Religion

Off Limits, but We Need to Talk About It (11/24/2024)

I have no beef with people of faith. I have a big one with anyone who considers the raw power of government an appropriate vehicle for evangelism.
Taking Liberties, Why Religious Freedom doesn't give you the right to tell other people what to do by Robert Boston

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so."
Robert Heinlein

Religion is dragging us down and must be eliminated for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating religious faiths. E.O.Wilson

... your professed religion (whatever that may be) is NOT something that 99% of believers have any choice in - it comes to a child as part of the "Welcome Package" when they are born. Included in the package - your race, social status, [language], tribal identity, geographic location, etc,, In many societies trying to reject the tenets of that package can lead to expulsion from the group - or your death as an apostate (and the Christians were as bad as other cultures in this)." Hugh Spencer

Religion prevents our children from having a rational education, religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war, religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific co-operation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and that dragon is religion.
Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization ? (1930)

Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates, and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries --- Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands -- all have high degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countries at the bottom of the index, all are intensely religious." Greg Graffin and Steve Olson: Anarchy, Evolution, Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends,” Einstein

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind. --J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, pp.51-52

Women have no bodily autonomy in evangelical churches. Women are taught that our bodies are innately sinful. The church is patriarchy and submission. This is why former evangelicals like myself speak out.

Christian nationalism will force this submission on all of you.

— Jess Piper (@piper4missouri) June 16, 2024

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown, and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing—fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion has gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the Churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look round for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it. Bertrand Russell

“If you happen to be a Christian and of European extraction in some way, it’s a pretty powerful drug to think that your race and your religion were chosen by God and represent the pinnacle of human achievement. There’s power in asserting that vision. And at the end of the day, it’s about power. While we are beginning to see serious efforts to try to disentangle white supremacy from Christianity, that legacy still haunts us.” They took part in Apache ceremonies. Their schools expelled them for satanic activities (6/24/2024)

I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam - good people, yes, but any religion based on a single, well, frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system. Gore Vidal

"those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" Voltaire

"The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal -- God is the Omnipotent Father -- hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates." ~ Gore Vidal

“As long as there is poverty, there will be gods”
― Will Durant, The Lessons of History

“Tell me your image of God and I’ll tell you your politics.” - Marcus Borg

If we do not accept that we are part of nature, we cannot govern and we cannot live. (p96) Timothy Snyder's book Our Malady

A Story of Biblical Corruption (10/10/2024)

US supreme court opened Pandora’s box … and Ten Commandments law flew out (6/21/2024)

Faith & Freedom,an evangelical organization plans to spend $62 million in the 2024 election to return Donald Trump to the White House Politico (3/11/2024)

The Republican party wants to turn America into a theocracy Robert Reich The Guardian (2/23/2024)

Project 2025 now has plans to implement ‘Christian nationalism’ in a Trump second term.

Brace yourself for a far-right religious agenda including everything from killing sex education to ending no-fault divorce.

They’re literally coming for the separation of church and state.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 23, 2024

People’s beliefs are largely made from the media they choose to consume. Choose carefully.

Religion was the earliest media, supporting art, music, architecture, grand cathedrals, took resources of entire communities. Art work told stories that could be explained to the illiterate. Gutenberg brought the message to the literate privileged. Belief was enforced by the confessional (the first mass surveillance), the inquisition, or in the Middle East by Sharia law. Religious war occurred throughout history. If censorship doesn't work, violence is persuasive. Genocide effectively silences those with different views.

Sacred texts teach deference to authority; that´s part of what makes them sacred. A credible idea of God implies an idea of power. How to Read the Good Books From the Torah to the Quran, sacred texts can resist and reward modern readers. By Adam Gopnik. The New Yorker (1/28/2019)

Religion, like other right wing media, tells people what they want to hear. You will live forever, either rewarded for good works, or punished for bad ones or sins. A sacred story tells how to live, what to eat (no pork, fish on Friday, …), the correct way to reproduce, have large families, and god favors your exceptional nation, rulers, and wars.

Stories it tells are unverifiable, unsupported by evidence, and unbelievable, much like Fox News, an ally.

Each of many religions decide that theirs is the one true belief and would impose their views on everyone else. Disagreement, discrimination,censorship, violence, atrocities,genocide, and wars follow.

Religion is best when it advocates for high ethical values, adjusts to new facts, and sets worthy goals. More often, it does none of these. It is authoritarian, enables far right politics, and is often self-serving. Intolerance of different cultures is tied to addiction to war. We have advanced technology that allows us to destroy the planet momentarily.

The Egyptian pyramids, thousands of years old, still standing, tell a story. An authoritarian leader, immensely wealthy, regarded as divine was able to mobilize thousands of people to erect a monument to his rule. Enclosed in the monument were artistic creations, articles that would sustain him in the afterlife. To accomplish all that people needed to regard him as a god.

Religion and nationalism have always been tied in culture. Conquering armies violently spread the faith. Religious wars raged for centuries, colonialism spread it world-wide, and was accompanied by cultural destruction of native communities, either virtual or actual genocide.

American colonists fled religious persecution, devastating wars, and wisely decided to separate church and state.

Individuals may not want to impose their views on anyone else, but the church does. That’s how SCOTUS got packed with a Catholic majority, why women are second class, why minorities are not fully accepted.

Church's alliance with politics is a prequel to fascism. First, they claim race or cultural supremacy. Second, purification leads to ethnic cleansing. Third, violence legitimized for protection." *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miroslav_Volf quoted in Tim Alberta's book 'The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism'

The best indicator that someone is a Republican is whether they are regular church attendees. Lessons of history, informed opinion, or evidence are irrelevant to the faithful. This is how the Republican agenda can be conveyed by misinformation. Don't be surprised that religion is not just an unholy GOP ally, but is, itself, a large industry, a natural supporter of plutocracy, a leading purveyor of misinformation, an important political player, an advocate for wealthy interests like the gun lobby, a powerful force for martyrdom, terrorism, and war, especially the culture war.

...as the incomes of middle- and working-class people flatlined, Republicans pooh-poohed rising economic inequality and insecurity , economic insecurity does correlate with greater religiosity, and for white Americans, greater religiosity does correlate with voting Republican. For Republican politicians and their rich-getting-richer donors, that’s a virtuous circle, not a vicious one. Fantasyland, How America Went Haywire, Kurt Anderson. p343

Beware authoritarian religions, because they often favor wealthy donors and other authoritarians. It is a fundamental cause of polarization and gridlock in U.S. politics. It is tribal, along with racism, a motivation for the religious right.

Because it wants to grow the flock, it will not consider overpopulation, even though it may be an existential threat. So it does not accept a woman's right to an abortion, inclusiveness for people of different race or religions, makes second class citizens of women, it is sexist excluding LGBT people and it imprints children at an early age in a way that persists for a lifetime. It motivates intolerance, discrimination, and racism. It enables science denial, our best way to determine fact. That's why it is a powerful propaganda agent and a GOP ally.

It strongly opposes and competes with a much needed welfare state, denies science and population overshoot. The US is quite religious, so its social programs are weak.

Many religions function for social welfare. Which is why religion and socialism are like buckets, when one goes up the other goes down. It is in the interest of religion to weaken government, particularly social supports. Right wing government is rarely good government.

Since centuries old religious text is provably false, it accustoms the faithful to misinformation, is the root of many bad decisions including ones handed down by SCOTUS. Don't trust men in robes interpreting old text.

It might have been ok 2000 years ago to "be fruitful and multiply", but not any more. We need to shed the millenniums old religions that have us on track for our own destruction. Are we smart enough for that ?

Religion is in denial of much of what has become certain to scientists including the creation, climate change, evolution, or population overshoot. Faith healing probably results in many unnecessary deaths. It is a danger to education, since the U.S. is quite religious.

Fundamentalists have a very unholy relation supporting the Republican party. They got plutocracy, corporatism, racism, theocracy, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, militarism, isolationism, nativism, authoritarianism, and a conflicted, unprepared, strong-man head of state.

Politicians enhance their prospects with religion, sometimes even declaring themselves divine. Religion is often the cutting edge of imperialism.

Monotheism is politically useful because it is authoritarian and removes the idea that people might be in charge of their own destiny. The plutocracy claims that the invisible hand or the market rules. A mask for corporatism and polluters. It is a tax free big business, the force behind dangerous science denial.

Christian fascists bought, and corrupted the US Supreme Court. In return the Court overturned Roe and began to move government toward theocracy.

One belief that it generally shares is hatred of other religions. It is a major contributor of xenophobia, terrorism, genocide, and war. Being tribal it is often violent. It was a major cause of the cold war. The confluence of major religions in the Middle East, the holy land, make that area the most war torn. It is the cutting edge of empire. the foundation of the Republican Party, and a large tax-free enterprise.

As income inequality becomes more extreme, most people become insecure, turn to religion, right-wing politics, and become Republicans. This is happening world-wide.

The advancement of a civilization is only possible when it rejects superstition. Denial of damage to the climate is a danger to humanity.

A belief in great reward in the after-life justifies suicide bombing.

"Christians have a special knowledge of the degree to which curiosity is a natural and original evil...that is why ignorance is so strongly recommended to us by our religion as the appropriate path to belief and obedience." Michel de Montaigne in his essay Apology

Science and Religion both claim truth, but they go about finding it in quite different ways. Religion is introspective, but its tenets are dictated from authority. Dictated beliefs work particularly well for children, who can be imprinted for life with ideas that are unbelievable. It can be a handicap for them because the religious right denies science. It is largely responsible for political polarization.

For those who believe in the literal truth of the bible. Adam and Eve populated the earth, the universe has existed for a few thousand years, evolution is just a theory, climate change is a hoax, there is life after death, God will determine your destiny, women are second class, Man should dominate the planet, and if you disagree or behave badly you will burn in hell. Republicans appointed such people to the House Science oversight committees, which is why we are headed for the destruction of the habitability of the planet.

The fossil, geological, DNA, astronomical evidence brings new light to the story of creation, life, evolution, and science continues to bring insights that should replace traditional religious views. To the extent that religion does not agree with established science or the well-being of people, it is propaganda and needs to be debunked.

Republicans often proclaim religious zeal. "Red States", like Mississippi, are our most religious, least educated, more violent,  poorest, and "conservative". Our most highly educated, prosperous communities are also the most liberal. Notice that the most religious countries are also the most backward.

The most backward countries (or States) are the most religious. They are the ones most likely to want to stop immigration. They tend to be racists, right wingers, gun lovers, and Republican. They support Trump.

The bible is anti-woman, blaming women for sin, demanding subservience, mandating a slave/master relationship to men, and demonstrating contempt and lack of compassion: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Gen. 3:16

They go inside a building to talk to their god. We go out into the natural world (and listen) — and our Creator speaks to us. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth 🪶 pic.twitter.com/yiVMWa8tC9

— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) November 3, 2022

it is not at all difficult to prove, history in hand, that the Church, that all the Churches, Christian and non-Christian, by the side of their spiritualistic propagandism, and probably to accelerate and consolidate the success thereof, have never neglected to organize themselves into great corporations for the economic exploitation of the masses under the protection and with the direct and special blessing of some divinity or other; that all the States, which originally, as we know, with all their political and judicial institutions and their dominant and privileged classes, have been only temporal branches of these various Churches, have likewise had principally in view this same exploitation for the benefit of lay minorities indirectly sanctioned by the Church; finally and in general, that the action of the good God and of all the divine idealities on earth has ended at last, always and everywhere, in founding the prosperous materialism of the few over the fanatical and constantly famishing idealism of the masses. Michael Bakunin

"Religion is exactly the same kind of thing as astrology": A. C. Grayling

Mormon church has $100bn ‘clandestine hedge fund’, says whistleblower (5/15/2023)

‘I couldn’t pretend any more’: readers on why they left the Christian faith (12/2/2022)

The MAGA Golden Calf: The Christian Right’s dangerous Flirtation with Political Violence and Far-Right Extremism (11/4/2022)

Race, Reagan and the religious right (10/10/2022)

Where Things Stand: Most Republicans Are Down To Declare US A Christian Nation (9/21/2022)

Extreme Religious Liberty Is Undermining Public Health (9/15/2022) NYT

Salman Rushdie’s entire life has been an act of defiance (8/15/2022) The Guardian

Christian Nationalists Are Excited About What Comes Next (7/5/2022)

A Crusade to Challenge the 2020 Election, Blessed by Church Leaders (4/24/2022)

The backlash against rightwing evangelicals is reshaping American politics and faith (1/25/2022) Guardian

Radicalized Christian nationalism is a growing threat to American democracy (12/11/2021) Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian

To Understand Christian Nationalism, Read These Two Articles (7/28/2021)

How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism (1/11/2021)

The single best indicator that someone is a Republican is whether they attend Church regularly. They often stubbornly adhere to traditional beliefs or even wild conspiracys such as Qanon, preferring their ideology to reality. They are slow to change their minds, or even stubborn, even when evidence is plain.

They have substantially weakened the wall between Church and State. It is their religion that allows them exclude people and to deny science. Before the 2016 election, all of the many Republican Presidential candidates (except Lindsey Graham) denied climate science, and should certainly have been disqualified for that alone.

Republicans have faith, but they ignore facts.

In addition to centuries of war in Europe, Religion historically has resisted advancing science. Astronomy explained the motion of the planets, geology the age of the earth, evolution is now settled science, the pandemic brought under control by innovative techniques. The benefits of science and technology surround us, but each advance met strong resistance from the religious right.

The GOP usually denies climate warnings, favors unrestrained use of fossil fuels, claimed the pandemic was a hoax, is silent about nuclear proliferation, doesn’t react to mass shootings, has no problem with extreme wealth inequality. Secrecy covers up corruption, torture, assassinations, or illegal wars.

Republican decisions made on religious grounds can be bad ones, but hardball political pressure writes their beliefs into law. This is one of the polarizing cleavages that can lead to violent disagreement. They are tribal.

The religious pressure government to make abortion illegal, where science, medicine or women would advise differently in many cases. Who should decide ?

There should not be much doubt whether science or religion make better decisions. In the long run, science usually wins.

Beware institutions that rely on ancient texts to make decisions, because they creatively interpret sacred texts to any preordained conclusion. The US Supreme Court is majority Catholic, people who have been well indoctrinated, have known views, are comfortable taking orders, and rely on a centuries old document.

Right wing government, to protect its ideology, controls propaganda, removes experts, denigrates education, and assaults the press, leaving an incompetent, unaccountable, government. Republicans are a minority currently attempting to change election law so that they will never lose again. Enabled by the Supreme Court, republicans love their guns more than the thousands of lives lost to gun violence. Under current conditions, it is possible they will mount an assault on the Capital. If it happened on 1/6, it could happen again.

Fascist organizations have an infallible leader who demands loyalty from a cult-like following, will expand territory by any and all means, and treats dissent with exclusion. There is always an underclass: women in the case of the church. It’s not just that the Church is fascist, so is extreme right wing government. They attack democracy and attempt to destroy it. Authoritarians are on the rise world-wide and they stick together.

Church's alliance with politics is a prequel to fascism. First, they claim race or cultural supremacy. Second, purification leads to ethnic cleansing. Third, violence legitimized for protection." *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miroslav_Volf quoted in Tim Alberta's book 'The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism' Right wing governments, including theocracies or fascists are rarely good. The US seems headed that way. Maybe part of a new world order.

Enthusiasm for Trump, a Russian-backed adjudicated felon trying to stay out of jail, signals the possibility of religious civil war.

the Israel/Hamas war and the holocaust have shown the catastrophic failure of three major religions. In history religions have been a major cause of war, genocide, and atrocities.

The happiest countries have the most unbelievers.

"those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities" Voltaire

Why is it that the religious right supports fascist regimes that do not work for the people ? Why vote for tax cuts for the wealthy, healthcare repeal, government shutdown, social program cuts, racism, new nuclear weapons or military expansion ? https://t.co/95mRixtpO2

— Robert Vogel 🌊🌊🌊 (@robert_vogel) April 6, 2019

There is no requirement or overwhelming desire in science to destroy religion. The only will is to answer questions about the unknown. However, religions have addressed these questions poorly in the past, causing millions of people to become emotionally invested in the veracity of their answers. This has made religion into an inevitable and unintentional casualty of scientific progress. 5 Conflicts Between Science and Religion

If US establishment media was working as we're told it does (it doesn't), EVERY single American interested in politics would know these terms.

Christian nationalism: https://t.co/hUbaA4nRMS

Christian fascism: https://t.co/3traSpUF73

Clerical fascism: https://t.co/eP4TtsIliw

— Wide Mind | Fierce Heart (@wydmindfeersart) August 24, 2020

If God is, man is a slave; now, man can and must be free; then, God does not exist. Michael Bakunin

"White Christian ideology is the best predictor of racist attitudes (a shocking revelation)"

Guess who is not shocked, @JRubinBlogger?

Those of us who grew up evangelical and left. Perhaps it's time to include us in the national conversation?https://t.co/in3PrFIfJX

— Chrissy Stroop, Friendly Neighborhood Anti-Fascist (@C_Stroop) August 3, 2020

It is tribalism, not the moral tenets and humanitarian thought of pure religion, that makes good people do bad things. The Meaning of Human Existence, Edward O. Wilson

As the United States prepares for the end of a nightmarish one-term presidency that seemed to drag on forever, Americans continue to unpack the January 6 insurrection that now even soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admits was “provoked” by President Donald Trump. On January 16, NBC political analyst Mehdi Hasan tweeted, “#whereweretheyradicalized is a question we’re going to be asking of GOP lawmakers at federal and state/local levels for many, many years to come, sadly,” adding that the answer would lie primarily in “a combo of Fox/OANN/Newsmax and Facebook.” Where Were They Radicalized? No Answer is Complete Without Addressing Evangelical Churches and Schooling

Trump or No Trump, Religious Authoritarianism Is Here to Stay (11/16/2020))

Culture Wars and COVID‐19 Conduct: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Americans’ Behavior During the Coronavirus Pandemic (7/20/2020)

Trump’s use of religion follows playbook of authoritarian-leaning leaders the world over (6/6/2020)

God's Candidate (5/17/2020)

Inside the Influential Evangelical Group Mobilizing to Reelect Trump (5/23/2020)

The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response (3/27/2020)

The Road to Coronavirus Hell Was Paved by Evangelicals (3/27/2020)

Christian Nationalism Talks Religion, But Walks Fascism (2/5/2020)

Richest pastors in America:
Kenneth Copeland $760m
Pat Robertson $100m
Benny Hinn $60m
Joel Osteen $40m
Creflo Dollar $27m
Rick Warren $25m
Franklin Graham $25m
T.D. Jakes $18m
Joyce Meyer $8m

Total: $1.06 billion
Total net worth donated to COVID assistance: $0
Matthew 19:24

— Merry Lioney (@MLioney) April 6, 2020

The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself. Katherine Stewart

#TaxTheChurches ✝️🕉️☸️🔯🕎☦️ https://t.co/B2C9TeWP7I

— Marsha (@Whippenz) May 13, 2023

This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.
~ Dalai Lama

— #TrumpRussiaGuide🍎 (@TrumpRussiaTies) March 15, 2020

Bill Barr Thinks America Is Going to Hell (12/29/2019)

William Barr Is Neck-Deep in Extremist Catholic Institutions (10/15/2019)

Evangelical Christian conservatives are causing an ‘allergic reaction’ to religion among Americans: researchers (9/18/2019)

Five reasons the world needs a wake-up call on religious persecution (8/21/2019)

Trump called himself the 'Chosen One' and everyone made the same joke https://t.co/w1qq2s0D1H

— The Independent (@Independent) August 23, 2019

...politicians, megachurch preachers, televangelists, hypocrites, and snake-oil salesmen, ... hijacked true Christianity and distorted it into something Jesus wouldn't recognize. Its leaders have taken the generous and loving ideals of Christ and twisted them into a religion that advocates war and intolerance, values money above charity, preaches hatred instead of brotherhood, and promises "true" believers the keys to the gates of the kingdom of God - and to the bank vault. Grand Theft Jesus, The Hijacking of Religion in America, Robert S. McElvaine

Jesus rode a donkey
Joel Osteen rides a Ferrari 458 Italia - $325,000.00 $$$ for god pic.twitter.com/z8qAE1adQl

— Michael🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸🌈 (@Michael10256024) January 28, 2021

...conservative Christians backed Trump in record numbers. He won 81 per- cent of the white evangelical vote—a higher share than George W. Bush, John McCain, or Mitt Romney. As a result, the religious right—which for decades has grounded its political appeal in moral “values” such as “life” and “family” and “religious freedom”—has effectively become a subsidiary of the alt-right, yoked to Trump’s white nationalist agenda. Evangelicals have traded Ronald Reagan’s gospel-inspired depiction of America as a “shining city on a hill” for Trump’s dark vision of “American carnage.” And in doing so, they have returned the religious right to its own origins—as a movement founded to maintain the South’s segregationist “way of life.” Amazing Disgrace

🔥IMHO The MOST Important Read n Share today #GOPChrostofascistCOUP. 🤯The apocalyptic myth that helps explain evangelical support for Trump - The Washington Post #WtpEBRC #Wtpteam #2020blueteam #onevoice1 https://t.co/nbJF1dHcT5

— Spacial K ☄️ (@SpacialK3) January 8, 2020

...what we are now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and critical thinking; the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture -- a troika that was for Voltaire the central horror of the pre-Enlightenment world; and the political and economic marginalization of our culture. Of course, the Dark Ages were not uniformly monochromatic, as recent scholarship has demonstrated; but then, neither is present-day America. The point is that in both cases "dark" is the operative word. Morris Berman

When Trump, McConnell & his Court Chaplains allow constant attacks on the poor & poor immigrants, we need to be reminded: pic.twitter.com/O1MgupqXSe

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) August 14, 2019

Why People Hate Religion (8/30/2019)

William Barr and Opus Dei, the Secretive Ultra-Conservative Catholic Organization That Poses an Existential Threat to Democracy and Pluralism (8/2/2019)

Increasing Support for Religiously Based Service Refusals (6/25/2019)

The populist right is forging an unholy alliance with religion (6/11/2019)

Clash of civilizations: How progressives are fighting back against the Christian right’s grotesque ‘religious freedom’ power play (6/2/2019)

Christian Zionism is creepy bc it supports Israeli apartheid & promotes war on #Iran in order to hasten the apocalypse. #counterCUFI https://t.co/OFZR84waTD

— Ursula Rozum (@UrsulaRozum) July 8, 2019

Nothing is more natural than that the belief in God, the creator, regulator, judge, master, curser, savior, and benefactor of the world, should still prevail among the people, especially in the rural districts, where it is more widespread than among the proletariat of the cities. The people, unfortunately, are still very ignorant, and are kept in ignorance by the systematic efforts of all the governments, who consider this ignorance, not without good reason, as one of the essential conditions of their own power. Weighted down by their daily labor, deprived of leisure, of intellectual intercourse, of reading, in short of all the means and a good portion of the stimulants that develop thought in men, the people generally accept religious traditions without criticism and in a lump. These traditions surround them from infancy in all the situations of life, and artificially sustained in their minds by a multitude of official poisoners of all sorts, priests and laymen, are transformed therein into a sort of mental and moral babit, too often more powerful even than their natural good sense. God and the State by Michael Bakunin [1814-1876]

Franklin Graham, because when I need spiritual guidance I turn to the homophobic demagogue who would have you believe that a thrice-married serial-philandering imbecile who mocks the weak and bullies the helpless and is every deadly sin personified was sent by God to lead America

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) April 5, 2020

White Christian Nationalism is a Huge Problem We Can No Longer Ignore (3/18/2019)

How Saudi leaders are using religion to consolidate power and silence critical voices (2/25/2019)

‘In God We Trust’ - the bills Christian nationalists hope will ‘protect religious freedom’ (1/14/2019)

Christian nationalists are trying to seize power — but progressives have a plan to fight back (12/16/2018)

The Catholic League: True Believers or Satan’s Spawn? (9/2/2018)

Here Are 4 Far-Right Evangelical Extremists Who Have Made Ridiculous Statements During the Trump Era (7/27/2018)

How the Religious Right Indoctrinates Its Followers With a False Version of History (7/1/2018)

Here’s Why the New BBC Report on Trump’s Predatory Behavior Won't Sway His Evangelical Followers (7/12/2018)

The White House Is Tearing Down the Wall Between Church and State (7/6/2018)

Why Is Christian America Supporting Donald Trump? (6/1/2018)

Here Are 5 Founding Fathers Whose Skepticism About Christianity Would Make Them Unelectable Today (6/2/2018)

“Project Blitz” Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business (4/27/2018)

Trump and White Evangelicals: Support for President Grows, But Millennials Leave Movement (4/17/18)

Trump Trauma: Open Carry Racism: The Right-Wing Fever Dream That Made the Trump Era Possible (4/17/2018)

Of Course the Christian Right Supports Trump (1/26/2018)

The Christian Legal Army Behind ‘Masterpiece Cakeshop’ (11/29/2017)

‘Enough Already,’ Said God (9/16/2017)

Study finds link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism (5/12/2017)

Amazing Disgrace (4/20/2017)

The Passion of Southern Christians (4/8/2017)

Trump’s plan to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment creates a huge campaign finance loophole for churches to exploit (2/3/2017)

"The beauty of the religious right as a political bloc was that it provided a large pool of voters that often acted in unison, based on a narrow set of issues that had relatively little to do with actual governance and did not inconvenience the corporate interests that finance the Republican Party. By and large, the things that mattered most to these voters mattered least in the Oval Office. Despite the Bush family's traditional aversion to its culture, Rove and the other strategists knew that they had to have that bloc." Russ Baker,  Family of Secrets. pg 399.

The apparent decline in the effectiveness of evidence and reason in American politics is a direct result of the rise in political participation by evangelical Christians. Their adherence to uncompromising sectarian dogma is clearly the origin of their opposition to L.G.B.T. rights, abortion and the scientific fact of global warming. Their influence is evidenced by the inability of Republicans to compromise, leading to the current gridlock in Washington. Don Shipp

Every exclusive religion on Earth that promotes exclusive truth claims necessarily denigrates the truth claims of other religions. Critics of religion in general often regard religion as outdated, harmful to the individual, harmful to society, an impediment to the progress of science, a source of immoral acts or customs and a political tool for social control. Criticism of Religion

Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates, and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries --- Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands -- all have high degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countries at the bottom of the index, all are intensely religious." Greg Graffin and Steve Olson: Anarchy, Evolution, Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God

As a general rule, religiosity is highest among the poorest nations of the world, and lowest among the richest. This Gallup study of global religiosity, asked people around the world if religion was an important part of their daily lives. Unsurprisingly, there is a general correlation between the importance of religion in daily life, and homicide rates. (from Secularist10)

‘The supreme mystery of despotism’, wrote Spinoza, ‘its principal story, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion, to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation, and count it as no shame, but the highest honour, to spend their blood and their lives for the glorification of one man.’ A later Jewish writer would describe religion as the ‘opium of the people.’ The Book of Books: Melvyn Bragg

We need a much deeper understanding of ourselves and the rest of life than the humanities and science have yet offered. We would be wise to find our way as quickly as possible out of the the fever swamp of dogmatic religious belief and inept philosophical thought through which we still wander. Unless humanity learns a great deal more about global biodiversity and moves quickly to protect it, we will soon lose most of the species composing life on Earth. The Half-Earth proposal offers a first emergency solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: I am convinced that only by setting aside half the planet in reserve, or more, can we save the living part of the environment and achieve the stabilization required for our own survival. Half Earth, Our Planet's Fight for Life: Edward O. Wilson

I think the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy and the refusal to let religion be taught in the public schools. W E B Dubois Autobiography

Only the least godly democracies enjoy the best overall socioeconomic conditions – as measured by the uniquely comprehensive Successful Societies Scale – in history, the much more Christian US is the most dysfunctional 1st world nation according to major indicators. The primary factor driving the strong correlation between high rates of popular secularism and better societal conditions is the tendency of high levels of economic prosperity and low levels of income disparity and poverty that are created by secular progressive policies to accidentally but consistently suppresses mass religiosity. The religious right tends to oppose effective progressive socioeconomic policies in favor of the socioeconomically Darwinistic dysfunctional policies that favor popular religiosity. No socioeconomically successful and highly religious nation has ever existed, and the antagonistic relationship between benign conditions and the popularity of religion probably make it impossible for one to come into being." Gregory S. Paul 

"Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that hey insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true", Richard P. Feynman: The Meaning of It All.

"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good" Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)

..."The meaning of religion is defined by what religious people actually believe, and the great majority of the world's religious people would be surprised to learn that religion has nothing to do with factual reality." Dreams of a Final Theory: Steven Weinberg (Nobel Prize For Physics)

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. Texts in the History of Philosophy.

...charge with blasphemy any religious or political leader who claims to speak with or on behalf of God.” ... “The great religions are, sources of ceaseless and unnecessary suffering. They are impediments to the grasp of reality needed to solve most social problems in the real world.” The Meaning of Human Existence, Edward O. Wilson

John J. DiIulio Jr., the former head of president Bush's faith-based initiatives, says "What you got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

"Only 7 percent of the country’s top scientists (defined for this poll as the members of the National Academy of Sciences) professed a belief in God, while almost no Nobel laureates are religious. A mere 3 percent of the eminent scientists who are members of Britain’s Royal Society are religious. Moreover, meta-analysis has shown a correlation among atheism, education, and IQ. So there are striking differences within populations, and it’s clear that degree of atheism is linked to intelligence, education, academic achievement, and a positive interest in natural science. Scientists also differ per discipline: Biologists are less prone to believe in God and the hereafter than physicists. So it isn’t surprising that the vast majority (78 percent) of eminent evolutionary biologists polled called themselves materialists (meaning that they believe physical matter to be the only reality). Almost three quarters (72 percent) of them regarded religion as a social phenomenon that had evolved along with Homo sapiens. They saw it as part of evolution, rather than conflicting with it."  D. F. Swaab: We Are Our Brains

"Religion is exactly the same kind of thing as astrology": A. C. Grayling

And as the collapse becomes palpable, if human history is any guide, we, like past societies in distress, will retreat into what anthropologists call “crisis cults.” The powerlessness we will feel in the face of ecological and economic chaos will unleash further collective delusions, such as fundamentalist beliefs in a god or gods who will come back to earth and save us. The Christian right provides a haven for this escapism. These cults perform absurd rituals to make it all go away, giving rise to a religiosity that peddles collective self-delusion and magical thinking. Crisis cults spread rapidly among Native American societies in the later part of the 19th century as the buffalo herds and the last remaining tribes were slaughtered. The Ghost Dance held out the hope that all the horrors of white civilization—the railroads, the murderous cavalry units, the timber merchants, the mine speculators, the hated tribal agencies, the barbed wire, the machine guns, even the white man himself—would disappear. And our psychological hard wiring is no different. Chris Hedges

My American friends tell me that you are slipping towards a theocratic Dark Age. Which is very disagreeable for the very large number of educated, intelligent and right-thinking people in America. Unfortunately, at present, it's slightly outnumbered by the ignorant, uneducated people who voted Bush in. But the broad direction of history is toward enlightenment, and so I think that what America is going through at the moment will prove to be a temporary reverse. I think there is great hope for the future. My advice would be, Don't despair, these things pass. Richard Dawkins (See his home page.)

All organized religions abhor creative change. Catholic priests hated the new cosmology of Copernicus. Muslim Cadis and Mullahs detested the appearance of a contraceptive pill. Jewish rabbis loathed the arrival of television. Inventions represent creativity and novelty. They open up the horizon. They contest existing authority. Their very possibility challenges the church’s exclusive hold over truth. And that challenge is a cause for panic – for without this exclusivity, organized religion becomes irrelevant. The Scientist and the Church, Nitzan and Bichler

Jerry Falwell has already declared, “We absolutely are going to deliver this nation back to God in 2008!” The Authoritarians: Bob Altemeyer (Download his Free Book).

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” - John Adams

"...the alliance between fundamentalists or evangelical religion and right wing politics is a very troubling phenomenon and this is certainly one of the most potent reasons for it. What's really scary is that a lot of them seem to think that the second coming is around the corner -- the idea that we're going to have Armageddon anyway so it doesn't make much difference. I find that to be socially irresponsible on the highest order. It's scary." Daniel Dennett interview in Der Speigel. See his home page.

"Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power.  Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic." --  Bertrand Russell English philosopher and mathematician 1872-1970

The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them. When the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, he shifted it from a radical pacifist religion to the religion of the Roman Empire. So the cross, which was the symbol of the suffering of the poor, was put on the shield of the Roman soldiers. Since that time, the Church has been pretty much the church of the rich and the powerful—the opposite of the message of the Gospels. Liberation theology, in Brazil particularly, brought the actual Gospels to peasants. They said, let’s read what the Gospels say, and try to act on the principles they describe. That was the major crime that set off the Reagan wars of terror and Vatican repression. The United States was virtually at war with the Catholic Church in the 1980s. It was a clash of civilizations, if you like: the United States versus the Gospels." Noam Chomsky: What We Say Goes.

Any attempt to hold ideologies accountable for the crimes committed by their followers must be approached with a great deal of caution. It is too easy to assert that those with whom we disagree are not just wrong but tyrannical, fascist, genocidal. But it is also true that certain ideologies are a danger to the public and need to be identified as such. These are the closed, fundamentalist doctrines that cannot coexist with other belief systems; their followers deplore diversity and demand an absolute free hand to implement their perfect system. The world as it is must be erased to make way for their purist invention. Rooted in biblical fantasies of great floods and great fires, it is a logic that leads ineluctably toward violence. The ideologies that long for that impossible clean slate, which can be reached only through some kind of cataclysm, are the dangerous ones. Naomi Klein "Shock Doctrine"

"Africans say that the missionaries came and told them to look toward heaven and when they looked down again, all their land was stolen ..." Clark Kerr quoted in Subversives: Seth Rosenfeld

One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns - about ethics, spiritual experience, and the inevitability of human suffering - in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. We desperately need a public discourse that encourages critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Nothing stands in the way of this project more than the respect we accord religious faith. Letter to a Christian Nation. Sam Harris

The idea that religion is a separate magisterium which cannot be proven or disproven is a Big Lie - a lie which is repeated over and over again, so that people will say it without thinking; yet which is, on critical examination, simply false. It is a wild distortion of how religion happened historically, of how all scriptures present their beliefs, of what children are told to persuade them, and of what the majority of religious people on Earth still believe. You have to admire its sheer brazenness, on a par with Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. The prosecutor whips out the bloody axe, and the defendant, momentarily shocked, thinks quickly and says: "But you can't disprove my innocence by mere evidence - it's a separate magisterium!" Eliezer_Yudkowsky

"The policies of Nazi Germany were not officially Christian, but they were the product of a long and deplorable history of Christians' behavior toward Jews...How could a gospel of love be connected with such hateful and evil behavior - not once but consistently for many centuries ?" When Religion Becomes Evil: Charles Kimball

"No other industrial country has anything like the degree of extremist religious beliefs and irrational commitments that you commonly find in the United States. The idea that you have to avoid teaching evolution or pretend you're not teaching it is unique in the industrial world. And the statistics are mind-boggling. Roughly half the population think the world was created a couple of thousand years ago. A huge percentage, maybe a quarter or so, say they've had a born-again experience. A substantial number of people believe in what's called "the rapture." Large majorities are convinced of miracles, the existence of the devil, and so on." Noam Chomsky: Imperial Ambitions pg 178

We are not endeavoring to chain the future, but to free the present. We are not forging fetters for our children, but we are breaking those our fathers made for us. We are the advocates of inquiry, of investigation and thought. This of itself, is an admission that we are not perfectly satisfied with all our conclusions. Philosophy has not the egotism of faith. Robert Ingersoll

Murder in the name of religion has become a trademark of the human species. At The End Of The World, A True Story of Murder in the Arctic, Lawrence Millman

Freedom of conscience for all — which exists only in secular democracies — should be at the top of the list of shared concerns. Candidates who rightly denounce the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists should be ashamed of themselves for not expressing equal indignation at the persecution of freethinkers and atheists, as well as dissenting Muslims and small religious sects, not only by terrorists but also by theocracies like Saudi Arabia. With liberal religious allies, it would be easier for secularists to hold candidates to account when they talk as if freedom of conscience is a human right only for the religious. Susan Jacoby

“The word God is for me nothing but the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of venerable but still rather primitive legends,” Einstein

Has Trump caused white Evangelicals to change their tune on morality? (10/19/2016)

How the Vatican influences population growth policy (12/27/2016)

Debunking the Defamers of Religion (12/3/2015)

They Really Want a Theocracy: The GOP Candidates Who Want to Make You Bow to Their Lord (10/25/2015)

The Pope’s encyclical on the environment: Not even close? (6/21/2015)

Jimmy Carter: 'Losing My Religion For Equality' (4/23/2015)

The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections 2010-2050 (4/2/2015)

Army of God? 6 Modern-Day Christian Terrorist Groups You Never Hear About (4/1/2015)

How Business Made Us Christian (3/15/2015)

How secular family values stack up (1/14/2015)

How Religion Can Let Loose Humanity's Most Violent Impulses (1/14/2015)

A Threat to Us All: Millions Buying into Apocalyptic Religion Pose a Direct Threat to Modern Society (1/5/2015)

Pope Francis on Climate Change (12/27/2014)

Frontiers of Secularism (12/3/2014)

The Deeply Held Religious Principle Hobby Lobby Suddenly Remembered It Had (7/1/2014)

Life In the Most Religious States (6/14/2014)

In U.S., 42% Believe Creationist View of Human Origins (6/2/2014)

Why We Need to Lose Religion to Save America (5/1/2014) !!

Meet the American Pastor Behind Uganda's Anti-Gay Crackdown (3/10/2014)

The Simple Truth About Biblical Literalism and the Fundamentalists Who Promote It (2/5/2014)

Why Does Hating Other Religions Seems to be Fundamental to Believing in a Religion? (1/27/2014)

Republicans Destined to Live in Poverty Because They’re ‘Born Into Ignorance’ Neil deGrasse Tyson (1/24/2014)

Indoctrinating Religious Warriors (1/3/2014)

How the Christian Right Plays Victim While Imposing Its Ideology on America (12/5/2013)

Why Are So Many Christians So Un-Christian? (9/26/2013)

About Those Irreligious New Englanders (9/17/2013)

Can Radical Islam Be Cured by Science ? (5/30/2013)

The Pope to stay in Vatican to avoid prosecution (2/16/2013)

The God Glut (12/10/2012)

How Christian Fundamentalism Feeds the Toxic Partisanship of US Politics (10/24/2012)

Be Not Afraid of Mit Romney (9/23/2012)

Religion Declines WorldWide (8/9/2012)

GOP Insider: Religion Destroyed My Party (8/5/2012)

Right Wing Religion's War on America (4/14/2012)

Far Right Israel Rhetoric is aimed at Evangelicals (4/11/2012)

Freedom of and From Religion (2/17/2012)

Atheist High School Student Getting Death Threats (1/18/2012)

The Evangelical Rejection of Reason (10/18/2011)

10 Signs God is Furious With the Right (9/16/2011)

Meet The Christian Dominionist 'Prayer Warriors' Who Have Chosen Rick Perry As Their Vehicle For Power (8/15/2011)

Let Churches Do It is a Deceptive Myth (5/24/2011)

Religion as a Sexually Transmitted Disease

Can We Talk About Religion, Please? (10/27/2009)

Are we better off without religion? (2009)

The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism (Chris Hedges)

Political Ties to A Secretive Religious Group (4/3/2008)

Religion is Failed Science (3/18/2008)

Bachman's Religion (8/9/2011)

Blessed are those who Possess Colt Peacemakers

Religion, Partisan Politics and Tax Exemption

Church attendance inversely proportional to intelligence, duh (2/8/2010)

The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker (12/16/2009)

Religion and the U. S. Military

The Four Horsemen (video of Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, and Dawkins.)

Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates, and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries --- Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands -- all have high degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countries at the bottom of the index, all are intensely religious." Greg Graffin and Steve Olson: Anarchy, Evolution, Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God

Republicans frequently deny climate change, evolution, and many of them say higher education is indoctrination or snobbery. It appears that they are waging a war on science and, using large money incentives,are politicizing higher education and ideology driven 'think tanks'.

The belief that religion can heal can be life-threatening and has been the cause of many unnecessary deaths. These beliefs are centuries old and, after learning from evidence, we know better now. Republicans don't support health care for all.

Science, on the other hand, painstakingly looks at evidence, discusses issues in peer-reviewed journals, tests repeatedly. It evolves. As a result we have learned a lot in the last 2000 years. We are the first generations to see the earth photographs from space. In several kinds of forensic evidence there is a record of evolution. The standard model is remarkably successful describing the natural world..

The 'religious' among us are mostly in denial of climate change and, with massive corporate backing have all but declared war on science, are keen to continue as usual. Their beliefs are a hindrance to education, sustainability, further progress, and sensible policy. The welfare state infringes church turf so Republicans oppose it... even if people suffer.

Culture does not change much with new knowledge partly due to religious indoctrination of the very young.

It is not just Muslims who cling to medieval customs, other major religions have equally unsupportable, and often disgusting beliefs.

Religion attempts to indoctrinate children in a way that marks them for life. It denies death, promises reward in the afterlife for the observant or everlasting agony for non-believers. Throughout history it has opposed the advance of science.

It pacifies many people faced with poverty and extreme income inequality., so it is politically useful for the plutocracy. Like most of our institutions, in spite of the teachings of the Bible, it favors the wealthy. The Catholic Church confessional effected broad surveillance, other religions like Scientology require in depth confessions, and they are the precursors to the modern surveillance state which we are now experiencing. Being an authoritarian organization, it allies itself with authoritarian States. It is strongly opposed to democracy.

Religion seeks to impose its beliefs on hospitals, schools, it aspires to replace the welfare state. It can not, but it explains Republican's animosity to social programs. It has motivated political unrest, racism, misogyny, homophobia, superstition, willful ignorance, war on science, terrorism, genocide, and war, but no one seems to blame it for those things. Religion has gotten a free pass from the press. It is authoritarian, devisive, tribal, and, not infrequently, prone to violence. The 'holy land' is usually at war and a major source of terrorists.

Religion has proven to be a main motivation for terrorism whether in abortion clinics or middle east squares. It is too often a pretext for terrorism, opponent of education especially for women, destroyer of antiquities, murderer of non-believers, and war. It operates tax-free, but we need to maintain a large standing military, and strong police forces on account of it.

Overpopulation and overuse of resources can make the planet uninhabitable so we are in a race to become smart enough to overturn religious dogma, begin limiting population and the use of resources, reform dysfunctional institutions, and preserve the planet for generations to come. We need to wake up, remove the religious blinders, and reject medieval religions to have any chance at survival.

Now that we know that the earth is fragile, and that we have plundered it severely, we should be careful that it remains habitable. That would be conservative because there are no other habitable planets anywhere in sight.

Many Republicans favor theocracy. They are the American Taliban.

Things that can't last, won't. We may go the way of the dinosaurs if we don't grow up and face facts. Muslim radicals have been responsible for terrorist acts that killed many, but 'Christian' Republican refusal to defend the climate can lead to extinction.

Scientists View Religion

. . . gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.~ Albert Camus

"When it comes to understanding how our universe evolves, religion and theology have been at best irrelevant. They often muddy the waters, for example, by focusing on questions of nothingness without providing any definition of the term based on empirical evidence. While we do not yet fully understand the origin of our universe, there is no reason to expect things to change in this regard. Moreover, I expect that ultimately the same will be true for our understanding of areas that religion now considers its own territory, such as human morality." A Universe From Nothing. Lawrence M. Krause

Victor Stenger

Steven Weinberg

Peter Atkins

Paul A Offit

Martin Rees

Sam Harris

Stephen Hawking

Richard Dawkins

Charles Darwin

Happy Grav-mas!

"...Adams [was] in Germany in 1935 and 1936... He warned us about the disturbing parallels between the German Christian Church and the Christian right. Adolf Hitler was in the eyes of the German Christian Church a volkmessiah and an instrument of God" https://t.co/QxcLHnbeLP

— WideMindFierceHeart 🦓 🆘🗽🆘 (@wydmindfeersart) January 26, 2020

Christian Right

Jehovah’s Witnesses Mad That Atheists Won’t Keep Their Views to Themselves (9/6/2010)

Ground Zero for Tolerance (8/18/2010)

Beck's "preachers and pastors" panel: straight from the fringe (7/2/2010)

Arch-Conservative U.S. Christians Help Uganda 'Kill-the-Gays' Bill Stay Alive (6/16/2010)

The US Military's Middle East Crusade for Christ

The Fight Against Christian Supremacists in the Military (7/11/2010)

Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger (6/7/2010)

Ten Ways Christians Tend to Fail at Being Christian (5/7/2010)

Christian fundamentalists have something in common with the Taliban: they too would like to take over government so they can have it their way. They have become an adjunct of the Republican Party and are therefore complicit in the destruction of US prosperity, civil liberties, peace, security, and the well-being of the people.

Evangelicals may be in the US, but they are no different than the Taliban. They condone violence. Their policy is made by excluding women, and it takes no account that the earth is unsustainably overpopulated now. Since mainstream religions do not preach or act in the public interest, their tax exempt status should be revoked.

They are largely responsible that the US has not ratified The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). (Most of the world has.) They are instrumental in the decline of education since they are in denial of much of science.

We have a healthcare system that is a major cause of unnecessary deaths, bankruptcies, suffering, corruption, widespread insecurity, economic dislocation, but Christian supremacists demand that their objections to abortion (because the unborn are more important to them than the living) be written into law.

There is a credible argument that the cold war, the wars in the Middle East, and other American wars, including the continuing Middle Eastern crusades, have been substantially motivated by religion. (Bush's "Axis of Evil" explanation had religious overtones. Washington has had plenty of Christian supremacists at the highest levels.)

Republicans, who claim to be fiscally responsible, authorized a trillion dollar 'modernization' of the nuclear arsenal. They can deliver on their promise of a nuclear firestorm and the end times.

In extreme, like the religious movement becomes a suicide cult. It appears that Republican climate deniers are a suicide cult for the planet.

Watch this full length documentary on-line: The God Who Wasn't There. (1 Hr)

What Are Moral Values ?

About evolution.

Religion as Big, Tax-Free Business

it is also polarizing propaganda. It's tribal, often violent, even causing wars and separates two political parties.

Trinity Broadcasting Network was the Fort Knox of Christian organizations. No reporter had completely penetrated it; The ministry is valued at more than $2 billion, generates about $200 million annually and beams its programming for dozens of satellites into every country on Earth. If a pastor can get a show on TBN (the waiting list is long), money pours in. What went on behind the scenes was a closely guarded secret. The network's founders didn't give media interviews, and their employees were told not to talk to the press. From Losing My Religion: William Lobdell

Religion's Financial Windfalls in the Bush and Clinton Eras: An Important Recent Federal Court Decision Recognizes The Threat to the Constitutional Separation of Church and State In the Prison Context (6/12/2006)

The Richest Mega Pastors in America

Televangelist Joel Osteen became a multi millionaire (who is now personally worth over $40 million) from being in the televangelist business. He lives in his 17,000 Sq. ft. mansion and is the richest pastor in the world. He's fleecing his flock.
https://t.co/6KBsXWR5o4

— John Oberlin (@OMGno2trump) January 12, 2020

The New Koch Brothers (7/5/2014)

Meet the Terrible 10 of the Religious Right

Trinity Foundation Investigations

Why shouldn't we treat religions with the same respect—no more, no less—that we accord to, say, the pharmaceutical industry, or the world of music, or banking? If religions deserve more respect than that, let those who think so demonstrate it on a level playing field. Daniel Dennett

Growing Scandal Over Washington's "Christian Mafia" (8/18/2009)

Religion is an industry like any other, albeit tax free, and should be treated as such. Some may be tax scams.

"The Mormon church owns a $16 billion insurance company, at least $6 billion in stocks, and $172 million chain of radio stations, as well as more than 150 farms and ranches, which easily places the church among the largest landowners in the nation." Chris Lehmann: How Mormon economics shape the GOP: Harper's October 2011.

How Mormonism Created Glenn Beck (10/22/2009)

The Sarah Palin Christian Theocracy

The Christian Right Killed the Republican Party

IT'S NOT 'ANTI-CHRISTIAN' (2/5/2009)

Bush confusing religion and science.

News of the Religiously insane

Texas Supreme Court: Beat a Teen for Jesus

The Right's America Hating Preacher (May 2, 2008).

Right-Wing Hatemongering Fueled by Christianity? (9/21/2009)

Christian Extremism is Undermining America (6/1/2009)

God is not your Bitch: Mark Morford 7/24/2009

Does Hate Speech Kill ? (6/2/2009)

Catholics

“If the B52 bombers flying over Vietnam were dropping contraceptives, the American Catholic hierarchy would have condemned that in a minute, but they were dropping napalm”
— James Carroll

"… the Roman Catholic Church, an institution directed at the control of thought in the European world. Its power was based in regular surveillance of the conduct and thoughts of every human being, around the censorship of all reading material, and, in the end, upon the ability to predict and to punish unorthodox thought." Eben Moglen quoted in Journalism After Snowden.

Canticle of the Sun (6/21/2015)

The Vatican Bank And Money Laundering (2/18/2013)

The War on Nuns (6/2012)

50 Reasons to Boycott the Catholic Church (11/26/2012)

Unholy Alliance (2/22/2012) Good reasons to avoid Catholic hospitals.

It is a given that all institutions seek to expand their turf. The Catholic Church has always encouraged large families, indoctrinated children early, and defended primogeniture. Since population now exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet, Catholic doctrine is increasingly dangerous. Like other major religions, it also makes second class citizens of women. See Abortion.

Assuming the very altruistic become clergy, isn't it possible that the Catholic commitment to celibacy can breed that characteristic out of the population ?

Catholic Church hires Fox News Reporter (6/27/2012)

Catholics vs Condoms (5/31/2012)

Catholics angry as church puts female ordination on par with sex abuse (7/15/2010)

Catholic Leader Says Woman Should Die With Her Fetus -- When Did Woman-Hating Go Mainstream? (5/24/2010)

Catholic Church Worsening Sins of the Past (4/27/2010)

Celibacy Debate Re-emerges amid Church Abuse Scandal (3/12/2010)

Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor

Whose Team Is It, Anyway ?

Why the Catholic Bishops Who Pushed Through the Stupak Amendment Are Hypocrites

The Vatican Role in population policy.

Catholic CIA - How does this relate to torture ? See CIA.

Genocide and the Role of the Catholic Church in Rwanda

Thousands Raped and Abused in Irish Catholic Schools

Who is Catholic League president William Donohue?

Catholic role in Nazi Germany

The Catholic Fascist dictators of the 20th Century

Hitler's Faith

Pope distorting scientific evidence about condoms, claims Lancet (3/27/2009)

The Catholic Church is a powerful force censoring media. (See no Evil: Geoffrey Cowan)

Is Christianity responsible for historic European violent culture ?

See the role of Catholics in the CIA.

Muslims

"What poses the greatest threat to our liberty is "insult fundamentalism." It presupposes that feeling insulted is accompanied by a special right to react with violence, and it runs all the way through our era's multiple efforts to impose restrictions of free speech. The time is now ripe to reject this." Flemming Rose, Tyranny of Silence, How one cartoon ignited a global debate on the Future of Free Speech.

Straight Talk about Religion: Reza Aslan Peddles False Wares to Influential Dupes (5/27/2016)

Statues of stoned women placed in Prague in protest against Islam (8/13/2015)

Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism

Charlie Hebdo

Theo Van Gogh

Top Ten Ways to Convince Muslims We're on a Religious Crusade

The US Military's Middle East Crusade for Christ

The Roots of Islamophobia (8/26/2011)

Salman Rushdie

Hirsi Ali

Maryam Namazie

StopStoneing

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is currently imprisoned in a Saudi Arabian jail having received the first 50 of a threatened 1,000 lashes. If Raif survives these floggings he faces another 10 years in jail. His ‘crime’ was to have set up a website that called for peaceful change of the Saudi regime away from the repressive and religiously exclusive regime that it is. (more)

Aladin

Atheists

Atheists Start Their Own Megachurch: Is It a Religion Now? (9/24/2013)

Sam Harris: Believing the Unbelievable (video part 1) (Part 2)

Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism

Why Did God Create Atheists ? (6/6/2010)

About the Bible

The Greatest Story Ever Sold (video)

The Skeptics Annotated Bible

The Good Book Business

GOOD BOOK: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible: By David Plotz

Sam Harris: Religion is Failed Science

Religion has always been politically useful. See this note.  It has been a pretext for war, and the destruction of the (political) opposition. Non believers are heathens and can, without guilt, be abused or slaughtered. This righteousness accompanied colonial exploitation, brutal treatment of indigenous populations, the genocides of the American Indians, and the Jews in Germany. That's the Christian tradition. Jews are in the process of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. Muslims have a long history of genocide also.

It keeps people in their place, promising a glorious next life in spite of misery they may be experiencing in this one. Thus it allows economic elites to ignore the poverty stricken even though biblical texts favor the poor. (About the Inquisition.) Women are treated as a lower class. The promise of reward in the after life motivates suicide bombing.

It provides a sense of exceptionalism. After all, religion promises to convey the ultimate truth and those who know it will be the chosen ones or the saved ones, but deny findings of science. It motivates the strong man dictator to megalomania, divinity, and it enables the spread of empire. It requires suspension of critical faculties, and demands unwavering belief on faith. That is why it is usually in conflict with science.

It confers legitimacy to rulers who are cloaked in it. George W Bush, for true believers, was chosen by God, and it was his right to declare war on his own initiative. Hitler also made such claims. Many empires have used it as justification for bloody expansion. (About the Donatists.) Many heads of state have declared themselves divine.

It indoctrinates and imprints children when they are very young so that they will absorb propaganda that is beyond reason. A thorough indoctrination makes them much less able to do serious scientific work. A country which is a theocracy is probably incapable of serious technological development, civilized behavior, or sensible policy.   

As population pressure causes resource problems, the church simply ignores the situation until catastrophe occurs. Then it is regarded as the will of God. The unintended consequence may be Armageddon. True conservatives would be very careful of this planet because it is the only one that can support humanity. Because the faithful think the end is near, they are oblivious to the condition of the environment.

See also the F word. The rise of Christian Fascism and the threat to American democracy.

Fundamentalist religion usually has as its unstated goal, a desire to take over the State, the better to expand and enforce their views on everyone. It is easy to see that it is a major cause of terrorism and war. People who believe in rich rewards in the 'afterlife' have an incentive to become suicide bombers, or, as seen at abortion clinics, murderers of people who disagree.

People persuaded to believe based on faith will believe anything...even if it is apocalyptic.

Considering that much war and terrorism are motivated by religion, should organized religion really be tax exempt ?

Falwell

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too." They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied..."The one I feed."

What’s striking about journalists and intellectuals today, liberal and conservative alike, is not their mythic Voltairian skepticism but their deference to belief and utter failure to criticize, much less satirize, America’s romance with God. With very few exceptions (like the incisive Katha Pollitt) social critics have abandoned the tradition of caustic secularism that once provided refuge for the faithless: People “are all insane’ Mark Twain remarked in Letters from the Earth. “Man is a marvelous curiosity. . . he thinks he is the Creator’s pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn’t it a quaint idea’ from Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: Wendy Kaminer

Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin Thu Nov 29, 2007. The evidence for evolution is presented in detail in Richard Dawkins book: The Greatest Show on Earth.

Imagine no religion. display put up by the Connecticut Valley Atheists.

The Greatest Story ever Told

The Dark Side of the Reverend Moon

Religious Fundamentalism, Imperialism, and the War on Terror.

Film/Video

Richard Dawkins’ Documentary The God Delusion Tackles Faith & Religious Violence (2006)

Root of All Evil: Richard Dawkins (see it on Youtube)

Religulous: Bill Maher (watch it on-line).

With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right

Religion, inc.

The Atheism Tapes: (video) See them on-line.

Steven Jungkeit

For the Bible Tells Me So (Movie 1977)

Lake of Fire (2006 Movie)

Emma Goldman on Puritanism

Secular Humanism

Bibliography

Religion, Christian Smith

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta

White Evangelical Racism, the Politics of Morality in America by Anthea Butler

The Divine Economy, How Religions compete for Wealth, Power, and People by Paul Seabright

The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity By Robert P. Jones

The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism By Katherine Stewart

Vaticanism: Political Principles of the Roman Catholic Church. By Albert Levit

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America Chris Hedges.

Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You The Right To Tell Other People What To Do: Robert Boston

Shadow Network by Anne Nelson

The Great Scandal: Christianity’s Role in the Rise of the Nazis

One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America: Kevin M. Kruse

Terror in the Mind of God, The Global Rise of Religious Violence by Mark Juergensmeyer

Unholy, Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump,By Sarah Posner

The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism: Katherine Stewart.

Grand Theft Jesus, The Hijacking of Religion in America, Robert S. McElvaine

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us: Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell

The Court and the Cross, The Religious Rights Crusade to Reshape the Supreme Court: Frederick S. Lane

Tyranny of Silence, How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate On the Future of Free Speech: Flemming Rose

Why I am Not a Muslim: Ibn Warraq (pdf download.)

From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath, Kenan Malik

Journal For The Scientific Study of Religion

The Creation: E. O. Wilson

At The End Of The World, A True Story of Murder in the Arctic, Lawrence Millman

The Book of Books, the Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011, Melvyn Bragg

Anarchy Evolution Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God: Greg Graffin & Steve Olson

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America: Frances FitzGerald

Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible: Jerry A. Coyne

The God Virus: Darrel W Ray (Introduction is on-line)

Bad Faith:When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine, Paul Offit

The God Delusion: Richard Dawkins (click to read or download it in pdf form.)

A Universe From Nothing: Lawrence M. Krause

A review of Sam Harris' fine book: The End of Faith

Breaking the Spell: Daniel C. Dennett

God and His Demons: Michael Parenti

American Grace: Robert Putnam and David E. Campbell

Nature's God, the Heretical Origins of the American Republic: Matthew Stewart

The God Strategy, How Religion Became A Political Weapon in America: David Domke and Kevin Coe

Terror in the Name of God: Jessica Stern

Why the Christian Right is Wrong: Robin Meyers

Freethinkers: Susan Jacoby

A moral reckoning : the role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and its unfulfilled duty of repair / Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.

God's Jury: Cullen Murphy. The Inquisition as a template for the war on terror.

Losing My Religion: William Lobdell

Europe and the Jews: Malcolm Hays

Why I am not a Christian: Bertrand Russell

Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment: Phil Zuckerman

The Family: Christian Supremacists at the Heart of American Power: Jeff Sharlett

Piety and Politics: Rev Barry W. Lynn

Jesus is Not a Republican: Edited by Clint Willis and Nate Hardcastle

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America Chris Hedges.

God And the Fascists, the Vatican alliance with Mussolini, Franco, Hitler and Pavelic: Karlheinz Deschner

Constantine's Sword (a history of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church based on James Carroll's book of the same name. Explores the link between the U.S. military and the Christian right.)

MORTAL SINS Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal: Michael D'Antonio

Spiritual warfare : the politics of the Christian right by Sara Diamond

Taking Stock: The Bush Faith-Based Initiative and What Lies Ahead

American theocracy - the peril and politics of radical religion, oil, and borrowed money in the 21st century: Kevin Phillips.

Made in Texas: Michael Lind

Religion and the Cold War edited by Dianne Kirby

The Cold War was one of history's great religious wars, 'a global conflict between the god-fearing and the godless'. (p. 1) It was a war in which 'Christianity was appropriated by Western propagandists and policy-makers for their anti-communist arsenal' (p. 2), nowhere more so than in the USA. But in addition, as this volume demonstrates, Christianity was not simply a tool of psychological warfare. Church leaders were not merely pawns in a political game; they were active participants. Their flocks were not only recipients of propaganda; for millions religious faith was central to their lives. This fact is most vividly demonstrated in the several chapters that deal with the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII during the early years of the Cold War. Religion and the Cold War edited by: Dianne Kirby

Divided By God, Noah Feldman

The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs, Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth: Solomon Schimmel

The Cross and the Lynching Tree: James Cone

The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Ronald Sider

Church of Lies:Flora Jessop,Paul T. Brown

Fall From Grace - Fred Phelps (Part 1 of 8) (documentary)

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: Carl Sagan

Misquoting Jesus: Bart Ehrman

Kingdom Coming: Michelle Goldberg

The End of Days: Gershom Gorenberg

Letter to a Christian Nation: Sam Harris

God: the Failed Hypotheses: Victor Stenger

God is Not Great: Christopher Hitchens

Freethinkers: Susan Jacoby

Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: Wendy Kaminer

Books by Steve Allen

The Quotable Atheist: Jack Huberman

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: Charles MacKay (It is in the public domain.)

When Religion Becomes Evil: Charles Kimball

Sacred Rage, the Wrath of Militant Islam: Robin Wright

God, the Devil, and Darwin: Niall Shanks

Atheism: The Case Against God: George H. Smith

The Creation, An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, E. O. Wilson

Religion Gone Bad: Mel White

Blind Faith, the Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine: Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D

Strategic Implications of American Millennialism (a pdf available on-line.)

The Varieties of Religious Experience: William James

The Age of Reason: Thomas Paine (Free from Project Gutenburg)

Why I am Not a Christian: Bertrand Russell.