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 0 114 8598

Articles from Atheist Revolution

Christian Agrees That Children Cannot Be Born Christian 2007-07-16 05:45:00 Since an atheist one one who does not believe in any gods (note that not believing is not synonymous with disbelieving), it follows that all children are born atheists. One cannot believe in something of which one has never heard. Thus simple truth bothers many Christians, but I'm happy to report that some Christians do acknowledge it.Writing for the conservative Christian website, WorldNetDaily, Greg Laurie explains,You cannot be a Christian simply by being born into a Christian family. I'm amazed at how some people, when asked how they know they are Christians, will answer, "Because I think my grandfather was," or, "Because my mother is a Christian." It's as though they believe their family somehow has Christian "genes." Having Christian parents is a great privilege. It's a wonderful thing to be raised with biblical values and to develop a Christian worldview. But you still must personally believe in Jesus. You cannot live off the faith of the family.Given that Laurie is a pastor ... Children

LA Catholics Settle Abuse Claims For $660 Million 2007-07-15 13:01:00 The Associated Press is reporting that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a deal where the church will pay approximately $660 million to settle hundreds of clergy sexual abuse lawsuits. I'm not sure how to put a price on the sort of suffering caused by these sex offenders who preyed on those entrusted to them, but I am glad to see that victims will receive compensation. I hope we will see some serious reforms in the aftermath of this settlement and that other denominations will be more proactive in implementing reforms than the Catholics were.Tags: church, Catholic church, sexual abuse, Los Angeles, settlement ...

New Blog Aggregator For Humanist Blogs 2007-07-15 07:17:00 With the success of Planet Atheism as an aggregator of atheist-oriented blogs, it was inevitable that someone would think of utilizing the same approach for a somewhat different goal. Planet Humanism is now up and running. If you have a humanist-oriented blog, even if you are not an atheist, be sure to add your blog to this new aggregator.Tags: blogging, blog, Planet Atheism, Planet Humanism, atheist, humanist, blog aggregator ...

Proselytizing in the Classroom 2007-07-14 07:42:00 High school is a turbulent time for many, and I think we'd all agree that there are plenty of things that can interfere with the learning process. If you are a high school student or the parent of one, you know the myriad difficulties in navigating this period. But the list of potential obstacles rarely includes the teachers. Imagine that you are a 16 year-old public high school student and one of your teachers spends considerable class time proselytizing, explicitly promoting Jesus, threatening sinners with hell, telling the class that dinosaurs accompanied humans on Noah's ark, and that evolution is a lie. What do you do?It is bad enough when adults are exposed to this sort of nonsense, but pushing it on children is unpardonable. Teachers serve as intellectual role models, and few 16 year-olds can be expected to critically evaluate the quality of the information offered by their teachers. This makes them ideal candidates for indoctrination, but indoctrination is very different from ...

Christian Extremists Disrupt Senate: Hypocrisy Not the Real Story 2007-07-13 08:20:00 When I fist saw this headline appearing on several atheist blogs, I figured that the Christian extremists involved were probably senators. As it turns out, they were members of Operation Save America, a Christian extremist group. This is a fascinating tale of hypocrisy, as the Religious Right defends regular Christian prayer in the Senate by playing the "religious tolerance" card. It appears that tolerance is only supposed to extend as far as their particular religion. Still, I think that there is a far more important story here which should not be neglected.The U.S. Senate opens every day with a prayer - I'll come back to that. However, this was the first time a Hindu chaplain was invited to give the prayer. Needless to say, this did not go over well with a trio of Christian extremists in attendance. You can see what happened here.From the coverage I've seen so far, the story appears to be the hypocrisy in how the Religious Right defends the Senate's daily (almost always Christian ...

Atheism: A Choice to be Alone? 2007-07-13 07:14:00 While doing some reading in the vibrant atheist blogosphere, I cane across a post by J.C. Samuelson that captured my attention - Ex-Christian.net's article, "Public Atheism: A Question of Image or Discrimination?" Even if you haven't read it yet, it will be familiar because it addresses a popular question you will surely recognize from the title. However, there was something else about the post that caught my eye.The whole article is a good, thought-provoking read, but something in the first paragraph made a particularly strong impression.In a world in which faith and supernaturalism have always ruled, being an atheist (in the broadest possible sense and including naturalists of many stripes) has never been easy. Classically, the individual claiming that title (or one like it) risked alienating his/her entire social circle and, depending on prominence, society at large. In other words, choosing atheism seemed to be - and perhaps still is in some places - a choice to be alone. [italic ...

Christian Terrorism in Colorado 2007-07-12 08:01:00 It looks like the Christian terrorists are at it again. According to The Denver Post, police at the University of Colorado are investigating threatening messages received by the biology department from "a religious-themed group and addressed the debate between evolution and creationism."The Post article said that police were not ready to reveal the full nature of their investigation, but the commander did disclose, "It basically said anybody who doesn't believe in our religious belief is wrong and should be taken care of."The Panda's Thumb has some inside information about the case and has revealed additional details. Disturbing stuff to be sure, but not yet as bad as what is happening in Texas.Tags: religion, Christian, terrorism, Christian terrorism, Colorado, evolution, University of Colorado, biology, Christian extremism ...

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Religion 2007-07-12 06:13:00 While all varieties of religious belief share the flaws of irrationality and falsehood, there is evidence that some forms of religious belief are less damaging than others. In fact, the intrinsic-extrinsic dimension has been one of the most central constructs in the modern psychology of religion and remains popular in psychological research today.It is difficult to read much on the psychology of religion without encountering Allport's work on intrinsic-extrinsic religion. Essentially, this dimension deals with maturity and is based on the assumption that some people hold more mature religious belief than others. It may be tempting for nonbelievers to dismiss this notion, especially when one learns that Allport developed it at least in part because he was troubled by the positive relationship between measures of religiosity and measures of prejudice.Interesting how this works, isn't it? A researcher finds that religiosity is positively correlated with prejudice (i.e., people with high ...

Darwin Fish Exposes Christian Privilege 2007-07-11 05:33:00 I like the Darwin fish. To me, it is a healthy pro-science statement. Of course, I acknowledge that it also carries an anti-religion connotation for some people due to its design (i.e., borrowing from the Christian design which came first) and the inevitable conflict between religion and science. I'm also aware that some people view displaying a Darwin fish as an act of symbolic aggression. More than just being an interesting symbol that is interpreted in diverse ways, the Darwin fish exposes the scope of Christian privilege and says volumes about the plight of nonbelievers.I do not have a Darwin fish on my car, but I would very much like to. Why? I perceive it as one of the rare symbols which conveys both a pro-science and an anti-superstition sentiment simultaneously. Since I am both pro-science and anti-superstition, it is an unusually accurate symbol for my worldview. But the main reason I'd like to have one because of how it makes me feel when I see one on another vehicle. They ...

Atheists in Politics 2007-07-10 05:41:00 A new energy is sweeping American atheists, secular humanists, and freethinkers. More of us are coming forward, speaking out, and taking action to preserve our secular democracy. The backlash against years dominated by Christian extremism is underway, and a grassroots movement is starting to emerge. While lacking cohesion or recognized leadership, this atheist wave is finally being noticed by the American media. In fact, some are now recognizing our growing political influence.We are fed up with religion in politics. We want a President who recognizes that it would be inappropriate for him or her to discuss personal religious beliefs while in office. We've had enough of ineffective faith-based policies and are hungry for policies based on scientific findings. We'd like to make sure that government funding is reserved for programs with scientific merit and that the programs are required to demonstrate evidence of efficacy as a condition of continued funding. We find it morally unaccep ...

Your Religion Hurts Us Too 2007-07-09 05:34:00 A "live and let live" attitude is very common among believers. It is probably the single most common excuse nonbelievers give for dismissing atheist activism. Many of those who do not believe in any gods have managed to convince themselves that the religion of others is simply irrelevant to them. "I'm not religious, but I understand that religion is important to many people. I have no interest in changing anyone's mind, and I'm content to leave them alone as long as they leave me alone."You have heard variations of this argument many times, but repetition or popularity is clearly no measure of veracity. Statements like this reflect a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of religious belief and the costs of religion, costs shared by nonbelievers.The costs of religion to believers are readily apparent, but what costs could religion have for nonbelievers? Setting aside the obvious costs (e.g., religiously-based discrimination, intolerance, violence, etc.), it has become increa ...

Journey of an Atheist, Part V 2007-07-08 09:21:00 This is the fifth and final part of a multi-post series. Part IV can be found here, or if you'd like to start from the beginning, you can find Part I here. I have postponed writing the the final part of this series for quite some time because I knew it would be the most difficult. This is the part that takes us up to the present time, meaning that I lack the perspective I had in the earlier parts. Still, it is time to get through this.When Part IV left off, I was in graduate school and struggling to come to terms with a form of multiculturalism that insisted that religious belief was on the same level with race, gender, and sexual orientation. On one hand, I was told that I was being evaluated on my openness, willingness to self-disclose, and exploration of how my beliefs impacted my work with others. On the other hand, I learned that hard way that questioning someone's religious beliefs equated with criticism of someone's race - it was a a marker of serious intolerance. To survive ...

Consequences of Republicanism is Back 2007-07-08 07:00:00 Some of the more observant among you may have noticed that I've revived the sister blog to Atheist Revolution, Consequences of Republicanism. It initially failed because I did not have sufficient time to maintain both blogs.Therefore, I'm relaunching it with a much more limited focus than was originally intended. I will use it to periodically post political action alerts and political commentary that is not directly related to atheism. Material that may be of interest to both audiences will be cross-posted.Atheist Revolution remains my primary focus, with Consequences of Republicanism operating as something of an experiment in connecting with the mainstream progressive community. Will it work this time? I wouldn't bet on it, but I'd like to try.Tags: Atheist Revolution, Consequences of Republicanism, blog, blogs, blogging, political commentary, new blog, new blogs, politics, action alerts, atheism ...

Words of Wisdom: Richard Dawkins 2007-07-07 15:07:00 From The God Delusion,As long as we accept the principle that religious faith must be respected simply because it is religious faith, it is hard to withhold respect from the faith of Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers. The alternative, one so transparent that is should need no urging, is to abandon the principle of automatic respect for religious faith.There are many quotable passages in this book, but this has to be one of my favorites for its sheer simplicity.Tags: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, religion, faith ...

Christian Extremist Charged With Flag Mutiliation 2007-07-07 06:40:00 The infamous Phelps clan, the group known for protesting military funerals out of hatred of homosexuals, is in the news once again. According to the Associated Press, a member was recently charged with "negligent child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, flag mutilation and disturbing the peace."Evidently, Shirley Phelps-Roper's 10-year-old son "stomped on a U.S. flag" during one of the group's protests."I have not failed to do my duty to my children, to my God or to my fellow countrymen, and I take my job dead serious," Phelps-Roper said Thursday. What is interesting about this story is that the ACLU may defend Phelps-Roper, focusing on the freedom of expression issue. Since Christian extremists are not known for being fans of the ACLU, it will be interesting what they decide to do with this case. My guess is that they will ignore it and hope that it doesn't receive much attention.Phelps-Roper said church members have protested at hundreds of military funerals across ...