When she first logged onto an atheist Web site five years ago, Mikel Childers'' hands were shaking.
Since she was a teen, she had harbored growing doubts about the conservative Christian faith, "but I was so programmed against the word atheist," she said.
When she eventually decided she was one, a "feeling of almost euphoria" descended upon her, said Childers, now 28.
"I no longer had to justify why a good and loving God would allow (bad) things to happen," she said.
Her experience is shared by others who are part of Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers, a loosely organized group that meets monthly in an upstairs room at Kaelin''s Restaurant for burgers, drinks, discussions and fellowship. About 35 attended a recent meeting.
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Posted by Shinai_Gene on Thursday, September 25, 2008 @ 02:00:00 PDT (1671 reads)
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(July 14th, 2008) When Army Specialist Jeremy Hall declined to participate in a Christian prayer ceremony to commemorate Thanksgiving in November 2006 he said he was alienated by his staff sergeant and subjected to vicious personal attacks for stating that he did not believe in God.
Determined to find soldiers who were also atheists, Hall organized a meeting for freethinkers at Combat Operations Base Speicher, Iraq. He said he received permission from the Army chaplain stationed at Speicher to post flyers to publicize the gathering.
But just minutes after the soldiers convened their first meeting last July, Army Maj. Freddy Welborn burst into a room where the soldiers gathered, broke up the atheist meeting and allegedly threatened to block Hall’s reenlistment in the Army and have charged brought against him for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Fearing that higher ranking Army officials would not come to his defense, Hall contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group whose core mission is to force the military to adhere to the constitutional provision mandating the separation of church and state.
So Hall and MRFF filed a lawsuit last September against the Pentagon, Welborn, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, for allegedly violating the soldier’s First Amendment rights and for permitting a pattern of fundamentalist Christianity to permeate throughout the military. The complaint was amended in March to include new allegations alleging that Hall's promotion in the Army was withdrawn because of he sued the military.
Last week, the Justice Department filed a response to the lawsuit—a massive document exceeding 300 pages that essentially says the lawsuit should be dismissed because Hall “failed to exhaust intramilitary remedies, and assert claims that are nonjusticiable.”
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Courtesy The Pubic Record
Posted by Shinai_Gene on Friday, August 29, 2008 @ 02:43:26 PDT (2498 reads)
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Illinois State Rep. Monique Davisrecently said to atheist Rob Sherman: “It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy (atheism) exists!”
The audio of the exchange was picked up and circulated, and the story (which was brought to the public’s eye by Chicago Tribune reporter Eric Zorn) has made its way through the blogosphere.
GOD does not exist, people who believe the earth is 6000 years old are "loonies and idiots" and teaching children to fear the fires of hell is plain evil.
Just a few of the contentious opinions put forward by outspoken atheist Professor Richard Dawkins to an 850-strong audience in Inverness on Wednesday.
The lecture and discussion, organised by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute, has sparked lively debate.
The world-famous evolutionary biologist and Oxford don spoke on "Science and The God Delusion" at the free talk at Eden Court Theatre.
Beforehand, the UHI was slammed by a leading member of the Free Church, David Robertson, who accused it of bias for giving Professor Dawkins a platform.
However, many members of the public, who packed the theatre, seemed to approve of the Professor Dawkins' views.
Extracts read from his bestselling book "The God Delusion" drew loud applause and afterwards long queues snaked from the table where signed copies were being sold.
A staged discussion with fellow atheist Paula Kirby covered topics ranging from atomic structure, Darwinism, geology, creationism and the dangers of religious fervour.
Professor Dawkins accused religion of causing many past and current conflicts in the world. "People can believe what they want, but I wish they would leave the rest of us alone," he said.
Albert Einstein once said insanity is going to the same conferences over and over and expecting a different result. Or at least he said something to that effect. The National Conference of American Atheists, held recently in Minneapolis, could fit neatly within this maxim, except for one thing: the audience was overwhelmingly, unexpectedly young. When the commencement speaker asked all students to stand, close to a quarter of the seats in the hotel ballroom emptied. Two high school kids sitting against the back wall (free from school in honor of Good Friday, ironically) were so animated that they would have fit in better at a hip hop show than a conference.
Many of the speakers boasted about the large turnout of young people, pointing to a recent Pew report that suggests a growing trend of skepticism toward religion in people under 50. Among the 10-plus speakers, however, only two seemed intent on engaging the younger members of the audience. One, predictably, was scientist and author Richard Dawkins, whose eloquent and erudite manner is overshadowed only by the rationality of his oratory. Dawkins is a go-to guy for atheist talking points, and there was plenty of furious note taking in the audience during his presentation, presumably to stockpile ammunition for future debates. The other was physicist Lawrence Krauss, whose lecture on dark matter and energy was informative and surprisingly accessible to the clueless layperson.
Though widely different in focus, Dawkins’ and Krauss’ presentations had one central similarity: a simplicity of argument. Simplicity is the basis of atheism, and it’s also what many rational thinkers find appealing. There is no room for ritualistic mystery in atheism. It is adherent to the laws of nature and humanism, nothing more. To atheists, the mystery of the universe is not a testament to the power of a god, but a thing to be studied and ultimately unlocked.
People feel strongly about their religious faith and are deeply offended if you insult it, Oxford University scientist Richard Dawkins told a full house Tuesday night at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
Dawkins asked: Why is it that people are so offended when you insult their religion but don't get as upset if you insult the music, art or books they like?
"What is so special about religion?" he asked, noting that it's respected even by the nonreligious among us.
The British biologist and atheist wrote the best-selling book "The God Delusion" in 2006 and is on a university tour speaking out against organized religion.
Dawkins, 66, made a name for himself with his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene," which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution. "The God Delusion" has sold more than 1 million copies in English alone and has been translated into more than 30 languages. It was ranked No. 2 on the Amazon.com best-seller list in November 2006.
And it explains why some Dawkins fans were turned away from the 1,300-seat theater after it filled up and why some opportunists were trying to sell the free tickets for $50 apiece on Craigslist.
Sean Carroll, the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of molecular biology and genetics who introduced Dawkins, listed a number of Dawkins' books and asked audience members to raise their hands if they had read one or more of them. Almost every hand went up.
Not all Christians are supercilious, of course. Many are content to live and let live, and some even grant that science (despite its lack of supernatural entities) does some good. But Christianity as an organized, evangelizing movement has been on the offensive lately. Witness the new wave of evangelicals and their leaders such as Rick Warren, Lee Strobel, and William Lane Craig with their aggressive stance against scientific materialism and their bestselling books attempting to refute science. So, assuming you're an atheist, what do you say to the theist who asks, "You don't (chuckle) believe in a god (snicker)?"
Anybody familiar with the original article will see that the preceding paragraph is the same paragraph as the opening to "How to Respond to a Supercilious Atheist" by Alan Roebuck. By changing a few words, the same attack can be launched right back at him, and the rest of the article isn't much better. It appears to be a primer in projection. After all, when in doubt, just accuse them of being just like you.
Roebuck advises his fellow theists to take a different approach to defending the faith-instead of coming up with actual evidence, you should just tell atheists how our worldview is the one that is based on assumptions and presuppositions. He eschews using the First Cause argument and the defense of miracles because, "No matter what evidence you give, the supercilious atheist finds a way to dismiss it." I wonder if he has ever considered that it may be dismissed because it is not valid evidence.
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