Do we need god to be moral?
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 09 January 2010 12:00
- Published on Saturday, 09 January 2010 12:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 5879
Christians often say that without god we would be immoral - that our ethics system comes from god. This is one of the major debates about religion yet even some theologians do not accept this idea. FORA TV of the City University of New York (CUNY) sponsors discussions open to the public and publishes them on the Internet. An earlier discussion on "What is religion" featured atheist philosopher Dan Dennett and can be seen here. The most recent discussion was on December 7, 2009 on the subject of "Varieties of non-belief". In keeping with an objective of this site to keep articles and videos short, shown below is an excerpt from that event where philosopher Colin McGinn, and theologian Denys Turner talk about Does Morality need god? or as is more commonly asked, Does morality come from god?
Read more: Do we need god to be moral?
Canadian Imams issue fatwa against attacks on Canada, US
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 09 January 2010 04:00
- Published on Saturday, 09 January 2010 04:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1484
Twenty Imams, mostly from Canada but also the U.S., issued a fatwa Friday condemning any extremists or terrorists who would launch an attack on the United States or Canada. The 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada said this marked the first fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the U.S. to be attacks on the 10 million Muslims in North America. See the full text here.
"In our view, these attacks are evil, and Islam requires Muslims to stand up against this evil," the imams said in their fatwa.
"These terrorist attacks and extremist attacks on Canadian or American soil is, in fact, attack on Muslims. Because we are part of this society. This is my home, and if anybody attacks on Canada, in fact, attacks on my home," said Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, an imam in Calgary and the first signature on the fatwa.
Read more: Canadian Imams issue fatwa against attacks on Canada, US
Gay Marriage
- Details
- Created on Friday, 08 January 2010 03:04
- Published on Friday, 08 January 2010 03:04
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2079
It seems everyone has an opinion on gay marriage - it's hard to be neutral on this subject.
Most atheists (including me) take the view that to be gay (or not) is a personal thing and should not be subject to discrimination or laws governing it. Let me analyze this further.
Sex is an appetite similar to the appetite for food and is also necessary for perpetuating the species just like food is needed to stay alive. Some people are vegetarians but there is no discrimination against that practice; similarly, some people are homosexual but some cultures and some people feel it is wrong. The difference between the two appetites is that sex is part of the reproductive cycle but won't work if the sex is homosexual. This explains why in ancient times, churches made homosexual sex taboo to ensure enough children were born to make up for losses through disease and the perpetual wars.
The power of prayer
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 07 January 2010 03:02
- Published on Thursday, 07 January 2010 03:02
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2546
Many people believe that prayer works - but can they prove that? Maybe they believe something that's simply not true. I believed in Santa until I was 7! And in fact I believed in the Catholic God till I was about 28 (yes I know, I'm slow - actually stubborn is a better description). I'm not talking here about prayer helping your peace of mind - meditation can do that and no god is involved. A good sleep will also work wonders so why do we need prayer? Good question. There are a number of articles on this site that discuss the subject but videos are easy to follow.
The wonder of life
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 06 January 2010 14:07
- Published on Wednesday, 06 January 2010 14:07
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 2144
Richard Dawkins is often asked why he bothers to get up in the morning. Or, to put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? As he puts it: "Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?" He goes on to say: “After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?”
Religious countries are less successful
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 05 January 2010 03:51
- Published on Tuesday, 05 January 2010 03:51
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 4550
What makes a country successful? Psychologist Gregory Paul measured key statistics in selected western countries so he could compare their success rate as societies. He measured the number of homicides, suicides, gonorrhea and syphilis infections, abortions, imprisonment rates, birth rates to teenagers, life satisfaction, divorce rates, employment rates, income and more. He then measured the degree of religiosity of the people and made a graph to compare countries.
And guess what, the more religious the country was, the less successful it was as a society. And out of 17 western countries, guess which is the most religious and the least successful – the United States!
Afghanistan is becoming a Holy war
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 06 January 2010 04:00
- Published on Wednesday, 06 January 2010 04:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1708
Writing in Vanity Fair (Dec 15, 2009), Christopher Hitchens describes a video that talks about how the U.S. military is dominated by evangelical Christians and worse, that they are trying to convert the people they come across. This includes distributing bibles in Afghanistan. Clearly the U.S. military in Afghanistan are proselytizing contrary to their constitution and against Army rules - yet no-one is taking action against it. According to Hitchens, 'only a few fringe anti-war malcontents had made anything of this outrageous clip, and there was a general shrug when I mentioned it. "That sort of thing happened to me a lot in Afghanistan," I was told by Carlos Bertha, a veteran of the war who now teaches philosophy to cadets and who helped organize my talk. "I used to complain and sometimes the word would come down to lay off, but it was always ready to start up again."'
Most American Muslims against terror
- Details
- Created on Monday, 04 January 2010 03:00
- Published on Monday, 04 January 2010 03:00
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1607
The killings at Fort Hood by a Muslim army officer and the apparent recruitment of Muslim young men by Middle east terrorist organizations raises the question as to whether Americans should focus on homegrown terrorists. The U.S. has mostly assumed that terrorists would cross the border in some way and arrive from a foreign country (e.g. Nigeria) but should they also be worrying about Muslims already in the U.S.? According to a Pew Research Center study released Dec 17, the short answer is "No - or at least the danger is higher from Muslims from other countries like the U.K and Nigeria."
However, as shown by the recent bombing attempt on a plane arriving in Detroit, it only needs one person to kill lots of innocents.
