clean fun.)
This happened again a few weeks ago, when a genial man about my age approached me at the intersection and asked me [Read more…]
Dave Barry, columnist for the Miami Herald, is one of the funniest writers and for years he got a lot of mileage out of documenting the things that the people of Florida and Miami did that convinced him that it was the craziest state in the nation. He is fortunate to have retired from his weekly column because recent events suggest that my state of Ohio may well take that particular crown.
Consider the following recent stories that have garnered national attention for our state.
I am not claiming that Ohio has definitely become the craziest state in the nation. But we may at last have a shot at a national championship that has long been denied us in the sports arena.