"Baylor survey finds Americans hold very different views of God"
Charlotte ObserverMay. 27, 2007
"Ireland should open more multi-faith or secular schools to reflect the country’s growing diversity due to recent immigration, a European Commission anti-racism body said on Thursday. Fully 98 percent of Irish primary schools are still run by the Catholic Church and pupils who do not take part in religious rites "feel singled out", it wrote in a report on Ireland."
National Secular Society, May 25. 2007
"Experts say there are many reasons why pupils tend to flock to schools dominated by their own community. Faith schools, for instance, are unlikely to attract many pupils from across the ethnic divide."This is of course caused by more than religious schools alone, but religious schools are by definition a kind of segregation.
The Observer, May 27, 2007
"Yesterday morning, I stumbled upon this article by Madeleine Bunting on The Guardian website. It seemed to be the usual moaning about “new” atheists being too aggressive, intolerant and ignoring the real debate about the “remarkable benefits” of religion. It was most irritating, but repeated themes that are ever more common in the popular press. Then I read this (I have left in the typo at the beginning, a habit for which The Guardian have been notorious for many years)."Worth reading.
A Load of Bright
"Percentage of people who see themselves as ’low-income’ rises
[...]
When asked "the most important thing in life," health and family came first and second, respectively. The ranking of "occupation" fell to sixth from third, while that of "religion" rose to fifth from 10th."
The Hankyoreh, May.25,2007
More than 1,000 [American] teenagers were surveyed in January and February of 2007 by mail questionnaire. These results are compared to an identical survey conducted in 2005. Each sample consisted of 12-19 year-olds.
Though the large majority of teenagers believe heaven exists (69 percent), there has been a 6 percent drop since 2005 (75 percent) in the percentage of teens who are sure in their belief of heaven. Only 5 percent of teenagers strongly agree that they do not believe heaven exists.
African American teenagers are more likely to believe in heaven than the average teen (81 percent vs. 70 percent). Girls (73 percent) are also more likely to strongly agree heaven exists when compared to guys (66 percent).
Four percent of teenagers strongly agree with the statement, “I don’t care if I go to heaven.”
When asked about personal religious activity within the last 30 days, 39 percent of respondents said they prayed regularly and 14 percent said they read the Bible regularly during that time.
Compared to the 2005 results, there are several significant statistical declines. Fewer teens are attending Sunday school (20 percent vs. 24 percent) and small-group Bible studies (14 percent vs. 18 percent).
As for outreach activity, fewer teenagers are discussing their beliefs with friends and inviting them to church activities. Twenty-four percent said they had told a friend about their religious beliefs in the last 30 days (compared to 30 percent in 2005). Fifteen percent had invited someone to a church activity in the last 30 days (compared to 19 percent in 2005).
Female teens are more active religiously than their male counterparts. More females pray regularly (48 percent vs. 31 percent) and read the Bible regularly (17 percent vs. 11 percent) than male teenagers.
The level of teen participation is also higher for females than males for church youth group social activities (26 percent vs. 20 percent), small group Bible studies (18 percent vs. 11 percent), and leadership roles in their church youth group (10 percent vs. 6 percent).
Lifeway.com, May 2007
"A warning signal to the church?Thanks!
These observations should send out a warning signal to the church: INFLUENCE IS BEING LOST WITH THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH."
"A geneticist at Istanbul University, Haluk Ertan, sums up the situation succinctly. "Turkey," he says, "is the headquarters of creationism in the Middle East."
"Not just the Middle East, the world", insists Tarkan Yavas, the dapper, youthful director of the Istanbul-based Foundation for Scientific Research (BAV). The 15-year-old institute had generated a prodigious amount of information, publishing hundreds of titles.
Headed by a charismatic preacher, Adnan Oktar, BAV’s latest production is the 770-page "Atlas of Creation" which it sent free of charge to scientists and schools in Britain, Scandinavia, France and Turkey this February.
[...]
The claims may sound outrageous, but it is part of a formidably effective propaganda machine. A survey in 2006 showed that only 25 percent of Turks fully accepted the principle of evolution. According to another poll in 2005, 50 percent of biology teachers questioned or rejected evolution."
Eurasianet.org, 5/24/07
"All 43 American presidents – even those who doubted religion – associated themselves with the Christian faith. Today, it is still far easier for a politician from a fringe religious sect, such as Mormonism, to be a serious national candidate than it would be for an atheist or an agnostic.
Yet, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is basing his political comeback, in part, on an assertion that the real bias in America is against those who believe in religion and that “radical secularism” is oppressing them.
[...]
There is, of course, a grave danger when a powerful group begins to view itself as the victim, because its real power allows these ersatz oppressed to inflict far greater harm on their imaginary persecutors than could a group with little or no power.
Historically, the world has seen this phenomenon many times, such as when Christians in Europe convinced themselves that they were at the mercy of cunning Jews. Many of the continent’s anti-Jewish pogroms were conducted by Christians convinced that they were simply defending their way of life, that they were the real victims."
Robert Parry, Baltimore Chronicle, May 21, 2007.
""[T]he cultural battle has gone international," declared Allan Carlson, president of the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society. "The American religious right, instead of being isolationist, has in fact gone global." Indeed, representatives from leading far-right groups – including American Family Association, Concerned Women For America, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Heritage Foundation and the Discovery Institute (advocate of "Intelligent Design" creationism) – are taking a field trip to Poland this weekend for the Howard Center's fourth World Congress of Families."Rightwingwatch.org, May 10, 2007
86 percent believe in God or a supreme being;75 percent believe in life after death;86 percent believe in heaven;77 percent believe in hell;69 percent believe in a God described as the "all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect Creator of the universe who rules the world today";Almost nine out of 10 people (87 percent) say the universe was originally created by God;Only 9 percent of Americans profess no religion at all;More then 80 percent – including 71 percent of college graduates – believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God;34 percent believe the Bible is the actual word of God to be taken literally, word for word;And most Americans still to this day say they are Christians, with numbers ranging from 77 percent to 86 percent."
Worldnetdaily.com, May 19, 2007
"But since this is a war with a wider agenda, abortion statistics and facts do not count. The Christian right fears pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, which it sees as degrading, corrupting and tainted. For many, their own experiences with sex -- coupled with their descent into addictions and often sexual and domestic abuse before they found Christ -- have led them to build a movement that creates an external rigidity to cope with the chaos of human existence, a chaos that overwhelmed them. They do not trust their own urges, their capacity for self-restraint or judgment. The Christian right permits its followers to project evil outward, a convenient escape for people unable to face the darkness and the psychological torments within them."Chris Hedges, Truthdig. (Via Alternet) May 19, 2007.
"Mina Ahadi, an Iranian-born activist living in Germany, has founded a council of former Muslims who have renounced their faith. Members of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims are immigrants from predominantly Islamic countries. Ahadi, who is now under police protection, spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari.
[...]
"On the one hand, when there is talk about people who have come to Germany from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey, they're all being labeled Muslims; then all of these 3 1/2 million people are put in the same bag, and Islamist organizations are being presented as being in charge of them.
People like myself, we sought asylum in Germany and we came to live here because we [opposed] political Islam and such organizations. Many of the problems here -- such as honor killings or imposing the Islamic hejab on children, or building a number of mosques here -- create divisions among people. All of these are explained to society based on the argument that Muslims have a different culture or Muslims have different ideas. All of these prompted those of us who are critical and who oppose such things to create a body that will have different policies regarding such issues.
[...]
All our members are living in Germany, and our only principle is that those who become our members [must] be atheists and not believe in God or any religion.""
Rferl.org, April 20, 2007
"Fewer than half of American adults (45%) now completely agree with the statement that "prayer is an important part of my daily life;" that number has declined from a high of 55% in 1999, although adding in those who mostly agree with the statement, fully 78% of Americans endorse the importance of prayer. Large numbers also agree completely or mostly that "we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins" (79% down from 84% in 1994) and also at least mostly agree that they never doubt the existence of God (83% down from 88% in 1999)."
PewResearch 14. May 2007
"Haidt['s] own research demonstrates that people generally follow their gut feelings and make up moral reasons afterwards. "Since the time of the Enlightenment," Haidt says, "many philosophers have celebrated the power and virtue of cool, dispassionate reasoning. Unfortunately, few people other than philosophers can engage in such cool, honest reasoning when moral issues are at stake. The rest of us behave more like lawyers, using any arguments we can find to make our case, rather than like judges or scientists searching for the truth. This doesn't mean we are doomed to be immoral; it just means that we should look for the roots of our considerable virtue elsewhere -- in the emotions and intuitions that make us so generally decent and cooperative, yet also sometimes willing to hurt or kill in defense of a principle, a person or a place."
Haidt argues that human morality is a cultural construction built on top of -- and constrained by -- a small set of evolved psychological systems."
Sciencedaily.com, May 18, 2007
"For one, nobody out-rationalizes Sam Harris. The guy has a brain the size of Europe — and all of it is connected to his mouth. He also seems entirely compassionate and utterly Pro-Human, two qualities I know I enjoy in a person. I think Sam Harris stands as pretty much the ultimate example of what a person can be and think when they insist that rational thought, above all, should be respected. And I can respect that. It's certainly not the worst thing for a person to stake their claim on.
[...]
But we've got to understand that once we decide, for whatever reason, to Vote God, we necessarily mark ourselves, in the eyes of someone who's gone with option No God, as extraordinarily irrational. At that point we can't help but seem to them as fundamentally (so to speak) bonkers.
[...]
So Rick Warren loses the debate. In the end, we Christians will always lose the debate with atheists. Because they're using the language of logic. And there are no words for the essence of the Christian experience. And there never will be, thank God."
John Shore, Crosswalk, 19. May 2007
"Cardinal Francis George will ordain 13 new priests Saturday.
[...]
U.S. bishop leaders say they're importing more priests because of a clergy shortage."
Chicago Sun-Times, May 17, 2007
"In 2005, Peter Braunstein sexually abused a former co-worker. Braunstein insists that he has not only been talking to God, though, but that God has been talking back — and explaining that Braunstein is destined to die horribly. His defense lawyers insist that this proves Braunstein is a complete loon, but prosecutors deny this explanation.
What, exactly, makes Braunstein looney? Talking to God? Hearing back from God? Receiving information from God abut his destiny? No court could find in favor of any such conclusion without directly contradicting and denying the foundations of most Western religions. On the other hand, if Braunstein isn't nuts, it's hard to see who would qualify.
[...]
It's not his actions I'm focusing on here, because most religious theists don't engage in sexual abuse and arson, but his claims about his conversations with God. What reasons are there to think he has a "broken brain" but not Pope Benedict XVI? What about all the politicians who claim to know what God wants for America, American society, and Americans in their personal lives? What about all the religious believers who are convinced that God communicates to them in various ways? If Braunstein's brain is "just broke," how are other people's brains not "just broke"? "Atheism.about.com, May 18, 2007
"These developmental data suggest that resistance to science will arise in children when scientific claims clash with early emerging, intuitive expectations. This resistance will persist through adulthood if the scientific claims are contested within a society, and it will be especially strong if there is a nonscientific alternative that is rooted in common sense and championed by people who are thought of as reliable and trustworthy. This is the current situation in the United States, with regard to the central tenets of neuroscience and evolutionary biology. These concepts clash with intuitive beliefs about the immaterial nature of the soul and the purposeful design of humans and other animals, and (in the United States) these beliefs are particularly likely to be endorsed and transmitted by trusted religious and political authorities (24). Hence, these fields are among the domains where Americans' resistance to science is the strongest."The Panda's Thumb, May 18, 2007
"Just a week after faith-based groups denounced the House vote approving the legislation, the Gallup Poll revealed 68 percent of Americans are for the expansion while only 27 percent oppose it. Moreover, 65 percent of Protestant and other non-Catholic Christians said they would favor it.
[...]
Highly religious Americans were less likely to favor expanding the federal hate crime laws than those who seldom attend church. Still, 64 percent of those who attend church weekly expressed that they favor the bill. Among the less religious, 67 percent of those who attend church almost every week or monthly support the expansion and 73 percent of Americans who seldom or never attend church also favor it.
[...]
Conservative Christian leaders say expanding the Hate Crimes Act could silence believers who view homosexuality as sinful."
Christian Post, May. 17 2007
"Here's my quick list of objections to religion. Please note that I understand there will be individual variation, both between people in a sect and between sects themselves (Calvinists and Unitarians will have different views of destiny, for instance, and Buddhists seem less prone to the tyranny of authoritarianism). Also, the general public will embrace these sins a little less fervently than creationists and fundamentalists, but they're all there to some extent—while sometimes I'll mention creationists as extreme examples, that does not mean I am implying that all religious people are creationists."A good read!
Pharyngula, May 10, 2007
