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Richard Dawkins

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Dawkins on Schools

Canada has religious schools - but this can be changed.
In Britain, Richard Dawkins recently produced a documentary film about Britain’s faith based schools – see this article which includes the full movie and more on the situation in Canada.


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Cobourg Atheist is based in Canada and includes:

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I have a collection of sites that includes:

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Go here to see the current list

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Join me - click A for Atheist! The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism
Cobourg Atheist - News and Resources from Canada
Religion soothes the brain PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 07:22

In  an interview with Steve Paikin from TVO, Lionel Tiger described the brain as a natural product of evolution and to ensure its survival, the brain then invented religion.  Since something like 90% of the world’s population believe in one of the 200 odd religions, believing in a religion is a “natural” phenomenon.  Tiger then goes on to say, that unlike Richard Dawkin’s position, he thinks that if it’s natural it must be good – having a religion does not make us foolish and wrong.  Since religion is a creation of the brain, it obviously plays an important part in survival.  He says it soothes us, re-assures us and makes us feel good – especially in hard times.  If we have “brain-pain”  (e.g. worries), religions will soothe and help us.

Read more...
 
Can the world exist without religion? PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 07:16

There is a built-in need for us to want a religion.  Dan Dennett talks about the "belief in belief";  others talk about the evolution of religion; many Christians talk about the good feeling that religion gives them - they feel  better in some way because they have "faith".  Religion is clearly an emotional thing - it fills a need that many people have.  But religion is demonstrably bad - see any book on atheism and most articles on this site.  So if religion must be replaced - and it eventually will for most people - then what will fill that need?

If we take the definition of religion developed in a recent court case (article here), we have the following:

Read more...
 
Atheist Morality PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Monday, 09 August 2010 07:25

Morality has changed over the centuries - in civilized countries, slavery is no longer acceptable, women have equal rights, birth control is expected, war is not glorified and many minor taboos have gone.  So it is clear that if a higher power mandated morality, it is not fixed and not absolute.  The average person gets their set of moral standards from their parents and to some extent from society's teachers such as high priests or their modern equivalent but where do they get their rules from?  The short answer is that morality is handed down from earlier generations and is also virtually self-evident.  It is clear that a society cannot function if indiscriminate killing or stealing is allowed.  Society needs trust and that means lying must be unethical or at least minimized.   So there is no need to have an external god, or a representative of such an entity, tell the rest of us what the rules are.

Read more...
 
How's your Sci Lit? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Bill Broderick   
Sunday, 08 August 2010 07:25

According to the latest Pew Forum on Scientific Literacy, only about 10 percent of Americans (and presumably Canadians) are scientifically informed. The forum posed 12 questions, some of which might be considered general knowledge, and others specifically scientific. Among the general knowledge ones was "Which over-the-counter drug do doctors recommend that people take to prevent heart attacks?" and "Which gas do most scientists believe causes temperatures in the atmosphere to rise?" The answer to the first was aspirin (1.5 percent got it right); to the second, carbon dioxide (a whopping eight percent answered correctly).

Among the more scientific questions was "How are stem cells different from other cells?" The answer is that they can develop into many different kinds of cells. Another was a statement to be answered true or false: "Electrons are smaller than atoms." True, of course.

Read more...
 
Ignorance can be funny PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Saturday, 07 August 2010 07:26

Art Linkletter thought and proved that children are funny.  In fact anyone with a childlike mind can be funny.  Or someone who just does not think it through can be funny.  Have you ever watched a movie where the script or action is just so ridiculous it's funny?  Sometimes I watch a movie with my grandson (aged 12) and I laugh at some of the action which he finds exciting and not funny at all.  Ridiculous can be very funny (e.g. Bruce Willis "shoots down" a helicopter then later an F-35 with cars in Live Free or Die Hard).

But many religious people don't see how ridiculous they are with some of the things they believe and say.

Read more...
 
Scientific education leads to atheism PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Friday, 06 August 2010 07:10

Scientific studies have shown that Intelligence has risen in developed countries and simultaneously belief in religion has declined. The obvious conclusion is that people are getting smarter;  smart people tend to reject irrational beliefs, hence with increasing intelligence more people become nonbelievers. But a paper by psychologist James Allan Cheyne  at Waterloo University suggests it's more complicated than that.  

Read more...
 
Bible is no basis for Morality - Sam Harris PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Draper   
Thursday, 05 August 2010 07:02

If you start reading the bible and don't already know that cruelty is wrong - the bible won't help.  There are countless examples of cruelty in the bible - mostly in the Old Testament.  And the idea that the bible simply represents the thinking or of the ability of mankind at the time is not true either.  Buddhist and Greek philosopher thinking at around the same time were condemning cruelty so humans were capable of better things even then.

But is the New Testament better?  No.  It clearly supported slavery and the concept that women were inferior and subservient to men.  Although this attitude to women may originate in our biology and therefore predates religion, the bible supports and perpetuates this behaviour.

Read more...
 
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News Update

Sept 8, 2010

1. I just received my copy of the new book by Stephen Hawking that everyone is talking about - I'm a slow reader so it will be a while before I comment on it!

2. The Koran burning planned in Florida by the nutty pastor is in the same boat as the mosque at ground zero - both legal but both are stupid deliberate antagonizing of the religion you don't happen to believe in.

 

Quote of the Day

A quote from Catch-22 by Joesph Heller - from the web site Unreasonable Faith
"And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways,"..... Why in the world did He ever create pain?... What a colossal, immortal blunderer!... His sheer incompetence is almost staggering" and lots more - here. Priceless!

A Recent Poll

Attitudes to Religions - Time

Aug 19, 2010

Americans unfavourable towards:

Muslims 43%
Mormons 29%
Catholics 17%
Jews 13%
Protestants 13%

Support "gound zero" mosque?

Support 26%
Oppose 61%

Polls

What is biggest source of evil in the world?
 

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Site Statistics

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Content view hits is count of views of articles since May 17 2009. This is about 2.6 times count of visitors.

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