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Comment by Geraldo Cienmarcos on June 29, 2010 at 11:00am

liberal religious and social justice, the concerns are mutual...

Should I Quit Being Christian? Some Questions for the New Atheists

THE NEW ATHEISTS NEGATE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF RELIGIOUS PEOPLE IN THE REFORMING OF RELIGION AND THE RESISTING OF INJUSTICE.
By Be Scofield / Tikkun

http://www.alternet.org/story/147357/

June 28, 2010 | on Alternet.org

[Scofield] ... I'm a liberal religious person who doesn't believe in doctrines, dogma or a supernatural God. 19% of members in my tradition identify as atheist, 30% as agnostic and the rest Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Pagan or otherwise. Many of us have been wounded by the bigotry, homophobia and dogma in the religions we grew up in and find refuge, support and community in my tradition. We come together on Sunday mornings to enjoy music and hear sermons about social justice, the power of community and how to live inspiring and meaningful lives. ...

article on line: READ MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147357/

[Note: I, who posted this article and not the author, personally dislike the name "new atheist." Atheists were just as succinct and outspoken back in the time of "Classical Greece" and all through history. Read "Doubt: A History" by Jennifer MichaelHecht. The problem I've encountered in Los Angeles is too many people in Atheists United are so immersed in their atheist cult they have now concept of social justice. I had to explain to one 30+ year old young lady who Martin Luther King was! The only social issue she was familiar with was the cause of atheist and anti-religion. -- Gary .]

Comment by Geraldo Cienmarcos on June 28, 2010 at 11:36am

G20 governments to slash hundreds of billions of dollars in public spending

from Globe and Mail [Canada]

Fears of another crisis spur nations to promise cuts

G20 governments to slash hundreds of billions of dollars in public spending in unprecedented co-ordinated belt-tightening

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/economy/fears-of-a...

http://tinyurl.com/25v8yhc

[note: As reported this am on DemocracyNow.org, Naomi Kline said of the USA, that Pres. Obama will put on a nice face and publically sympathize with the working class and job loses "while he lets the states do the dirty work." Expect more professionals in civil service and public schools to laid off. Austerity programs are notorious for downsizing the middle class. I suspect that the people at The Cato Institute must be dancing with joy on their desktops.]

-- -- --
posted by Gary, Los Angeles
> REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM IS UNIVERSAL
> http://californiaonecare.org/
> http://healthcareforall.org/
> http://www.pnhp.org/ (national)

Comment by Geraldo Cienmarcos on June 28, 2010 at 11:35am

3 quotes for the news

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?"
-- Alice in the novel "Alice in Wonderland"

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."
-- George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946

"The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same."
-- Marie Beyle

Comment by Geraldo Cienmarcos on June 22, 2010 at 11:42pm

Killer Coke: Coke kills labor leaders, union members and organizers.

http://killercoke.org/

crimes of CocaCola
http://www.killercoke.org/crimes.htm

About
http://www.killercoke.org/who.htm

Comment by Richard Goscicki on January 1, 2010 at 9:48am

We can just "convert" to secular humanism

Objection, I’ve been thinking about this a long time. Humans have to realize that they are the culmination of evolution in many ways.

It took the planet four billion years to evolve intelligence. It’s time to appreciate this wonder and not give the credit to an imaginary god. Intelligence is the only thing that can save the planet.

I'm working on a blog post on Hippies. There was a lot of humanism in those days. Stay tuned.

Comment by Objection on January 1, 2010 at 4:46am

The "problem" of solidarity has an easy solution for me. We can just "convert" to secular humanism. We 'secularists' would umbrella the agnostics, the humanists, and the freethinkers; you know, people who want separation of church and state.
I tend to interchange between 'a-theist', if I'm trying to break down theism, and 'secular humanist', if I want to make myself look like I am asserting a viewpoint, not just rejecting another's.

Comment by Jasyn Taylor on December 11, 2009 at 11:51am

Hit the send button to soon! One more thing...

We all have more in common than one might think.

Comment by Jasyn Taylor on December 11, 2009 at 11:50am

In response to Wonderist...

I have begun a blog series similar to what you are describing, called Syn: The New Code for living a Moral Life. Because atheism holds everyone that doesn't believe in god(s), there will be so many different opinions and views of how the world should be. Hell, look at christianity! Thousands of different views, but all share a common bond. Humanity will always disagree and agree. There is no right way and no wrong way. It's just life and we need to get through it the best way possible, while leaving a good path for those behind us to follow.

Comment by Wonderist on November 22, 2009 at 9:48pm

Atheism per se can never really be a bond for social action. There needs to be a philosophy that is shared among the activists beyond mere lack of belief in gods. Whatever that philosophy is, only some atheists will be on board, while others will abstain. So, I believe the goal should be to develop a minimalist philosophy that the largest number of atheists can agree upon. It would have to be extremely simple, with few restrictions, and few goals. By keeping it minimal, many people can get on board and big changes can be enacted. So, I propose discussing what minimal principles and goals could be agreed upon by the largest cross-section of atheists.

As a starting point, I think a good minimalist set of principles might start with a set of ground-rules for constructive discourse. This means, given that we will have inevitable disagreements and conflicts, what principles must we hold to in order to keep communication going, and to hopefully resolve disagreements and conflicts. Example principles might be non-violence, evidence-based reasoning, intellectual honesty, etc.

Once such a foundation for constructive discourse is established, then we can develop a broad range of activist goals, where different people will choose to participate towards different goals, but we will all be generally supportive of each other as long as the foundational constructive discourse is maintained. It's about being open-minded in our cooperative efforts.

It's similar to how Atheist Nexus accepts all atheists, but different people have different interests and participate in different groups. As long as we all follow some basic ground-rules, the entire site benefits. A rising tide floats all boats.

Comment by Richard Goscicki on November 5, 2009 at 4:00pm

There is definitely a problem with solidarity among atheists. We have nothing in common except that we don’t believe in the same thing—God.

Religious people have much in common: they obey the rules of the same religion, they go to weekly gettogethers, they believe everyone should do as they do.

Atheists have to develop a common cause. Here’s one: Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee might be the next presidential administration. Both believe Christ is coming in their lifetime. They threaten to annihilate all life that has evolved on the planet—four billion years of life gone to waste.

They’re more worried about Israel then they are about the great animals going extinct. I can’t picture a world without tigers and elephants, zebras and giraffes. To religious people the animals mean little; polar bears and the mountain gorillas of Uganda don’t have a soul.

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