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: 0 0 6 9452

Articles from Atheist Revolution

Bye Bye BlogRush 2007-10-27 12:28:00 I was surprised when I received an e-mail from BlogRush, a new service I had previously suggested and had been using, informing me that Atheist Revolution was being dropped from their system because I "did not meet our strict quality guidelines." Now it appears that I was in good company among other atheist blogs dropped from BlogRush because they have decided to equate freethought with hate speech.I'm not ready to conclude that there is some sort of systematic anti-atheist bias at BlogRush. Such a conclusion seems premature without additional evidence. I'll be interested to compare my experience with that of other atheist bloggers.I was ready to give up on BlogRush, at least for awhile. I'd tired of their never-ending beta period and the sheer number of Christian posts I had been promoting for them here. Maybe this is for the best.If they get their act together, I'm willing to give them another chance. Until then, I don't expect any loss in traffic for not using them. After all, ...

Atheists Continue To Defend Constitution For All Americans 2007-10-27 07:22:00 Time and time again, it seems to fall on American atheists to defend our Constitution from believers who trample it in the name of their mythical god. The Cherry Creek School District, an extremely wealthy area of Denver, CO, is the site of the latest attempt to push religion in the public schools. Believers just cannot be content with practicing their religion in their homes and churches; they need to push it on their neighbors via the public schools. Fortunately, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is once again defending the Constitution here.According to CBS4 (Denver), the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and an atheist family have filed a lawsuit to stop the Cherry Creek School District from continuing to promote religion in violation of the Constitution.The program in question, 40 Developmental Assets, is described as promoting "religious community" along with "things like family support, positive peer influence and doing homework." Evidently, the program says that childr ...

Christian Extremist Links CA Fires To Homosexuality 2007-10-26 16:12:00 As soon as I heard about the fires ravaging the San Diego area, I knew it was just a matter of time before Christian extremists would say that this was the punishment of some god. It did not take long for James Hartline to oblige. Now the California fires can join national disasters such as Hurricane Katrina among the long list of ways a god is supposed to have punished humanity for progressive social values. It seems that this particular god favors hate, intolerance, discrimination, and the like. Such a god hardly seems worthy of admiration, much less worship.H/Ts to Unscrewing the Inscrutable and Pandagon ...

The Value Of Education 2007-10-26 05:38:00 Even though I spend most of my working life engaged in scientific research, I do teach and I regard myself as an educator as much as a researcher or a scientist. Thus, education is a topic I hold dear, and threats to education are a frequent source of outrage. I believe that America's children deserve a quality, secular education and that this is essential to ensuring that we remain competitive in the global markets of the future and that we retain an informed citizenry, capable of participating in the American democracy.I am saddened by the declining educational standards I observe, and I continue to believe that America deserves better. Rather than appropriately funding public education, we have simply lowered educational standards. More children enter college, not because more are academically qualified but because we have gradually made it easier to finish high school and gain college entrance.In college, standards are lowered to prevent having to flunk out a large majority of the ...

Good Without God 2007-10-25 05:37:00 There is a great article by Dan Gardner in The Ottawa Citizen that I encourage you to read. This is precisely the sort of pro-atheist article we need to get out more frequently. Gardner not only dispels one of the most important myths about atheists but he also shows how the Christians who condemn us have to keep revising their criticism as it proves erroneous.The whole article is worth a read, but I can't resist highlighting my favorite part:No, they say, we cannot be good without believing in an invisible spirit who, like Santa Claus, knows when we've been bad or good. No invisible spirit, no reward or punishment. No reward or punishment, and moral codes become empty words. Inevitably, atheists must conclude that morality is for suckers -- and so believers are, ipso facto, better people than non-believers.Gardner notes that religion has been viewed as being necessary for morality for centuries but that believers are increasingly forced to confront the falsehood of this view as the ...

Religion and Poverty in Mississippi 2007-10-24 05:40:00 In feudal Europe, Christianity helped to maintain the rigid class structure. The landowners benefited greatly from serfs who were convinced that complying with the unfair system in this life would lead to heavenly rewards. The church, in turn, received money from the landowners. It seems everyone benefited except those pesky serfs. Something similar is happening today in Mississippi, and I cannot help but wonder what role religion is playing in maintaining our despicable status quo.Let's start with one simple, undisputed fact: Mississippi is the poorest state in America. This is nothing new, as I'm fairly certain we've been in the bottom 5% since the Civil War. Reasonable people can disagree about the historic causes for this fact and about how best to change it, but there is no disagreement over our last place showing on a list of median incomes.Believe it or not, Mississippi also has the highest sales tax on food in America. In fact, Mississippi is one of only seven states that ta ...

More on Dawkins' Jewish Lobby Comment 2007-10-24 05:36:00 Remember Dawkins' comment about the Jewish lobby? A reader e-mailed a link to an interesting analysis by David Berreby on The Huffington Post. It is rather critical of atheism as an identity but should provoke some useful thought. Check it out. ...

AAI Proposes New Atheist Symbol 2007-10-23 05:25:00 Atheist Alliance International (AAI), a large umbrella organization composed of various freethought groups around the world has proposed a new atheist symbol. Six options were selected by committee, and attendees of the 2007 conference voted for their favorite. This is the winning symbol, and AAI intends it to serve as an international symbol of freethought. For more on the symbol and a variety of image files using it, see here. What do you think?Tags: Atheist Alliance International, atheist, atheism, atheist symbol, freethought ...

Winners And Losers At Values Voter Summit 2007-10-22 06:05:00 Reports are now coming in from the Values Voter Summit this weekend, and it appears that we have some winners (Romney and Huckabee) and losers (Giuliani and Thompson) in the contest to pander to the fundy crowd.It sounds like Mitt Romney excelled at telling Christian extremist voters exactly what they wanted to hear, well except for the whole Mormon thing which he still considers to be a non-issue. Romney won the straw poll, with Huckabee, often considered to be a favorite among Christian fundamentalists, placing second. This is an impressive win for Romney, as Huckabee is sounding more and more like the sort of theocrat these folks are seeking:He called for a constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman and decried the "holocaust of liberalized abortion.""We do not have the right to move the standards of God to meet cultural norms. We need to move the cultural norms to meet God's standards," he said, bringing the crowd to its feet.Fred Thompson, on the ...

War On Christmas Starts Early 2007-10-22 05:32:00 I seem to remember it starting right after Halloween last year, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see it here before Halloween this year. Anyway, the good news for Christians this year is that they can buy their own "personal Christmas defense kits" to be ready for the many imaginary attacks on the pagan holiday they've taken as their own.Things are already beginning to shape up nicely at the Sea-Tac airport, the site of one high-profile battle in this war last year.H/T to Austin ClineTags: Christmas, war on Christmas, personal Christmas defense kits, religion ...

Vales Voter Summit: Biggest Collection of Theocrats Since Witch Trials 2007-10-21 11:17:00 Christian extremists are now threatening Republican presidential candidates with the formation of a third party if the Republicans fail to get in line. Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State described the Values Voter Summit as, "the biggest collection of theocrats in one room since the Salem Witch Trials." An apt description if there ever was one.According to Americans United, Christian extremist groups are gathering in Washington D.C. this weekend to pressure Republican presidential hopefuls into conforming to their religiously-based political agenda. All major GOP candidates are expected to attend the Values Voter Summit.According to Lynn,Their goal is simple: to consolidate their power within the GOP and elect a president who is in their pocket. They want to ramp up their efforts to run everyone else’s lives according to a narrow and rather hateful definition of Christianity.To pressure the Republican candidates, these extremists are thre ...

Bestsellers in Atheism 2007-10-21 07:55:00 Here is a link to Amazon.com's list of bestselling books on atheism. It updates hourly, and it is interesting to see how much fluctuation there is.H/T to Debunking ChristianityTags: Amazon.com, atheism, books, bestsellers ...

Moving To Mac? Apple Must Fix iMac First 2007-10-20 11:35:00 I am going to need a new computer in the next few months, and I am seriously considering making the switch from Windows to Mac. After reading several reviews in which Apple's Tiger OS compared favorably to Vista, I started researching Mac hardware. Unfortunately, this was where I ran into problems. As much as I want to make the switch to Mac, Apple has some serious hardware problems to fix before I'd be comfortable buying an iMac.My Dell Dimension 4500 is showing its age, especially when I use Photoshop. I've maxed the RAM, added a faster hard drive and DVD-RW drive, but I've reached the point where additional upgrades are either not possible (RAM) or impractical. A new computer is in my future, hopefully during the next few months.My computing needs appear to be rather different from many of the consumers targeted by PC makers. I do all the usual office and internet applications, have a massive .mp3 collection, but have no interest in gaming. Most of my computing demands come from ... Apple

Christian Extremism: Not Dead Yet 2007-10-20 07:32:00 Despite this being an excellent year for atheism, it would be a mistake to overlook the continued influence of the so-called Religious Right. Lest there be any doubt, I encourage you to check out this evidence that they are setting new funding records. In fact, Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State warns that the Christian extremist movement may be more powerful than ever in 2008.This means that it is even more important for those of us in the growing secular community to continue to defend reason, ask for evidence, and promote a reality-based worldview. I suppose the silver lining to this particular cloud is that a strong religious extremist movement virtually guarantees that our ranks will continue to swell. As more Americans grow dissatisfied with extremist religion, they may become more willing to consider the possibility of life without the delusion of faith.Tags: Christian extremism, Barry Lynn, Americans United for Separation of Church and State ...

Christian Extremist Brownback Drops Out 2007-10-19 08:53:00 Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) is dropping out of the 2008 presidential race due to poor fundraising performance. While I would very much like to see politics divorced from big money and wish that successful fundraising would no longer be a prerequisite for the political office, I won't lose sleep over Brownback's departure. After all, he was a Christian extremist who denied evolution, supported religiously-based homophobia in the military, and was notorious for pandering.While Brownback leaving the race is certainly good for America, it sounds like it might be bad for Kansas, where he is expected to run for governor in 2010. Poor Kansas! Haven't they been through enough?Tags: Sam Brownback, politics, 2008 election, election 2008, Kansas, Christian extremism, Christian extremist ...