The God FAQ

Here you are, The Official God FAQ. Can’t argue with the answers

Happy Birthday Richard Dawkins

Happy birthday to one of the most interesting and thoughtful scientists. B-Day links here and here with some especially interesting comments.

Property Rights

The news media has helped make us all aware of the plight of oppressed women across the globe, especially those in fundamentalist Muslim states that specifically deny basic rights and freedoms to women. What the media generally fails to discuss at any length is the fact that any conservative, fundamentalist belief system tends to degrade and marginalize women, Christianity included which today is evidenced by this article on Purity Balls. This article describes Christian fathers treating their daughters as property, to be given to the new husband by the father on the wedding day, and controlled by the father until the husband can take over.

This approach to women is utterly disgusting, especially so in a culture that claims to, and sometimes succeeds at, recognizing women as equals. The problem is that ‘moral’ system conservative Christians have bought in to is based on some pretty messed up principles when it comes to how women should be treated. There are a few key themes about women found throughout the Bible: women are property, cause men to do terrible things, and need to be controlled. Here are a few specific examples:

• Genesis 19:8 Lot offers his virgin daughters to a wild mob to ‘do ye to them what is good in your eyes’
• Exodus 20:17 Even in the 10 commandments women get lumped in under property
• Exodus 21:7,8 How to sell your daughter in to slavery, with fewer rights than a male slave
• Leviticus 27:3-7 The value of a human life, women are worth only 60% of what men are worth. Now, if only insurance companies could lay it all out so plainly
• Colossians 3:18,19 Here women are instructed to ’submit’ to their husbands. Many say the following verse that men should not be ‘bitter’ to their wives means it’s OK to be controlling, as long as you are nice
• 1 Peter 3:1 Again with the subjection to men

These are just a very few examples of the subjugation of women found in the ‘good book’ that should be disgusting to modern people. Yet somehow we have managed to recognize that it is wrong to make women wear oppressively uncomfortable garments, it is wrong to refuse to educate women, but yet somehow, it is OK (as long as you are in America) to treat young girls as property and promise to deny them the right to choose what happens with their bodies and deny them the education to understand their own bodies, their options for birth control, deny them the understanding of what sex is really about.

It is appalling that we’ve come so far and appears that large segments of the population are about to slide back in to an unenlightened view of women as property. And it is frustrating that so few people seem to see the parallels between these ‘purity balls’ and purity rings and so forth and the burqas forced on women in other parts of the world.

Thanks to Skeptics Annotated Bible for compiling a great list verses related to women, some of which are referenced above, a much more extensive list can be found on their Women in the Bible page.

Research Resource

The Skeptics Annotated Bible is a handy reference tool, and good for some entertainment as well.

From Family Guy

If you are a Family Guy fan you no doubt recognize and will appreciate this one.

Here we have it…

…final proof of intelligent design.

(The embedded player is flash based and doesn’t seem to play well with WordPress, so click the linky

Well, I’m convinced. Clearly, bananas we made for humans, and humans were made for bananas.

HT to K man.

UPDATE
After watching the above video, I had to poke around the site GodTube.com to see it was a joke. If it is a joke, it is one of the most elaborate and convincing internet hoaxes I’ve ever seen. Sadly, I fear it is for real. Thankfully, most of the comments seem to be from the enlightened.

Here is another hilarious video on “Creation Science”. In this video we learn the ‘real’ story of plate tectonics (days, not millions of years), how these plate tectonics cause a worldwide flood, and how the recession of the flood results in mountain ranges being formed in days or weeks. Wow, I really wish this were a joke, or that this guy had less time on his hands.

The Roots of Morality

The New York Times (free reg req) has an interesting article on the biological origins of morality. There are many theories on morality, but the least believable is the idea that human morality is the proof that religion (especially Judeo-Christian) is in fact true.

Imagine

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Why blame god?

So I was thinking today, why don’t people blame god anymore? Way back when, think Old Testament, people were always asking God, why did this happen, what did I/we do? And no one seems to do that much anymore. You don’t hear farmers asking why there was a drought, or citizens asking why there was a flood, or a family ask why there was a fire. People don’t seem to blame god for the bad stuff anymore, so why is that?

I think it is a part of a natural progression. Back then, people didn’t understand a whole lot about the world around them, and the world was really big (considering how small it was) – the distance we travel to work (say 20 miles) was a good solid day long journey. Religion started as a way to explain the world around us. It served the community by explaining the things that could not be controlled or well understood, – the weather, the seasons, death and suffering. The Greeks attributed thunder and lightening to Zeus and the storms at sea and earthquakes to Poseidon. Many of the gods across cultures through history explained why various things happened in the world, and if those things were negative, it was due to angering these gods.

The Judeo-Christian tradition is hardly different. How to explain the plagues in Egypt? God is angry at Pharaoh. Why did Sodom and Gomorrah burn? God was angry at the people. Why did the Jewish people wander in the desert for 40 years? It wasn’t poor leadership, Yahweh was angry with ‘his people’ for finding a nice spot and not wanting to wage war (Numbers 32:6-15). Because there is never any poor leadership in the Bible.

So, we’ve come a long way. Most of our society (at least in the US) has come to accept the fact that the weather, earthquakes, fire, locusts, and so many other things do not happen because god is pissed about something we did, there are very clear and real explanations for all of these things. Not many farmers think there is a multi-state drought because of something he/she did – it’s the weather! That flood, it’s because of a lot of snow over the winter and strong spring rains, not due to failing to sacrifice a goat. No one seems to blame god. Now, when things are about ‘normal’ you don’t hear much about god either, but when there is a bumper crop – it’s all about god. Something has changed over the past few thousand years – humanity has learned to explain so many things, and has obviated the need for god in so many situations, but people seem to feel the need to attribute some things (seems to be generally the good things only) to something ‘other.’ You see this all the time with athletes and musicians – when they win, it is all about Jesus/God – you don’t hear the losers wailing to god ‘what did I do to be punished and lose.’

So, this is short, and there is a lot more to this story, but it’s something to think about – what do you think? Comments are open.

A Coming Out Story

Here is an article on Julia Sweeney coming out as an atheist. Her story in Letting Go of God is very amusing and very well told (also available on iTunes).

The article is especially interesting in pointing out the similarities between ‘coming out’ as gay and ‘coming out’ as atheist. I can’t say that I personally have experience with either, but the similarities seem clear. Any time one wants to tell friends and family that his/her lifestyle is different than the accepted norm there is bound to be some confusion and pain.