Foreign Missionaries Find Fertile Ground in Europe

"For centuries, when Europe was the global center of Christianity, millions of European missionaries traveled to other continents to spread their faith by establishing schools and churches. Now, with European church attendance at all-time lows and a dearth of preachers in the pulpits, thousands of "reverse missionaries" are flocking back, migrating from poor countries to rich ones to preach the Gospel where it has fallen out of fashion."

Washington Post, June 11, 2007

It might be noted that they tend to attract immigrants who already are religious. And I reckon that most Europeans have become too skeptical for this.

On the bright side, notice that humanist groups are starting to spread in Africa. Some of the them request skeptical books, and I for one am going to send a few myself.

Prison chapel books being removed

"National effort linked to 9/11 targeting radical texts, primarily Islamic
Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day – hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.
The removal of books is occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.

[...]

Mr. Feldman said the study was made out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by inmates who were practicing or espousing various extreme forms of religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large."
Mr. Feldman said inmates are permitted to order books on their own and bypass the chapel libraries. "So fundamentally this is not a case about what books the inmates have the ability to read," he said."

Dallasnews.com, June 10, 2007

Strange how they think religious books can have a negative effect!

Brain gets a thrill from charity

"-- Knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your brain as food and sex, U.S. researchers said Thursday.
People who participated in a study got a charge knowing that their money went to a charity -- even when the contribution was mandatory, like a tax. They felt even better when they voluntarily made a donation, researchers found.

[...]

He and colleagues were hoping to find out whether there was something in the act of giving itself -- and not just the social and egotistical reward of being a philanthropist -- that offers satisfaction.
"The fact that we find pleasurable activity in those mandatory tax-like situations strongly suggests the existence of pure altruism," he said."

CNN, June 14, 2007

Another article proving that we do not need religion to wish to do good things for other people.

260 reports of abuse yearly in Protestant churches

"The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.

[...]

Religious groups and victims' supporters have been interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950 -- 228 a year.

Protestant numbers have been harder to come by because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church."

Chicago Sun Times, June 15, 2007

The Vatican urges boycott of Amnesty International

"The Vatican has urged all Catholics to stop donating money to Amnesty International, accusing the human rights group of promoting abortion."

BBC, 14 June 2007

I had been thinking for a while about joining Amnesty, but imagine what I did after hearing about this... That's right, I joined Amnesty!

So fuck you pope Benedict and your paedophile church!

Please join Amnesty
Italian catholics, leave the church here.
Read about the Vatican's cover-up

'Messianism' and the Extreme Lengths People Go Through for Their Beliefs

"Originally written as a scholarly work of religious and psychiatric import, The Messianic Imperative: Scourge or Savior was transformed into a thought-provoking chronicle on messianism to the task of survival of our civilization following the devastating 9/11 tragedy. The core motivations of widely disparate people -- Islamic terrorists, Israeli settlers, and American fundamentalists -- are, in their purest form, "messianic" in nature. These people are positioned to move the world towards a disaster long depicted in apocalyptic terms on the Plains of Abraham, but now also present in our midst.

[...]

In this startling work, the author contends that the key to reaching such imbued people, so alienated from the rest of us, is through utilization of the little we know of reaching alienated individuals and groups. That knowledge has been chiefly developed in asylums by the original alienists, psychiatrists, also the social and political sciences and the pastoral discipline."

Redorbit.com, 5 June 2007

Dawkins: leftwing thinkers who promote cultural relativism are as bad as creationists

"Science, and the rationalist movement in general, face a "sinister challenge" from leftwing thinkers who promote cultural relativism, according to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
He told a packed Hay Festival audience that although the threat from creationists and the religious right is well-documented, science is also under threat from the other end of the political spectrum: "I think we face an equal but much more sinister challenge from the left, in the shape of cultural relativism - the view that scientific truth is only one kind of truth and it is not to be especially privileged."
As an example, he cited Kennewick Man, the 9,000-year-old set of human remains found on the banks of the Columbia river in Washington State in 1996. The view of local native Americans that Kennewick Man was their ancestor, despite strong scientific evidence to the contrary, initially held sway, and they were able to put a stop to research."

Guardian, May 28, 2007 (Or see it here.)

Debaptism 2.0: Fleeing the Flock Via the Net

"Disgruntled Italian Catholics are increasingly turning to the internet to leave the Church by getting "debaptized" -- but typically, the Pope isn't making the process web friendly. Cyberspace is one of the few places lapsed Catholics can get a copy of the formal letter called "actus defectionis" that is required by Church officials to leave the faith. One such letter, downloaded 30,000 times, is the main attraction at the Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics, or UAAR, website."

Wired.com 06.07.07

Poll shows belief in evolution, creationism

A new poll on American attitudes to evolution and creationism:

"Evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life

Definitely true (18) Probably true (35) Probably false (16) Definitely false (28) No opinion (3) Total true (53) Total false (44)

Creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years:

Definitely true (39) Probably true (27) Probably false (16) Definitely false (15) No opinion (3) Total true (66) Total false (31)"

USA TODAY, 8. June (poll conducted June 1-3, 2007)

This would be fucking ridicolous if it wasn't so sad at the same time.

(See more numbers in the article.)

Lenin warns against "bald Atheist propaganda"

In the struggle for World Atheism we are sometimes met with the age old communist strawman. Most likely it is a result from McCarthy-era propaganda that was produced with a largely Christian USA in mind. But it is looking more and more stupid in European countries where Atheism quickly is becoming the norm without there being any gulags. (It would be inappropriate to mention Guantanamo here, because they don't have to work.)

Anyway, strawman and McCarthyism aside, here's a very interesting comment by Lenin himself:

"It is the duty of a Marxist to place the success of the strike movement above everything else, vigorously to counteract the division of the workers in this struggle into atheists and Christians, vigorously to oppose any such division. Atheist propaganda in such circumstances may be both unnecessary and harmful—not from the philistine fear of scaring away the backward sections, of losing a seat in the elections, and so on, but out of consideration for the real progress of the class struggle, which in the conditions of modern capitalist society will convert Christian workers to Social-Democracy and to atheism a hundred times better than bald atheist propaganda."

V. I. Lenin, The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion, Proletary, No. 45, May 13 (26), 1900. (The text was provided by Marxists.org)

Is this news? Not to anyone with a minimum of knowledge about communism, but for people with less than minimum - people who swallow the bald evangelical propaganda that "Atheism equals Communism" - it is most likely big news. Lenin was still an Atheist (feel free to read the entire text), just that he was more into Communism:

"Why does religion retain its hold on the backward sections of the town proletariat, on broad sections of the semi-proletariat, and on the mass of the peasantry? Because of the ignorance of the people, replies the bourgeois progressist, the radical or the bourgeois materialist. And so: "Down with religion and long live atheism; the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!" The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view, the view of narrow bourgeois uplifters."

Not being a communist I shall continue to indulge myself in bald atheist propaganda - contrary to Lenin's advice! Atheists of the world unite!

Btw. if you want to search the archives at marxists.org (they have a lot) just use Google like this: site:marxists.org/archive/lenin/ bald

Rebuttal to Terry Eagleton’s Critique of Dawkins’ The God Delusion

Terry Eagleton probably needs no introduction, but as his review of "The God Delusion" was translated and printed in Norway recently, I'll pass on this very thorough rebuttal from Blacksunjournal.com

Eagleton's review is the kind of review that is amusingly written, and may seem to make a lot of sense - unless you have actually read the book. If you're not going to bother to read the book, then at least check out the counterarguments before taking Eagleton's views for granted.

My "favourite" part of Eagleton's review is this one:

"Like a Modernist work of art, there is no necessity about it at all, and God might well have come to regret his handiwork some aeons ago.
The Creation is the original acte gratuit. God is an artist who did it for the sheer love or hell of it, not a scientist at work on a magnificently rational design that will impress his research grant body no end."

When I first read this I thought "WTF? Is he in touch with God or what?" Eagleton sure knows a lot about how God thinks to be an Atheist. No wonder religious people knows exactly what God thinks!

An update here. A hilarious parody on Eagleton: Review of Richard Dawkins’ new book ‘The Fascism Delusion’

Evolution timescale

"This is a great resource. Children often have trouble conceptualising the huge timescales involved in the development and evolution of life on Earth, in fact, many adults have trouble as well. So have a go yourself and point your mouse and slide through evolution."

Picked up from The Labour Humanist

[History] Hitler's Christianity

"To deny the influence of Christianity on Hitler and its role in World War II, means that you must ignore history and forever bar yourself from understanding the source of German anti-Semitism and how the WWII atrocities occurred.

By using historical evidence of Hitler's and his henchmen's own words, this section aims to show how mixing religion with politics can cause conflicts, not only against religion but against government and its people. This site, in no way, condones Nazism, Neo-Nazism, fascist governments, or anti-Semitism, but instead, warns against them."

Nobeliefs.com

A very good collection. Especially, take a look at the photos.

Is the Dutch Labour Party "muzzling" activists who want to help victims of religious intolerance, I really hope not

"I can't emphasise how much I hope this story isn't true, because if it is, then it is to the eternal shame of our comrades in the Dutch Labour Party. The accusation is that the party are trying to muzzle a young activist of Iranian heritage, Ehsan Jami, who is organising to assist other people who want to leave Islam but face horrendous hurdles, including threats of violence or murder. Sounds like exactly the kind of thing a young Labour activist should be involved with, as I said, I just hope this is wrong is some way, and that I can blog instead about trash media cooking up a load of nonsense."

The Labour Humanist, June 07, 2007

Will they never learn?

"Jami compares his situation with that of the meanwhile world-famous Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who switched from PvdA to the conservatives (VVD) at the beginning of her career because she was not allowed by PvdA to speak freely about the emancipation of Islamic women. Jami is however for now refusing to leave the PvdA and will carry on with his committee. "I want to change the party from inside.""

[Stats] Atheist Books Overtaking Christian Titles in Best-Sellers Lists

"The Association of American Publishers (AAP), the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry, recently released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States, and according to its findings, religious books had a "difficult year."

[...]

Coincidently alongside the sag in sales of religious books has been a rapid interest in atheist books over the past months. Books that had not sold that well in the past are now beginning to turn into purchases."

Humaniststudies.org, June 6, 2007

Reject R.A.P. Morality and R.A.P. God

"In the humanist discourse on morality, however, there still seems to be a need to develop an adequate vocabulary. Narsingh Narain says, "We have to take note of two categories of good social behavior, one being that which is motivated by hope of gain or approbation, or fear of loss or disapprobation.... and the other on a sense of values inherent in human nature and requiring no external sanction. The latter alone deserves to be called 'moral'; I do not know any name for the former but will call it 'law abiding'.... It is basic to our position that morality and law abidingness should be clearly distinguished and disentangled from each other.""

HumanistNetworkNews.org, June 6, 2007

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe Presents our Top 20 Logical Fallacies

"What is a logical fallacy?
All arguments have the same basic structure: A therefore B. They begin with one or more premises (A), which is a fact or assumption upon which the argument is based. They then apply a logical principle (therefore) to arrive at a conclusion (B). An example of a logical principle is that of equivalence. For example, if you begin with the premises that A=B and B=C, you can apply the logical principle of equivalence to conclude that A=C. A logical fallacy is a false or incorrect logical principle. An argument that is based upon a logical fallacy is therefore not valid. It is important to note that if the logic of an argument is valid then the conclusion must also be valid, which means that if the premises are all true then the conclusion must also be true. Valid logic applied to one or more false premises, however, leads to an invalid argument. Also, if an argument is not valid the conclusion may, by chance, still be true.

Top 20 Logical Fallacies (in alphabetical order):"

See article for the full 20!

See also this post!

A minority is trying to impose its morality on the rest of us

"Whenever people start talking about abortion becoming a political issue once again, I know they're speaking in code. What it means is the religious right has spotted a chance to impose its opinions on the rest of us, first in the guise of more restrictive criteria for terminating pregnancies and then in the form of an outright ban.

They don't admit this is their agenda, of course. Calls to criminalise abortion tend to be left to cardinals, while MPs who are hostile to abortion talk about the need to tighten up the law. They make emotive speeches about late terminations, disregarding the obvious fact that most could be avoided by making abortion easier to obtain in the first three months.

[...]

There is in fact a perfectly coherent moral argument in favour of abortion - that women and girls should not be forced by the state to continue with pregnancies against their will"

Joan Smith, Independent, 01 June 2007

Church is trying to impose its will through back door

"Priests make bad politicians. Do the cardinals and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church realise what a hornets' nest they are stirring up when they say that Roman Catholic MPs should follow the church's teaching when voting on abortion? They are messing with the democratic process - and Roman Catholic MPs could pay the price."

The Herald, June 05 2007

7/7 bombs staged, say one in four Muslims

"A quarter of Britain's two million Muslims believe Government agents staged the July 7 suicide bombings, a new survey has found.

[...]

The poll, for Channel 4 News, discovered that conspiracy theories about July 7 are rife among Muslims - similar to those about the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
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It came on the day Tony Blair attended a conference on Islam and insisted Muslims "overwhelmingly" wanted to be "loyal citizens", despite the "disproportionate" public attention given to "small, groups" of radicals."

Daily Telegraph, 05/06/2007

LEFT BEHIND: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media

"But as this [American] study documents, coverage of religion not only overrepresents some voices and underrepresents others, it does so in a way that is consistently advantageous to conservatives.

[...]

Combining newspapers and television, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed in news stories 2.8 times as often as were progressive religious leaders.

On television news -- the three major television networks, the three major cable new channels, and PBS -- conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed almost 3.8 times as often as progressive leaders.

In major newspapers, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed 2.7 times as often as progressive leaders. "

Media Matters, May 29. 2007

If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural

"One experiment found that if each time a rat is given food, its neighbor receives an electric shock, the first rat will eventually forgo eating.

[...]

In another experiment published in March, University of Southern California neuroscientist Antonio R. Damasio and his colleagues showed that patients with damage to an area of the brain known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex lack the ability to feel their way to moral answers.
When confronted with moral dilemmas, the brain-damaged patients coldly came up with "end-justifies-the-means" answers. Damasio said the point was not that they reached immoral conclusions, but that when confronted by a difficult issue -- such as whether to shoot down a passenger plane hijacked by terrorists before it hits a major city -- these patients appear to reach decisions without the anguish that afflicts those with normally functioning brains.

[...]

Morality, he said, is not a brain function elevated above our baser impulses. Greene said it is not "handed down" by philosophers and clergy, but "handed up," an outgrowth of the brain's basic propensities."

Washington Post, May 28, 2007

I see more and more articles on the subject, but this article was quite enlightening! I certainly will agree with this article, but I still think there is room for moral philosophy (in whatever shape) in that it asks us to think things through before we end up in a difficult situation. I mean, yes, we have a moral instinct, but we also have as instincts to eat quite a lot if we can, but no-one will say that "If I feel like eating, then eating is good". We are willing to let us be influenced by opinions if we think they are sound. So while I think this research is an excellent way to undermine religious morals as the "be all end all" of morality it will still not undermine religions (or any other moral philosophy) as a way of shaping our morals.
But at least, it will shut up the evangelicals and moral fascists.