I really wish I had more leave left this year so I could attend this!

Evict The Bishops

The Labour Humanists have put a panel together to debate the future of the "Lords Spiritual" in the House of Lords. It features David Aaronovitch, Polly Toynbee, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens (Bishop of Leicester and Convenor of the Lords Spiritual), Jonathan Bartley (Co-director of the Christian think-tank Ekklesia) and Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Slos. The Rational Association are flogging this one so sure to be a few famous atheist mugs there too!

It is on the 27th January 7.30pm, is free but need to book (see link above for more details). Please do attend anyone who is willing and able, and give 'em hell from me!!! Literally.

GG

Reading Theology for Atheists, article in the The Guardian by Nathan Schneider, it struck me that Atheism is being portrayed as without a philosophy of its own. The article talks about how theology is relevant to those who do not believe, and even suggests it is required for social harmony;

"Theology, perhaps, provides a point of access to these ambivalent powers in human nature and the chance to carefully, thoughtfully mobilize them anew."

The article seems to portray atheism as being mostly without passion, or at least, unable to express its morality with conviction. But do Atheists really need religion?

I haven't been to any atheist meetings (not counting Nine Lessons...), not am I part of an atheist group or organization, however I know that they exist. I also read the thoughts of my fellow atheist bloggers and can vouch for their "ambivalence". The National Secular Society, the British Humanist Association and the Rational Association all have many campaigns for the good of society in general. You will find few societies that are more vocal in freedom of speech and human rights causes than the aforementioned.

However, is it a niche area, a clique, if you will, that is too closed to general society? I had never heard of any of them before I strengthened my convictions and came "out" as an Atheist. But why would that be, with such avid supporters in the science world and comedy scene? The philosopher Colin McGinn in The Atheism Tapes documentary talked of a post-Atheistic society, in which the question of God doesn't even arise, except for in contemplation of the past. Are we moving closer to this, hence the lack of "campaign", so to speak?

The answer is, I feel, censorship. The reason we don't hear of Atheist groups, is that all attempts to advertise get banned. (My outrage at this is stoked further by the fact that in my town there are billboards advertising the local lap-dancing club, but at least the atheists aren't plastered across buses anymore!!) It would provoke outrage for anyone to question another's religion in public, unless it is theist to theist, at least, and even then, all bets are off when it comes to Islam!

So I say NO! We don't need theology, religion or god to be good and be passionate about being so. All we need is the freedom to speak up!

25 Blasphemous Quotes

Well worth a read! This is the list published by Atheist Ireland in protest to the new Blasphemy Law.

Enjoy!

GG

I always knew Starbucks could work wonders...

GG

(Image from Telegraph.co.uk)

"The real problem for public understanding, as anyone knows who has done any science writing, are the millions of people whose position is that they don't know, don't care, and don't want to do either."

Andrew Brown, writing in The Guardian (full article here) about how he suspects Britiain's 25% populace of "Creationists" aren't such due to religious conviction, but more due to a lack of giving a damn! "6,000 years, 6 million, 6 billion, it's all the same to me, is Corrie on yet? We've missed X Factor!!" No, I think you missed a chromosome actually.

GG

The Irish Blasphemy Law which came into effect on the 1st January 2010 looks like a great help towards many a cause. As long as free speech and critical thinking aren't too high on your agenda, that is.

Sigh, we edge another step closer to fundamentalism...

I wonder what Dara O'Briain thinks to it, as he did a wonderful stint at Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People this year. Part of his act revolved around how Irish comedians get most of their material from taking the pee out of Catholicism, so I'll expect the Irish Comedy scene to go very quiet for an extended period whilst they re-write their material! At least for the home audiences. And the Irish invented the Craic! What next??? Teaching Intelligent Design in their schools?

GG

Having returned from a very long night of celebrations last night, all I have to say today is;

"Urrghhh...YAWN...grunt."

I am going to sleep now, yes, now. May your hangovers all be as bad and as longlasting as mine apparently is.

New Year's resolution is going well though. Have expanded my readership by flattering my best mate into being my critic. Muhahahaha! Now if only I had more friends....

GG

READ: "Religous Education is not Brainwashing" Article here

The above linked article attempts to defend the BHA message "Please don't label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself" and in doing so proposes that children require a religous family in order to be brought up with any understanding of morals.

This is utterly ridiculous. I have never had to resort to "God says it's bad" or "You'll go to hell" to instill the concept of right and wrong, or good and bad in my child. And guess what, I very often recieve comments from other adults, parents and otherwise, praising my daughter for her good behaviour. It was simply "No! That's bad!" until she was old enough to understand reasoning as to why it was bad. At this point, I would simply explain, at first, that for example, "Would you like it if somebody were to do that to you?" and a little later, "It is good to be nice to people because then you can make friends and having friends and people being pleasant to each other makes this life a nice pleasant and enjoyable one. People who are nasty usually get left out and are sad and lonely".

As my daughter gets older, I hope to pass on a more complex concept of the impact we have upon society and others, and my own personal belief that we can all contribute to make the world a better place where we all show love and peace to one another.
However, if she chooses to believe something other than that, I will be proud that she is capable of making her own decisions. I do not want my daughter to blindly follow my opinions, I hope that she will be more intelligent than that!

To completely debunk the article in question, I finish with this;

Glad to see that the religious fanatics still practice selective reading (the bible is the prime example of this!!) given that the writer has blatantly ignored the "Let me grow up" part of the message.

GG