Modern Crimes of Faith

Modern Crimes of Faith

It is the tendency of the religious, to focus on what makes them feel good, to avoid those pesky facts that make a mockery of their religion, and more horridly to ignore crimes committed at the hand of their religion.  But the evil behind the mask of civility cannot be hidden forever.

Yet again, evidence surfaces that in 1986, then Cardinal Ratzinger declined to remove a priest found to have molested children.  The original request to remove him was submitted in 1981 and was ignored.  Yes, ignored for five years!  Ratzinger was put into office in 1986 and wrote a letter in response which declined to remove the priest for the sole reason of “the good of the church”.  Not the good of the children, but the good of the church.

Lest you make the incorrect assumption that this is an evil only perpetuated by the Catholic church, let me remind you we had two incidents here in Jacksonville in the last eight years, involving Protestant churches, where the church was made aware of sexual crimes committed by “pastors” and chose to handle it themselves rather than call the police.  In once case, the church defended the “pastor”, not the child, because the “pastor” had confessed and asked for forgiveness.  He was after all, they said, a “good pastor.”

There in lies the problem; the assumption by the church that they are some how above the law of the land, that some how their organization is faith based and crimes are theirs to forgive at their own discretion.  I am sure that BP would love to have that power! 

The public grants these purveyors of fantasy deference.  We stand while they pray to invisible beings without questioning it, we forgive their tax burdens, we watch as they build massive edifices to nothing and amass vast wealth, and we allow them to protect child molesters.  This is just wrong.

The Catholic church, in response to worldwide outcry, says they now report all such crimes to the local authorities, but I ask where is the proof of this?  Their records are not public and I personally have yet to see one headline where it reads, “Church turns in child molester.”  Where I ask, is the government? Why are they not prosecuting those who protect criminals?  Why are the records of the church still closed to inspection?

It is high time that this medieval deference to the church comes to an end.  We scrutinize every major corporation on the planet for the public good.  Yet somehow, this multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme can manipulate the tax code, influence foreign policy, ignore war crimes, and shuffle child molesters around willy nilly and no one takes much notice?

This must stop.  This system must be held accountable.  The church must be called to prove themselves.  Most importantly, the public needs to start asking some hard questions about the rationality of a faith which thinks itself above the law, and above the law of common sense.

On Faith

On faith ...I'm not a big fan.

Lets be clear, I am not talking about faith in things that are real and or possible; like faith that your spouse will return from war alive, or your favorite football team will win the game, or the your child will succeed in life. I am talking about religious faith; faith in something for which there is no supporting evidence or objective likelihood of reality.

Faith, it seems, is the most important thing to religious people, who regard facts as secondary. If you discuss Atheism with a religious person, no matter how much rock solid evidence you present to the religious, invariably they fall back on faith as the answer to any debate.

Their particular faith, mind you, disregarding the faith of billions of others who have different views.  Everyone's personal faith, is of course the only "true" faith.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been told, by otherwise intelligent people, "I don't care about that, in the end its all about faith." Ever hear the religious statement, "God said it, I believe it." Never mind the fact there are no documents or recordings of anything "god" said, its based solely on the individuals faith that "god" said something they like.

The religious will disregard the laws of physics, textual criticism of the bible, and gross contradictions within their own texts, and claim faith as their key ingredient. It's as though the religious willingly put on a pair of blinders, walk into the pens, and allow themselves to be herded like cattle.

So, the question begs to be asked, "How accurate are humans with faith?" I thought I would offer a few examples of faith, in order to put faith into perspective. You will find these examples silly and repulsive, but bear in mind the following examples were/are bed rock beliefs for millions of people.

For thousands of years, and based on nothing more than faith:

Ø Humans believed in the Greek god Zeus, the Norse god Thor, the Egyptian god Isis, and the Babylonian god Anu, just to name a few.

Ø Humans believed that sickness was caused by evil spirits - this actually continues today, in this country, in many civilized and educated societies.

Ø Humans believed the entire universe was comprised of four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

Ø Humans believed certain races were cursed by god and made fitting slaves - sadly this also continues to this day and also in this country.

Ø Humans believed that women were an inferior gender, cursed by god to be subservient to males.

Ø Humans believed the Earth was flat.

Ø Children believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny

Now, I agree, every single one of the above is both silly, and in the case of slavery and women rights, disgusting and immoral. But every one of the above are/were matters of faith to billions of people, who in many cases, fought to the death to stand up for their "faith".

I think that most people will recognize the baseless nature of faith in Greek and Egyptian gods. Children grow up and find the Toothy Fairy was a quaint childhood fantasy. I also think that most people recognize that as humanity has evolved, grown more sophisticated, and expanded our scientific awareness, that as a result we no longer believe evil spirits are the cause for sickness and we found the Earth was actually round. I think that it is pretty obvious, to even a casual observer, that the aforementioned citations were the cause of widespread human rights violations, evils committed in the name of gods, and stymied the advancement of the human race for thousands of years.

All of this evil was based only on faith lacking any facts.

Faith; the human belief in the unknowable (or what is unknowable at the moment), it would appear, has a very very poor track record. Humans will believe just about anything. Yet, people still cling to it. It is human nature, so it is said, to try and put some order to what appears to be chaos around us, to assign the unknown to a divine hand. It gives people comfort (?) that they at least believe there is some order to the unknown. Despite overwhelming evidence, and a failed history behind it, humans still cling to faith.

The most obvious question to me, is just how far would the human race have advanced, without all the silly impediments found in faith? How many lives, for example, could have been saved, if faith had not stood in the way of science?

It is said, those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat it. Let's hope humanity does not repeat the uglier aspects of religious faith; its wars, its slaughter, its human rights violations.

I believe the human race is capable of getting beyond this, to become all that we aspire to be. I believe in the human spirit. There is evidence for that type of faith and that's what I am standing up for.

Why Atheist and Progressive Need To Speak Up

Why the Atheist and Progressive need to speak up!

There is Truth and there is “Truthiness”; that which is fact and that which we want to be fact.

A society that is based on what is true, tends toward common goals, respect for human rights and equality, and has a respect for diversity.  The laws and goals of that society are based on clear, reasonable, and objective evidence, which people can all inspect and agree to.  Progressives and Atheists lean in this direction as they value new evidence and an ever changing society, choosing to grow and learn in the process of life.

I must say of course, not all Progressives are Atheists.  But most Atheists are Progressives.

A society that is based on truthiness, or opinion, tends towards conflicting goals, is rife with disrespect for human rights and equality, and does not value diversity.  The laws and goals of that society sway with public opinion and mob mentality, lack clear, reasonable, and objective evidence, and tend toward chaos.  Conservatives lean in this direction with dogmatic opinions and a refusal to change from the established “norms”.

Before Conservative religious heads explode, I know I am speaking in generalities.  I am an Atheist and a Progressive, so guess which way this blog is going to lean?

This is the problem:  Progressives and Atheists often recognize the above attitudes, and by and large have a live and let live mentality towards the process.  Unfortunately, everywhere and everyday, the religious and the Conservatives are working hard in both overt and slight means to press their agenda on everyone.  Progressives and Atheists, not so much – it’s often described as herding cats.

From the Muslims marching today in Bangladesh over free speech in Facebook, to Conservative and religious politicians in Washington trying to ban gays in the military, to the smiling little old lady who voted for candidate X because he/she wants to ban stem cell research, the religious and Conservatives are all working to deny human rights, impede science, and force their religion into your schools.  Was anyone paying any attention to the horror of the Jacksonville City Council during the Human Rights Commission votes?  Ask them if they are bigots and racists and the answer would be “NO!” – often with a fist shaking in your face.  But nevertheless, human rights, equality, and free speech are in fact the victims of the Conservative religious agenda.

So I say to you enough is enough.

If the religious and Conservatives are going to try and enforce an agenda upon humanity, then they should be required to produce viable evidence to support their assertions.  That’s right, just like in court.  As was demonstrated in England recently, religion has no factual basis and should not be allowed in court as evidence.  “Prove It!” should be the new cry!

If the religious and Conservatives want to ban homosexuals from the military, then scientific evidence should be presented, not the ramblings of a goat herder from thousands of years.  If the religious and Conservatives want to deny a woman the right to terminate a pregnancy, then scientific evidence should be presented as to why, not the fanciful opinion that “god” somehow “knew you before you were formed in the womb”, again the writings of another prehistoric goat herder.  The list goes on and on…

It is time we humans took charge of our own destiny from an objective, secular, and Progressive perspective.  It is way past the time that Progressives and Atheists stood up and shouted enough!  Standing by and hoping for an evolutionary social change is not working.  As is clearly evidenced by the American Conservative efforts in the last 17 months, Conservatives and the religious are willing to spend unlimited sums of money to enforce the (corporate) status quo, unlimited sums of money to deny human beings the right to love and marry, and unlimited sums of money to argue whether or not a frozen piece of tissue is “alive” or not.  All the while, human beings suffer over religious opinion.

As an Atheist, they call this the “New Atheism.”  “New” being Atheists who are not ashamed to speak up, not will to sit in the closet and be quiet, and willing to ask why.  While Progressives are not necessarily Atheists we do share common goals and methodology.  We all need to speak up.

I am a “New Atheist” and I want proof before you pass laws governing my life and the lives of millions.

Misperceptions About Atheists

I thought long and hard about what I would write as my first blog entry from The Atheist Perspective.  There are so many topics to choose from.

For instance, I could write about the recent fiasco with the Jacksonville City Council and its attempt to fill a position on the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission.  The illegalities and religious abuses of power leave room for so much to discuss, and I have pulled a muscle trying to avoid that as my first entry.

I could write about the recent ruling by a judge in England, where the judge refused to allow religious belief as evidence into court on the grounds that religious belief has no legal standing.  Oh!  The ramifications….

Instead, to start this off I decided to address some common misconceptions about atheist.  There are many, and some rather horrible and disgusting ones to choose from.  These of course flow directly from the religious crowd, who generally feel threatened by atheists and our irritating insistence upon facts. 

Atheism vs. theism is a debate we can have rationally, without slander.  Facts are facts, and opinion is opinion, and objective humans can sort that out.  But there in lies the rub, we need objective and rational human beings to accomplish this, and humans frequently fail at this.  It’s that lack of objectivity that prevents us from working out details, and it is also the source of some rather nasty accusations against atheist.

Now, I am not saying that all atheist are wonderful people, no more than I would say that all religious people are saints.  But by and large, and studies have born this out, atheist are the most reviled group on the planet for no discernable reason, and I would love to change that.  So let’s address three of the biggies shall we?

(1)  Atheist DO NOT eat babies.  Yes, I know.  It’s hard to believe, but we don’t.  This accusation was recently published in a small religious paper and was passed around liberally on various web sites and on Face Book.  The reasoning goes; atheist reject god, therefore atheist have no morals, therefore atheist could eat your baby.  Hey, I know this is stupid, that’s why I am bringing it up!  Baby killer actually gets used way too often.  The article did not indicate which type of sauce we used.

(2)  Atheist have no morals, therefore we are involved in every manner of evil behavior from drug abuse, to wild orgies, to the sacrifice of kittens.  Really?  Kittens?  Again, (need I say this?) this is not true.  Atheists are just as moral, and as good a citizen as the next person.  Only our morals come not from a fear of “god” and what might happen if we screw up, but rather out of a recognition that good behavior, love and compassion, are all attributes that benefit society at large and the over all happiness of humanity.  Things work better when we all work together, so yes we are “good without god”.  As a recently published paper disclosed, apes and other animals can exhibit basic attributes of compassion, sorrow, and the understanding of right and wrong behavior.  Humans, with our expanded abilities to conceptualize and expand upon those basics, have shown ourselves time and again to be compassionate and ethical, without the fear of “god” hanging over our shoulder.  That’s not to say we don’t enjoy a party just like you.  But Kittens?  Really?

(3) Atheist are responsible for every war and act of slaughter on the planet.  This is a biggie, and oh boy is this wrong on so many levels.  This slander of atheist is reputedly portrayed in the acts of Hitler and every communist dictator to date as atheists.  Aside form the fact this is just silly, let’s look at some facts.  Hitler considered himself to be a Christian who was “doing gods work”.  People will argue this all day because no one wants to be linked to Hitler; but in his book Mein Kampf and in many of his public speeches, its pretty clear where he was coming from.  As for the communist, yes they are atheist according to their manifesto, and yes these dictators have killed countless millions.  But what is over looked is that communist kill because of a political agenda, not because they are atheist.  One could argue that they only killed because they lacked any morals as atheist (sound familiar?), but to date, no credible proof of that reasoning has been provided.  Saying that communist killed because they were atheist, is like saying Hitler killed millions because he was a Christian, there is just no credible association.  Hitler killed because he was crazy, and communist kill because they are crazy, its just that simple.

Well, I could go on and on, because the silliness is endless.  But I hope you get the point that Atheists are people just like you, but who do not share your fascination for “god”.  We put our pants on (yes we wear pants) one leg at a time, we take our kids to school, we go to the beach, and we work right beside you every day.  We have no belief structure, no secret hand shake – repeat, we have NO SECRET HAND SHAKE – and your kittens and babies are safe.

It would certainly go well with the world if we could all stop with the ridiculous accusations, the stereotypes, and the unfortunate human need to shove our opinion down every one else’s throat.  The world is in fact, in a perilous place right now for many reasons, and it will take every single one of us pulling together in the same direction, to get out of this mess.

Now, I must go mow my lawn just like my religious neighbors next door.

Atheist, A New Reformation

Atheism - A New Reformation

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his declaration onto the doors of the All Saints Church, and thus was begun the Protestant Reformation and the eventual overthrow of the established Catholic Church order.

Prior to this, the Catholic Church essentially ran the world, either overtly or from behind the scenes.  The power of the bishops and the Pope was virtually unquestionable.  They alone held the keys to knowledge -- the scriptures, and thereby the salvation of your soul.  To question the church was to question god himself.

This old world order was eventually overthrown through one simple act, birthed by a new invention the printing press, which printed the first copies of the bible for the general public.  It was this new information that fueled the reformation.  Once the public was able to examine the scriptures for themselves, they immediately saw that the church had kept many things secret from them and that things were not as they seemed.  The established order of access to god only through the priest and the church’s hierarchy was then in question and began to crumble.

The ensuing 150 years were one bloody war after another as the people struggled to become free from the church, and the church struggled to maintain its hold on power.  One thing was absolute; once knowledge had escaped the clutches of the few, that genie could not be put back into the bottle.

While the church may have changed, it certainly did not go away.  It continues to make the claim of authority on issues of morality, holds power behind the scenes, and makes every attempt to direct the course of humanity and the sciences. 

Today, once again, humanity finds itself dealing with Religion run amok.  Holy wars are wreaking havoc on the planet, and because of faith-based hate, huge populations are living in fear – whether it is fear of what will happen to them at the hands of the religious police, or fear of stepping on an airplane to go on a simple business trip.  With so many “hotspots” across the globe, so many battles in the name of god, the time has come for philosophical change.

Across America, the voice of reason is being heard as Atheism comes to the forefront.  A bold new reformation is upon us, as once again a new challenge is nailed to the doors of the church by persons such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris.

It is knowledge that again challenges the church.  Knowledge brought to us by rapidly emerging scientific advances, greater understanding of humanity and the mind, and promulgated by – you guessed it – the internet.  Just like Martin Luther and others, humanity now has access to far greater stores of information and begins to see the world in a new light, a light which illuminates the fallacies and the failures of religion.  Where the church once claimed exclusive rights to morality and the understanding of the human condition, many are finding this claim unjustified.  Morality is a choice, one that humanity has developed on its own without the need of a god created by goat herders and mystics.  Morality and the human condition are far more complicated and diverse than the simplistic battles between one version of good and another version of good, while each calls the other evil.

Advances in science have shown no evidence – none whatsoever – of a god behind the process of life; rather, a complex pattern of energy, self balancing, which gave birth to and evolved into life as we know it.  Furthermore, research into consciousness shows us that our minds and our universe are indeed more vast, to paraphrase Hamlet’s remark to Horatio, “than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”  We find no god, and that is okay. Because what we have found is life, evolving and expanding, with our future bright and shinning, held not in the hand of a mythic being, but in the simple hands of humanity.

Atheism is the rejection of the old concepts of god(s).  Atheism does not propose to offer only cold hard science with no heart as is often the accusation.  Rather, the expansion of human consciousness, the acceptance of what we are and our world is, so that we all may grow and prosper.  Humanity will, as always, make its mistakes as it will also find its moral footing.  Compassion, kindness, beauty and the arts will find greater freedom when not chained to prehistoric gods and demigods who punish humanity for what it thinks.

So, as we enter this new reformation, this new understanding of who we are as individuals and as a species, perhaps we can avoid the pitfalls of the past; the slaughters over doctrine and faith.  Perhaps humanity can take different baby steps towards a greater understanding of ourselves, a brighter future, and our own new reformation.

Why Religion Makes For Bad Government

The religious would have us believe that if only we had more religion, then everything would be better.  Our governments and our schools would be better, crime would go down, the sun would come out, and birds would sing.  If only more of us were believers.  If only our laws matched “gods” laws.  You can hear it in the pulpit and sadly, you can hear it from some of our elected officials.

But, is that in fact true?

Statistically, the answer is no.  If one were to look at the SAT scores by state, and the FBI crime statistics by state, you will find the states in the bible belt rank lower in SATs and higher in crime than other states.  A 2008 study on religion and intelligence disclosed that Atheist scored 5.89 IQ points higher than “dogmatic” religious people – the difference was less when compared to less religious people.  That does not mean religion makes a person less intelligent, it only means that more intelligent people are less religious.

But, how does religion play out in public practice?  Personally, I’d call it a farce.  Need I list the numbers of government officials and religious leaders that screamed the loudest about morals and religion, just before the cameras rolled on their confession before the public about that affair?  Need I list the numbers of anti-homosexual crusaders caught in homosexual affairs?  Let me ask, how many people in prison right now are religious?  Answer: all of them.  While religion may claim to be the mother of all morals and development, it simply is not true. 

History bears this out.  There was a time when religion nearly ruled the entre planet.  From the king to the lowest slave, religion was woven through out society, and people willingly (or most of them did) accepted this as the norm.  If you will kindly remember, they called that era the Dark Ages.  Yes the Dark Ages, when scientific endeavor was repressed and if you got out of line with the church they disemboweled you or burned you at the stake – publicly.  Free speech, human rights, equality, the things one would expect from the claimed enlightenment and freedom of religion, were nonexistent.

But even in today’s societies it is no better in some places.  The worst offenders are in the Middle East, where the religion is the government, where women and children are abused mercilessly and science and truth must bear the stamp of the Mullahs approval.  Even in small town America women today are subject to their husband, forced to wear certain clothing, denied medical care, and science and history are subject to religious rewrites.  Can you spell Texas? 

No, religion continues to force its way into our lives and its affect has not been positive.  Even in Jacksonville, we have elected officials attempting to use their religious opinion to deny qualified persons, seats on a human rights commission of all things!  A human rights Commission!!!

Perhaps the answer to society’s woes is not religion or more faith, as those of faith seem to think?  Perhaps the answer is for us to drop our personal opinions – for that is exactly and only what religion is – and to govern ourselves by objective reason, scientific fact, and with the good of society in mind?  Perhaps the day of “My god said so…”, is passing?

Sadly, that day is far out on the horizon.  Today we still live in a world where those in power will use that power to enforce their personal opinion, their religion; Councilmen Yarborough and Redman come to mind, and that is why religion makes for bad government.