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 46 8645

Articles from Atheist Revolution

More Thoughts on The Scarlet A 2007-09-17 06:06:00 A recent post on A Whore in the Temple of Reason has me thinking about the scarlet A selected to symbolize the OUT Campaign again. I support what the campaign stands for but think that the choice of the scarlet A was unfortunate.My reasons for disliking that chosen symbol are as follows:The large red letter A already has a widely recognized meaning from Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary classic, The Scarlet Letter. In Hawthorne's book, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet A on her attire to symbolize her sin of adultery. This seems like an absurd symbol for atheists to attempt to reclaim as our own.Aside from the association with adultery, the scarlet A fails to symbolize the sort of "atheist pride" many want the OUT Campaign to represent. People seeing the symbol will either assume that the A stands for adulterer or be confused about its meaning. Wouldn't an unambiguous expression of atheism be a far more effective way to achieve the stated goals of the OUT campaign? At the very ...

Mocking The Faithful? Suck It, Jesus! 2007-09-16 17:20:00 I think I can safely assume that everyone reading this has now heard about Kathy Griffin saying, "Suck it, Jesus" at the Emmy Awards. As expected, the self-appointed defenders of Christianity are up in arms, and many atheist bloggers are still laughing about it. American Atheists issued a statement condemning broadcasters for censoring Griffin's statement when they re-air the show. Something tells me that this will be yet another missed opportunity for some meaningful dialogue about the place of religion in our modern world.I assume that Griffin's comments were intended to have a comedic effect in that she was making fun of the near universal tendency for celebrities to thank fictional beings during their acceptance speeches. She is hardly the first to call attention to this bizarre behavior or to mock it. The difference seems to be that she mocked it at the awards show and that her comments have been interpreted as mocking Jesus too.Do I find her comments funny? Absolutely. I am dis ...

GOP Front Runners Skip Faith-Based Debate 2007-09-16 11:06:00 Democratic presidential candidates have been falling all over themselves pandering to Christian voters. Meanwhile, Republican front runners Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Thompson plan to skip the Value Voters Debate in Florida tomorrow, apparently indifferent to the wrath of their base. What is happening to "God's Own Party?" If there was a hell, I think it just might be freezing over right about now!I'd like to offer two brief comments. First, this is hilarious! Could it be that Republicans are starting to view appearances before Christian extremists as a liability to their campaigns? I love it! Second, do not be fooled by the "values voter" label; it is conservative code for "Christian extremist." But don't take my word for it. See for yourselves what they believe.H/T to Pam's House BlendTags: values voters, Republicans, debate, 2008 election, election 2008, Christian, Christian extremism, religion, politics, GOP, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson ...

David Cronenberg Explains How His Atheism Influences His Work 2007-09-16 07:29:00 Celebrated director, David Cronenberg, openly identified himself as an atheist during a recent interview with Reuters. In fact, Cronenberg offered an intriguing example of how his atheism informs his work in cinema.While discussing a particularly violent scene in his upcoming film about the Russian mafia, Eastern Promises, Cronenberg had this to say:"Murder is a serious thing. I am taking it very seriously," Cronenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Eastern Promises" had its premiere on Saturday night."I'm an atheist," Cronenberg said. "To me an act of murder is the act of total destruction, it's absolute. There's no comeback, there's no going to heaven, that's it. And it is very easy for that to be veiled or covered up, in a movie especially."To me it makes perfect legitimate, artistic and, if you push me, moral sense as well to do that this way."In other words, murder should be ugly, violent, and shocking. Unlike ...

Carnival of the Godless 2007-09-16 07:22:00 Carnival of the Godless is now up at Ain't Christian. It looks like a couple of bloggers were permitted to have multiple entries. I'm not sure how that happened, but hey, more power to them. Check it out.Tags: Carnival of the Godless, blog carnival, blog, blogging, atheism, secular ...

Washington Post Covers Atheism 2007-09-15 11:58:00 The Washington Post has two stories on atheism today. "In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers" by Jacqueline L. Salmon provides a concise overview of the atheist revival. Mary Jordan's "In Europe and U.S., Nonbelievers Are Increasingly Vocal," is a much longer piece dealing with the growth of atheism on both sides of the Atlantic. Both are worth a read, so check them out.Tags: atheism, America, Washington Post ...

Least Religious Candidates Lead Pack 2007-09-15 06:50:00 Surveys reveal that most voters would not vote for an atheist presidential candidate. However, this does not mean that they are seeking a particularly religious one either. New data reveal that the candidates perceived by voters as the least religious also happen to be those leading the polls.According to USA Today,"The candidates viewed by voters as the least religious among the leading contenders are the current frontrunners for the Democratic and Republican nominations," the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports today.The leading candidates for both parties, Clinton and Giuliani happen to be those perceived as the least religious.I would interpret these findings as suggesting that voters want a candidate to meet a particular threshold of religiosity but that once the candidate has done so, increasing religiosity becomes far less important. An atheist is not an acceptable candidate because he or she would fail to meet this threshold. But at the same time, voters do ...

Was Jesus Gay? 2007-09-14 06:52:00 ReligiousTolerance.org has an interesting discussion on the question of whether Jesus, if he existed at all, might have been gay. Believe it or not, this question is nothing new and one which has been debated by theologians over considerable time. ReligiousTolerance.org presents both sides, balancing evidence that he may have been gay with evidence that he was not. I don't expect it to change any minds, especially because no clear answer emerges from the evidence. Still, it is an interesting and thought-provoking possibility. It is just too bad that Christians find it so offensive and that non-Christians continue to cater to this oversensitivity.Of course, we'll never know Jesus' sexual orientation. Much like we cannot be certain that he actually lived or that his life resembled in any way what the Christian bible says, there will never be a definitive verdict on his possible homosexuality. Too bad. Just think of the implications for Republican Congressmen!The point I want to highli ...

"End Times" Theology Endangers Us All 2007-09-13 05:11:00 Christians are expected to swallow all sorts of nonsense about the existence of supernatural entities, beliefs about the natural world which have repeatedly been falsified, and assorted logical contradictions. The rest of us are expected to keep our criticism to ourselves in the interest of respect or tolerance (yes, to point out someone's religiously-motivated intolerance is regularly considered intolerant). And yet, withholding criticism of certain irrational beliefs imperils us all.In a recent column for The State News, John Bice, author of A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America, points out that belief in a "second coming" and the accompanying end times theology is just such a dangerous belief.In fairness to the many Christians who have managed to retain some shred of sanity, I will distinguish between those who passively believe that Jesus will someday return and those who think such a return is imminent and that they should do something to speed it up. The former is simp ...

Ex-Christian Highlights Tactics to Maintain Belief 2007-09-12 05:41:00 I suppose that the majority of American atheists are bound to be ex-Christians. We were indoctrinated in this ancient superstition during our formative years, but we were able to break free and recover from what had been done to us. Still, it is quite different to hear from to hear from one of the many ex-Christian members of the clergy who left religion behind to join the reality-based community. These brave individuals often have great insight about how believers are "helped" to keep the faith.Take Barry, the author of A Penitent Atheist, as an example. He embraced Christianity at 17 and went on to become a minister before eventually leaving delusion behind to arrive at atheism. In a recent post, he notedWhen I was a minister in the service of Christianity, a significant aspect of my job was explaining away biblical absurdities. If the Bible said something that was illogical or just plain wrong by modern standards, which it frequently does, then I would search the commentaries for th ...

Moderate Christians Finally Speaking Out 2007-09-11 05:32:00 At long last, we have a sign that at least some moderate Christians are tiring of the extremist brethren dominating religious discourse. The Clergy Letter Project allows Christian clergy to sign on to a statement about the relationship between religion and science. Hopefully, this will be an important step toward raising awareness of Christian extremism.H/T to The Daily AtheistTags: Christians, Christianity, Clergy Letter Project, clergy ...

Understanding Prayer: Not Supernatural But Self-Soothing 2007-09-10 05:33:00 While reading a post at Secular Planet, I had an interesting thought about prayer, how it works, and how mistaken I may have been in my previous efforts to understand it. Now my head is swirling with the possible implications. What if prayer has little to do with religious belief, faith, or even the litany of gods before which believers have grovelled over the millennia? What if prayer is really just a primitive form of self-soothing? What if believers are at least partially aware of this but have employed a variety of psychological defenses to repress full awareness?The implications of such a possibility are intriguing. For starters, this would suggest that many of us have been wrong in our analysis and critique of prayer. For example, I've previously struggled to understand how Christians can simultaneously believe in an omnipotent and omniscience god and believe that this god is more likely to be swayed by prayers from multiple persons: Does the believer think that more individuals ...

Time to Pray 2007-09-09 08:40:00 My fellow Americans, our beloved President, cloaking himself in the authority of your Constitution, has asked you to pray this weekend to honor the victims of 9/11. Evidently, we no longer life in a secular democracy. Praise Jee-zuhs!I am reproducing Bush's proclamation in its entirety to provoke your complete and total subservience below. Enjoy.National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, 2007A Proclamation By the President of the United States of AmericaDuring this year's National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, we honor the thousands of victims who died in the brutal and ruthless attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Our Nation remembers with gratitude the firefighters, police officers, first responders, and ordinary citizens who acted with courage and compassion to save the lives of others, and we pray for the families whose loved ones were taken from them.Never forgetting that terrible day, we remain determined to bring our enemies to jus ...

Pat Condell on YouTube 2007-09-08 13:49:00 The Lansing State Journal reports that YouTube is hosting an atheist video series featuring Pat Condell. I suspect that most of you already know about Condell. I think he's fantastic. If you haven't seen his clips, visit his website or check out some of his better clips in the Atheist Revolution video collection.Tags: atheist, atheism, Pat Condell, YouTube, video ... Youtube

Know Them By Their Deeds: Another Fundy Pastor Guilty of Incest 2007-09-08 08:40:00 The AAP story, printed on stuff.co.nz is simply titled, "Pastor had sex with daughters to teach how to be wives." It seems that a 54 year-old fundamentalist pastor in South Australia had sex with his two teenage daughters and then attempted to excuse his actions by claiming that he was teaching them how to be good wives. He pled guilty to incest and related charges and was sentenced to 8.5 years. He'll be eligible for parole in 4 years.The man told the court the sex was not about fulfilling his desires but about teaching his daughters how to behave for their husbands when they eventually married, as dictated in scripture.I guess I'm not sure what more to say.Tags: religion, hypocrisy, Australia, incest, crime ...