Global Religious Affiliation
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- Created on Saturday, 22 December 2012 06:08
- Published on Saturday, 22 December 2012 06:08
- Written by John Draper
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Pew has released another report on worldwide religious affiliation but they are using a different way of describing people with no religion. This must be true because the numbers for their article "Rise of the nones" said 20% of Americans are not affiliated with a religion but now they are saying it's only 16%! It seems that the only thing you can trust in these reports is trend information or comparisons between groups or countries. The latest report does not talk about trends - it compares countries. Keeping in mind that the absolute numbers may be in question - especially for the "nones", the results are still quite interesting.
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Gospels historically wrong
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- Created on Thursday, 20 December 2012 06:47
- Published on Thursday, 20 December 2012 06:51
- Written by John Draper
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The Bible was not written by eye-witnesses and it shows. If you want to believe it is a symbolic description of an inspirational figure - then OK; if you want to believe it is a compendium of beliefs of early Christians - then OK; but don't think of it as an accurate literal story because it is not. Many of the stories are very similar to other myths circulating at the time such as Mithras, Horus, and Bacchus. Some of it was written to try to convince the Jews that Jesus fulfilled messiah prophecies (especially Matthew's). There were many Gospels written but only 4 have made it through the filter of the Council of Nicea - the others were burned and banned. Even so, the 4 do not agree with each other. Some contradictions are listed here but others were simply bad history.
Atheists in Muslim countries
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- Created on Tuesday, 18 December 2012 06:26
- Published on Tuesday, 18 December 2012 06:35
- Written by John Draper
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Some Muslim countries treat atheism about the same as being a traitor. Most treat it as unacceptable behaviour. Sharia law assumes people are born into their parents' religion so if you are born to Muslim parents but are able to think for yourself and reject Islam, you are committing a hudud crime against God, like adultery and drinking alcohol. Potential sanctions can be severe: eight states, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Sudan have the death penalty on their statute books for such offences. The Economist recently published what amounts to a summary of the situation in the Muslim world. And it's not pretty. There are few options for atheists and there's little pretense of tolerance or freedom of religion.
Lack of God blamed for Connecticut massacre
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- Created on Sunday, 16 December 2012 06:20
- Published on Sunday, 16 December 2012 06:20
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 987
Americans are rightly shocked with the violence aimed at innocents in Connecticut but some of them are using the massacre as a lever to increase the amount of religion in schools. Mike Huckabee said on Fox News that "we've systematically removed God from our schools". Huckabee was referencing Supreme Court decisions that do not allow teachers or school administrators to lead prayers in public schools. Huckabee said: "Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we've systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability?" (See video below).
And speaking on his radio show today, American Family Association Executive Director Bryan Fischer also blamed the shooting on the lack of prayer in public schools (see second video below).
Religion and Superstition
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- Created on Friday, 14 December 2012 06:20
- Published on Friday, 14 December 2012 06:20
- Written by John Draper
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To most people in western societies, religions are thought of as reasonable and respectable whereas superstitions are thought of as childish and irrational. Few people truly believe that Friday the thirteenth is really an unlucky day or that breaking a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck. (Here's a list of common superstitions). There are also groups of beliefs that are not called superstitions but are closely related. Things like numerology, astrology, psychic readings, faith healing. But it was not too long ago that many of these were truly believed and even today there are some who still believe them. But why are they separated from religion? Why believe some equally unlikely stories in the bible and not others? Is it because they are in the Bible?
Egypt destined to become a theocracy
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- Created on Monday, 10 December 2012 06:42
- Published on Monday, 10 December 2012 06:42
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 1122
If you live in a Muslim dominated country like Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and most of the Middle East and North Africa, then you probably are envious of the lifestyle that you see in Western countries. Since Muslims cannot accept that their religion is the main reason they have lagging economies, they seem to think that their problem (in many cases) is that they don't have a democracy (more on Muslims and democracy here). Add in the natural human desire for the freedom to choose their own Government and it has become a revolutionary cause in Libya, Syria, Egypt and several other Muslim countries. They don't seem to understand two key points:
- Prosperous Western countries are not only democratic, they have full equality of religious belief, totally equal rights of women and universal acceptance of a healthy political opposition; and
- The majority must not impose their ideas and beliefs on the minorities. Winning an election does not mean a loss of rights for the losers.
Is Islamophobia or blasphemy wrong?
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- Created on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 06:42
- Published on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 06:42
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 922
It's easy to say that any form of discrimination or hatred is wrong - but really, that applies only to discrimination against people since we are all equal. So does Islamophobia involve people? Wikipedia quotes a definition of it as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore the fear and dislike of all Muslims." But it commonly also refers to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the country they live in. Wikipedia says that it includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion. This may be common perception but it's a twisting of the meaning of Islamophobia which literally means a "phobia" or fear of Islam. I am afraid of heights (Acrophobia) - I won't stand close to the edge of a cliff like some people. Few would say that's wrong. Why is a fear of a religion or philosophy or even political ideology wrong?
Evolution of Religion – Michael Shermer
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- Created on Saturday, 08 December 2012 06:47
- Published on Saturday, 08 December 2012 06:47
- Written by John Draper
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Sponsored by IQ squared, Michael Shermer and Lawrence Krauss debated Dinesh d’Souza and Ian Hutchinson on the topic Science refutes God. Overall, I did not find the debate inspiring but I liked Michael Shermer’s presentation (see video below). He first covered the evolution of human thinking that lead to the invention of religion. The way we had to make decisions to survive in the ancient world made it natural to err on the side of false positives. It was to our benefit to decide that A caused B even when it was not true. Thinking this way allowed us to survive! This is why we easily accept that God created the world. Shermer then talked about how our basis for morality has evolved – we no longer need God to tell us what is moral – we want reasons and evidence to back our decisions.
