Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Annie Thomas on April 21, 2012 at 2:28pm

Thank you for sharing, Loren.  It was an interesting read, and a nice break from my Saturday chores.

The statistic that I found the most compelling was when Zuckerman discussed premarital sex in religious vs. non-religious teens.  Teens that took "chastity vows" were just as likely as their peers  to engage in premarital sex, but far less likely to use any form of protection against unwanted pregnancy or STDs. 

The U.S. prison population statistic is always interesting (atheists are greatly underrepresented in prisons at 0.2%), but I think those statistics are rather muddied by many variables that would be very difficult to isolate.  It is highly beneficial to the prisoner to be "religious" in prison for many reasons.

Thanks again!

Permalink Reply by sk8eycat on April 21, 2012 at 8:14pm

OooooH!  Thanks for posting that.  I need to print it after I change ink cartridges.  That's a keeper.

One comment: Whoever wrote Psalm 14 was an Israelite, writing for other Israelites, and he was referring to YHWH only.  They never tried to convert any of their neighbors to their belief system until Saul/Paul started sending out missionaries.  They just demonized and then killed anyone who believed in other gods.  Or tried to.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on April 21, 2012 at 9:13pm

I don't care if he was talking to the Peanut Gallery on the Howdy Doody Show.  Someone wants to lay that crap on me, I'll bitch-slap their sorry asses to Mars!

Permalink Reply by sk8eycat on April 22, 2012 at 12:36pm

Oooops!  I should have added that nothing in the buybull is relevant to today's world. 

Even "Love thy neighbor as thyself" doesn't mean what it seems..."neighbor" means "fellow Hebrew" only. In my neighborhood, that means (if I were Jewish) that it would be perfectly fine if I were to kick the $hit out of the Greek Orthodox lady across the street, the (former) Pakistani family up the hill, or the ex-nun next door who is still totally devoted to the Crap-lick crutch.

I also wonder what the Hebrew word that the 15th or 16th Century English "translated" as "fool" really means...since at the time the KJV was written a "fool" was also the word for what we think of as the classic court jester, or a Harlequin, and in later times, a circus clown.

When I was bruising my butt trying to build a comedy act with a fellow hopeful, I would have been proud to be called a fool....and I was still only halfway through the process of becoming an atheist at that time in my life. 

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on April 22, 2012 at 12:41pm

There's a real subject for study: exactly what the words MEANT back then, what the implications were, based on the vernacular of the day.  I think those who want to paint Jebus as the ultimate egalitarian would be VERY disappointed, if they bothered to dig hard enough ... and most of them couldn't be bothered!

Permalink Reply by Chris G on April 21, 2012 at 10:46pm

Thanks for posting this. It's a very thorough survey and report.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on April 22, 2012 at 12:01am

Thank you for the link Loren. I'm going to read that.

Permalink Reply by Chris Breman on April 22, 2012 at 1:05am

Thanks, a very good read! I remember the psalms are full of complaints about atheists, they really cannot leave us alone.

Permalink Reply by HotMess on April 22, 2012 at 1:36pm

These have always been my favorite verses. They clearly demonstrate that the Bible was written by men with the collective mentality of a bunch of 8 year-olds bickering on a playground.

Permalink Reply by Paula T. on April 22, 2012 at 7:17pm

Thanks for the link! I'm excited to read this. I work in the Inter-library loan area of a large research university and get many requests for articles about religion, but never anything about atheism. (I was surprised to see that we have subscriptions to at least a couple of religious peer-reviewed journals...it makes me laugh...yet, at the same time, I think "what a colossal waste of money" *sigh**)

Permalink Reply by sk8eycat on April 22, 2012 at 8:23pm

Do you (the library, I mean) have a subscription to Freethought Today?  It's more a newspaper than a scholarly journal or a magazine, but it's interesting, and even fun...except for the section called "Black Collar Crime Blotter;" a listing of people in the religion business who have been charged with, convicted and sentenced for all manner of crimes.  Mostly child abuse or embezzling church funds.

Cruise the archives: http://ffrf.org/publications/freethought-today/

And the Council for Secular Humanism publishes Free Inquiry, a very good "slick" magazine:

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?page=index&section=fi

Maybe you could slyly suggest that you need some balance in the library's periodicals department....?

Permalink Reply by Paula T. on April 22, 2012 at 9:26pm

For some reason, "reply" doesn't work for me...but I will check out the links, sk8eycat. The serials team - those in charge of making decisions about what journals to buy in print and what to have electronically - isn't in the same library I work in (there are five libraries on campus), but I know someone I can contact about it. Thanks for the suggestions and the idea ;)

Thankfully, this is a public and very diverse university. We even have a Secular Student Alliance group - my son went to the Reason Rally with a group :)

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