Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Bahai Children Out of Egypt’s Schools

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Screen Shot 2013-01-09 at 9.42.49 AMEgypt’s treatment of its minorities seems to be going from bad to worst, or even to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. After that much discussed constitution the country now moves to implement many of the Islamic principles some of its Islamic population passionately want to see as the country’s rule and law.

It is already clear that Christians and Jews in Egypt are seen as something of a nuisance, now the education minister turns to the Bahai population of the country with a new idea, the children of those who believe in the Bahai faith will be excluded from schools.

As the new rules state that the country will respect only the “Abrahamic” religions (apparently those are Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and since Bahai is not on this exclusive list the children of this faith will find themselves out of the gates of elementary eduction establishments.

This is clearly another move towards that never ending goal of the Brotherhood, to enforce Sharia on the country and establish the beginning of the Caliphate, judging by the relative silence following the persecution of Christian Copts and Jews in the last 2 years in Egypt it looks like this step is going to pass without much trouble from the countries of the world.

 

World Still Here, Next Doomsday Date Currently Unknown

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Mayan Doomsday Did not Happen
Mayan Doomsday Did not Happen

The world did not end on December 21st, 2012, it just kept spinning around the sun (and itself) the good old way it has been doing for a long, long time. Those who took this “prophesy” seriously must have been pretty disappointed only to be really happy to find out they got more time to find a new end of the world scenario in which everyone dies etc. etc.

For those keeping an eye on this whole thing one thing became clear as the days to December 21st came closer, and that was that the actual living decedents of the Mayan culture put up a serious effort to distance themselves from the doomsday approach and were more than happy to tell anyone who would listen that the fact that the calendar ends is just that – and never was more than that.

So who injected this sense of impending doom to an ancient calendar expiration date? Would it be too big a surprise to find out that it was the good folks of the west that quickly connected the dots?

We try and have a sense of control on our lives, and the more desperate ones go to great lengths to invent catastrophes only to have a sense of knowing of them in advance, its still a huge waste of time and resources, just imagine how much could have been done instead of the pointless debate on the Mayan 2012 Calendar end.

 

 

 

 

How Dawkins Disappoints

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Browsing Facebook for my favorite Atheist places I had the misfortune of stumbling on one of the latest posts in the The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science Facebook page, this is the “official” page for Dawkins, which I admire and greatly respect not only as a leading atheist but also for his fantastic scientific work (which actually won me over many years before I even knew he was an active atheist).

Someone had decided that they should recruit Albert Einstein into the glaring anti Israeli propaganda that is overflowing in many places in the net right now, and who is better to use against the Jews but a famous Jew? conveniently this is a dead person so no one can really argue or explain what he really meant, and to make it even more easy, this is something that someone thought – 65 years ago.

The foundation page shows a photo of an official letter Einstein sent someone 65 years ago in which he briefly shows his disapproval of the British and of Israeli militarists at that time. If you click the link that is added on the post you will find an article about the famous man which has nothing political in it – not even one mention of the state of Israel.

However someone in the Dawkins foundation thought it would be a good idea to stick a photo of a 65 year old letter as the link to that article. Maybe they think most atheists that visit the page only look at the photos and do not continue to read the articles.

Did the Dawkins foundation turn political? I sure hope not, in many years of listening to the man and reading his books I never felt that this was the direction. Does someone in the foundation who posts to Facebook think they should push their noses into Middle East politics because Arabs in the region are closer to us atheists? – I think not.

The more atheism in its pure form will be abused like this the further away we are getting to the hearts and minds (mostly minds) of people who are hijacked by religions. Shame on the The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science official Facebook page.

Dawkins Foundation Facebook Page is Political?
Got Nothing to do with the link – nor with Atheism – Shame.

Learning About All Kinds of Death – With a Smile

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Wonderful things you can find on the internets these days, one of them being taped television shows from the Arab/Muslim world. In this one we can see a group of children talking to a TV presenter who might also be of some religious authority, they are talking about the 14 minutes teaser that was used as an excuse for violence throughout the world last month.

It is almost comical, to watch a grown man talk to children with a soft voice, teaching them and preparing them for life, when suddenly the issue of that movie comes along and the adult lets himself go without restraints about all kinds of ways human beings can die, at one point one of the children seems to get nervous and upset and he calms them down telling them not to be upset.

When God is such an abstract idea, to consistently claim death in his name and to instill this idea in small children is probably one of the most dangerous things out there, this whole show is a spectacular insane demonstration of how far religious people will go to force ideas on even small children.

 

 

France’s Le Pen Shows Her True Face

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France’s right wing leader Le Pen had made a statement in light of recent events, that shows all the difficulties that come with support for the European political right and its own issues with itself. In order to balance the equation about the burqa (Islamic veil) banning in France Le Pen suggests that France bans the Jewish yarmulka as well.

But these are two different things, first the yarmulka is never big enough to cover a mans face (and is exclusively male), and it applies to all religious Jews wherever you go, when the burqa is not a 100% accepted things across the Islamic world. You can easily see a few different versions of head gear for women in the Islamic nation, some of which only cover hair and ears (like many Iranians).

Besides the (very) French custom of clearing the equation by discriminating another minority in order to please another, bigger minority, this shows us the real face of the French right wing, who has complete lack of understanding why we oppose the burqa, this is not a small thing since motives are important here, and if you are motivated only by xenophobia and hate you’re probably not in the Atheist camp.

We are against the burqa because it locks women behind a wall of fabric, because it assumes that any women who shows her face of her figure is trying to seduce men and therefore is responsible for her own potential future rape. We object the burqa because it is a sign of the male dominance over women and the submission of women to men in the Islamic world, it symbolizes a world that ignores and imprisons half its population and we can not and will not be a part of it.

On the democratic and civilized side we are opposed to the burqa because it is completely contrary to western normal standards of dress and being, we expect to see the full faces of those we are dealing with , we expect to have clear knowledge of the full facial expressions of that person and we expect all our civilizations populace to be responsible for their actions and be accountable for them – which in the burqa case is impossible because you can never identify a person based on how they look with a black sheet over their face and body.

Unfortunately this last statement by Le Pen shows that the French right wing leader is more interested in hurting non Christian French minorities than promoting humanism and progress, lets hope she is not a direct reflection of her voters.

Le Pen Shows Her True Colors, Simple Racism.