Ask An Atheist

Man, you have no idea how much I love saying that.

As an atheist who reads a good amount of godless blogs and heathenish news stories in addition to talking to other atheists about a wide range of topics, I hear a lot of crazy bad stuff about religious people and their actions.  I’m not an anti-theist personally and I genuinely enjoy and appreciate the cultural influences religion has had and continues to contribute to society, but man, some of the bad things that religion inspires and produces can be horrifying.  I do find some value in religion and I think religious people usually, when they are acting as religious people, act because of genuine beliefs they hold sacred.  And I think that’s cool.

You know, when they’re not killing people or trying to stop people from marrying their partners and stuff.

But the fact is, Christian indiscretions will always be juicy news because a lot of Christians present themselves with an air of moral superiority and it’s downright delicious when that position is challenged and proven false.  In fact, think that Christianity would make a lot more sense if its adherents were less hypocritical and more…I don’t know…Jesus-y?

I’m talking nice Jesus, not the badass Jesus some people chose to  focus on.

Well, R. Brad White in Texas agrees with me and what’s more - he’s doing his best to encourage his fellow believers to take an inward look before they judge others:

“Christians, despite their good intentions, give Christianity a bad name due to rampant Christian hypocrisy, Christian intolerance, Christian judgmentalism, and Christian homophobia”, says R. Brad White, former Atheist and now devoted Christian, and Founder of Changing the Face of Christianity Inc.

R. Brad White says, “The Bible tells us that non-believers will always hate us, but not for the reasons they hate us now. Who could hate someone for truly loving his or her neighbors as themselves? The fact is we don’t do a very good job at loving our neighbor. That’s something we need to be transparent about, confess where we are failing to live up to the name of Jesus Christ, and then work toward maturity and Christ-like transformation.”

A non-profit organization called Changing the Face of Christianity is working to reverse this pervasive image problem by helping Christians become more like Jesus Christ. “We are trying to help Christians actually change for the better. This begins by acknowledging we have a problem through heartfelt confession. We’ve launched ‘My Confession’; a campaign mobilizing Christians to make public confessions on post-it type notes and on our MyConfession.org website.” says R. Brad White.

R. Brad White continues, “The My Confession campaign is simple. We want people to share their confessions on our MyConfession.org website. We pray for these people that God will transform and heal them and their relationships. We are also encouraging people to write a brief confession on a small note, and place that note in a public area, such as a public restroom mirror, a gas station, a bank ATM machine, a drive through window, a Red Box type video rental unit, inside an elevator, at the water cooler, etc. Such public confessions encourage others to do the same. It gives others the strength to admit their own faults, and helps them lay down false pride in favor of humility. To make it easier for people, we’ve prepared a downloadable page of confession notes on our website for people to use. Simply download the PDF, print it, cut it into 6 notes, write your brief confession, and then share it in a public place. People have enjoyed taking a photo of their posted note, and then sharing their longer confession on our site and uploading the picture for others to see. The feedback we’ve received has been great. People are telling us after they shared what they are doing with their friends, that their friends are responding with affirmations like, ‘That’s so cool! That takes guts! How can I do it?’”

R. Brad White says, for example, “My Confession is I’ve allowed my religious convictions to make me numb to the human rights of gays and lesbians. I haven’t consciously fought AGAINST gay marriage, but I’ve allowed outspoken Christian political activists to limit the human rights of LGBTs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) and let them speak FOR me through my silence. The Gay community deserves love, not discrimination. And for my part in that, I’m incredibly sorry.” So Brad’s note said “My confession is I’ve been a homophobic Christian. The gay community deserves love, not discrimination.”

I feel like it’s worth expressing again:  Yay!

This whole idea makes me happy.  The fact is, though the number of believers may be on the decline, Christianity isn’t going anywhere.  I have no illusions about that, or about the importance it has had and no doubt will continue to have in the story of humanity.  That’s why this kind of thinking in the Christian community is exciting to me.  I guess I just appreciate a Christan group that is trying to inspire religious people to take an introspective inventory of their own actions and beliefs before they even consider lashing outward.  I think that’s something everyone ought to do, and hopefully this kind of ministry (if you can even call it that) will catch on and not get “No True Scotsman”-ed out of existence.

Giant wall of text from the Americans United website, 1/13/2011 go!

A Tennessee county’s preference for Christianity in its courthouse displays violates the U.S. Constitution, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Americans United, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, is challenging the Johnson County Commission’s decision to display the Ten Commandments and Christian literature in the courthouse lobby while refusing to display a local man’s posters about the historic role of church-state separation in American law.

“The Johnson County Commission is promoting religion through its displays,” observes the complaint. “In addition, the Commission refuses to allow alternative points of view to be heard. This is a twofold violation of the First Amendment.”

AU’s legal complaint notes that in 2008, after county resident Ralph Stewart challenged the county’s display of the Ten Commandments, the Johnson County Commission adopted a policy which created a public forum for displays on the walls of the county courthouse lobby. Displays are allowed so long as they directly relate to the development of the history or heritage of the law.

After the adoption of the new policy, the Commission unanimously approved a display sponsored by the Rotary Club of Mountain City and the Ten Commandments Warriors that features the Ten Commandments alongside excerpts from the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the nation’s founders.

The display itself claims that the Ten Commandments are the historical foundation of American law. Accompanying it is a pamphlet written by local clergy that contends U.S. law springs from biblical morality and insists that the United States was founded on Christian principles.

The Commission, however, rejected two posters proposed by Stewart that explain the legal heritage of churchstate separation and refute the notion that the Ten Commandments are the historical foundation of American law. His posters featured quotes from the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and the nation’s founders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

In rejecting Stewart’s display, the Johnson County Commission insisted that it does not fall within the subject matter of the public forum its policy creates – even though Stewart’s material draws on many of the same historical sources as one of the Ten Commandments displays.

In a lawsuit filed on Stewart’s behalf with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville, Americans United contends that the Commission is engaging in impermissible contentbased and viewpointbased discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

The complaint also charges that the Commission’s actions were undertaken with a religious purpose, have a predominantly religious effect, endorse religion and prefer religion over nonreligion.

Look – the guy was willing to play the game.  He initially complained about an unconstitutional religious display and in response the commission went what seems like out of its way to make sure that future displays could be put up.  So, Stewart goes with the flow (something that a lot of religious people seem to wish atheists would do more often) and makes his own exhibit – one that uses a lot of the same sources and images as an already accepted, highly religious display but talks about church/state separation – and they reject it?

Admittedly I haven’t seen either display and the possibility exists that there is a good reason why the religious one was allowed and Stewart’s display wasn’t – but I can’t seem to find that reason.  Saying it doesn’t meet the requirements doesn’t make sense given the information above.  While looking for a visual of the displays themselves, I did find this:

The rejection came after the commission sought the advice of the Alliance Defense Fund, a law firm dedicated to Christian advocacy.

And that NEVER bodes well.

It seems displaying Stewart’s poster is the fair thing to do.  After all, the commission opened this avenue of expression by enacting the public spaces rule for the courthouse in the first place.

Obama, China, and the US economy should be concerned.  Why?  Because Antonio Vazquez, Mexico’s self appointed “grand warlock” has made some pretty damning predictions concerning all three.

Grand Warlock Antonio Vasquez

Mexico’s self-declared “Grand Warlock” held a news conference in Mexico City on Tuesday, when he presented his predictions for 2011 on diverse subjects such as international political and economic affairs, as well as natural disasters.

Antonio Vazquez, know as Mexico’s “Brujo Mayor” or “Grand Warlock,” said there would be no quick solution to the problem of Latin American migrants in the United States.

He added President Barack Obama’s popularity will fall, and there is no way he will be re elected in 2012 as U.S. President.

He also predicted further economic woes for the U.S., saying the economic situation of the U.S. will become a real problem for the whole world because other powerful economies are also interested in its fall.

The Warlock also said China would be battered by natural disasters in 2011.

There will be earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and very serious problems this year, that will affect the country.

Oooooh snap.  Take that, several different topics!  I’m going to honest about my warlock ignorance here and admit that I don’t really know how these predictions work.  Are we going to see earthquakes and floods and hurricanes and the mysterious ‘very serious problems’ this year in China, or will it be at least one from the list?  If the latter is true, I think the term ‘very serious problems’ is just about as broad and vague a term a person might use when casting a prediction.  I mean really, does any country go a whole year without something happening to some part of it that might be categorized as a very serious problem – especially a country as populated and huge as China?  More importantly – is there anything China, Obama, or the economy can do to prevent these events?

However, the Warlock said his predictions were not definitive.

He said any of those forecasts could be counteracted or totally changed with magical spells, prayers, or only by taking personal actions or attitudes to prevent it.

Oh my goodness.  That’s so perfect, too, you can tell this guy has been doing this a while.  When you base the likelihood of an event coming to pass on something as unquantifiable as magic, prayer, or positive attitudes there is literally no way you can lose.  If it doesn’t happen – look!  Enough people prayed!  If some event occurs that can be even loosely interpreted as fulfilling at least part of a prediction – see, I told you so.

Please note his sweet warlock beard

I don’t mean to be a negative nelly so I will say one thing I sincerely like about this guy – he has an amazing warlock beard.  I mean, that thing is good.

Those of you out there concerned that birds dying is a sign of the apocalypse – fear no more.  An expert on ridiculous ideas has weighed in.

After thousands of birds mysteriously fell out of the sky in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, it was only natural that Anderson Cooper turned to an expert for an explanation. Enter Kirk Cameron.

The former “Growing Pains” star — a born-again Christian who has appeared in movies based on the end-of-days-themed “Left Behind” books — appeared on “Anderson Cooper 360” to discuss whether he thought the dead birds were a sign of the apocalypse.

“Well, I first think that they ought to call a veterinarian, not me. You know, I’m not the religious-conspiracy-theorist go-to guy, particularly,” Cameron said. “But I think it’s really kind of silly to try to equate birds falling out of the sky with some kind of an end-times theory.”

I just have to interject here that if you make a living trying to hock the scathingly stupid and embarrassingly misguided concept of creationism, I think you may in fact be correctly categorized as a “religious-conspiracy-theorist go-to guy”.  In fact, I would say that’s precisely why he was asked about it.

His weigh in on the public reaction to the birds is a little confusing to me though.  I agree with the first half of this statement (a-a-agree with Kirk Cameron?  I know.) -

“People love to find codes and signs of future events and see if they can decipher them before anybody else,” the 40-year-old actor told Cooper.

Yep.  That goes for anything unknown, including the past.

Ahem.

Anyway, he continues with  -

“But birds falling from the sky? That has to do more with pagan mythology; the direction that the birds flew told some of the followers of some of those legends that the gods were either pleased or displeased with them.”

Waaaait a minute.  So is his main reason to reject this phenomena as being biblical in nature the fact that to him, it just sounds too Pagan-y?  So if something biblical had happened - plagues of locusts perhaps – would Cameron be getting the wife and kids ready for the rapture?

One thing is clear – even idiots can be accidentally right from time to time.

Arrrrgh.  Most of the time when I read something about religious people getting offended, I try very hard to put myself in their position.  Most of the time I can, but sometimes I can’t.  This is one of those “can’t” situations.  I just…I read this and I just get mad.

A high school teacher in southern Spain is being sued for child abuse by the parents of a Muslim student who claims that the teacher “defamed Islam” by talking about Spanish ham in class. The case is one of a growing list of recent controversies that illustrate the increasing assertiveness of Muslims in Spain at a time when Spaniards are slowly waking up to the integration challenges posed by uncontrolled immigration from Muslim countries.

Although Spanish legal scholars are divided over whether the lawsuit has real merit, nearly everyone agrees that the case has potentially major implications for free speech in Spain. They also agree that the constant threat of lawsuits will force Spanish school teachers to carefully consider their choice of words in the future.

The latest dust-up occurred at the Instituto Menéndez Tolosa, a secondary school in the town of La Línea de la Concepción in the southern region of Andalusia, where José Reyes Fernández, a geography teacher, was giving a lecture about the different types of climates in Spain. During the class, Reyes mentioned that the climate in Andalusia offers the perfect temperature conditions for curing Spanish ham (Jamón Ibérico), a world-famous delicacy.

At this point, a Muslim student in the class interrupted Reyes and, according to local newspaper reports, argued that any talk of pork products is offensive to his religion.

Now I’m reading this and I’m thinking – this teacher must have been an a-hole to this kid.  I mean – a lawsuit?  The teacher must have at least been all like “You’re a jerk and I love bacon – neener neener!” or something, right?

Reyes responded by saying that he was only giving an example and that he does not take into consideration different religious beliefs when teaching geography.

The Muslim student informed his parents, who then proceeded to file a lawsuit against Reyes, accusing him of “abuse with xenophobic motivations.” Article 525 of the Spanish Penal Code makes it a crime to “offend the feelings of the members of a religious confession.”

Wait, what?!  Was that written to be intentionally vague?  ”Offend the feelings of the members of a religious confession” – in a world where you can offend the feelings of any given person at any time for anything, using this sort of language within a penal code seems like a really bad idea.

I had no idea Spain was experiencing such an influx of Muslim immigrants, nor was I aware of the apparent culture clash the country has been experiencing over the last few years especially.  That has be stressful for all groups involved.  However, I don’t think a person should be able to sue a teacher for using ham as an example in class.