Atheist Revolution Religious belief is a destructive force that causes far more harm than good. Atheist Revolution is a blog dedicated to breaking free from irrational belief and opposing Christian extremism in America. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 1 0 136 10161

Articles from Atheist Revolution

Scientists Colluding with Ignorance on Evolution Weekend 2008-02-11 05:43:00 An odd article appeared in the Battle Creek Enquirer (Michigan) reporting on an Evolution Weekend event held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. According to the article, a panel of "experts" came to the conclusion that science and religion can agree on the origins of the universe. And no, I still haven't told you the really odd part.The panel of 7 "experts" appeared to consist of at least a few scientists: professors of physics, geology, neurobiology. Don't ask me what any of these fields have to do with evolution or why nobody would think to invite a biologist or two. The rest of the "experts" were clergy. Somehow, being a rector or deacon makes one an expert on evolution too.The truly odd part came at the end of the panel presentations when audience members were offered the opportunity to ask questions.Fred Betz, 63, of Galesburg told the panelists he took the words of the Bible at face value, and his understanding of scripture disproved evolution."What's wrong with my simplistic vie ...

God Wants Scorched Earth Warfare 2008-02-10 08:10:00 Continuing on with this project to read the Christian bible cover to cover is becoming increasingly arduous. I find that I have to be in the right mood to read it, and that even then, it is slow going. My last post in this series dealt with Deuteronomy and Joshua. This one has me moving through Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel. Frankly, it also has me wondering how much more of this I can take.The first thing to strike me about Judges is that we have seen a pattern across several Old Testament books of the Israelites repeatedly committing evil acts in the eyes of their god. They are punished in a variety of ways, ranging from famine to enslavement by foreign nations. Each time misery befalls them, it is because their god either punishes them directly or punishes indirectly by withholding protection of some sort.The reader can certainly sympathize with poor Gideon when he asks one of god's prophets, "But sir, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders ...

Florida Atheists to Celebrate Darwin Day 2008-02-09 10:17:00 Florida atheists recently received some positive media attention in the form of an article by Lois K. Solomon in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The article mentioned that over 200 atheists are expected at Fern Forest Nature Preserve to celebrate Darwin Day."It's empowering to be among people who share your world view," said Madea, 60, a Broward Community College chemistry professor. "You don't have to apologize for who you are and what you believe."I am going to e-mail Ms. Solomon to thank her for her article.Tags: Florida, atheist, atheism, Darwin Day ...

Discussion on Atheist Parenting 2008-02-09 07:49:00 There seems to be a real shortage of information available for atheist parents, and I know this is a topic of great interest to atheists with children or those planning to have children soon. If this is a topic of interest to you, I encourage you to head over to Exercise in Futility for a discussion of how atheist parents discuss religion with their children. You might also want to check out either Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion or Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion.Tags: atheism, atheist, secular, religion, atheist parenting, parenting ...

Community-Building: Atheist Support Groups 2008-02-08 05:17:00 In many parts of America, atheists do not feel free to be open about their atheism. Reasons range from social ostracization to threats to one's personal safety. Indeed, living as an atheist in many parts of American can be a lonely experience. Atheist groups do exist in many communities, but they tend to attract few active members, suggesting that they may not adequately meet the needs of other atheist residents. Could we learn something from the support group model? Perhaps atheist support groups would be an attractive option to consider.Many larger communities have some sort of informal groups for atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and the like. I do not have much personal experience with such groups because my community lacks one. When I examine such groups in this region, I find that most seem to operate as either loosely organized social clubs. Examples of common activities include potlucks, presentations on various freethought topics, and community cleanup projects.My complaint ...

Believer Promotes Her Church 2008-02-07 05:38:00 For nonbelievers, the appeal of church can be somewhat puzzling. We tend to understand the fellowship part, but the notion of worshiping what we know to be the product of human fantasy tends to seem little more than an exercise in narcissistic self-delusion (i.e., it must be true because I really want it to be true). Let's examine how a believer describes the appeal of her church.Every Saturday, my local paper includes a "Faith & Vales." Among other things, this section always includes a brief profile of a local church. One such profile caught my eye earlier this month, and I've been saving it for just such a post.The profile, titled "Christian Tabernacle is place of love, warmth," included a quote from a church member attempting to verbalize what was so wonderful about her church, Christian Tabernacle Church of the Apostolic Faith. Here is what she had to say, grammatical mistakes and all:Christian Tabernacle is a place of love and warmth. If you are looking for a church home, s ...

Conform to Christianity or Else 2008-02-06 05:40:00 Anyone who has successfully navigated their own adolescence has some understanding of the peer pressure and related phenomena which compel many youth to try to fit in with the crowd. In adulthood, the pressures change a bit, but many people continue to experience them to some degree, especially in the workplace. So it should come as little surprise that our elected officials are not immune to the demands of conformity. What may be surprising is the degree to which these pressures influence their decision-making.Sally Quinn's article in the Washington Post appeared back in December and has been in my queue of to-blog material ever since. Sally opens by describing some disturbing childhood recollections involving a "born again" teacher who took advantage of childhood pressures to conform and fear of punishment to push her beliefs on his pupils.As a child, I went to a small school in rural Alabama near an Army post where my father was stationed. It was a very Christian town, and our teac ...

This Is My Country 2008-02-05 15:06:00 On this Super Tuesday when Americans are heading to the polls in many states and predictions are that we may soon have a Republican nominee, it is worth remembering that some of America's problems cannot be solved by a presidential election. Some problems will be slow to change and will require considerable support for an often neglected educational system.78% of Americans have favorable views of presidential candidates citing the Christian bible when speaking about their political positions.75% of Americans believe that it is appropriate for each President to be sworn into office on a Christian bible.60% report that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who "speaks publicly about following the example of admirable leaders from the Bible and who consistently uses the Bible for guidance in both public and personal matters."50% would not vote for an atheist. - Source: The American Bible Society using a nationwide survey of 1,008 adults matched to U.S. census data on age and ...

Bush Pushing Faith-Based Initiaves Again 2008-02-05 05:33:00 In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush asked Congress to protect his faith-based initiatives by making them permanent. According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, it is unlikely that his request will be granted.According to executive director Rev. Barry W. Lynn, "Bush’s ‘faith-based’ initiative has been a colossal failure. It undercut civil rights laws and jeopardized important religious liberty safeguards."If Americans United is right and Congress refuses to grant Bush's request, any executive orders he signs in the remainder of his term can easily be reversed by the next president.Lynn noted that former officials in the Bush White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives stated publicly that the administration never took the faith-based initiative seriously and that it was often misused to help Republican candidates for public office.It sounds as if King George is really convinced that he is above the law, doesn't it?Tags: ...

Carnival of the Godless at Mind on Fire 2008-02-04 13:11:00 Carnival of the Godless #84 is up at Mind on Fire. John was kind enough to include my post on Christian extremism. Check it out to get your fix of godless reading.Tags: blog carnival, atheism, secular, godless, Christian extremism ...

I'm Ready To Support Obama 2008-02-04 09:06:00 I suppose "undecided no more" might have been a better title for this one, but I figured I should be more descriptive. It took me awhile, but I have arrived at the point where I can comfortably support Barack Obama for president. Why did it take me so long to get to this point, how did I get here, and is there anything I can say to those still on the fence that might help them make a decision? Let's find out.I supported Kucinich from the beginning but was slow to announce my support because I did not want to rush to judgment without watching a few debates and reading more about the positions of each candidate on the issues. Even while supporting Kucinich, I found that I liked Edwards enough to consider him a viable second choice. When the Kucinich campaign was destroyed by the corporate media, I had little difficulty switching my support to Edwards. Sadly, his campaign quickly met with the same fate.In arriving at this point, with the field narrowed to Clinton and Obama, I hit a wall ...

Will Jesus Fix Our Economy? 2008-02-03 15:00:00 Getting tired of all the political hoopla yet? How about a good laugh instead? According to Andy Borowitz at the Huffington Post, GOP presidential hopeful and laughing-stock extraordinaire, Mike Huckabee, is trying to stir up his evangelical base before Tuesday's election by asking someone who died over 2,000 years ago (if he lived at all) to help our economy. That's right, the Huckster is calling on Jesus for help. How's that for a stimulus package?Borowitz describes Huckabee begging Jesus for "a fresh infusion of loaves and fishes" during his Alabama press conference.The former Arkansas governor was not specific about the exact dollar amount of the loaves and fishes that he had asked Jesus to inject into the U.S. economy, but advisors later said that it was somewhere in the ballpark of $70 billion.Can't you easily imagine something like this happening? This the guy who keeps telling the media how tired he is of all the questions about his religious delusion and whether it would r ...

Neal Boortz Calls New Orleans "City of Parasites" 2008-02-03 09:59:00 Cross-posted at Consequences of Republicanism. According to Media Matters, conservative talk radio host Neal Boortz referred to New Orleans as "a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves" during his January 30th show. Boortz also made inexcusable remarks about victims of Hurricane Katrina, saying, "When these Katrina so-called refugees were scattered about the country, it was just a glorified episode of putting out the garbage."Expressing what has become fairly typical Republican outrage over the tendency of many Americans to blame Bush for the inadequate federal response to Hurricane Katrina, Boortz said,But I am fed up with this conventional wisdom that Katrina and the disaster that followed was George Bush's fault. It was not. The primary blame goes on the worthless parasites who lived in New Orleans who you -- couldn't even wipe themselves, let alone get out of the way of the water when that levee broke.In the midst of what I cert ...

Petition to Block Creationist Idiocy in Florida 2008-02-03 08:38:00 Panda's Thumb has posted a link to an online petition sponsored by Florida Citizens for Science in an effort to maintain pressure on Florida's Board of Education to adopt the new proposed science standards. This is important because efforts are underway to dilute the science standards with creationist idiocy. Thanks to Panda's Thumb for helping to publicize this important issue.Tags: science education, Florida, creationism, petition, activism, education ...

One More Undecided Voter 2008-02-02 13:20:00 I've made no secret out of wanting a progressive candidate for president in 2008. I supported Dennis Kucinich until the corporate media killed his campaign by denying him coverage. I then shifted my support to John Edwards, even though it had already become increasingly clear that he would meet the same end. It happened much sooner than I had anticipated. Now I'm left with two Democratic candidates I don't particularly like, trying to figure out what to do next.Voting Republican is not an option in this election. The platform of the Republican party (e.g., nationalistic militarism, tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens, social conservatism, Christian evangelism, etc.) is simply untenable. America is in desperate need of meaningful change, and the Bush regime has done so much damage that the task of restoring our country cannot be entrusted to another Republican.It is entirely possible that the Democratic nominee will be decided before Mississippi's primary in March. However, I hav ...