December 1, 2008
Stop the acid burnings of women
Terrorism in this part of the world usually means bombs exploding or hotels burning, as the latest horrific scenes from Mumbai attest.
Yet alongside the brutal public terrorism that fills the television screens, there is an equally cruel form of terrorism that gets almost no attention and thrives as a result: flinging acid on a woman's face to leave her hideously deformed.
Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies: they are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.
Continue reading "Stop the acid burnings of women"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2008
Video - An atheist meets god (animation)
Posted by doctormatt at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
Video - Search for atheism videos on Truveo.com
Or any other topic you desire on this great video search service.
Search for Web Videos on topic of Atheism
Posted by doctormatt at 8:42 PM
November 15, 2008
Further Than Atheism
Written for non-believers of all stripes, Further Than Atheism is an ongoing attempt to explore the territory that lies beyond the rejection of gods that all atheists share. It is based upon the insight that atheism should be a beginning, not an end in itself. By focusing merely upon what they do not believe, atheists restrict themselves to mere reaction to the ideas of the religious. Atheism consists only of negation, but it allows for many possible affirmations as well. The search for such possibilities is what Further Than Atheism is all about.
Further Than Atheism LINKS here
Posted by doctormatt at 11:18 AM
November 13, 2008
Video - Olbermann on Proposition 8 vote
Very moving commentary. I agree with his message. Think about this with an open mind.
The religious right was fundamental in the repeal of the rights of gays in California to marry.
What does this tell you about those people?
Infiltrate. Educate. End Hate.
Posted by doctormatt at 5:02 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2008
The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN
The country's lack of religious freedom betrays its lofty rhetoric. The real aim of its 'dialogue' is to promote a global blasphemy law.
WASHINGTON--World leaders gathering at the United Nations this week for a special session of the General Assembly to advance interfaith dialogue should have no illusions that their efforts will miraculously promote mutual respect between religious communities or end abuses of religious freedom.
Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week's special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders' support for a global law to punish blasphemy - a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.
If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.
Continue reading "The Saudis' dubious interfaith agenda at the UN"
Posted by doctormatt at 6:22 PM
November 7, 2008
The Pantheist Credo
The basic concepts comprise:
Reverence for Nature and the wider Universe.
Active respect and care for the rights of all humans and other living beings.
Celebration or our lives in our bodies on this beautiful earth as a joy and a privilege.
Realism - acceptance that the external world exists independently of human consciousness or perception.
Strong naturalism, without belief in supernatural realms, afterlives, beings or forces.
Respect for reason, evidence and the scientific method as our best ways of understanding nature and the Universe.
Promotion of religious tolerance, freedom of religion and complete separation of state and religion.
Continue reading "The Pantheist Credo"
Posted by doctormatt at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2008
Pantheism as "Sexed up Atheism"
So what's the difference between Atheism and Pantheism?
Posted by doctormatt at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2008
Rational Response Squad
Posted by doctormatt at 12:57 AM
No praying on the Almighty! Judge tosses suit against God.
The Lord has one less thing to worry about.
A Nebraska judge tossed out a state senator's lawsuit against God, ruling the Almighty can't be sued because his heavenly address is a bit out of reach.
"There can never be service effectuated on the named defendant," Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk wrote in his decision on Tuesday.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers sought a permanent injunction against the Holy One to prevent him from unleashing natural disasters that cause "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."
The Omaha senator, who doesn't have "an atom of religion" in his body, said he decided to target the Lord to prove a point that "every lawsuit must be allowed to be filed."
His suit was prompted by two attempts by the Nebraska Legislature to limit "frivolous lawsuits."
Chambers, who is planning to appeal, said courts already acknowledge God's existence by invoking His name during oaths, so He doesn't need to be served.
"The court must recognize the consequences of that acknowledgment - that God is all-knowing," Chambers said. "God does have actual notice."
Posted by doctormatt at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)
October 2, 2008
Video - Bill Maher on The Daily Show talks about Religulous
This link will expire in several weeks.
Bill Maher talks about Religulous
Posted by doctormatt at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)
Audio interview - Bill Maher on his film Religulous
Fresh Air interview with Bill Maher on film Religulous
Posted by doctormatt at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2008
Book - Atheism - A Reader
Online text of book by S.T. Joshi
Continue reading "Book - Atheism - A Reader"
Posted by doctormatt at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2008
Video - Bill Maher film - trailer on religion
Religulous
Posted by doctormatt at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
How much of a religious Extremist Is Sarah Palin?
"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."
Continue reading "How much of a religious Extremist Is Sarah Palin?"
Posted by doctormatt at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)
Atheism vs. delusion
Posted by doctormatt at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2008
What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick.
The most noxious belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should import into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so. That is the point of her pledge to shape the judiciary. Such a theocratic impulse is incompatible with the Founding Fathers' commitment to tolerance and democracy, which is why they forbade the government to "establish" or officially support any particular religion or denomination.
A theocrat is a theocrat, whether Muslim or Christian.
Posted by doctormatt at 7:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2008
Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior
They found that the clearest identifiable effect of religious behavior is the promotion of cooperative family-like social relationships, which include parent/child-like relationships between the individuals making and accepting the supernatural claims and sibling-like relationships among co-acceptors of those claims.
Social basis of religious behavior, from Science Daily
Posted by doctormatt at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)
Palin's views on end times
Palin's views on biblical "End Times"
In light of the possibility that she might someday soon be in charge of thousands of thermonuclear weapons:
Among other things, she declared that she was a young earth creationist, accepting both that the world was about 6,000-plus years old, and that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time.
I asked how she felt about the second coming and the end times. She responded that she fully believed that the signs of Jesus returning soon "during MY lifetime," were obvious. "I can see that, maybe you can't - but it guides me every day."
Posted by doctormatt at 4:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2008
Palin: Iraq is a task 'from God.'
Huffington Post reports that on June 8, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) addressed the graduating class of commission students at the Wasilla Assembly of God church. During that address, Palin portrayed the Iraq was as a quest decreed by God, and said that U.S. soldiers were carrying out "God's plan":
Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.
During that speech, Palin also promoted a $30-billion natural gas pipeline project, stating, "God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built."
Posted by doctormatt at 11:31 PM | Comments (1)
August 29, 2008
God's Unconditional Love Officially Terminated
Earth- Mass panic ensued among Christians last Sunday when God issued a formal statement from Heaven saying that His pure and sublime love, on which millions of people depend, will no longer be provided unconditionally.
Continue reading "God's Unconditional Love Officially Terminated"
Posted by doctormatt at 6:07 PM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2008
"God hates fags" church burns
No doubt the work of fags or fag sympathizers," Rev. Fred Phelps said in a recent YouTube message of the Saturday morning fire that broke out at Westboro Baptist Church.
Continue reading ""God hates fags" church burns"
Posted by doctormatt at 7:54 PM | Comments (1)
July 30, 2008
Prohibition of sanity
So, do you ever drink a glass of Cabernet to relax? You know, kick back in the most comfortable chair on your deck, put your feet up, raise some Dead music on your iPod, and just take a break from it all? Or maybe a double shot of Jack Black and spring water over ice. Or two of those. Okay, maybe several. Whatever. The object is not to get slobbering drunk or feed an urge to binge on alcohol. The object is relaxation, some quiet time, reflection maybe, an attempt to shake free from all the hideous shit that seems to be seeping from every corner of existence right now. Just a break, for god's sake.
Now, what if in drinking an alcoholic beverage you were violating the law? There was a time in this country, about 90 years ago (a time initiated by, yes, religious right-wing nuts and their Fascist cohorts in government) when having a drink, buying alcohol, manufacturing it, transporting it, in fact anything to do with alcohol that didn't involve using it as an antiseptic could result in a jail sentence or a prison term. The era of Prohibition that lasted for 12 years in the U.S. not only made criminals of countless numbers of ordinary people, but also gave birth to a crime wave of such tsunami-like proportions we are still - nearly a century later - dealing with the aftermath.
How about reefer? Instead of a reticent yet mildly saucy Cabernet, how about a nice fat doobie? Kick back on the deck with one of those and a couple of hours of The Dead and everything just sort of mellows out, right? Add a nice, friendly bag of Cheetos, an ice-cold liter bottle of sugar-free lemonade and, mmm-mmmmm, bliss.
Of course, if you do that, you are breaking some ridiculous, goddam law encouraged by - yup - religious right-wing nuts and their Fascist cohorts in government. And, of course, this is not a joke. Marijuana laws are responsible, in part, for the fact that we in the U.S. now imprison more of our own citizens (both in terms of percentage of population and actual raw numbers) than any other nation on earth. By this one measure, we have, as a nation, gone crazy and truly are living in an asylum.
The families that have been destroyed by the prison time that results from violation of marijuana laws are innumerable. Who keeps track? Who cares? The anguish of children separated from parents who are sentenced to decades in a lock-up for growing or selling or just smoking reefer is horrific and from which the kids may never recover. And the parents who see their children jailed for having dope in the car, in their pocket, in their back-pack? How do you recover from that? And that is not to suggest smoking dope is a permissible activity for kids. It is not. Neither is smoking death-dealing cigarettes, or drinking alcohol, or any other behavior that might put a young person's physical, emotional, or psychological development at risk.
Marijuana laws - all marijuana laws - are utter bullshit and most rational people understand that. And yet we continue to allow them to exist. Well, maybe not too much longer. Maybe we should stop allowing the arrest of "responsible marijuana users," Rep. Barney Frank said today, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams of the substance.
As reported by CNN, Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference, "The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business. I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."
Allen St. Pierre, spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) likened Frank's proposal to current laws dealing with alcohol consumption. Alcohol use is permitted and the government focuses its law enforcement efforts on those who abuse booze or drive under its influence. "We do not arrest and jail responsible alcohol drinkers," he said. (The complete CNN article is here.)
Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance Network adds, "The U.S. stance on marijuana is one of the most destructive criminal justice policies in America today."
Frank's legislation is titled HR 5843. It is not a cure for the reefer madness that is now rampant in our criminal justice system. But, it may be a start in an effort to stop the right-wing religious freaks and the Fascist wannabees who now infest our government in their century-long effort to prohibit activity that is simply none of their business.
Posted by doctormatt at 8:44 PM
July 28, 2008
Did A Culture of Right-Wing Hate Lead to Church Shootings?
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday.
A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson's small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, "he hated the liberal movement" and was upset with "liberals in general as well as gays."
Adkisson, a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps, had 76 rounds with him when he entered the church and pulled a shotgun from a guitar case during a children's performance of the musical "Annie."
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Monday that Adkisson may also have chosen the church because his ex-wife was a former longtime member of the congregation.
..............................................
By MARC McDONALD
A man who is accused of shooting and killing two at a Tennessee church apparently targeted the congregation "out of hatred for its support of liberal social policies," police said Monday.
One might ask: where would such extreme hatred of Liberals come from?
To get the answer, turn on Right-Wing talk radio any day.
There, on a daily basis, you'll hear the most amazingly vicious bashing of Liberals imaginable.
From Savage to Limbaugh to Hannity to the rest of HateWing radio, every day, one hears the most extraordinary demonization of Liberals and Democrats. If you get all your news and views from HateWing radio (as many Dittoheads do), you'll be convinced that Liberals are traitors who are working hand-in-hand with Al Qaeda to undermine the American nation.
Along with the hate, there's a hefty of dose of violent threats against Liberals on the AM radio dial these days.
Take right-wing nutcase Michael Graham, for example. In June 2007, he said he wanted to see someone "whack" the Clintons in a Sopranos spoof. And in 2003, Graham said of Hillary Clinton: "I wanted to bludgeon her with a tire iron."
Such inflammatory language is nothing new for the right-wing. Recall how Ann Coulter once wrote that the debate over Bill Clinton should be about "whether to impeach or assassinate."
Such seething hatred and threats of violence have ricocheted around the GOP echo chamber for at least the past couple of decades. And it hasn't been limited to right-wing talk radio.
Recall the comment by Jesse Helms in 1994: "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard."
Or G. Gordon Liddy's comment in 1995, when discussing how he'd used stick figures of the Clintons for target practice. "Thought it might improve my aim," he said.
Given this toxic stew of hatred and violent threats that poisons our nation's political discourse, we really shouldn't be surprised that there are many people out there who harbor extreme hatred toward Liberals.
.....................
Right Wing Blogosphere Completely Ignores Domestic Terrorism In Knoxville
By: Blue Texan
Some wingnut crazy shot up a Unitarian church in Tennessee, killing 2 and wounding 7. His hatred of liberals and gays was the motive.
What's notable about this is the complete radio silence on the right.
Almost exactly two years ago, there was another tragic shooting at a place of worship -- and they were all over it.
The difference? The shooter in 2006 was a Muslim.
..........................
Courtesy of Young Turks -
Over the weekend, years of conservative hate speech reached a deadly crescendo when Jim D. Adkisson walked into Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire. His reason?
Adkisson claimed he couldn't find a job and expressing a profound "hatred for the liberal movement" and further ranting that "liberals and gays" were taking jobs and had prevented him from finding work. Adkisson acted on what the conservative talk radio has been advocating for years.
There is no dissent if you kill the dissenters.
Figuratively, by character assassination, misinformation and outright lies and now...literally. We've all heard it. Coulter's "satire" about murdering liberals, G Gordon Liddys "head shot" show, Limbaugh's disinformation and veiled threats and invocations of political violence against all those who disagree with him, O Reilly, Savage, the list goes on.
Even on these pages we have "conservatives" who relish violence against any diversity of opinion, in all its forms. We have all read the misogynistic hate and misguided machismo of these posts. One even advocated the "hanging" of Cenk , myself and others who opposed the Iraq war. Other "conservatives" have advocated violence in various forms against, among others, homeless, gays and the poor. Consider this gem of tolerence from conservative "pastor" Jerry Falwell:
But these things speak evil of those things, verse 10 [reading from Jude] which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Look at the Metropolitan Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted into the World Council of Churches. Almost, the vote was against them. But they will try again and again until they get in, and the tragedy is that they would get one vote. Because they are spoken of here in Jude as being brute beasts, that is going to the baser lust of the flesh to live immorally, and so Jude describes this as apostasy. But thank God this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven.
Adkisson as it turns out was an out-of-work mechanical engineer. Obviously not an uneducated man, he left a four-page letter in his car that was abandoned in the church parking lot in which he railed against liberals and the fact that he had been unable to get a job since 2006.
Adkisson was also angry that his food stamps were about to be reduced or eliminated.
Like most "conservatives" he was clueless about who was really impacting his life, namely his job being outsourced and the anger at his cut in benefits and the disappearance of those conservative boot straps we hear so much about.
As it turns out the cuts were at the hands of Republican "conservatives" being more "fiscally responsible" to pay for additional state tax cuts and Bush Administration's compassionate plan to cut food stamp benefits to about 185,000 people in the U.S. for 2007-2008.
Well buck up Ditto-heads ,things arent all bad. The consevatives can look on the bright side, if the parishioners had been packing heat...
.......
RJ Eskow blogs:
I'd say that Unitarians were God's thoughtful people, but they make no particular claims about God. In some parts of the country that takes real courage.
My first wife and I joined a Unitarian church in suburban DC and raised our kids there. She and I were from different religious backgrounds - in a way, I was from different religious backgrounds, raised in Judaism but with Catholic and Southern Baptist relatives. We both practiced Buddhist meditation (and found others there that did the same.)
Unitarians tend to be intellectual, verbal, literate, thoughtful, and from a variety of backgrounds. Some are atheist, some are agnostic, others believe in God in a variety of Eastern and Western forms. Some would describe themselves as "ethically Christian," although others would not - and it is not an exclusively Christian group. The running joke among Unitarians was that the name "Jesus" is only heard when someone falls down the stairs, and that the only sacrament is the black coffee brewed after services.
The Unitarian Universalist (or UU) denomination is the product of a merger between Unitarianism and Universalism, two centuries-old Christian denominations. Unitarianism was founded on the belief that the Trinity was illogical and that there could only be one divinity. Universalists believed that God was too merciful to condemn anyone to an eternity in hell, and that even the most evil person would get out of there eventually (after fifty thousand years or so). Eventually they merged and abandoned all dogma. (You can read the Knoxville church's website for a summary of beliefs.)
When my work sent me to Hungary, I arrived in the only nation on earth that ever had a Unitarian state (during the reign of King John Sigismund, who decreed religious tolerance in 1568). Ralph Waldo Emerson is the closest thing to a saint that UU's have. An ordained minister in the church, his Harvard Divinity School address was revolutionary in its day.
Emerson rejected all claims of the supernatural in the Bible. He said that miracles were "monster," in the original meaning of that word as "against nature." In a characteristically striking turn of phrase, he said they were "not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain." Emerson was telling us that the beauty of the manifest world should be enough.
Is it worth killing a person for believing that?
My current (and future) wife and I were married by the Rev. Forrest Church at All Souls Unitarian in Manhattan. (Dr. Church is now teaching us how to face death.) When at several points in my career jobs came up in the Deep South, I always checked to see if there was a Unitarian Church nearby. One of those job possibilities, which I chose not to pursue, was in Knoxville.
Jim Adkisson of Powell, Tennessee was the man with his finger on the trigger. He had mental health problems, and a hard and bitter life. He apparently left a letter explaining that he hated the church for its liberal beliefs and opinions. And the church had a sign outside indicating it welcomed gays and lesbians.
Who really killed those Unitarians? Was it the preachers who spread hatred and intolerance? The politicians who court and flatter them instead of condemning their hate speech? The media machine that attacks liberals, calls them "traitors" and suggests you speak to them "with a baseball bat"? The economic system that batters people like Jim Adkisson until they snap, then tells them their real enemies are gays and liberals and secular humanists?
If you ask me, it was all of the above.
You killed them, Pat Robertson. You killed them, Pastor Hagee. You killed them, Ann Coulter. You killed them, Dick Morris and Sean Hannity and the rest of you at Fox News.
The shooting began while the children of the church were putting on a musical based on "Annie." One broad-shouldered church member blocked the bullets from hitting other people, and died. You don't need to believe in dogma to be a hero. Remember that song from "Annie"? It probably got on your nerves like it got on mine. "The sun'll come out tomorrow."
The sun coming out. That's natural. It's one with the blowing clover and the falling rain. But a man driven insane, then programmed by society to kill people just because they're loving and tolerant?
That's monster.
....................................
Posted by doctormatt at 6:26 PM
July 22, 2008
Bush admin to place barriers on contraception
The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can't let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women's health -
Read More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hillary-clinton/an-outrageous-attempt-by_b_114064.html
Posted by doctormatt at 12:52 AM
April 1, 2008
Wikipedia on Summum
I REALLY couldn't make this stuff up, even if I tried!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summum
Posted by doctormatt at 9:47 PM
Unofficial critique of Summum
http://www.insolitology.com/organized/summum.htm
Posted by doctormatt at 9:44 PM
Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'
Must a city park that displays one monument also permit others'?
Published on April 1st, but apparently not an April Fools joke!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-monuments1apr01,1,1700911,print.story
Continue reading "Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'"
Posted by at 9:32 PM
The Seven Aphorisms of Summum
A religion wants to place its aphorisms in a Pleasant Grove City, Utah, park where the Ten Commandments are displayed:
Continue reading "The Seven Aphorisms of Summum"
Posted by doctormatt at 9:25 PM
March 15, 2008
Naturalism - Not supernatural
The Center for Naturalism
http://www.centerfornaturalism.org/
Posted by doctormatt at 1:09 AM
February 18, 2008
Video - Heart of the Beholder
5 time winner of best feature film, but too controversial for distribution.
Find out why.
http://www.beholder.com/webtheater/index.aspx
Posted by doctormatt at 9:52 PM
October 8, 2007
Christians United for Israel
Max: How much of an inspiration is the Second Coming in your support for israel?
Tom Delay: Obviously, it's what I live for - I wish it comes tomorrow.
This, coming from the former, long time speaker of the house - who many called the most powerful man in America after the president.
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/4000
Posted by at 8:52 PM