Opposing ViewsTag Archives

Free ebook for atheists – and/or knowledge seekers.

Image by SPazzø via Flickr

We atheists, despite our reputation, are not fire breathing zealots- just like all religious folk are not fundamentalist prigs and jerks and terrorists. So lets agree no one wants to be a party pooper, and instead move towards a world where everyone is a freethinker of sorts, making educated choices If that means your educated choice is religion, fine. Just why should that be my educated choice? I have raised my kids to choose for themselves. I can only hope they choose their beliefs, or lack therein, based on knowledge, not on being given a how to pray card as a child.

Also, theistic, religious types are also atheists. No Christian believes in Allah, or vice versa, (though one could argue, with all the Moses based religions, they are sects of the same faith, but boy, for some reason simply pointing out how the roots of their beliefs, their holy texts, and their inherent similarities work, seems to annoy them), and neither of them believes in Buddha.

Even allowing for your (hopeful) tolerance of another’s beliefs, that lack of belief in the other’s god makes you, well, an atheist. We atheists are the most tolerant of all – we don’t believe equally;).

Anyway, open your mind, start the discussion, debate, agree to disagree, learn, gain understanding. ALL of us, believers of whatever, or nothing believed in the way of deities, could do with that understanding. Defending yourself with knowledge means defending yourself against ignorance and apathy. Good idea, you would think…

Responding to the Atheist in Foxholes Cliché (friendlyatheist.com)
North Carolina Atheists Get Positive Press (friendlyatheist.com)
Disambiguating Faith: How A Lack Of Belief In God May Differ From Various Kinds Of Beliefs That Gods Do Not Exist (camelswithhammers.com)

timelady

August 4, 2010

Religion Belief Myth, Science Knowledge

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Atheism, Belief, Fundamentalism, Opposing Views, Organizations, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Theism

Indoctrination 101. Australian right wing style.

I don’t think so, unless every major (and several minor) religions get equal time, and it is under belief studies, not fact. Atheist ideologies gets equal time too.

BIBLE classes should be compulsory so children have a fundamental understanding of Christianity on leaving school, Tony Abbott says.

“I think everyone should have some familiarity with the great texts that are at the core of our civilisation,” said the Federal Opposition leader.

“That includes, most importantly, the Bible.

“I think it would be impossible to have a good general education without at least some serious familiarity with the Bible and with the teachings of Christianity.

“That doesn’t mean that people have to be believers.”

But former Howard government Islamic advisor Dr Ameer Ali, said Mr Abbott’s remarks were “over the top”.

“It’s one thing to say every child needs a good knowledge of history and geography or science,” Dr Ali said.

“But it is something else to say all children should have a knowledge of the Bible. That might hurt other people who have their own holy scriptures,” he said.

And the Australian Education Union’s federal president, Angelo Gavrielatos, said that religion was not a priority for schools.

“There is a place for comparative studies of religion in the curriculum, but ultimately we consider it a private matter for parents and their children,” he said.

via adelaidenow.com.au

Another reason to fear this man. Anti abortion, believing virginity is “a woman’s most precious commodity”, he is bringing a taste of the religious right (and we have all seen the damage fundamentalists of any ilk bring) to his job.

Posted via email from timelady’s posterous

Is the Bible Wholly True, or Wholly False? Or Something In Between? (blogcritics.org)
What kind of idiot thinks that just because the men who wrote the bible claimed they were divinely inspired, that proves the bible was divinely inspired…? Oh, right :/ (contrararian.tumblr.com)
How the Bible was made (atheistexperience.blogspot.com)

timelady

June 29, 2010

Politics Rights, Religion Belief Myth, Science Knowledge

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Australian Education Union, Bible, Bible Study, Christianity, Opposing Views, Religion and Spirituality, Tony Abbott

Death as a social experience

: Image via CrunchBase

I sent this to a group of uni friends who keep in touch:

I am fascinated by social media and lifestreaming, though i have removed myself from a rather large amount of it.

I was surprised at the loss so many otherwise non geek type people felt when i left Facebook, quite odd reaction – how much they missed connecting with me. Erm, the phone? email? my blog?

Some of the best conversations i have had online have been since leaving, with people who would just follow my updates – who had no need to ask, to discuss, they KNEW already what was happening in my life.

We have reduced our lives to 140 characters or so in many cases, a series of updates and photos and location updates and…noone needs to find out the backgrounds, the feelings, life is a fast paced series of vignettes and snapshots. fake, junk food like equivalency. filling without nourishing or satisfying, yet we crave more.

Anyway, we have had twitter births, weddings – this was probably inevitable.

Now we have death. Death in the form of an execution. Government sanctioned death, tweeted by the official who confirmed the order.
Tweetage Wasteland : I Just Checked In To A Firing Squad.

Is it viscerally disturbing because it was an official? Because we don’t do death penalty here? Or was it the calmness, the almost indifference associated with tweeting? Just another piece of info, litter dumped in the stream, it has bobbed to the surface, but will
disappear again soon, just another piece of flotsam and jetsam that is human life online.

We are bytes of information.

I’m not sure if i am scared or optimistic. I value the connections i have made online, some really deep and valuable friendships that have lasted years. now, with a disability, i appreciate the ability to travel the world, as it were, even more.

It is terribly easy to think of it as fully living though. it isn’t. my kids keep me grounded, their sweet solid reality is a wondrous thing. The internet is people, yes, in that it is information and communication and entertainment – all people derived. Yet if we lose
touch with people here, around us, if we lose our humanity in being online, what then?

Noone bats an eyelid at births online anymore, they just shrug and say well, that funny old internet. Now death is headed the same way. But murder – execution. Wow. Still trying to understand how i could become indifferent to that.

I guess the same way we can face the evening news without flinching, the violent dvds. They have all been leading to this. The more you see, the less you flinch.

Maybe. If the day comes when i could not flinch at this stuff, i am
trading in my humanity card – i am not fit to be part of the species.