Wolfe Blitzer infamously asked Rebecca Vitsmun if she “thanked the Lord.” Arizona State Representative Juan Mendez presented a humanist “prayer” during the House prayer time. And all across the nation, whenever atheists put up a billboard (no matter how watered down) it generates media attention and controversy.
Every time there is a natural disaster, I hear some crazy Christian leader talk about how God sent the disaster (or at least didn’t prevent it) because of atheists, gays, the ACLU, or some other group that fundamentalists don’t like. Now it is my turn!
Bravo to Arizona State Representative Juan Mendez for using his “opening prayer” to give a secular humanist prayer. That’s right, when politicians push for prayer in politics, they should realize that not all politicians are actually Christian. Rep. Mendez for example is an atheist. Here is his “prayer”:
Yesterday, the Pope made the news again by calling for an end to the “cult of money.” This Pope is very different from the last Pope in that he actually cares what people think about him and he has made a concerted effort to give the appearance of being humble. The media seems to have bought into this narrative. Make no mistake the Pope’s humility is as fictional as the deity he worships.
A Christian blog I read recently wrote about an old question asked to public intellectuals in 1908 by G.K. Chesterton. The question was, “What is wrong with the world?” Of course I have a very different take on the question than my Christian counterpart, but I think it is an interesting question to explore.
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who are like me and those who are different from me. Those who are different from me can’t be reasoned with because they are different than me on a fundamental level. I believe in inclusion but those that are different from me categorize people into two groups of people. Because they are different from me, they deserve to be belittled and attacked. We need to drive them out of our community and make them social pariahs.
I made a comment on the Huffington Post Religion’s Facebook page the other day that I didn’t believe Jesus actually existed. Now one can debate whether my belief is valid or not, but that isn’t what one Christian chose to do. No, one particular Christian decided to lash out in hate toward me instead.
A few years ago, the now Pope emeritus wanted to create a “dialog” with atheists… who aren’t strident in their lack of belief. Only, “noble atheists” were invited and to the Pope, that means that no atheists who are actually critical of the Catholic Church were welcome. Now Catholic bloggers have taken up a similar call for a “dialog.”
I recently had a Christian message me to tell me that one of my articles offended him. He was apparently offended by my use of facts. I have known many other Christians who also seem to be offended by facts. They feel that the facts are attacking them and well they should because they are.
We’ve all heard that the internet is where religions go to die and it’s true. Recently, VJack over at Atheist Revolution published a great post about his struggle to find information on atheism before the internet. It got me thinking about my own struggles in the early days of they called “The World Wide Web.”