Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Atheism Fights for Logic and Humanity

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One of the things that makes the argument between those who choose to believe god and those who simply do not believe anything that can not support and provide evidence for its existence become very clear when people ask why atheists fight god. Well, god will need to be there for anyone to fight it in the first place, right?.

Atheism is the sane call for people to wake up from the darkness of the middle ages and accept the fact that there is no god and that organized religion is probably one of the worst things that humankind has come up with. The claims made by those who think they understand the universe perfect creator are absurd and dangerous, and there is simply not enough time for soft and slow process of shifting peoples ideas about religion.

And those who consistently get insulated in the name of god, or rush in the defense of god never really think why they need to help out these incredible force and why this power has not shown itself in the past, say, 400 years. When it is so obvious that god is not there and that even if he she or it were there they do not care much for the human race it is not a good idea to spend time and resources in praising that god that does not appear and that does not punish the evil, its a much better idea to embrace the fact that we are here for ourselves and that we need to help and support each other without the advice of any old book.

Hitchens: Why Fight Religion?

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In the next post – note how the question is “why fight god?” not “why fight religion”, how some people are so blind as to think that atheism is fighting anyone, its not. We are fighting ideas, most of whom pose a real danger to the quality of lives of most humans.

Atheist Ads on Buses Rattle Fort Worth

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Stand on a corner in this city and you might get a case of theological whiplash.

A public bus rolls by with an atheist message on its side: “Millions of people are good without God.” Seconds later, a van follows bearing a riposte: “I still love you. — God,” with another line that says, “2.1 billion Christians are good with God.”

Good without God - One good Bus

A clash of beliefs has rattled this city ever since atheists bought ad space on four city buses to reach out to nonbelievers who might feel isolated during the Christmas season. After all, Fort Worth is a place where residents commonly ask people they have just met where they worship and many encounters end with, “Have a blessed day.”

“We want to tell people they are not alone,” said Terry McDonald, the chairman of Metroplex Atheists, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason, which paid for the atheist ads. “People don’t realize there are other atheists. All you hear around here is, ‘Where do you go to church?’ ”

But the reaction from believers has been harsher than anyone in the nonbeliever’s club expected. Some ministers organized a boycott of the buses, with limited success. Other clergy members are pressing the Fort Worth Transportation Authority to ban all religious advertising on public buses. And a group of local businessmen paid for the van with the Christian message to follow the atheist-messaged buses around town.

More on the NY Times

Israel Fire and God

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Last month Israel had the worst natural fires in recorded history, 43 people died and a natural resort in the north of the country was destroyed. The main reason for this fire was the fact that there was no significant rain in the region for a long time and winter did not show any signs of arriving (it actually did rain last weekend), the trees and weeds were very dry and fires could spark at any moment. Add to this the strong eastern winds blowing from the direction of Israel’s north-east nighbour Syria and there was little to stop a small local fire from spreading in amazing speed.

Most of the people who died in this event were on a bus, this bus was on its way to transport prisoners from a nearby prison to a safer place, the fire spread very quickly and engulfed the bus by surprise, only a few managed to escape. The chief rabbi of Israel claimed, three days later, that the people who were killed had it coming because they did not follow the Shabat. This was not a suggestion but a very clear statement made by someone who is extremely knowledgeable in the rules and regulations of the Jewish faith, and he did not understand why his words sparked such a heated debate in Israeli society, neither did (or does) his followers.

The one person who was publicly in agreement with the rabbi was Ismail Haniya, the chief Hamas movement leader out of Gaza claimed, very much like the rabbi, that this fire was a punishment from god, and that it comes as a direct response to the actions of Israelis (by the way he did not specify if it was the fault of those who were killed, probably blaming all of the Israelis in this). So, t least on this issue these two people see eye to eye.

It would not have been so terribly disgusting if you would not have known that the Jewish state could have prevented this fires from spreading this fast by just purchasing the proper material needed for large scale fires, this country who prides itself on having one of the most advanced armies in the world with what is considered to be a top quality air force could not fight the fires because it has not invested in 2-3 fire fighting airplanes.

Israel’s security needs are clear, and anyone who thinks Israel could cut on its defense budget might be day dreaming, but the thing is that it could easily afford more fire fighting planes just by cutting some of its funds that are going into religion and the religious. Israel sponsors young religious men who do not need to enlist as soldiers (yes, that’s right, young Israeli healthy men who do not join their brothers in defense of the country) but learn Tora in synagogues, they are fully sponsored by the state, as well as whole families of those who decide to live as a “Talmid Hacham”, and learn Tora, we are talking about many thousands of people here – living on the tax payers money. On top of that the freedom of religious practice in Israel dictates it should also support Islamic and Christian establishments, meaning that even more goes into religion – and not stupid things such as proper fire fighting equipment.

So in a way the rabbi of Israel, who is also the spiritual leader of one of the biggest political parties in the country who is draining the budget in order to financially support its voters, is actually much more the cause of the lack of fire fighting equipment than god. If he and his followers would have insisted that life comes first there would be enough budget to provide better security for the people of Israel, but its just easier to scare and threaten people with the ridiculous notion that god had decided to burn them alive as a punishment for not keeping the Shabat.

God or Budget? Israel's fire

The Case of Galileo Galilei

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There are a few things anyone can learn from the case of Galileo, the main one (in my humble opinion) is that even with enormous contribution to the human race the church can still hunt you, despise you, place you under house arrest and prevent your family from burying you at their preferred location. The good news is that you might be cleared of all charged and praised for your contribution a couple hundred years after you passed away, which is the best the church can do.

So how long did it take the church to go from “the earth is the center of the universe, the universe is a dozen stars we can actually see with the naked eye, and the sun orbits the earth” to “Galileo was right, the earth is round and not the center of the universe, and the universe is much bigger, because the all powerful creator is great”. As long as it took it makes little difference to the man, and even worst to his work and lifetime achievements.

Consider this for a moment, lets say that a man is truly gifted in disease research, he is with no doubt the best at his work at his time, and he is studying cancer. There is no doubt that eliminating cancer disease will have a tremendous effect on the quality of life everywhere on earth, and will not only change the lives of human beings but probably animals as well. Lets say that you are the supreme leader of the country of which this person is a citizen of, and that you can control every aspect of this person life, will you limit his access to resources and try to make his life as difficult as possible, or will you allow this person ultimate freedom in perusing his goal?, it seems to me that the answer is so simple that a 5 year old can answer it without hesitation.

It is obvious that the church did not choose the second option for Galileo, it preferred the first option, and by doing that it deliberately limited and crippled this mans work and prevented science from leaping forward a little sooner.

Almost every case I know of, in which the church was challenged with a new idea it rejected the idea and persecuted the thinkers of these ideas. New ideas are not welcome, in fact the church likes to wait until those ideas become stale and obviously clear to everyone around to accept it, usually anything between 100-300 years would do it, who knows, maybe in the year 2250 the catholic church will say that gay marriage is a good idea after all, or that using condoms in Africa is a good idea – it just might happen. The only question is what good is it for those who lives are a liviing nightmare right now.