There has been so much talk about the compatibility – or incompatibility of science and religion that it’s enough to make one sick. The old argument of non-overlapping magisteria is really not valid. Science is a way of explaining the world we live in. Science is a specific deliberate method for solving problems and making predictions. Science IS the world we live in. Conversely, religion is none of the above. Religion is an unsubstantiated, untestable fantasy that neither explains nor predicts anything. So if religion does not have its own magisteria; why bother? Science and religion are way beyond being mutually exclusive. One, science, explains reality; the other, religion, invents horrible stories to contradict reality. However, in spite of this quite obvious fact, there are many scientists who disingenuously hold religious beliefs. I truly do not even know how to respond to that. Fortunately others do.

Physicist Lawrence Krauss recently debated some theists and discussed this very issue.

Science is only truly consistent with an atheistic worldview with regards to the claimed miracles of the gods of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moreover, the true believers in each of these faiths are atheists regarding the specific sacred tenets of all other faiths. Christianity rejects the proposition that the Quran contains the infallible words of the creator of the universe. Muslims and Jews reject the divinity of Jesus.
So while scientific rationality does not require atheism, it is by no means irrational to use it as the basis for arguing against the existence of God, and thus to conclude that claimed miracles like the virgin birth are incompatible with our scientific understanding of nature.
Finally, it is worth pointing out that these issues are not purely academic. The current crisis in Iran has laid bare the striking inconsistency between a world built on reason and a world built on religious dogma.

–Lawrence Krauss

We atheists are not on a mission to destroy all religious belief. Anyone is entitled to believe in anything they want to. The issue is when those beliefs in the supernatural realm are used set public policy and obfuscate the real world we live in. It is reality itself that is incompatible with most religious dogma. Science is responsible for the vaccines and medicine that you take to improve your life. Science has brought us the technology to form the computer you are reading this post on. Science is real. Religion, on the other hand, has brought us ignorance, war, and suffering. The real question is whether you accept reality, or you need to believe in a fantasy world populated by aweful dreadful vendictive monsters that no one else can see in order to survive your brief existence.

This week marks the beginning of life without free television (well, it’s still free if you put a converter box on each television you own). The much over-talked about switch to digital television signals in the United States has finally been implemented. There has never been a major paradigm shift that has been more publicized than this conversion. Every type of news media from television and radio to magazines – not to mention the internet, has been explaining this for the past several years. To not know or not understand what has happened, you would need to either be on another planet or be a very stupid individual. Apparently there are plenty of people that fit into the later category. For the past few days, hotlines all across the country have been besieged with hundreds of thousands of calls from people complaining that they don’t have television anymore.

It is my personal opinion that this is a good thing! You see, atheists tend to be a little more “with it” than theists for the fact that we demand evidence for claims. We want to know how and why something works. We demand explanations for everything. Theists, on the other hand, close their minds to reality and blame much of life on the random actions of their imaginary friends. I do not know this for a fact, but I would be willing to bet that most, if not all, of the people complaining about losing their television reception are theists. We atheists do not take things for granted. The television is a complicated invention that relies on many different types of advanced technologies working with many different systems. We understand why this switch was made and how it impacts us. As someone who subscribes to cable, like most people I know, this conversion has no impact on me at all – but I do understand it. I am sure many theists just assume their television is this box that “just works” when they turn it on. They use it to watch all of the religious programming that is ubiquitous through out the United States. Now that their television sets are silent, they will not be able to watch their religious nonsense. This is good. Perhaps they will pay more attention to reality and in doing so put less faith in their gods. This, in turn, will make it easier for us to explain science to them. “…remember the television conversion, that’s science, that’s reality.” After all, praying to a god will not restore their signal, but paying money to a science wielding cable or satellite company will.

Through the eyes of a child the world is a wonderful place. My wife and I recently returned from taking our daughter to an indoor waterpark resort to celebrate her 7th birthday. The resort was wonderful, but what really hit me was the diversity of people there. I was sitting in a lounge chair at the water’s edge of the wave pool watching the hundreds of children – and some adults – laughing and playing. Our daughter had befriended a little girl about her same age and the two were having great time playing together. They were also playing with several other children, as well. My daughter and her new friend are Caucasian, there were several African-Americans, Asians, and Middle-Eastern children, as well.

Now my daughter is being raised in a secular home (Atheist), her new friend was Christian (her father had a crucifix proudly displayed around his neck), the Asian children could have been practicing Buddhists, Confucians, or maybe even Shinto, and there was a little boy whose mother was wearing a hijab and was fully covered (my guess is they were Muslim). Atheists, Christians, Muslims and more all playing together and having fun. Oh no! The world must be coming to an end!

When recounting her adventures to us, our daughter used many adjectives to describe the children she had met; not one of them referred to race or religion. Through her eyes, there was no distinction between race or religion; there were no prejudices or hypocritical discriminatory actions or postures to make. There was only laughter and fun.

We are not born knowing hate and fear. These attributes need to be taught. Prejudice and hatred need to be explicitly and repeatedly infused into our upbringing. Religious intolerance needs to be learned. I was never more proud – or jealous of my daughter that afternoon. Jealous, because she hadn’t yet learned to hate people for being different. I was also very sad because I knew that eventually the innocence of childhood would soon be replaced with the dogmas and prejudices of adulthood.

If only adults could see the world through the eyes of their children perhaps there would be no Protestants killing Catholics, Catholics killing Jews, Jews killing Muslims, Muslims killing everyone. Perhaps if adults could see the world through the eyes of their children they would see the positive qualities we all share, rather than the differences which divide and separate us. Through the eyes of a child the world is indeed a wonderful beautiful place. If only it could last.

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

–Lyrics from “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from the musical South Pacific

Joseph Ratzinger (AKA Pope Benedict) finished his trip to the Middle East last week. In disingenuous lip service he urged peace between the non-Christian Jews and Muslims. After having toured Israel, the Pope made the following comment:

Those deeply moving encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews — mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends — were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred.

–Pope Benedict XVI

Let’s get this straight. Adolph Hitler came to power not in spite of, but as a result of the Catholic Church’s support. Pope Pius XI signed the 1933 concordat with Germany acknowledging Hitler and his regime. The Vatican ordered all of the bishops to accept and support Nazi Germany. Hitler could not have come to power without the support of the Catholic Church. Hitler was born and died a Catholic. In his infamous book Mein Kampf, Hitler stated the following:

Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.

–Adolph Hitler

Hitler was a Catholic. Perhaps if he was an atheist the world would have been very different. For the Pope to blame the atrocities of the Germans in WWII on the “godless” is a blatant lie which I object to. It was a Catholic dictator commanding a Catholic military under the approval of the Catholic pope that committed the atrocities of WWII. Once again atheists get blamed for something that was perpetrated by the theist majority. As I’ve said before, the Pope is a perverted, sadistic, dogmatic anachronism that spreads hatred and lies.

For those of you that are not familiar with this, I strongly encourage you to take the time and read this article. The Good News Clubs, run by the Child Evangelism Fellowship is actively going after elementary school children and trying to convert them – after they teach them that everyone who doesn’t convert is a sinner. The story of the Jewish child that was accosted by her Christian classmate is horrible. What’s worse, the Christian child was covertly recruited to do exactly what she did. She attended an after school brainwashing class at her public school. She was taught that everyone who not one of them was a sinner. So she relayed that sentiment to her Jewish friend.

Good News Clubs are sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), a worldwide     organization founded in Warrenton, Missouri, more than 70 years ago. The declared mission of the CEF is to produce conversion experiences in very young children, and thus to equip them to “witness” for other children. “I was told that a child at five, if properly instructed, can as truly believe as anyone,” said Mr. J. Irvin Overholtzer, who founded CEF in 1937. “I saw that if there was any truth in this statement, there was a door of opportunity lying open before us.” As of 2008, according to CEF Vice President of U.S.A. Ministries Moises Esteves, there were approximately 3,410 Good News Clubs in public K-6 schools around the country.

This is a very serious issue that will most likely affect all of us at some point. What do you do when your child’s school tells other children that your child is a sinner and will go to hell? That’s exactly what happened to this six-year-old girl. The CEF has been doing this for some time all across the country. It was eventually brought to the Supreme Court but the right wing of the court out-maneuvered the left and the moderates. In writing the court’s opinion; right-wing-theocrat Clarence Thomas stated that is was all right for the CEF to indoctrinate children in public schools (Good News Club v. Milford Central School)!

All of us have a responsibility to our children to protect them from hatred and prejudice. They do not deserve to be mentally abused because of their parent’s ignorance. Religion has always been the supreme force for child abuse; this case clearly defines why. If these awful, divisive,  duplicitous people (Good News Clubs) are in your community or do come to it in the future, be prepared to fight them. Your child’s eternal future could depend on it!

Reading, Writing, and Original Sin: An Evangelical Group Sets its Sights on Santa Barbara’s Public Elementary School Kids (original article).

Hey everyone tomorrow, May 7th,  is the National Day of Reason. This was started originally as a protest to the National Day of Prayer. I realize it is a reaction to something that should not even exist. But we need to do something. Go to the National Day of Reason to get more information. And tomorrow when all of your colleagues and friends are pausing to pray perhaps you could recite something form Robert Ingersoll or some other freethinker. Or better yet, take an extra hour for lunch to go somewhere to think!

President Obama has had a full plate since he took office just over 100 days ago. But nothing, not Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea, the banking industry, the automotive industry, health care, the swine flu, nothing, will have more of an impact on our lives than picking the next Supreme Court Justice. All of the mentioned subjects do greatly affect our lives. And to those that are suffering directly from the recession (job loss, house foreclosure); you have my most sincere sympathy. But picking a new Supreme Court Justice will not just affect our lives, but perhaps those of future generations, as well.

The Supreme Court is our last line of defense. It is the entity of government that protects the individual or individuals from unconstitutional actions. The current Supreme Court is finely balance between right wing radicals that are against keeping abortion legal and do not agree with the first amendment (Scalia and Thomas, for example) and those that do believe in a woman’s right to choose and also in the first amendment establishment clause (Ginsburg and Stevens, for example). Justice David Souter will be stepping down at the end of the current session. Souter has historically been more liberal and has consistently supported separation of church and state even though he was hired by a conservative republican (Bush Sr.). We further have to consider that Justice Stevens is eighty nine years old and most assuredly will be retiring during Obama’s administration too. Ginsburg is seventy-six.

Back before the presidential election I urged voters to keep the Supreme Court in mind when considering candidates. Our freedom of and from religion was literally at stake. It would make sense for Obama to hire a woman – we only have one presently serving. When Sandra Day O’Conner retired, George Bush Jr. took the opportunity to replace her with a conservative white male. Personally I do not care about race, sex, heritage, etc. I care about someone opposing Scalia, Thomas and the theocratic hegemony they are trying to create. I have yet to meet a single African American who agrees with even one decision that Thomas (an African American) has made. He speaks only for the the white male extreme religious right. And Scalia has argued that Christianity should be taught in public schools. Both of them, along with the conservative Bush appointees Alito and Roberts are a serious threat to our first amendment rights. If another right-wing radical is appointed, we are all screwed! I personally feel Obama will hire a woman to fill the next vacancy. Based on Obama’s actions during his first 100 days, she will most likely be a moderate rather than a liberal. Coming from a legal background Obama must realize what is at stake. I just hope he does not reach too far across the isle and tip the scales in the wrong direction.

More and more people are declaring themselves atheist. A recent New York Times article describes how a small local humanist group put up a billboard and received positive inquires from many new people, as well as, over one hundred people showing up for a recent public symposium they gave. Those of you that consider yourself to be a “freethinker,” now is your time. Get information on local groups and Join Them! Most people think atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other freethinkers are such a small minority and that we just don’t matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Recent surveys put the number non-believers around 15% of the United State population. The issue is that we are also the most non-organized minority in the country.

Many freethinkers belong to large national groups and subscribe to journals and other periodicals. But very few actually belong to local groups and go out and try and make a difference. Again, now is the time! If there are issues in your community, you need the help of your fellow freethinkers to fight discrimination and violations of your rights. The Atheist Alliance maintains a huge database of local groups from all over. Start there and then call or email the groups you find. You can also contact the other large national groups to see if they know of any local organizations. The point is you need to get organized. There is power in numbers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/us/27atheist.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper#

It is absolutely frightening how many people have no idea that there are  other people with different beliefs than their own. I am constantly being assaulted by ignorance that I would never have dreamed as being possible. The current controversy taking place right here in Southeastern Wisconsin involving high school graduations taking place in a Christian church has spawned a  huge volume of breathtakingly uninformed bogs and letters being posted everywhere. It’s a big problem when people are arguing that non-Christian children should be forced to go to a church to receive their diploma. But, it’s an even bigger problem when they are trying to defend the church as being “non-denominational!” Yes, it is a non-denominational Christian church. These mind-bogglingly ignorant Christians just can’t understand that not everyone is Christian.

The school boards themselves are responding that the ceremony is secular in nature and religion is not invoked. Please see the below picture of the “non-religious” setting that the graduations are taking place in – the one with the twenty foot tall monolith representing two thousand years of intolerance and hatred to all who oppose their hurtful anachronistic talking snake / bastard-child myth. Christian churches – all of them, teach that the 30% or more of us that are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, etc. are evil and will spend eternity rotting in hell. If any of these me-centric Christians were forced to attend their child’s graduation in a Shiite mosque that teaches that Christians are infidels and will go to hell, do you think they would want to attend?

I’m not angry at the church. It’s just doing what churches do and happily taking in donations from members – and school districts. I’m angry at the school board, the parents and everyone else who is so selfish and irresponsibly ignorant to the pain and suffering they are causing. I am angry at the money that is going to be wasted in lawsuits trying to protect our children from an institution that is supposed to educate them.

Perhaps if we taught comparative religion classes in schools, this wouldn’t be happening. In order to graduate high school our children need to profess a competency in reading and mathematics. How about a competency class for the teachers and parents on the diversity that makes up our great country. How about a class for adults on discrimination and prejudice and how to treat all people with the respect they deserve and not push their intolerant tribal beliefs on others.

The Obama administration has informally suggested at least three possible candidates as ambassador to the Vatican. All three, one of whom was Caroline Kennedy, have all been rejected by the Vatican for their pro-abortion views. Obama has made it clear that he will support the constitutional right of women to have abortions. So, either Obama picks a Pro-lifer, or the Pope accepts a Pro-choicer. Your guess is as good as mine. However, being that Obama is trying to include EVERYONE, he is probably the one who will capitulate.

Why does the United States need to have an ambassador to the Vatican? We don’t have one for any other religious organization. The Vatican stands for religious dogma. The United States has a constitution which says that religion should not affect public policy. Again, why bother? It is time to sever ties with this divisive, hateful, irresponsible, and murdering institution.

There is no difference between the Vatican and many terrorist organizations. Both spread lies and fear. Both have killed innocents for no reason. As a result of the policies of the current Pope, and past ones, millions of people die each year because the Catholic Church prevents the use of contraception in third-world countries. When the Pope issues a statement, it is almost always against scientific progress. Too many leaders listen to this nonsense. How many people’s lives could have possibly been saved if the United States was actively involved in stem cell research during the past eight years? With the possible exception of mainline Islam, no other organization has done more to hurt individuals, destroy human rights, and stifle scientific progress than the Vatican.

Today’s terrorist activities pale in comparison to the atrocities ordered by past popes (inquisition). Fortunately more and more Catholics are dissenting from many of the papal decrees. Bravo! Perhaps in time more people will see the Pope as the worthless, old, perverted, sadistic, dogmatic anachronism that he truly is. We can only hope.