Sam Harris: The ‘Salon’ Interview
The last thing Sam Harris was ever likely to do was to grant an interview to Salon.com. Mr Harris has made an exception and the
FULL TEXT of the conversation is now a must-read article on his
blog. It's vital that you read the article there since Salon.com edited out the deservedly derogatory comments he made about the website's content.
Labels: Atheism, Christianity, Current Events, Extremism, History, ISIS, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Malala, Must-read, Palestine, Regressive Left, Religion, Sam Harris, Taliban, Terrorism, War
# posted by j @ 17:29 et / | 
Quotation of the Week
«Truth exists; only lies are invented.»
~Georges Braque
Labels: Atheism, Georges Braque, Life, quotations, Religion, Truth
# posted by j @ 17:10 et / |
Quotation of the Week
«In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice.
Then he made school boards.»
~Mark Twain
Labels: Education, quotations, Religion
# posted by j @ 17:53 et / |
Quotation of the Week
«Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?»
~Epicurus
Labels: Atheism, Philosophy, quotations, Religion
# posted by j @ 19:14 et / |
The evils of christianity
«I am often accused of fighting a battle that’s already been conceded with organised religion. In fact, this is the criticism levelled at many anti-religious thinkers: basically, that we’re beating a dead horse. Religion has moved on from its horrible past. In its current form, it’s something altogether more complex and intricate. So why spend time putting new bullets into an old corpse?
Unfortunately, the corpse is not really dead, is it? As recently as a month ago, there was a fanatical, right-wing Christian within spitting distance of running for the White House. There is still one in the White House. The Catholic Church continues to condemn countless thousands to the misery of life with parents who don’t want them. And that’s just off the top of my head.
So I present here a short and incomplete list of Christianity evils. Why them? Simply put, because the relative success of Mike Huckabee puts a chill in my bones. In 2008, this shouldn’t be possible. But it goes on. So it feels like it’s time to remind ourselves of all the madness this particular religion has brought into the world. Just so we can keep ourselves on course.»
Please read the rest at
the Mail & Guardian onlineNote: date unknown to meLabels: Atheism, Culture, Delusion, Philosophy, Religion
# posted by j @ 16:25 et / |
Anglicans and Benedict
pope Benedict XVI's proposed high Anglican enclave within the roman catholic church offers a half-way home to those who will never be reconciled to the progressive reforms in the Anglican Communion. good riddance to bad rubbish i say. the hypocrisy doesn't escape me either.
in any case, we're dealing with two deluded camps: believers in a deity which doesn't exist, myth as truth and horrid lies.
Labels: Atheism, Religion
# posted by j @ 00:22 et / |
Aquino, heroine of Philippine people power, dies
Former President
Corazon Aquino, whose «people power» revolution swept dictator
Ferdinand Marcos from power in the Philippines, died on Saturday after a 16-month battle against colon cancer, aged 76. She had recently announced she was refusing further treatment. Her family reported Aquino was leaving her fate to a deity, which was certainly a big mistake since there aren't any.
More at the Beeb and Reuters.Labels: Atheism, Memorial, Politics, Religion, Science
# posted by j @ 00:44 et / |
quotation of the week
«Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we
practise to believe.»
~Laurence J Peter
Labels: Atheism, Ignorance, Life, quotations, Religion
# posted by j @ 11:20 et / |
enough!
Labels: Commentary, Politics, Religion
# posted by j @ 18:55 et / |
ignant Sherri Sheppard's ignorance hit new depths
Since starting her co-hosting role on
The View,
Sherri Shepherd has had her share of «Huh?» moments. Most famously, the actress said she wasn't quite convinced that the earth was round.
A new quote burning up the viral world may become even more infamous, as Shepherd on Monday's «View» got into a discussion about religion timelines with her fellow hosts. The ensuing discussion went in a head-scratching direction.
While talking about religion,
Whoopi Goldberg suggests that ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus didn't have Jesus Christ or christianity.
«They still had Christians back then», Shepherd retorts, claiming that the religion existed 300 years before Jesus Christ was born. «They had Christians and they threw them to the lions», she continues.
«I think this might predate that», Goldberg added.
«I don't think anything predated Christians», Shepherd replied. [Excuse me, but how ignorant must one be to make such a statement. This baffles, enrages and troubles me greatly].
In September, during a similar discussion about religious and scientific beliefs, Goldberg asked Shepherd if she thought that the world was flat.
«I don't know», Shepherd answered, adding that if her son asked her whether the world was flat or round, she'd «go look it up».
source: aol.So again, we see an ignorant theist and celebrity, earning thousands if not millions of dollars, lacking even basic education in history and science, co-hosting a show that influences the thoughts of millions of females and certainly a male or two almost daily. It also legitimises bad manners as all hosts speak at the same time and stifle proper communication and discussion. I find it stunning that the live audience did not boo Ms Shepherd off the stage. I would sack her and force her to attend junior and high school as well as university (again?) before ever allowing her to utter another word in public. She should also loose custody of her children to prevent them from growing up in the sea of ignorance that must be their theist home.
Labels: Commentary, History, Ignorance, Politics, Religion, Science, Television, The View
# posted by j @ 16:31 et / |
a message from «arcturus»
«American religio-insanity is as vacuous as it is silly. It's the difference between a dark and spooky and drafty Medieval cathedral with old women sitting there saying Rosaries (e.g. in Poland) and a shitty, two-bit tract development off the interstate next to the Wal-Mart, the McDonald's, and the used car lot with a gaggle of 300-pound clueless know-nothings who can't find their own country (America) on a world map and think that Clint Black's "Iraq and Roll" is poetry and sound foreign policy.»
~arcturus
Labels: Commentary, Politics, quotations, Religion
# posted by j @ 22:58 et / |
must-read entry: «an atheist responds»
it's splendidly refreshing to find reason and logic elegantly yet forcefully triumph over the blah-blah-blahs of theists like
Michael Gerson and in mainstream media of all arenas. please take a moment to read a most brilliant op-ed piece, published by
The Washington Post saturday, 14 july.
An Atheist Responds by Christopher Hitchens
It's uncommonly generous of Michael Gerson [«What Atheists Can't Answer», The Washington Post, op-ed, 13 July] to refer to me as «intellectually courageous and unfailingly kind», since (a) this might be taken as proof that he hardly knows me and (b) it was he who was so kind when I once rang him to check a scurrilous peacenik rumor that he was a secret convert from Judaism to Christian fundamentalism.
However, it is his own supposedly kindly religion that prevents him from seeing how insulting is the latent suggestion of his position: the appalling insinuation that I would not know right from wrong if I was not supernaturally guided by a celestial dictatorship, which could read and condemn my thoughts and which could also consign me to eternal worshipful bliss (a somewhat hellish idea) or to an actual hell.
Implicit in this ancient chestnut of an argument is the further -- and equally disagreeable -- self-satisfaction that simply assumes, whether or not religion is metaphysically «true», that at least it stands for morality. Those of us who disbelieve in the heavenly dictatorship also reject many of its immoral teachings, which have at different times included the slaughter of other «tribes», the enslavement of the survivors, the mutilation of the genitalia of children, the burning of witches, the condemnation of sexual «deviants» and the eating of certain foods, the opposition to innovations in science and medicine, the mad doctrine of predestination, the deranged accusation against all Jews of the crime of «deicide», the absurdity of «Limbo», the horror of suicide-bombing and jihad, and the ethically dubious notion of vicarious redemption by human sacrifice.
Of course Gerson will -- and must -- cherry-pick this list (which is by no means exhaustive) and patter on about how one mustn't be too literal. But in doing this, he makes a huge concession to the ethical humanism to which he so loftily condescends. The game is given away by his own use of G.K. Chesterton's invocation of Thor. We laugh at this dead god, but were not Norse children told that without Valhalla there would be no courage and no moral example? Isn't it true that Louis Farrakhan's crackpot racist group gets young people off drugs? Doesn't Hamas claim to provide social services to the downtrodden? If you credit any one religion with motivating good deeds, how (without declaring yourself to be sectarian) can you avoid crediting them all? And is not endless warfare between the faiths to be added to the list of horrors I just mentioned? Just look at how the «faith-based» are behaving in today's Iraq.
Here is my challenge. Let Gerson name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is my second challenge. Can any reader of this column think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first -- I have been asking it for some time -- awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain.
Essentially conceding that philosophy and secularism do not condemn their adherents to lives of unbridled selfishness, and that (say) the Jewish people did not get all the way to Mount Sinai under the impression that murder and theft and perjury were okay, and also that we could not have evolved unless human solidarity was in some way innate, Gerson ends weakly by posing what is a rather moving problem.
«In a world without God» he writes, »this desire for love and purpose is a cruel joke of nature -- imprinted by evolution but designed for disappointment». Again, he substitutes the wish for the thought. We very probably are, as he admits, not the designed objects of the Big Bang or of the process of natural selection. But this sober conclusion, objective as it is, is surely preferable to the delusion that we have been created diseased, by a capricious despot, and then abruptly commanded to be whole and well, on pain of terror and torture. That sick joke is one that we can cease to find impressive, that belongs in the infancy of our species, and gives a false picture of reality that we would do well to outgrow.
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for
Vanity Fair and the author of
«God Is Not Great».
© 1996-2007 The Washington Post Company.Labels: Atheism, Recommendation, Religion
# posted by j @ 17:43 et / |
mardi gras 2007
ha ha! brilliant.
via PostSecret.Labels: Art, Atheism, PostSecret, Religion
# posted by j @ 12:59 et / |
sixteenth century «religious» wisdom
«everyone is as god has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.»
~don miguel de cervantes y saavedra
Labels: quotations, Religion
# posted by j @ 19:01 et / |
fearing islamic immaturity and intransigence
Deutsche Oper Berlin declared that «incalculable» security risks would be posed by staging
Idomeneo so it has cancelled the Mozart production scheduled for november. apparently the security fears stem from possible ridiculous and immature reaction of islamists and perhaps even some ordinary and reasonable muslims to severed heads of jesus and the prophet muhammad that the opera production would feature along with those of buddha and the mythological greek sea god poseidon.
Idomeneo deals with the rebellion of man against the deity.
this drives me mad! if muslims demand respect to their religion, they must also be prepared to relinquish their thriving thirteenth century attitudes and prejudices as well as accept the freedom of thought, dissent and expression at the heart of real western democracy and society.
note that Berlin's mayor,
Klaus Wowereit, said the berlin opera director had made the wrong decision to scrap the production telling the Associated Press that
«our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive» and that
«voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them».
germany's interior minister called the cancellation
«unacceptable».
note as well that this sad decision closely follows the furore caused by the speech made by Pope Benedict in which he
cited an ancient text featuring Muhammad, sparking angry street protests round the world.
source: the beeb.Labels: Commentary, Politics, Religion
# posted by j @ 16:55 et / |
priest drowns trying to replicate jesus walking-on-water fable
physics (again) has trumped religious faith so kids, please do not attempt this at home nor at the seaside.
the
daily record and other news outlets and blogs have reported that a priest in
libreville,
gabon, died last month trying to demonstrate how
jesus walked on water.
evangelist preacher
franck kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, but he drowned after walking out to sea from a beach. an eyewitness said that kabele told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water, like jesus.
«he took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the komo estuary, which takes round twenty minutes by boat.»«he walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back.»one reckons kabele should have started with the water-to-wine trick and slowly worked his way up to water-walking.
Labels: Religion
# posted by j @ 14:25 et / |
Divine press release
αι further interrupts regular blogging for the following urgent and slightly edited
satiche news bulletin (just pretend it's already a week
after xmas, yeah?):
Turmoil rocked heaven this morning as allegations arose that god had had an affair with a former worshipper. The scandal began when a 21-year-old woman, known only as Mary, claimed that she had given birth to god's "only son" last week in a barn in the hamlet of Bethlehem.
Sources close to Mary claim that she "had loved god for a long time", that she was constantly talking about her relationship with god, and that she was "thrilled to have had his child". in a press conference this morning, god issued a vehement denial, saying that "no sexual relationship existed", and that "the facts of this story will come out in time, verily".
Independent counsel Kenneth Beelzebub immediately filed a brief with the Ministry of Justice to expand his investigation to cover questions of whether any commandments may have been broken, and whether god had illegally funnelled laundered money to his illegitimate child through three foreign operatives know only as the "Wise Men". Beelzebub has issued subpœnas to several angels who are rumoured to have acted as go-betweens in the affair.
Critics have pointed out that these allegations have little to do with the charges that Beelzebub was originally appointed to investigate, that god had created large-scale flooding in order to cover up evidence of a failed land deal.
In recent months, Beelzebub's investigation has already been expanded to cover questions surrounding the large number of locusts that plagued god's political opponents in the last election, as well as to claims that the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was to divert attention away from a scandal involving whether the give-away of a parcel of public land in promised county to a Jewish special interest group was quid pro quo for political contributions.
If these allegations prove to be true, then this could be a huge blow to god's career, much of which has been spent crusading for stricter moral standards and harsher punishments for wrongdoers. Indeed, god recently outlined a "tough-on-crime" plan consisting of a series of 10 "Commandments", which has been introduced in Parliament in a bill by Moses, MP. Critics of the bill in the USA, where it is being considered by Congress, have pointed out that it lacks any provisions for the rehabilitation of criminals, and solicitors for the ACLU are planning to fight the "name in vain" commandment as being an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
Go figure...
Labels: Christmas, Holidays, Humour, Religion
# posted by j @ 12:34 et / |
spare me!
ananova reports today that american academy award-winning actress
halle berry believes in ghosts! she told a german magazine that she believes the dead come back to haunt the living. what's next? that she beleives in a supreme deity and worships it say, on sundays?! hahaha... or wait, what about the tooth fairy and father christmas? baloney! extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and this woman, naturally, has none.
Labels: Atheism, Commentary, Religion
# posted by j @ 10:51 et / |
