When Saying ‘Jesus Is Not Magic’ Turns Into ‘A Sick Joke’

December 4, 2011 By Emileigh 27 Comments

Remember this holiday classic?

Last year, British-Australian comedian, actor, musician and atheist Tim Minchin contributed that song, “White Wine in the Sun,” to a CD called “The Spirit of Christmas,” with proceeds benefitting the Salvation Army.

In the song, Minchin sings that that he’s not a fan of religious aspects of the holiday season and that he prefers to use the time to spending time with his family, sharing white wine.

I’m looking forward to Christmas
Though I’m not expecting a visit from Jesus

I’ll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They’ll be drinking white wine in the sun

Shouldn’t that be at least part of what the holidays are about for anyone, regardless of faith?

This led to a tiff with the Salvation Army (which isn’t known for tolerance, anyway). The organization slammed the song, with spokesman Neil Venables saying: “We do not in any way support the statements made in this song.”

Apparently, Minchin singing that his daughter will always have a family waiting for her on Christmas, no matter where she is goes against what the Salvation Army supports…

Other religious leaders lined up to take shots at the song last year as well.

Family Council of Victoria’s Bill Muehlenberg said: ‘It’s not quite in the spirit of Christmas. Is this somebody’s idea of a sick joke?’

And Rob Ward of the Australian Christian Lobby said the song was ‘disrespectful’.

It’s not often that a high-profile atheist contributes to a Christian organization. You have to wonder why these groups weren’t the least bit gracious — they could have said that, while they celebrated Christmas differently from Minchin, they were still thankful for his generosity. What is so hard about that?

When Minchin was told about the controversy last year, he noted that he didn’t even know the money was going to the Salvation Army. Regardless, he felt the groups criticizing him were putting their beliefs above their desire to help others out through charity:

I think the Salvos are idiots. I didn’t know they would benefit from the CD, but by the time I found out I didn’t want to make too much of a fuss. So I gave my song free, then they turn around and say that they don’t agree with the sentiment of the song. Obviously, they are talking about how I think Jesus is not magic. Part of me is hugely outraged by what imbeciles they are, to bite the hand that feeds them and put their proselytising above charity.

For what it’s worth, proceeds from the purchase of Minchin’s song in December of 2009 and 2010 were donated to the National Autistic Society, a group, Minchin said, that doesn’t proselytize.

…

***Update***: There’s an animated version of the song, too!

(Thanks to Kevin for the link!)

Filed Under: General, Humor, Pop Culture 27 Comments

Freethought Society Holds Tree of Knowledge Rally in Front of Pennsylvania Courthouse

December 4, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 15 Comments

The Freethought Society was recently banned (for the second time) from putting up their Tree of Knowledge in front of the Historic Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Yesterday, they held a rally in front of the courthouse to protest their exclusion (and formed the Human Tree of Knowledge seen below).

Credit: Tom Kelly IV - Daily Local News

Staks Rosch was there and offered a few highlights:

… Freethought Society president, Margaret Downey, spoke about our exclusion, discrimination of atheists, and how she was contacted by a young couple who wanted to bring their children to see the Tree of Knowledge. Downey had to sadly inform them that the County Commissioners won’t allow atheists to participate.

…

Downey also encouraged atheists to put up their own Tree of Knowledge in their home and establish the Tree as a freethought tradition during the cold winter season.

Creating your own Tree is great from a personal standpoint, but it does nothing to educate the public, which is what this rally was really about. As far as the city is concerned, I’m sure they’re just happy the rally is over and they don’t have to deal with the Freethought Society again, at least not for another year. The question is how (and whether it’s possible) to keep this story alive and pressure the city into including the Tree of Knowledge as a display in years to come.

Filed Under: General, War on Christmas 15 Comments

If They Can Quote Bible Verses, So Can We

December 4, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 289 Comments

At Salisbury University on Maryland’s eastern shore, a campus Christian group chalked the ground (as groups do) with the following Biblical message:

Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!

So what are atheists at the school supposed to do? Respond with Bible verses of their own, of course :)

Reader John explains what he and a few friends did:

We began with Deut. 22:22 and graduated to Exodus 22:20. Then we wrote “Rape victims must marry their rapists” and correctly attributed it to Deut. 22: 28-29, and “God Supports Slavery” and the corresponding verses.

Within about 30 minutes, the campus police were called and took our IDs. Then the dean of students invited us into his office where we had a very productive conversation and he ended up supporting our free speech and our motives, and assuring us that if any of the chalk was washed away, all of it would be (not just ours).

When we came outside, someone had given an order to wash away our chalk, so the dean of students was forced to have the whole campus washed — his office apologized.

Sounds like a potentially bad situation that turned out alright. Everybody learned their lesson, right? The Bible is full of a lot of really shitty passages and context matters.

That’s not how local news station WBOC-16 spun the story:

Seeing chalk on the sidewalks at Salisbury University is a regular occurrence. Some groups and clubs use it as a way to promote events and get their messages out there. But early Friday some students say things went a little too far.

Statements such as “God supports slavery,” and “Rape victims must marry their rapist” [were] written on the sidewalk near Guererri Hall. Surveillance videotape helped Campus Police apprehend several Salisbury students.

No immediate disciplinary action was taken against the students but the school’s Dean of Students met with the students involved, and encouraged a more positive kind of discourse and use of the freedom of speech.

There’s no context to the story and no mention of what the Christians wrote to start the controversy. Just an implication that the atheists would get into trouble. Not true.

The reaction is just another example of a double-standard between Christians and atheists. When they quote the Bible, they’re righteous. When we do it, we’re dicks. It doesn’t matter what you quote.

I don’t think the Christians who started this should get in trouble either. They get their free speech, too. But atheists have every right to publicly mock the hell out of it.

Filed Under: General, Secular Student Alliance 289 Comments

The Emperor’s Not Wearing Clothes…

December 3, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 13 Comments

It’s a metaphor for all religion, really:

(Thanks to @Malice56 for the link!)

Filed Under: General, Humor 13 Comments

Bleacher Report’s 25 Most Religious Athletes

December 3, 2011 By Megan Wells 20 Comments

As long as there have been superstar athletes, there have been fans who confuse being really good at a sport with being a really good person. We all want to believe that the men and women we watch on TV go home from a day of shooting three-pointers to buy their kids ice cream and adopt several puppies. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Time and again, the religious – even those who aren’t hardcore practitioners themselves – ascribe moral virtue on the basis of public piety.

Tim Tebow is trying to push this equation as far as it can go. Despite being kind of awful at football, his pro athlete, pro-Jesus status is drawing plenty of admiration. Take, for example, this starry-eyed letter from a retired professional water skier:

His life reminds me that champion’s [sic] aren’t people who never fail or never fall, rather, they are individuals who get up, get back in the game, and fight to the end. Champion’s [sic] are people who don’t let the odds defeat them, the nay-sayers discourage them, or the clock of life cause them to panic. Lastly, the life of Tim Tebow reminds me that with God, nothing is impossible!

Clearly, the co-incidence of sports skill and piety creates paragons of moral virtue, which explains why Tim Tebow starred in an anti-choice Focus on the Family ad. Fortunately, we can test our hypothesis further, thanks to Bleacher Report’s list of the 25 Most Religious Athletes.

To be fair, many of the athletes on that list give back admirably to their communities. Retired NBA player Dikembe Mutombo does humanitarian work in his native Congo. Former NFL star Deion Sanders mentors kids through Boys & Girls Club of America.

Others, like retired basketball player A.C. Green, have their own charities that do charming things like advocate abstinence-only sex education. Former MLB slugger Jeff Kent donates to political causes near and dear to his heart, like the passing of Proposition 8. And then there’s Carl Everett:

During his career Everett had numerous nasty altercations with umpires and had said of the possibility of having an openly gay teammate that he would “set him straight” because “Gays being gay is wrong” and that he “doesn’t believe in being gay.”

[snip]

It actually feels kind of wrong to call Everett “religious” after all that; more like intolerant psychopathic behavior masquerading as “religion.”

I don’t know if that qualifies as “masquerading.” I mean, that stuff is in the rulebook. So is his not-believing-in-dinosaurs schtick, although holding a gun to his wife’s head would probably have been enough to earn him a reprimand.

Just goes to show, yet again, that pass-throwing and verse-reciting skills don’t correlate to moral virtue. Compassion and rationality, however, do.

Filed Under: Sports 20 Comments

Tracking Changes Over Time

December 3, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 8 Comments

Nisus Writer is a word processor for Macs and a recent update introduced a new icon for tracking changes to a document over time:

Nice touch, don’t you think? :)

(Thanks to Robert for the link!)

Filed Under: General, Humor 8 Comments

Why Are This Many Atheist Scientists Taking Their Children to Church?

December 3, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 57 Comments

We know some atheists participate in religious communities for a variety of reasons, but what about atheist scientists? How many of them participate in religious communities?

A new study by Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and University at Buffalo SUNY sociologist Kristen Schultz Lee, published in the December 2011 Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, found that nearly 1 in 5 atheist scientists “attended a religious service more than once in the past year” — after they had children, of course.

17%… that’s about 16% higher than I initially predicted it would be…

But at least there are compelling reasons for doing so, and none of them are “We believe the bullshit they preach in church”:

The individuals surveyed cited personal and social reasons for integrating religion into their lives, including:

  • Scientific identity – Study participants wish to expose their children to all sources of knowledge (including religion) and allow them to make their own choices about a religious identity.

  • Spousal influence – Study participants are involved in a religious institution because of influence from their spouse or partner.

  • Desire for community – Study participants want a sense of moral community and behavior, even if they don’t agree with the religious reasoning.

When you put it that way, it makes sense. We all know people who attend religious (or even non-religious) gatherings for the sake of community or keeping peace with the spouse. But that first bulletpoint is key. Atheist scientists don’t want to indoctrinate their own children into one belief system. They don’t want to force their kids to believe as they do. They want their children to figure these things out on their own and exposing them to a variety of myths is probably the best way to do that.

It’s kind of like the intellectual version of making your child smoke an entire pack of cigarettes until they get so sick of them that they’ll never smoke another one as long as they live.

…

On second thought, maybe you should take all this information with a grain of salt. The study was partially funded by the Templeton Foundation.

…

Side note: Rice University is promoting this study with the headline: “Some atheist scientists with children embrace religious traditions,” which is pretty far from the truth. There’s a difference between attending church because you “embrace” its teachings and traditions… and inoculating your children against superstitious dogma. The press release even explains the reasons atheist scientists gave for going to church — and “embracing religious traditions” wasn’t one of them.

It’s one thing to draw attention to a study with a catchy headline, but this one is misleading, suggesting a conclusion very different from the actual results.

(Thanks to Phil for the link)

Filed Under: Atheist Demographics, General, Science 57 Comments

Atheist Penn Jillette on the 2012 President Candidates

December 3, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 64 Comments

Penn Jillette offers his take on the 2012 presidential candidates — from an atheist perspective:

His take on President Obama is spot on when it comes to his faith: Either he’s really a Christian as he claims (which means he’s not really one of us), or he’s lying about it for political purposes (which is disappointing in its own way).

I still think he’s the best possible option. We could do better, but every other option right now is drastically worse.

Filed Under: General, Politics 64 Comments

After a Christian Wonders Whom Atheists Thanks at Thanksgiving, One Offers This Powerful Response

December 2, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 19 Comments

The week before Thanksgiving, Allen Stephenson wrote an article for the Greenville Advocate in which he discussed what we ought to be thankful for:

Abel on the other hand, remembers that even the very air he breathes is a gift from God. He knows that if there is anything good in his life, it is directly from the hand of God. So his focus this weekend is take the energy he would normally devote to school and/or work, and direct it towards thanking God and serving others. So he is quick to help set the table and clean up afterwards, he is intentional in listening to others, and active in participating in the family traditions. At the end of the day he makes a list of all the blessings of God and thanks Jesus for each and every one of them.

At the very end of his article, he asked “And by the way, whom does an atheist thank at Thanksgiving?”

That was all the inspiration atheist Doug Beville needed to respond to Stephenson’s article:

I thank science for the vast improvements it has made to our lives, how virtually no person is willing to live without the comforts and health benefits it has provided, and how more of us are accepting the knowledge of science as fact.

I thank the sound logic and reasoning, and the changing morality that has allowed equal treatment of all people regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation (almost). I thank our founding fathers for the wisdom that guaranteed every American citizen his or her freedom to worship or not to worship, and that the government would not show prejudice to either group.

I thank bold, freethinking atheist authors who trumpet the fact that nonreligious people can and do live moral, altruistic, meaningful, purposeful, joyful, fulfilling lives. Finally, I thank the progressive strides we have made even in small town Alabama that allow me to write this letter without fear of a cross being burned in my yard.

Beautiful :) And that’s not even half the response. You can read the full piece here. It’s a powerful piece with the unintentional consequence of completely showing up a “man of god.”

(Thanks to Sackbut for the link)

Filed Under: General 19 Comments

You Don’t Have To Go Down in My Basement!

December 2, 2011 By Hemant Mehta 7 Comments

It’s always a treat to listen to former preacher Dan Barker talk about his religious past and this excerpt from his recent Skepticon IV talk shows you why. In it, he explains Christianity in a nutshell:

The full talk is available here:

(via HamboneProductions — Thanks to Brian for the link!)

Filed Under: General 7 Comments
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