Too bad that "Jake" "threw out the baby with the bathwater" when he broke free from fundamentalism.
Why Religion Fails
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Religious encounter in Sports Authority confirms atheist beliefs
By Gerry Wachovsky
I should have heard the religious music playing. I should have seen the Bible that the girl up front was reading. Still, I entered. Had I suddenly wandered into a vortex that bent space-time, turning the most innocuous of establishments into an evangelical church? No, of course not. I was at Lakewood Mall and had walked into a sports store looking for a jersey with one of my favorite football players' names on it.
I've written about religion before and if you've ever had the pleasure of reading one of my columns, you know that I'm not a fan. I don't like the dogma that it espouses, and I especially hate the insanity that it breeds. Still, I will always say to each his own, and if I am not directly challenged by a religious nut I will let them go on their merry way, blissfully ignorant.
This was not one of those days.
I was on a search for a jersey, but what started off as one fan's search for an item expressing my fandom turned into a journey of religious exploration. Did I learn from the error of my ways and accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior? Read on to find out.
The girl behind the counter was cute, which is why I began talking to her. I thought she was down-to-earth and pretty normal, until she told me she was flying to Hawaii the next week in order to go to "Bible college." Oh, I thought, she's one of those types.
Apparently she heard me think that because almost immediately she was on the defensive. "I noticed you seemed taken aback by me going to a Bible school," she said. "It's OK, I get that a lot." After I made the mistake of telling her I am an atheist she immediately flipped to her favorite Bible passage and began "challenging" me to confront my beliefs.
Picking up a handful of Chap Sticks, she held them up and then dropped them on the counter, asking me if it was possible for her to drop them in such a way that they would form the shape of a star. This is when the theological argument first reared its ugly head. Surely it had to be divine intervention that set the universe in motion. "These things just don't happen by themselves!" she shouted.
Her next item of "proof" in the existence of a higher power was that she had a friend who had cancer that had been given something like two weeks to live, but miraculously the cancer went away, and the person is now perfectly fine. These things sometimes happen. This is why it's called an exception, since usually malignant cancer ends in death. So god likes to be a bastard most of the time, but sometimes he'll let one poor schmuck slip through the cracks. Prayer, according to her, works.
Next the girl asked me if I would like to be eternally damned by having hot oil dripping on me for the rest of eternity, because that is obviously what is going to happen if I don't repent.
"Some people like that kind of thing," I said, rolling my eyes.
Before I took my leave the religious sycophant gave me my homework assignment: read the Book of John and the Book of Some-other-shit-I-can't-remember and then ask myself the questions she asked me today. Yeah, I think I'll pass on that.
What makes me laugh about all this is that according to her, I am the crazy one for not believing in nonsense. Apparently a girl working at a sports store in the mall who makes $6 an hour knows more about the world and what happens when we die than even the smartest scientist and intellectual. In actuality, all this conversation did was remind me that religion is truly for the weak-minded and stupid among us.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/re...-authority-confirms-atheist-beliefs-1.2448582
By Gerry Wachovsky
I should have heard the religious music playing. I should have seen the Bible that the girl up front was reading. Still, I entered. Had I suddenly wandered into a vortex that bent space-time, turning the most innocuous of establishments into an evangelical church? No, of course not. I was at Lakewood Mall and had walked into a sports store looking for a jersey with one of my favorite football players' names on it.
I've written about religion before and if you've ever had the pleasure of reading one of my columns, you know that I'm not a fan. I don't like the dogma that it espouses, and I especially hate the insanity that it breeds. Still, I will always say to each his own, and if I am not directly challenged by a religious nut I will let them go on their merry way, blissfully ignorant.
This was not one of those days.
I was on a search for a jersey, but what started off as one fan's search for an item expressing my fandom turned into a journey of religious exploration. Did I learn from the error of my ways and accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior? Read on to find out.
The girl behind the counter was cute, which is why I began talking to her. I thought she was down-to-earth and pretty normal, until she told me she was flying to Hawaii the next week in order to go to "Bible college." Oh, I thought, she's one of those types.
Apparently she heard me think that because almost immediately she was on the defensive. "I noticed you seemed taken aback by me going to a Bible school," she said. "It's OK, I get that a lot." After I made the mistake of telling her I am an atheist she immediately flipped to her favorite Bible passage and began "challenging" me to confront my beliefs.
Picking up a handful of Chap Sticks, she held them up and then dropped them on the counter, asking me if it was possible for her to drop them in such a way that they would form the shape of a star. This is when the theological argument first reared its ugly head. Surely it had to be divine intervention that set the universe in motion. "These things just don't happen by themselves!" she shouted.
Her next item of "proof" in the existence of a higher power was that she had a friend who had cancer that had been given something like two weeks to live, but miraculously the cancer went away, and the person is now perfectly fine. These things sometimes happen. This is why it's called an exception, since usually malignant cancer ends in death. So god likes to be a bastard most of the time, but sometimes he'll let one poor schmuck slip through the cracks. Prayer, according to her, works.
Next the girl asked me if I would like to be eternally damned by having hot oil dripping on me for the rest of eternity, because that is obviously what is going to happen if I don't repent.
"Some people like that kind of thing," I said, rolling my eyes.
Before I took my leave the religious sycophant gave me my homework assignment: read the Book of John and the Book of Some-other-shit-I-can't-remember and then ask myself the questions she asked me today. Yeah, I think I'll pass on that.
What makes me laugh about all this is that according to her, I am the crazy one for not believing in nonsense. Apparently a girl working at a sports store in the mall who makes $6 an hour knows more about the world and what happens when we die than even the smartest scientist and intellectual. In actuality, all this conversation did was remind me that religion is truly for the weak-minded and stupid among us.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/re...-authority-confirms-atheist-beliefs-1.2448582
But you have not proof that's it true , no proof that this girl has ever existed.
because it suits his world view.
And he is developing carpel tunnel syndrome with cutting and pasting anything he thinks puts a bad light on religion. I guess you could say it is his "crusade."
Interesting he does not mention the recent annoucement of a Catholic outreach and dialogue with athiests. Heaven forbid people actually talk about things...
Nope, just waiting for you to post something of substance that shows you can do more than cut and paste.
Seriously.
criticism of the U.S is NOT anti-Americanism, how many times this was said to you?
You are right. He is living proof an athiest can be motivated by hate and fear, just as much as anyone else.
Not complaing about that at all. Just trying to get through too you that all the things about religion that you complain about, you yourself are doing.
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2011/01/malawian-humanist-kicked-off-bus-for.html
We were very interested to hear from George Thindwa, chair of Malawian Association of Secular Humanism, about a recent encounter he had with an evangelical Christian preacher while travelling on a bus to the Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. Like Nigeria's Leo Igwe, whose work we have reported on here, George is a fearless campaigner against religious abuses, including the persecution of people accused of "witchcraft". He was travelling to the capital from Bantyre, and enjoying his copy of Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, when a preacher boarded the bus and began proselytising to passengers. When he reached the part of the bus where he was sitting, George decided he didn't want to hear preacher:
"A pastor came closer to where I was sat and started delivering his sermon. I told him to move away from me as I could not understand what he was preaching because I am not a believer."
Not entirely unreasonable, you might think, but some of George's fellow passengers decided to rally behind the preacher:
"I was also reading a book by Christopher Hitchens titled God Is Not Great. And when a passenger sitting next to me heard what I said and saw what I was reading, he labelled me a Satanist. Then noise erupted and the pastor left the bus."
Trouble over, then? Not exactly – when the bus reached a roadblock, the driver decided to involve the authorities:
"The bus driver and his crew went to police to complain, saying they were not comfortable with my presence in the bus. We discussed the issue with the police officers for about one-and-a-half hours and we settled that I should not join them again."
Saying he feels that he has been discriminated against, George has since expressed his intention to sue the bus company for breach of contract.
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2011/01/malawian-humanist-kicked-off-bus-for.html
http://www.nationmw.net/index.php?o...ked-out-of-bus&catid=1:national-news&Itemid=3
We were very interested to hear from George Thindwa, chair of Malawian Association of Secular Humanism, about a recent encounter he had with an evangelical Christian preacher while travelling on a bus to the Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. Like Nigeria's Leo Igwe, whose work we have reported on here, George is a fearless campaigner against religious abuses, including the persecution of people accused of "witchcraft". He was travelling to the capital from Bantyre, and enjoying his copy of Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, when a preacher boarded the bus and began proselytising to passengers. When he reached the part of the bus where he was sitting, George decided he didn't want to hear preacher:
"A pastor came closer to where I was sat and started delivering his sermon. I told him to move away from me as I could not understand what he was preaching because I am not a believer."
Not entirely unreasonable, you might think, but some of George's fellow passengers decided to rally behind the preacher:
"I was also reading a book by Christopher Hitchens titled God Is Not Great. And when a passenger sitting next to me heard what I said and saw what I was reading, he labelled me a Satanist. Then noise erupted and the pastor left the bus."
Trouble over, then? Not exactly – when the bus reached a roadblock, the driver decided to involve the authorities:
"The bus driver and his crew went to police to complain, saying they were not comfortable with my presence in the bus. We discussed the issue with the police officers for about one-and-a-half hours and we settled that I should not join them again."
Saying he feels that he has been discriminated against, George has since expressed his intention to sue the bus company for breach of contract.
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2011/01/malawian-humanist-kicked-off-bus-for.html
http://www.nationmw.net/index.php?o...ked-out-of-bus&catid=1:national-news&Itemid=3
When it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and flies like a duck, generally it is a duck.
I can recall but one, and that only more or less neutral, non-negative cut and paste that you have posted about the U.S.A.
A leading Israeli Orthodox Zionist organization endorsed setting up “death camps” to exterminate descendants of the biblical nation of Amalek. While there are no known descendants of Amalek, the term is frequently used in right wing circles to identify certain enemies of the Jewish people or the State of Israel. Included in that list are Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. But also sometimes included are Palestinians and other Arabs. The organization is co-headed by Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Sefat and a proponent of racial discrimination against Arabs. (The organization was founded by his father, the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a one-time Sefardic chief rabbi of Israel who was, in his his youth, part of a terrorist group that tried to overthrow the democratic government of Israel and install a rabbi-led religious theocracy.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...advocates-death-camps-for-amalekites-789.html
http://www.haaretz.com/print-editio...lekites-raises-storm-among-religious-1.338588
The right wing Orthodox Lehava organization, which bills itself as being anti-assimilation in the Land of Israel, has decided to give kosher certificates to restaurants that do not employ Arabs. The certificates will read, “This Certificate is Hereby Granted in Assurance that the Proprietor of This Business Employs: Jewish Workers and No Enemies!”
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...or-business-that-do-not-employ-arabs-456.html
related story
racism and religion is linked
Religious people are more racist than average [edit: this is in the USA. It probably also applies to Europe, but not necessarily to the rest of the world]. That fact has been known for decades, and it's rather surprising given that mainstream religions are unanimous in preaching racial tolerance. Just why this should be is not well understood.
Does religion really cause racism, or is it that are racists drawn to religion? Three recent studies have shed a little light on that question, with fascinating results.
Do subconscious religious prompts increase racism?
Can you make someone more racist simply by subtly reminding them about religion? That's what Wade Rowatt and colleagues set out to discover. They gave a group of college students a task that had religious cues embedded within it. The idea was to prime their subconscious with religious thoughts.
Then they asked them about their racial attitudes. Although the primed students didn't come straight out and admit to greater racism, their covert racism did increase. Rowatt and colleagues also found that students, when religiously primed, were more likely to agree that they dislike African-Americans.
So religious thoughts seem to trigger racist thoughts. One obvious explanation for this is that religion tends to increase benevolence towards co-religionists, but can increase hostility towards outsiders.
http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2010/04/why-religion-can-lead-to-racism.html
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/04/20/why-religion-can-lead-to-racism/
n the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus warned religious listeners against what today would be called “ingroup prejudice”: the tendency to think less of outsiders, especially those of another race.
The Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Israelites of that time, proves himself more charitable to an injured traveler than two members of the Jewish clergy.
Devout listeners startled by the Samaritan’s charity would have had to confront a difficult message: Piety and prejudice keep close company.
It appears not much has changed.
A meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants has found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races.
http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/study_links_religion_and_racism.html
Why Sunday morning remains America's most segregated hour
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/929615/the_most_segregated_hour_in_america.html?cat=9
only 5% if churches are racially integrated
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...advocates-death-camps-for-amalekites-789.html
http://www.haaretz.com/print-editio...lekites-raises-storm-among-religious-1.338588
The right wing Orthodox Lehava organization, which bills itself as being anti-assimilation in the Land of Israel, has decided to give kosher certificates to restaurants that do not employ Arabs. The certificates will read, “This Certificate is Hereby Granted in Assurance that the Proprietor of This Business Employs: Jewish Workers and No Enemies!”
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...or-business-that-do-not-employ-arabs-456.html
related story
racism and religion is linked
Religious people are more racist than average [edit: this is in the USA. It probably also applies to Europe, but not necessarily to the rest of the world]. That fact has been known for decades, and it's rather surprising given that mainstream religions are unanimous in preaching racial tolerance. Just why this should be is not well understood.
Does religion really cause racism, or is it that are racists drawn to religion? Three recent studies have shed a little light on that question, with fascinating results.
Do subconscious religious prompts increase racism?
Can you make someone more racist simply by subtly reminding them about religion? That's what Wade Rowatt and colleagues set out to discover. They gave a group of college students a task that had religious cues embedded within it. The idea was to prime their subconscious with religious thoughts.
Then they asked them about their racial attitudes. Although the primed students didn't come straight out and admit to greater racism, their covert racism did increase. Rowatt and colleagues also found that students, when religiously primed, were more likely to agree that they dislike African-Americans.
So religious thoughts seem to trigger racist thoughts. One obvious explanation for this is that religion tends to increase benevolence towards co-religionists, but can increase hostility towards outsiders.
http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2010/04/why-religion-can-lead-to-racism.html
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/04/20/why-religion-can-lead-to-racism/
n the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus warned religious listeners against what today would be called “ingroup prejudice”: the tendency to think less of outsiders, especially those of another race.
The Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Israelites of that time, proves himself more charitable to an injured traveler than two members of the Jewish clergy.
Devout listeners startled by the Samaritan’s charity would have had to confront a difficult message: Piety and prejudice keep close company.
It appears not much has changed.
A meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants has found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races.
http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/study_links_religion_and_racism.html
Why Sunday morning remains America's most segregated hour
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/929615/the_most_segregated_hour_in_america.html?cat=9
only 5% if churches are racially integrated
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