GODLESS WEDNESDAY: It's #aweek12!

Did you know that this weekend in Washington DC (which is exactly when the famed Cherry Blossoms are in peak bloom!) there will be a rally and conference by American Atheists? Watch the following video by the president of American Atheists, David Silverman, and be informed!

In fact, this week, from March 18th through March 24th is designated "A week" This is a Facebook event decided to raise awareness of being "Good without Gods":

Join thousands of people from all over the world in a global shared experience. Display an 'A' as your Facebook profile picture for one week starting 18 March 2012 to raise awareness of how many people are ‘Good without Gods’ and don’t need religions to influence their lives. 

You can find more instructions on how to change your Facebook profile image at the following link.

I would love to attend these events but I will be in Los Angeles at Fusion 2012, the LGBT People of Color Film Festival this weekend.

For more information on A week, follow the Twitter hashtag #aweek12.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Agnostic or Atheist? Both!

For this week's Godlesss Wednesday this helpful diagram (see above) from Atheist Revolution explains the differences between being atheist and being agnostic, which very many people confuse (and conflate).

Using the above chart I would describe myself as as an Agnostic Atheist, which I usually just shorten to "atheist" since that is what most people understand. I most definitely do not believe any god exists, but I don't claim to know that no god exists. However, I think the preponderance of the evidence (i.e. there is no credible evidence that god exists) and simple logic (Occam's Razor) should suffice to allow one to come to the conclusion that god does not exist.

What do you think?

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Now In Arabic & Hebrew

Joe.My.God noticed that The Friendly Atheist mentioned the above billboards, which are part of a campaign to publicize the Reason Rally (March 24th) and the American Atheists National Convention (March 25th-26th) which will be happening in the Washington, DC area.

MadProfessah would love to attend these event but I will be in Los Angeles that weekend, attending the FUSION LGBT People of Color film festival instead.

Apparently the big symbols in the billboard are, respectively Hebrew for "Yahweh" and Arabic for "Allah" which are those two languages' name for "God."

And that's Godless Wednesday for today!

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: All Dead Mormons Are Gay

Ha-ha! I have to admit then when I saw this headline at Joe.My.God's website I had to giggle. In a clever parody of the controversial Mormon practice of baptizing the "souls" of dead people, some clever wag has decided to create a website where dead Mormons can be declared gay.

Sadly, many Mormons throughout history have died without having known the joys of homosexuality. With your help, these poor souls can be saved. 

Simply enter the name of your favorite dead Mormon* in the form below and click Convert! Presto, they're gay for eternity. There is no undo. 

Don't know any dead Mormons? Click the "Choose-a-Mormon" button and we'll find one for you. You're welcome! 

*Holocaust victims are not eligible for conversion.

If it is not wrong to baptize someone into a faith they did not believe in when they were alive after they are dead, how can it be wrong to declare someone dead to be gay?

Of course, my position is that once you're dead, you're dead. You no longer have a sexual orientation or a religion!

And that's today's Godless Wednesday, folks!

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: "God Is An Imaginary Friend For Grown Ups"

Look at the above image very carefully. It is not just a stunning tattoo. It also contains a significant message, specifically "God Is An Imaginary Friend For Grown Ups." Do you agree? I do!


Hat/tip to Sentient Meat.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: I Married An Atheist!

For today's edition of Godless Wednesday I point you to an amazingly well-written blog post about atheism which just so happens to have been written by my husband, at his blog sentientmeat.net. So, yes, I married an atheist!

Here's an excerpt from "Atheists Do Not Have Faith":

Atheist. I don’t believe in god. Believe is a verb, and I don’t do that verb with most people’s concept of God. Or if you like, belief is a kind of confidence, a sort of mental wager or opinion about some infinite being who typically:

• Answers prayers
• Demands tribute or worship
• Exacts vengeance or judgment
• New! Favors one religion over others, or over no religion

I say no to this wager. I think it’s a bad idea. I refuse it, I negate it. I withhold belief in it. I abstain from believing in god, praying to Him, or living my life in perpetual fear of His judgment. This abstention is enough to call myself an atheist. I don’t need faithin His nonexistence. That’s silly.

I’m not sure I’m right, but I’m pretty sure. I’ve evaluated all the reasons people give for believing in God—I believed in God for 20+ years, so you may be sure my evaluation was very thorough. I’ve had many, many spiritual experiences, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t need God to explain these. Neuroscience, physics and other disciplines are enough. Science doesn’t have all the answers, but God doesn’t offer any better ones. If not science itself, then the assumptions behindscience are enough for me to frame all the stories I ever care to invest in with that wager called belief.

You should really read the entire piece.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: "God Is An Imaginary Friend"

Noticed a story in Huffington Post that the above billboard is apparently being displayed in Boulder, Colorado. The message is that "God is an imaginary friend. Choose reality, it will be better for all of us." It is paid for by the Colorado Coalition of Reason.

On their website, the organization explains why they put the billboards up:

One of the reasons we put the billboard up is that we are concerned when religious people feel they have not only the right, but the obligation, to force their religious views on others. Examples are proselytizing in the military, educational systems, and government. Another example is the attacks by religious people on gays, lesbians, and abortion providers. 

If you agree with the sentiments of the sign and live in Colorado, there is probably a secular organization near you. You will be surprised how much we do, both as activists and in the social arena. Most of the COCORE groups have monthly meetings, book discussions, lunches, and social activities. The Atheist Alliance of America will be having their national convention in Denver in 2012. 

If you disagree with the sentiments of the sign, please don't be offended. We are more interested in opening a dialogue than upsetting you. We don't ask you to stop believing in your version of a super-natural being. We do ask that you consider not forcing your religious views on others.

I couldn't say it better myself! I wish there were hundreds of these billboards up around the country. What do you think?

Godless Wednesday: Catholic Charities Got $2.9B in 2010 Federal Funds

The New York Times recently ran an article summarizing a new front in the ongoing kulturkampf (culture wars): the claim by Catholic officials that they are being discriminated against due to their religious beliefs by advances in LGBT equality.

This graf in particular struck my eye:

Catholic Charities is one of the nation’s most extensive social service networks, serving more than 10 million poor adults and children of many faiths across the country. It is made up of local affiliates that answer to local bishops and dioceses, but much of its revenue comes from the government. Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations).

In Illinois, Catholic Charities in five of the six state dioceses had grown dependent on foster care contracts, receiving 60 percent to 92 percent of their revenues from the state, according to affidavits by the charities’ directors. (Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Chicago pulled out of foster care services in 2007 because of problems with its insurance provider.)

The federal government is providing nearly three billion dollars in U.S. taxpayers monies to an organization which refuses to acknowledge basic tenets of science and aggressively seeks to force its world view upon others, discriminating on the basis of sex and sexual orientation in the process.

Ugh. It makes me nauseous to think that there are people who think they can accept funds (hello, some of which must be coming from LGBT people) and wants to use that money actively discriminating against those people, all in the name of "serving children." Is this not the text book definition of hypocrisy?

We had previously covered the conflict in Illinois between Catholic Charities heterosexist policies and the state's new civil union law on Godless Wednesday but had not seen an eye-dropping quote from religious extremist side before like this one (bolded):

Critics of the church argue that no group has a constitutional right to a government contract, especially if it refuses to provide required services.

But Anthony R. Picarello Jr., general counsel and associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, disagreed. “It’s true that the church doesn’t have a First Amendment right to have a government contract,” he said, “but it does have a First Amendment right not to be excluded from a contract based on its religious beliefs.”

This is not just a text-book definition of hypocrisy but also hubris! It's shocking to me the Catholic Bishops dude mentions the First Amendment (twice!) in his statement to the New York Times. Has he read it recently?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If your free exercise of religion involves discriminating against other citizens' "equal protection of the laws" and can be construed to contribute to an "establishment of religion" since you are attempting to propagate and promote your religious beliefs to children then it is pretty clear that you lose. And to think that you want federal money to do so is simply sickening.

Godless Wednesday: God and Politics

Since, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Willard Mitt Romney all apparently feel that God spoke to them to encourage them to run for President, who is lying, God or the presidential candidate?

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais appears on the cover of New Humanist magazine where he is very explicit about his godlessness.

Here's a delightful excerpt from the interview but you should really go there and read the entire thing:

Did you lose your faith or never have any?

I used to believe in God. The Christian one, that is. (There are a few thousand to choose from. But I was born in a country where the dominant religion was Christianity so I believed in that one. Isn't it weird how that always happens?) Luckily I was also interested in science and nature. And reason and logic. And honesty and truth. And equality and fairness. By the age of eight I was an atheist. (That word shouldn’t even exist. It shouldn’t be needed. But it does. And it is.)

You studied philosophy at university – which philosophical idea has turned out to be most useful?

A few spring to mind. Bertrand Russell said, “No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.” That became more profound once I’d become famous. Ha Ha. And I love “There is no god higher than truth” – Mahatma Gandhi.

I wish there were more celebrities were open and honest about their atheism or agnosticism.

Godless Wednesday: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

This week on Godless Wednesday we are commemorating the untimely passing of Christopher Hitchens, who has been the public face of godlessness for a decade at least.

Here's an excerpt of part of an obituary of Hitch from Slate magazine:

Born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949, Hitchens studied at Oxford before launching his journalism career in the 1970s with the magazines International Socialism and the New Statesman. In the early 1980s, he emigrated to the United States, where he was a regular columnist at The Nation for two decades before parting ways with the liberal magazine after proudly disagreeing with its editors about the Iraq war.

Hitchens won the National Magazine Award for commentary in 2007, the same year that he became an American citizen on his 58th birthday. Foreign Policy named him to its list of the top 100 public intellectuals the following year, and Forbes magazine labeled him one of the 25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media in 2009, a distinction that took some by surprise given Hitchens's vocal support of George W. Bush's war on terror.

He was a frequent guest on news programs and at public debates, and rarely passed up the opportunity to defend his positions when given the opportunity to do so. He was the author of nearly 20 books, including God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Hitch-22: A Memoir, and Arguably, a collection of his more recent essays that was published earlier this year.

Hitchens remained steadfast in his criticism of religion even in the face of his grim prognosis. In an August 2010 interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, his colleague at The Atlantic, Hitchens made it known that even if he were to somehow recant his devout atheism on his deathbed, any apparent conversion would be a hollow gesture. "The entity making such a remark might be a raving, terrified person whose cancer has spread to the brain," he said. "I can't guarantee that such an entity wouldn't make such a ridiculous remark. But no one recognizable as myself would ever make such a ridiculous remark."

Godless Wednesday: Texas is "One State Under God"

The latest news from the Patriarchal Confederate Republic (also known as Texas) is that they have created a state-issued license which promotes the Christian Religion.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Jonathan Saenz, the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Liberty Institute, a Texas-based group which fights to 'limit government and promote Judeo-Christian values,' said critics of the religious plate are "Christian bashing." 

He said there are already several specialty license plates which feature Christian crosses. In 2007, the Texas Legislature agreed to insert the phrase "One State Under God," the same phrase that is on the plate, into the Pledge to the Texas Flag which is said by school students every day, he said. 

"This is a matter of individual free speech, freedom of choice," Saenz said, adding that he would not oppose a state license plate which bore those words and featured a Jewish Star of David, the Islamic Crescent, or other non-Christian symbols. 

"There is no requirement that you agree with every specialty license plate there is. There are people who don't like the Boy Scouts, they have a plate. There are people who don't like the Knights of Columbus (Catholic men's organization), they have a plate."

Fasconating. I'm sure that Mr. Saenz will support the application of an Atheist organization to promote their view that God not exist? Or how about a Texas state license plate that has a rainbow flag and the word: "Pride" on it?

Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath either.

Hat/tip to Richard Dawkins.net

Godless Wednesday: Good Without God

Found an interesting blog devoted to atheism called Rosa Rubicondior.

One of the interesting posts on that blog I ran across recently was a discussion of the question of where atheists get their morality, if they do not believe in a supernatural, all-powerful being.

Here's a particularly pithy excerpt:

Do these people really believe that, before their holy book was written down and people heard about their god's laws, that people simply went around killing, raping, stealing and abusing children and it didn't occur to anyone that it was wrong in any way? Do they really believe that suddenly people heard of these new laws and thought, "Ah! In that case I had better stop this killing, raping, stealing and child abuse, or a god will punish me."? Is it realistic to assume that, before the Bible or the Qur'an were taken outside the Middle East to Europe and Asia, society consisted of people raping, murdering and stealing and that no child was safe? 

And what does it say of the person who is implicitly, and sometimes explicitly telling you that THEY see no reason not to murder, rape, steal and molest children other than the fear that a god will punish them? 

Who exactly has the morals here? The person who does right and avoids wrong because they know right from wrong, or more precisely, can work out what's right and what's wrong in a given situation because they can empathise with others and understand what it would be like to have a wrong done to them, or the person who is only hoping for a reward or avoiding punishment and needs to try to remember what an old book says and try to apply it to the situation at hand?

This is often known as the "Good Without God" argument and is also well articulated and illustrated by the cartoon at the top of this post.

What do you think?

Godless Wednesday: NYT Covers Black Irreligiosity

Praise Allah! No less an important media outlet than the New York Times has recognized that African American Atheists exist! SentientMeat brought this article to my attention and suggested it would be a good subject for a Godless Wednesday post. He reads more things than Cactus and Succulent websites after all.

In a piece published this week titled "The Unbelievers" the Paper of Record examines the (ir)religiosity of Black people in this country:

RONNELLE ADAMS came out to his mother twice, first about his homosexuality, then about his atheism.

“My mother is very devout,” said Mr. Adams, 30, a Washington resident who has published an atheist children’s book, “Aching and Praying,” but who in high school considered becoming a Baptist preacher. “She started telling me her issues with homosexuality, which were, of course, Biblical,” he said. “ ‘I just don’t care what the Bible says about that,’ I told her, and she asked why. ‘I don’t believe that stuff anymore.’ It got silent. She was distraught. She told me she was more bothered by that than the revelation I was gay.”

[...]

African-Americans are remarkably religious even for a country known for its faithfulness, as the United States is. According to the Pew Forum 2008 United States Religious Landscape Survey, 88 percent of African-Americans believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with 71 percent of the total population, with more than half attending religious services at least once a week.

[...]

According to Pew, the vast majority of atheists and agnostics are white, including the authors Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens.

Seeking a public intellectual of their own, some black atheists have claimed the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, interpreting his arguments against teaching intelligent design in the classroom to be an endorsement of atheism. But Dr. deGrasse Tyson is loath to be associated with any part of the movement. When contacted last week by e-mail, he noted a Twitter exchange he had in August, in which he told a follower, “Am I an Atheist, you ask? Labels are mentally lazy ways by which people assert they know you without knowing you.”

Methinks Dr. Tyson doth protest too much, don't you? Anyway, it's cool that there are blogs like Godless and Black and Words of Wrath as well as organizations like African Americans for Humanism and facebook pages like Black Atheists of America. Hopefully MadProfessah's Godless Wednesday will join this list of Black Atheist resources.

Godless Wednesday: IL Catholic Orgs End Lawsuit On Foster Care

Ha, ha! Over the summer MadProfessah.com and other LGBT blogs reported about the obnoxious lawsuit by a number of Catholic dioceses in Illinois who were suing the state for the right to obtain payment from the government to offer foster and adoption services which would illegally discriminate against same-sex couples in civil unions.

The lawsuit was laughable on its face and last week even the religious extremists and heterosexual supremacists at the Catholic Dioceses of Joliet, Springfield and Belleville recognized that fact and dropped their lawsuit and ended their foster care services in the state.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Since March, state officials have been investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster care parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away openly gay parents.  

After the civil union bill went into effect in June, Catholic Charities told the state that accommodating prospective foster parents in civil unions would violate Catholic Church teaching that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.  

Catholic Charities said it would instead refer gay couples elsewhere and only license married couples and single parents living alone.  

The agency has pointed to a clause in the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act that they believe protects religious institutions that don't recognize civil unions. 

But lawyers for the Illinois attorney general said that exemption only shields religious clergy who don't want to officiate at civil unions. The policy of Catholic Charities violates state anti-discrimination laws that demand couples in civil unions be treated the same as married couples, they said.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Thankfully, there are plenty of secular foster care agencies who care more about helping children then promoting religious-based homophobic ideology.

Godless Wednesday: Myths Everyone Knows

As the season of the Joys of Rational Thinking approaches the appearance of billboards from atheist and free-thinking organizations become more prominent.

Godless Wednesday: Americans' Discomfort With Atheist President

The Friendly Atheist has a great post up today discussing the new poll results from the Public Religion Research Institute which demonstrate that Americans would be more uncomfortable with an atheist President than a Mormon President or a Muslim President!

Friendly Atheist takes a closer look at the graphic above and provides the following analysis:

67% of all voters would feel somewhat or very uncomfortable with an atheist president.80% of all Republicans, 70% of Democrats, and 56% of all Independents feel the same.So Democrats would be more uncomfortable with an atheist president than a Muslim president.
Republicans — not surprisingly, a higher proportion of them than Democrats — would be equally uncomfortable with both an atheist president and a Muslim president.
Overall, though, a non-theistic presidential candidate has a bigger hurdle to overcome than a person of any faith at all. It’s unbelievable that in this day and age, America still has this much of a hangup over a leader who would put more weight in evidence and logical thinking than in an imaginary god and ancient books.

Hear, hear! Friendly Atheist also notes that 31% of Americans would be somewhat or very comfortable with an atheist president while 33% of Americans would be somewhat or very comfortable with a Muslim president.

His suggestion to change these numbers is to encourage more people (and people who run for office) to come clean about their lack of faith and their belief in free-thinking instead of wishful thinking.

This is my first post in what is hopefully going to be a weekly series focusing on atheism and agnosticism and the foibles and failures of faith. I'd love to hear feedback from readers about Godless Wednesdays. Suggestions for a better title would be welcomed!