Atheism

Humour

Akufu — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:06:00 GMT

Browsing through the shelves of my local bookseller I noticed an unusual book prominently displayed in the humour section between the Calvin & Hobbes and Mad books:

The Holy Bible.

Someone apparently thought that was funny or wanted to make a statement, well, it certainly made me laugh. It is undeniably a source of inspiration, if nothing else:

The cost of free speech

Akufu — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:35:00 GMT

I am not really following Dutch news in detail anymore, but sometimes Dutch news will pop up even over here. I am talking, of course, about the Dutch government's decision of revoking Ayaan Hirsi Ali's protection. Some reactions to the news have been a bit crass (Outch, Dutchbashing!) if not pure Godwin.

But I too wonder about the motivation of the decision to end Hirsi Ali's protection. Rushdie and Harris speculate it may be to placate Islamic radicals (how disingenuous of them), to send a message that it is better to STFU (maybe...) or thoughtlessness. I think it is much simpler than that.

Money.

This stingy attitude is maybe the Essential Dutchness ™ that Balkenende, the Dutch Prime minister has been looking for, but he is penny wise, pound foolish. The potential cost of no protection is very high. Not only for Hirsi Ali of course, who could end up paying the highest price, but it would be an affront to free speech. In defending Ms Ali we are defending one of the very ideals that make the Netherlands what it is. Or is Balkenende telling us that is in the past now?

Atheism: A rough history of disbelief

Akufu — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 12:10:00 GMT

I mentioned before that I dearly miss Auntie Beeb (only the abomination BBC America is available here). Thank goodness for the internets. Otherwise I would surely have never heard of the documentary series that was broadcast on BBC 4 on the history of disbelief. Check it out:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Don't miss the sequel; The Atheism tapes: long, thoughtful discussions with the likes of Dawkins, Dennet, and Denys Turner.

Abovist

Akufu — Mon, 14 May 2007 06:35:00 GMT

Dowtown Honolulu today.

Kid one: Holy Cow!
Kid two, slightly irritated: There is no Cow.

Abovism, it's rampant with kids today.

Et tu Starbucks?

Akufu — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:53:00 GMT

I nearly dropped my Venti Cafe Latte when I saw ignominious Wells, of all people, on my cup. Starbucks, what gives? Surely there are more intelligent arguments than this one?

As to what is wrong with this statement... where to start. Apart from the lies, it is of course not at all an argument against evolution. You could make the same argument against physics, without which we would have no atom bomb.

Anyway, this will not stop me from getting my coffee there. I am a total junkie. And it's not all bad.

Remember!

Akufu — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:47:00 GMT

Yes, this is the Alamo.

Texas, what can I say. It is big, the food is great, and it is home to the Jackalope, one of the rarest animals on the face of the earth.

Probably because they are sold in every souvenir shoppe.

But zomg, the godbotherers are everywhere! Not a day went by, that I was not preached at, or invited to attend some service, or asked to contribute financially if not spiritually. And the guy with the 2 by 4 foot panel against abortion, with the well known ripped apart fetus, standing at the Mall on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Alas he was gone when I got back with my camera.

But they are right, going to church protects you from harm.

Well, some churches.

From fallout.

Enter the strawman... again

Akufu — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:40:00 GMT

Dawkins' God Delusion and Harris' End of Faith, as well as other books, have succeeded in kick starting a debate about atheism. That is why I don't mind their radical atheism as it is perceived by many. Surprise! I don't agree with everything they say, but I do appreciate their work. Atheism is not a monolith. Organising atheists would be harder than herding cats.

Yet the response by religious people as well as agnostics or humanists has been consistently on the defensive, pulling up mythic straw atheists, that they subsequently attack.

Atheism is scary, as is religious dogma in someone who wants to be entrusted with power. But atheism is more scary, I suspect, in its sheer conceit.

Here is another example by columnist for the New Zealand Herald, John Roughan. He begins with a story about his visit to a Riga cathedral with a Russian guide who is oblivious to the service going on in the church. The guide barges in, walks to the altar without showing any hesitation. Roughan blames his guide's lack of respect to his communist upbringing, which had left the man barren of spirituality.

The difference between us and that Russian guide was that the Russian's social conditioning had given him no spiritual experience whatsoever. A church service was no more sacred to him than a sport he didn't follow or a folk custom he found quaint.

I could counter this anecdote with another, of a funeral I attended. The service was one of the many flavours of Christianity, but some of the attending people were of a different flavour. During the prayers at the graveside they laughed and joked among each other. This was all the more poignant as the deceased had died young and unexpected. Does that mean all Christians of that denomination are fucktards? It has nothing to do with spirituality but more with good manners. Anyway, I am sure that Russian guide didn't realise that day he was the ambassador to atheists worldwide, or he would at least have worn his special tie.

Claiming that atheism leaves no room for spirituality is such a silly argument that I am not going there.

Roughan calls himself an unbeliever yet is unflinching in his support for the inclusion of religion in society, like a daily prayer in parliament. He doesn't think people of other faiths feel excluded by this, though I think he has a point when he says that they dislike atheism more than Christianity.

And that is the heart of the problem, why is it that a politician will not get elected again if he would proclaim his atheism? Any faith would not end up disqualifying him (except, just maybe, satanism). That is what I hope will come from this debate, not the abolishing of religion, but a popular acceptance of atheism, or freethinking, which I like more as a moniker.

Roughan doesn't think his straw man is large enough, and adds some more:

Atheism, humanism, rationalism, call it what you like, is a conviction that offers nothing beyond the reach of human knowledge, when their plainly are such things. Not just the obvious: the boggling infinity of the universe and its density that suggests matter we still cannot see. Or the apparently random behaviour of subatomic particles that comprises everything we see. Quantum physics sounds like metaphysics to me.

Yes, to an ignoramus the natural world seems at once too limited to fill the vast human mind, and too mind-bogglingly complicated to be described by science, ever. I don't understand the intricacies of my car engine, that does not make me believe it is run by gnomes jumping up and down real fast.

Imagine a near full moon, the sand and the ocean lit like a snowy landscape with its silver light. The moon then sets and suddenly the sky lights up with stars, so many that it seems the sky is clouded. Add to this magic the occasional falling star, leaving a short-lived afterglow. Last week that is what I saw, experiencing at that time that my life is just a tiny insignificant grain of sand in the ocean of time. What a relief. Before I digress into a Candlelight poem, what would believing in divinity add to this?

Roughan concludes:

A politician who admitted he or she was an atheist would be denying these [infinite] possibilities. Worse, they would be declaring a fearful conceit that no power is beyond them.

Except for deluded dictators, are there really atheist that think no power is beyond them? Oh but sure, as an atheist in a lab coat, world domination is only the least of my plans.

It is, yet again, the invocation of the god/alien overlords/Santa as the big police man, without whom humans will revert to murder, pillage and rape.

It is puzzling to me that vociferous atheists seem to get an equally indignant response from the religious as the agnostic moderate unbelievers. I never realised that declaring that you think there is no god would be so incendiary. What gets me every time is the "Atheism is a religion too" argument. This is, I think, what underlies Roughan's statement that atheism is conceited. Atheism for me is not believing there is no god, it is just not believing in a god. Subtle difference.

Now why do I even bother deconstructing bunk like this?

1. I think it is fun to do (easy!) and this is my blog. If I had a cat I would cat blog all the time , but I don't, so deal.

2. To vent. I have a pathological compulsion to read this stuff if it comes my way. By ranting on my blog I don't have to bother my family and friends who get really tired of me. At least the casual internet reader can click away, or enjoy his anonymity and flame the hell out of me.

3. Maybe, just maybe, someone will read my blog and think that not all atheists are grumpy old men people who had a 'bad experience' with church evil bastards. They'll still come away thinking that atheists are arrogant, aloof and narcissistic though.

Parody? Or just realism?

Akufu — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:34:00 GMT

One of these links points to a parody, the other is dead serious. Man, these things do get hard to distinguish. They both make the same point:

God exists. Because the Bible says that God exists. (And God wrote the Bible therefore it is true.)

The atheist delusion

Look honestly at Jesus

There are no less than 281 ways to irritate an atheist (we are an irritable lot), and I found at least these seven in that short letter:

5) Insist that there is a God, and show them where in the Bible it says so.
37) Explain that the lack of proof doesn't mean it didn't happen.
93) Claim that atheism is not only a belief -- it's a knowledge claim.
164) Tell him the signs are there -- he's just not looking.
177) Tell him he won't understand unless he believes, and he can't believe unless he understands.
178) Ask how he can have any morals if he doesn't believe in God.
245) Declare that everyone knows in his heart that God exists, but just want to worship themselves.
etc.

Vatican says believers should integrate

Akufu — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:45:00 GMT

Oh.

It's only the Muslim believers they are talking about.

My bad.

The Vatican's cardinal Renato Martino, responsible for immigration issues, stated, in response to the current Italian debate on veils and burkhas:

...immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to. They ought to abide by local laws banning the wearing of certain types of Muslim veils, he added. "It seems elementary to me and it is quite right that the authorities demand it"

Maybe it is my allergy for anything Vaticanesque, but somehow I can't see this as an honest, constructive contribution to the integration debate. Acceptance should come from both sides. Assimilation is just not going to happen.

And coming from the Vatican this statement about respect seems just a teeny tiny bit hypocritical. Also, I may be mistaken, but do Muslim immigrants actually care about what a catholic guy with an elaborate hat says?

I like this approach better: dialogue, though I am sceptical that this congregation of wise old men may accomplish something.

Purity

Akufu — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:13:00 GMT

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry after watching this video.

So I vomited instead.

I mentioned purity balls in a previous post. A Purity Ball is an event where a father can celebrate his 'little girl' and her gift of sexual purity. This is a trailer for a purity ball dvd, and, be warned, it is not for the faint of heart.

(Via Pandagon)