Freedom of Press worst in Middle East
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- Created on Sunday, 21 April 2013 06:37
- Published on Sunday, 21 April 2013 06:37
- Written by John Draper
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Freedom of the press is one of the fundamental freedoms alongside freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The organization "Reporters without borders" does an annual survey of press freedom by country and publishes it on their web site.
There are few surprises on their list – countries with little freedom of religion, also have poor freedom of the press. Some western countries who nominally value freedom, like France, Italy and Greece, seem to have only moderately good freedom of the press but the worst offenders are places like North Korea, the strict totalitarian Muslim Countries and Communist China & Cuba.
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Atheist Movies
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- Created on Friday, 19 April 2013 06:18
- Published on Friday, 19 April 2013 06:28
- Written by John Draper
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If you know me personally, you know I have other interests besides atheism – I trust all atheist bloggers are equally diversified in their interests. One of these interests is movies; movies of all sorts – current, vintage, movies to make you think and movies that are just simply fun. I talked about movies that are mystical and religious here (Religion and mysticism in movies) but what about movies that are atheist? That is, movies that have atheist themes and do not promote religions nor the supernatural (no zombies etc) and don’t even tell fantasies that make you think of religion (like Life of Pi). I want to provide a list – I’m sure there are more but I’ll add to the list as I learn of them. By the way, I have not included trash movies.
Why does anyone believe in psychics?
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- Created on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 07:00
- Published on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 07:00
- Written by John Draper
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Craig & Jane, UK based "psychics", made 10 predictions in 2008 for 2009. They do this each year because there are people who believe them despite the fact that they are plain wrong - other than the occasional "hit" through luck. Many so-called psychics make year-end predictions yet they are always the same mix of mostly wrong. The "ability" they claim to have has never been proved - in fact James Randi has challenged all comers to demonstrate psychic ability and has offered $1M to anyone who can prove scientifically that they have such powers. (More on Randi here. See also the related articles listed).
So why do people believe? It's the same reason that people want to believe in god or a "higher power" - people want to believe in immortality, they want to believe that the human mind is more than just a flesh and blood brain and we all want to believe we are more than just an advanced animal. We like to think we have a spiritual side that is somehow detachable from the rest of us.
Are you an atheist?
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- Created on Monday, 15 April 2013 06:16
- Published on Monday, 15 April 2013 06:16
- Written by John Draper
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Christians would have us think that atheism is another faith – just one without god. Atheists will usually say that atheism is not a faith or a religion and is simply the absence of a belief in god. But some might believe in a “higher power” – whatever that might be - but never in a personal god who should be prayed to. Atheists may be mystical and believe that there is something that others call the supernatural that has not yet been explained. It’s probably easier to decide if you are an atheist by what you do not believe than in what you do believe. Many atheists and even Christians and Muslims have tried to define what an atheist is – it’s time I did the same.
Too many people
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- Created on Saturday, 13 April 2013 06:12
- Published on Saturday, 13 April 2013 06:12
- Written by John Draper
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Few seem willing to come right out and say that there are simply too many people on this planet. Two recent examples have brought this home to me - one was Mike Nickerson talking about sustainability and the other was a report by HSBC Economist Karen Ward. Mike gives a great speech on how the planet we are on cannot continue indefinitely with the growth that everyone seems to want. Resources will run out - food supplies such as fish and grains plus forests, clean air, oil and minerals all have a limit. Mike preaches sustainability and while that is a necessary close-in goal it won't by itself solve the problem in the long term. As Mike points out, corporations and economists insist on growth - without growth we get a recession and economic pain. But he avoids saying the obvious - there are too many damn people.
Then I read about a report issued by Karen Ward that says that by 2050, the top 10 countries in economic output will be (in order):
Which sex acts are immoral?
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- Created on Tuesday, 09 April 2013 06:20
- Published on Tuesday, 09 April 2013 06:39
- Written by John Draper
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Religions profess to be expert in morality and often the first set of acts to be declared immoral are sexual. But what they declare to be immoral is often simply wrong, or if you want to be kind, outdated. They will use as justification things that their holy books say or that something is unnatural. In the case of the Bible and Qur’an, they pick the section that supports what they want to say – conveniently ignoring places where their god or prophet does or says contradictory things. But the “faithful” will accept a prohibition if it’s separately described as being unnatural, or hurtful. One contentious act is the result of sex but it’s not really sexual – I’m referring to abortion. The morality of abortion depends on whether you think it’s an independent life while it’s in the mother’s body. But I want to focus here on just sexual acts.
Right to Die
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- Created on Thursday, 11 April 2013 06:08
- Published on Thursday, 11 April 2013 06:08
- Written by John Draper
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A couple of weeks ago, my brother Peter took his own life. He was 65 and had Parkinson's disease. He had talked about it for several years and he was determined that he would not die a miserable death. Like me, he was an atheist although we disagreed on other things. We were both born in Australia and had both travelled outside the country but he returned after a few years. He was a successful musician and one of his last acts was to ask my advice on technical aspects of a paper he was writing to describe his teaching methods. He knew he did not have much longer and he was getting ready. It seems that another thing he did was to find a way to control when he would die.
Refusing My Religion
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- Created on Sunday, 07 April 2013 07:01
- Published on Sunday, 07 April 2013 07:01
- Written by John Draper
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The Clergy Project is gaining momentum - it started a couple of years ago with about 50 members but is quickly getting more attention and more members - 280 at last count. That's the organization that supports clergy who have found they no longer believe what they preach but are stuck in their job and may also face rejection by friends and family. It seems obvious to me that a key reason why this happens is that clergy are thinking about religion continually; if you think about it too much, religion falls apart. But no matter how it happens, people in this situation need support - whether it be financial, help in finding a new job or moral support and new friends. Some key players and supporters in this project are Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett, Catherine Dunphy, Teresa MacBain, Jerry Dewitt and Hemant Mehta. See the Clergy Project web site here. And my take on it here
