WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we’ve recently heard about the growing number of Americans who believe President Obama was not born in the U.S. and is a Muslim, not a Christian.
I recently took a survey on the Association of Religions Data Archives which also brought up some disturbing statistics for me.
Some questions could be answered yes or no, but some had 5 choices from “always” to “never” or “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Thus, unless one answered “never” or “strongly disagree” the respondent believed the statement to some extent or other.

The statistics are from a 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

By answering the survey questions on the ARDA website, one’s own results are compared to the 2005 survey. The results come up in two columns, comparing others like oneself (age, gender, and religious affiliation) and comparing oneself to the entire study group.

Some results follow:

As reflected the in graph above, those who believe in:
God 89%
Satan 73%
Heaven 82%
Hell 71%
Purgatory 41%
Angels 80%
Demons 66%
Armageddon 55%
Rapture 49%
Ghosts 46%

Despite these high numbers of belief, when asked if they had experienced a miraculous, physical healing, only 31% said they had. Only 6% had a vision of a religious figure while awake and only 14% had heard the voice of God speaking to them.
Many people think God is slightly more involved in their own lives than in everyone else’s. While 85% think God is directly involved in world affairs, 86% think he is involved in their own affairs.
On the other hand, they think their own sins are of slightly less concern to God than other people’s sins. While 87% think God is angered by human sin, only 85% think he is angered by their own sins.
And, of course, there are those who believe that God favors the United States in world affairs (57%) and that God favors one political party in the U.S. (43%.) Gee, I wonder which party that is.
When it comes to the paranormal, 76% assume that science will discover Bigfoot & the Loch Ness Monster, 78% think places can be haunted, 65% think astrology impacts one’s life and personality, and 87% believe it is possible to influence the physical world through the mind alone.

Other questions were about abortion, sex, alcohol, pornography, stem cell research, consumer consumption, taking care of the sick and needy, and seeking social and economic justice.
I found it interesting that while 57% think it is important to convert others to their religious faith and 86% think it important to teach others their own morals, only 40% think it important to seek social and economic justice for others. These statistics are why I never donate to religious organizations, which (in my opinion) are often more interested in converting people in disaster areas (such as Haiti) than in helping the people with their basic needs. I gladly donate to non-religious relief organizations.

To take the ARDA online survey, click HERE.

* * * * * * *

Religious fundamentalists alone are a huge popular grouping in the United States, which resembles pre-industrial societies in that regard. This is a culture in which three-fourths of the population believe in religious miracles, half believe in the devil, 83 percent believe that the Bible is the "actual" or the inspired word of God, 39 percent believe in the Biblical prediction of Armageddon and "accept it with a certain fatalism," a mere 9 percent accept Darwinian evolution while 44 percent believe that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years," and so on. The "God and Country rally" that opened the national Republican convention is one remarkable illustration, which aroused no little amazement in conservative circles in Europe.

--- Noam Chomsky

speech to the Library Information Technology Association

June 1992, San Francisco

* * * * * * *

ATHEIST HUMOR 2 - The Adventures of God

I just happened on a post at collegehumor.com and found it hilarious, just like the Bible stories it is mocking. Check it out.

The Adventures of God

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 3

TWAIN, MARK

(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

American author,

journalist, humorist

(1835-1910)

Many quotations have been attributed to Twain that came from other sources. If you find I have wrongly attributed a quotation to Twain, please leave a comment or email me at mythoughtsarefree@gmail.com. Thank you.

• “It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased; it always sounds well --IN GOD WE TRUST. I don’t believe it would sound any better if it were true.”

• "The motto stated a lie. If this nation has ever trusted in God, that time has gone by; for nearly half a century almost its entire trust has been in the Republican party and the dollar--mainly the dollar. I recognize that I am only making an assertion and furnishing no proof; I am sorry, but this is a habit of mine; sorry also that I am not alone in it; everybody seems to have this disease." (Mark Twain in Eruption)

• [In Germany] “I went to church the first Sunday, and on Tuesday came a tax of 12 marks for church support; I have not been since. I can’t afford religious instruction at that price. Only the rich can be saved here.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “...I would like, just for five minutes to understand the plan of the Creator, if He has any.” (Clara Clemens, My Father Mark Twain)

• “Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us would not succeed.” (Following the Equator, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar)

• “Lump the whole thing! say the Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo.”

• “A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows.”

• [Man] “has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights...sexual intercourse!...His heaven is like himself: strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque. I give you my word, it has not a single feature in it that he actually values.” (Letters From the Earth)

• “Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion ---several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight.” (The Lowest Animal)

• “Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “Many...people have the reasoning faculty, but no one uses it in religious matters.”

• “Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook, 1902-03)

• “The moral sense enables one to perceive morality ---and avoid it. The immoral sense enables one to perceive immorality and enjoy it.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.”

• “No church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit in the public income thus caused.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “No man that ever lived has ever done a thing to please God ---primarily. It was done to please himself, then God next.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” (Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894)

• “O, compassionate missionary leave China! Come home and convert these Christians.” (The United States of Lyncherdom, 1901)

• “The only gospel in any monarchy should be the Rebellion against Church and State.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “The physician’s is the highest and worthiest of all occupations, or it would be if human nature did not make superstitions and priests necessary.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter; they are an entire banquet.”  (Mark Twain in Eruption)

• “The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.” (Notebook)

• “Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes, and wishes he was certain.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the people ---that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.”

Read more about Mark Twain & his religious skepticism at the end of:

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 1.

Find more quotations at the above post and these:

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 2

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 4

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 5

CHRISTIANS BEHAVING BADLY #11 by supporting torture

In my attempt to show that being religious is not a guarantee of moral behavior,this post is a part of my series of reports featuring the bad behavior of religious people, past or present....

Look for other posts showing the bad behavior perpetrated by members of other religious groups.

SUPPORTING TORTURE

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that the more Americans attend church, the more likely they are to support the use of torture. Those unaffiliated with a religious group were the least likely to support torture.

Among the religious, evangelicals were the most likely to support torture, while mainline Protestants were the least likely.

That reminds me of something writer Anne Lamott said: "You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

I doubt that most people would condone the torture of one of our own citizens by a foreign country no matter what the person has done, but when a group has a collective hatred toward another group because they oppose us in a war, are of a different faith, culture, nationality or race, then religious people assume God hates all the same people they do ---and if God hates them, of course they must deserve to be tortured.

The survey did not determine why more religious people support torture than non-religious people, but my guess is because, like the God of the Old Testament, they want to see people suffer who do not believe as they do.

What concerns me a great deal is that of all groups surveyed, including the non-religious, the highest percentage of people who think torture can never be justified was only 31% (mainline Protestants) and the lowest 15% (evangelical Christians.) Of those who seldom or never attend religious services, only 26% chose the never justified option. (Choices were: torture against suspected terrorists can often, sometimes, rarely, or never be justified, with the option to also choose don't know/refused.)

I wish I had more information on how people thought about torture in the past. After WWII, when German and Japanese concentration and POW camps were in the news, I would guess that a higher percentage of Americans would have been philosophically against torture, because during the war it had been directed against people somewhat like us, instead of people who look and think differently than the majority of American citizens.

I have moved

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG

(which was formerly a part of this post)

to a separate post.

Click on the above link to read it.

For more information:

The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate

Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful.

IS AMERICA A CHRISTIAN NATION?

This post is part of a nationwide

  Blog Against Theocracy 

event taking place April 10-12, 2009

Visit the link above to visit posts from other bloggers.

The Godless Constitution:

The Case Against Religious Correctness

by

Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore (1996)

Excerpts (in green) from Chapter One: 

Is America A Christian Nation?

“Since before the founding of the United States, European colonists in North America were arguing about the role of religion in public and political life.... The nations’ founders, both in writing the Constitution and in defending it in the ratification debates, sought to separate the operations of government from any claims that human beings can know and follow divine direction in reaching policy decisions...”

“While many at the birth of America advocated a Christian politics, the principal architects of our national government envisioned a godless Constitution and a godless politics. One would never know this, however, by listening to the Christian right today, which has an utterly different take on the American past... The rhetoric of the Christian right repeatedly calls for a return to America’s lost Christianhood, as shaped by the founding fathers.”

“America’s original founding as a Christian state is central to the Christian right’s conspiratorial theory of American history. The Dallas Baptist minister who delivered the benediction at the Republican National Convention in 1984 insists ‘that there is no such thing as separation of church and state. It is merely the figment of the imagination of infidels.’ The founder and president of the religious right’s Rutherford Institute writes that ‘it’s of little surprise then that... the entire Constitution was written to promote a Christian order’... James Dobson [Focus on the Family] distributes... a set of history lesson that seeks to show that ‘the concept of a secular state was virtually non-existent in 1776, as well as in 1787, when the Constitution was written, and no less so when the Bill of Rights was adopted’...”

“This reading of the minds of the men who wrote the godless Constitution is wrong.”

“The principal framers of the American political system wanted no religious parties in national politics. They crafted a constitutional order that intended to make a person’s religious convictions, or his lack of religious convictions, irrelevant in judging the value of his political opinion or in assessing his qualifications to hold political office.... So successful were the drafters of the Constitution in defining government in secular terms that one of the most powerful criticisms of the Constitution when ratified and for succeeding decades was that it was indifferent to Christianity and God. It was denounced by many as a godless document, which is precisely what it is.”

Excerpts (in green) from Chapter Two:
The Godless Constitution

“’The Constitution was designed to perpetrate a Christian order,’ the Christian right’s Focus on the Family informs us. That’s not what happened in 1787. God and Christianity are nowhere to be found in the American Constitution... The U.S. Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, is a godless document. It’s utter neglect of religion was no oversight...”

“While passionately debated in the new nation, the ‘no religious test’ [for public office] clause elicited... little discussion at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention...”

It should be noted than Catholics and Jews fought in the Revolutionary War, yet they were among the religious groups, along with Quakers (because of their pacifist and anti-salvery stances) many wanted to exclude from holding office in the new nation. Some worried that if a Catholic were allowed to become president, that the Pope could be elected. The following passage seems so antiquated, biased, and vindictive, that we should all be glad religious tests were not added to our Constitution:

“An anticonstitutional article written for the New York Daily Advertiser ... January [1788] and widely distributed within days in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts papers pulled no punches about the social repercussions of Article 6 No religious tests admitted to national lawmaking: ‘1st. Quakers, who will make blacks saucy, and at the same time deprive us of the means of defense --- 2dly. Mahometans, who ridicule the doctrine of the Trinity ---3dly. Deists, abominable wretches ---4th. Negroes, the seed of Cain ---5thly. Beggars, who when set on horseback will ride to the devil ---6thly. Jews etc. etc.’ Not quite finished with the last, the newspaper writer feared that since the Constitution stupidly gave command of the whole militia to the president, ‘should he hereafter be a Jew, our dear posterity may be ordered to rebuild Jerusalem.”

“In Federalist No.10 [The Federalist Papers written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, 1787-1788] Madison argues that zealous pursuit of religious opinions, far from leading men to ‘cooperate for their common good,’ causes them to hate each other and disposes them ‘to vex and oppress each other.’”

“When Benjamin Franklin, who presided over the Constitutional Convention, urged the delegates to open their sessions with prayers, a request cited often today by the religious right, the delegates... voted to adjourn for the day rather than discuss Franklin’s suggestion. The matter was never brought up again.”

“The political convictions of the men who struggled to ratify a godless Constitution were not products of personal godlessness... Many of the men... stayed aloof from dogmatic forms of Christian faith, but most of them believed in a God...”

“...While the idea of a godless constitution clearly incorporated certain secular ideals, important and forceful justifications for such a secular document lay in religious thought. No one in American experience has cared more about religion than Roger Williams. And virtually no one in American experience has fashioned a stronger argument for a godless politics....”

The next few chapters go into detail of Roger Williams' thoughts on government and the Founding Fathers reasons for writing our secular Constitution.

This book was extremely informative and easy to read. I recommend it highly.

While I read the 1996 version, The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness, the updated version of the book is The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State.

Find my other two posts for the 2009 Blog Against Theocracy:

        CHURCH STATE SEPARATION QUIZ

        AMERICAN LEADERS' THOUGHTS ON RELIGION

You may also find this earlier post interesting: God in the White House

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

When asked, "Do you support religious freedom?" 

Madalyn Murray O'Hair responded,

        "Oh, absolutely! I feel that everyone has a right to be insane. And that they can do this any place at all. If they want religious schools, build them! My only problem with that is, do not ask for the land to be tax-free. Do not ask for a government grant to build them. Do not ask for money for teacher's salaries, or more books, or anything else. Just go ahead and do your thing, and do it yourself. Just exactly the same as if you were a nudist. Somebody doesn't get a tax break for being a Mason, or whatever they're interested in. [Interview in Freedom Writer magazine, March 1989]

SARAH VOWELL ON RELIGION & other matters

SARAH VOWELL

writer, journalist,

humorist (1969- )

•"The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought provoking. I mean: might get people killed." (opening sentence, The Wordy Shipmates)

•"History repeats itself. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. The third time as tourist trap." (paraphrased from Karl Marx)

•"In death, you get upgraded into a saint no matter how much people hated you in life."

•"One thing I find ridiculous is the notion of the good old days and the decline of American morals. This period of American history is called The Gilded Age for a reason. It's all about greed. Our forebears were just as corrupt as our contemporaries."

•"I hated mystery. I think it comes from being religious, being a Fundamentalist, especially, because that's all about certainty." (Vowell is now an atheist.)

•"Presidents and presidential assassins are like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Even though one city is all about sin and the other is all about salvation, they are identical, one-dimensional company towns built up by the sheer will of true believers. "

•"Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christ-like Christian, or conformity's tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes" (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"Was Rhode Island's architect, Roger Williams, America's founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"From New England's Puritans we inherited the idea that America is blessed and ordained by God above all nations, but lost the fear of wrath and retribution." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I just feel sorry for him [Roger Williams] that he lived in an age before air quotes; maybe he would have calmed down about the use of the word 'Christendom' if he could make sarcastic hand gestures every time he heard or said it."

•"What was the Puritans' pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I really can't fault [Al] Gore for saying that what happened at Abu Ghraib is sickening, not only because it's just plain sickening, but because America is supposed to be better than that. No: best. I hate to admit it, but I still believe that, too. Because even though my head tells me that the idea that America was chosen by God as His righteous city on a hill is ridiculous, my heart still buys into it. And I don't even believe in God!" (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I was exposed, from infancy on, to so much wretch-like-me, original-sin talk that I spent my entire childhood believing I was as depraved as Charles Manson when in reality I might have been the best-behaved nine-year-old of the twentieth century." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"How jarring it must have been to be an adult Narraganett [Native American] and this strange white man shows up out of the blue and shatters his lifelong peace of mind with what the stranger calls the 'good news' that the native is in fact a wicked, worthless evildoer and so was his mother. So said native dies terrified by his big, naughty un-christian heart of stone instead of, say, as the Shawnee Tecumseh would later advise, 'Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.'" (The Wordy Shipmates)

A few words about The Wordy Shipmates:

I highly recommend this book. It tells, in depth, much of the history of the Puritans and Pilgrims in early America ---many things I had never learned or had forgotten ---from the point of view of an admitted geek and history buff who spices her writing with amusing asides. It approaches the subject seriously, yet is amazingly witty. Even though Vowell frequently points out the ridiculous actions and beliefs of these early settlers, she also admires them. I liked that the author relates the actions or writings of these people to recent history, making history meaningful to us today. This would make a great history text book, except for the fact that it would never be approved by school boards because Vowell is an avowed liberal and atheist.

A review in The Seattle Times said: "Quirky observation and droll insights, a dish Vowell consistently serves... These commentaries are the thoughtful and thought-provoking musings of a genuine patriot ---one who loves her country even if its politics disappoint her."

Read more reviews of Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates:

HERE, HERE, and HERE

Also on YouTube:

Sarah Vowell on writing. 
Sarah Vowell on "The Wordy Shipmates." 
Sarah Vowell on Letterman "The Wordy Shipmates."
Sarah Vowell on Letterman "Unfamiliar Fishes."
Sarah Vowell on "Unfamiliar Fishes."
Sarah Vowell (audio only) on Thanksgiving, Part 1.
Sarah Vowell (audio only) on Thanksgiving, Part 2.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON ABORTION

In my previous post, I told the story of an 80-pound, nine-year-old Brazilian girl who had been impregnated by her step-father. Because of her tiny size, doctors agreed she would be unable to carry one child, let alone the twins she was expecting, thus it was likely the girl would not survive her pregnancy. In Brazil, abortion is legal for rape or to save the life of the mother, so in this case an abortion was legal on both counts. The local archbishop excommunicated the girl's mother and the medical team who performed the procedure, but not the pedophile rapist, holding antiquated dogma in higher esteem than the life of an innocent 9-year-old.

Austin Cline, in his article “Vatican: Raping Child Not as Bad as Abortion to Save Child's Life”, asks: "Who still believes that the Catholic position here is to "protect" children rather than to protect male control of female bodies?"

I read several blogs supporting the decision by the Catholic Church. I can believe that a few religious zealots would allow their 9-year-old daughter to die during the pregnancy of her rapist's twins (there are parents who allow their children to die because of religious opposition to medical care or other religious beliefs) but I have to presume that most parents, religious or not, pro-life or pro-choice, would not hold their own daughter's life in such low esteem.
People have been arguing endlessly over when life begins and if abortion should or should not be legal. I understand that some people honestly oppose abortion because they believe it is a form of killing. I personally would be glad if there were never another abortion, but that isn't likely to happen, Thus, my question to those who want to make abortion illegal again is how would one enforce that law, especially 26 years after Roe vs. Wade?
I was out of college 6 years before abortion was legal. I personally know of 4 people who had illegal abortions while I was in high school, college, or into my early working life, before abortion was legal. In my Senior year of college, I was contemplating abortion when I had a miscarriage (Whew!) My miscarriage was natural, but there was a girl in my dorm who let everyone know she had “miscarriage pills” if anyone needed them. (I have no idea if there really was such a thing then or not, and if so, if they were effective or even dangerous.) Since abortion was such a taboo subject at that time, I would guess that there were many more abortions among my acquaintances than I knew nothing about.

I know that criminalizing abortions would not stop abortions, only drive them underground.
A few years before the 1973 Supreme Court decision, birth control pills were developed. We certainly have become more open about sex and therefore we talk more about means of preventing pregnancies than we had previously. As the years have passed, it has become more acceptable to be single and pregnant. (In 4 of the last 5 weddings I have attended, the bride already had a child or was visibly pregnant at the wedding.) One would think that unwanted pregnancies wouldn't happen much anymore, but they do. Yet there are some who hold onto the mistaken belief that "abstinence only" sex education will keep their children safe.
A study authorized by Congress and reported in a 2007 Washington Post article concluded: "A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom."
Martha Kempner, an official at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States said, "Comprehensive education means teaching about abstinence and a myriad of other topics." Among them, she said: "contraception, critical thinking, one's own values and the values of your family... Abstinence-only was an experiment and it failed."
Since people had abortions before they were legal, I can assume that women will continue having abortions even if abortion would become illegal again. Unfortunately, they will be performed by unqualified people, as I would presume few doctors would risk losing their licenses to practice medicine. Abortions would become part of the black market, performed with coat hangers or in “back alleys” by unqualified practitioners —risking many women’s lives.
Instead, I would like to see both anti-abortion and pro-choice supporters join together to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Unfortunately, those most opposed to abortion are also the most opposed to the means of preventing them —sex education and birth control —and they are the most likely to be highly religious.
In the article sited above, Austin Cline says: "If we assume that Brazil's political leadership opposes abortion because they sincerely believe it causes harm, and not because they want women to be controlled, then they should look seriously at more liberal abortion laws. The lowest abortion rates are in countries like Belgium, where abortion is readily available, where sex education is comprehensive, where contraception is widely used, and where there is a strong social safety net for young, unwed mothers. Those countries have far fewer abortions than restrictive countries like Brazil and, of course, fewer complications."
Cline doesn't think the Catholic church is sincere in its claim that its opposition to abortion is, in part, to prevent harm.
Cline continues: "When it comes to the Catholic leadership, though, I can't bring myself to credit them with simply and sincerely believing that abortion should be criminalized because of harm it causes. The policy positions they adopt are far more consistent with the goal of controlling and subordinating women to male control, not with even just reducing abortions, never mind eliminating them. When people decide that raping children is less heinous than saving children from a pregnancy that will likely kill them, then all vestiges of human decency, morality, and reasonableness have been ravaged beyond recognition."

I couldn't agree more.

JEWS BEHAVING BADLY #1

In my attempt to show that being religious

is not a guarantee of moral behavior,

this post is a part of my series of reports featuring the

bad behavior of religious people, past or present....

Look for other posts about the bad behavior

perpetrated by members of other religious groups.

Rabbi Morris Talansky of Long Island, NY, was charged with assaulting his dentist in an argument over fees. After the case was thrown out, the rabbi, carrying a Bible, wept and said, "I'm grateful to the Almighty and my attorney and the judge." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced his resignation after Rabbi Talansky testified last year that he paid the politician $150,000 in cash over 15 years while Olmert was minister of trade and mayor of Jerusalem. Talansky, who was a victim of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, is currently being investigated by federal authorities, who are considering indicting him for allegedly bribing Olmert in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

David Silverman, 23, of Rockland County, NY, is accused of luring three girls, ages 14 and 15 who he met on My Space, to a porn set in a warehouse, giving them alcohol, photographing and filming the resulting orgy with two friends who are now both fugitives in Israel. By the time he was arrested, he had dismantled the porn set and erased his hard drive, but officials were able to recover his files. Silverman says he has returned to his Hasidic Jewish lifestyle and is refusing to even look at the evidence, claiming it is too offensive. Psychologists aren’t buying his claim that he cannot assist in his defense on charges of statuatory rape and child pornography because of his religious devotion. His lawyer admitted that a plea may be the best course. “A lawyer I am. A magician I am not,” he said.

Two teenaged boys claim they endured years of sexual abuse at the hand of Emanual Yegutkin, a principal of a private Jewish school in Brooklyn, NY. The boys were abused between the ages of 7 and 17. Neither boy attended Yegutkin’s school. Yegutkin also worked as a lifeguard at a summer camp and was a ‘rising star’ in the Jewish community. His arrest is the fourth in the Orthodox Brooklyn community in the past three years.

You will find more abuse in the New York Hasidic community in a future post: Jews Behaving Badly #2

Initially, I learned of all of the above stories from reports in the March 2009 issue of Freethought Today, published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

For more information on these reports:

‘Graft’ rabbi off hook in doc assault
Olmert foe listed as Madoff victim

‘Perv’ Twist, ‘Occasional’ Hasid
Hasidic Jew Charged With Rape and Child Pornography Remains in Jail
Hasid ‘rapist’ fit for trial

Teen sex rap for principal of Bensonhurst private school

GODLESS NUMBERS RISE

        According to a 2008 survey just released by American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) and reported in a story in USA Today, people who call themselves Christians in the U.S. has dropped 11% in the last 18 years. The Bible Belt is not as Baptist as it was, the Rust Belt is less Catholic, and throughout the country people are exploring fringe religions or dropping religion completely. 

        Survey co-author Barry Kosmin says, "More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, 'I'm everything. I'm nothing. I believe in myself.'"

        In  the 1990 ARIS survey Kosmin concluded that many saw God as a "personal hobby." Today, he says, "Religion has become more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment for many."

        USA Today writer Cathy Lynn Grossman says that we have become a nation of freelancers when it comes to religion.

ARIS 2008 Survey findings include:

        • Americans claiming no religion is 15%, up from 8%

          in 1990

        • This non-religious category outranks every other

          major religious group except Catholics and Baptists.

        • Baptists stand at 15.8%, down from 19.3% in 1990

        • Mainstream Protestsants are in sharp decline.

          Methodists dropped from 8% to 5%

        • Jewish numbers declined from 1.8% to 1.2%

          (some surveys show higher numbers, but those 

          include "cultural" Jews who don't necessarily 

          practice their religion)

        • Muslims have doubled from 0.3% to 0.6%

        • Challenges to Christianity don't come from other

          religions but from rejection of all forms of religion

        • Nearly 2.8 million people identify with new

          movements such as Wiccan paganism.

        • While Oregon previously led the nation in those who 

          responded NONE when asked to identify a religious

          affiliation, Vermont now leads the country with 34%

        A 48 year old woman from Rutland, VT says she is upfront about being an atheist because "It's important for us to be counted. I'm a taxpayer and a law-abiding citizen and an ethical person, and I don't think people assume this about atheists."

Factors which played some role in declining numbers among the religious include:

        • News stories about sexual abuse by clergy

        • Young people affiliating with coworkers and online 

          friendships more than in churches.

        • People moving from strongly-religious older

          communities 

        • The "piety gap" between those who support gay

          marriage, abortion rights, and stem cell research and

          those who don't

        "Rise of the Godless," a report in National Journal, widely read by members of Congress, stated:

        "In the past, politicians in Washington and elsewhere could largely ignore the Godless. But those days are over. With their numbers growing, nonbelievers are intent on pushing a political and legislative agenda governed more by cool reason than by faith."

The USA Today story includes much more information.

Click HERE for interactive graphs and videos.

See also: Rise of the Godless from National Journal (in pdf format)

and The End of Christian America from Newsweek.

(Thanks to FRED from NV for alerting

me to the Newsweek article.)

MAN IS THE RELIGIOUS ANIMAL

“Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion —several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.”

(from "The Lowest Animal")

---MARK TWAIN

JOE THE ATHEIST

        Joe*, an atheist friend, was remarkable in that he had memorized nearly the entire Bible. More than 25 years ago, he often appeared on a Pittsburgh radio program with Rey, another local atheist. The program’s host, a Christian, always prefaced his program by suggesting that people not call in to argue the Bible with Joe and Rey, because, he told them, that these two atheists knew the Bible better than most believers. Rey knew it well, but Joe could quote thousands of passages without referencing any notes.
        Callers didn’t listen to the host’s advice.
        Although some listeners asked thoughtful questions, many callers quoted chapter and verse from the Bible, but Joe could always politely respond with a Biblical passage that contradicted the caller’s quoted passage. In every instant, at least one "good Christian" would call to damn the atheists, tell them they were the cause of all evil in the world and condemn them to horrible and painful illnesses and everlasting flames. Joe was soft spoken and never got angry no matter what insults were thrown at him from religious callers.

I wonder why many old radios were designed to look like Gothic church arches.

        The host often asked the question. “What horrible thing happened in your lives that caused you to become atheists?” Some atheists can pinpoint such an event as a trigger to religious doubts, but most can not. Joe explained his change in thought by saying that he started out as a believer with no doubts, then he became a believer with doubts, then a nonbeliever with doubts, and finally a nonbeliever without doubts. It was a lengthy evolutionary process. 

        It is this way for many atheists who start out in religious homes. Some start to have doubts as young as 5, but most start doubting in their teens, although some in their 20’s. One woman reported it took her until she was 60 to finally decide she was an atheist.**
        Many people believe no one can be good or moral without God. But Joe and his wife were among the nicest, most honorable, and most caring people I ever met.
         Several years before I met Joe, he and his wife had been nearing retirement age. They had brought up several children of their own. Joe’s wife worked for a county agency that helped place abused children into foster homes. Over the years, she had been given the cases of many children who had been in homes with ruthlessly cruel parents. One child had been forced to eat out of a dog’s dish on the floor. One barely spoke for fear of being beaten. Some of these children were in homes with strict religious zealots who abused the children.

        I am not implying that this happens in many religious homes. I am saying that being religious is not a guarantee of being kind or moral or being a loving parent.

        Joe and his wife took in two girls who had been abused in Christian homes, first as foster parents. Later they adopted them. Atheists are routinely discriminated against by judges deciding child custody cases and adoption agencies are often reluctant to place children in atheist homes. But because Mrs. Joe worked for the county and she was known for being an affectionate and responsible parent, she and Joe were able to adopt the girls. 

        As you can imagine, it is not an easy task to work with children who have been abused. It takes a lot of love and patience to earn their trust. Joe and his wife nurtured the girls in a loving atheist home.
        Joe and his wife didn’t need to do this. They could have happily retired. Taking in the girls meant they had to continue working until the girls completed college when Joe and his wife would be years beyond their projected retirement ages, but they did it anyway.

        Joe the atheist ---one of the best people I ever knew.

* * * * *

*Unlike Joe the Plumber, Joe was my friend's real name. He was the proud father of several of his own children and his adopted daughters, a self-taught Biblical scholar, and an atheist. Sadly, he died several years ago. I miss his soft-spoken wisdom on the radio.

**These statistics are from a book summarized in another of my posts  HERE.

copyright 2009 by C.Woods

ATHEIST HUMOR

Click on these links for some atheist humor:

http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=32730
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=7128
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=5453
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=27870
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=3786
http://www.motifake.com/atheism-demotivational-poster-37960.html

and my personal favorite:
http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=25041

The web site MotiFake has over 38,000 fake motivational posters.
You can enter keywords to search for others in many categories.

Thanks to my friend Fred in Las Vegas for directing me to this website.

WHY ARE THERE ATHEISTS?

A 2006 Study of America’s Nonbelievers

        In a book titled Atheists, A Groundbreaking Study of America's Nonbelievers (by Bruce Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer, 2006) the study of atheists in America confirms that most atheists, like most religious people, form their beliefs from their upbringing.
        About 30% of the atheists taking part in the study had at least one agnostic or atheist parent and most of the rest had parents who believed in God or maybe even belonged to a particular religion, but didn’t regularly partake in religious activities or emphasize religion in their homes.
        Yet a quarter of the participants in the study had come from homes that emphasized religion to a “moderate extent” and more than 10% to an “appreciable extent.” The members of this latter group were dubbed, in the study, as “Amazing Atheists” because despite coming from very religious homes, they rejected their religious training.
        How could there be such a complete religious turn around in the group of “Amazing Atheists”?
        The authors interviewed 46 “Amazing Atheists” in depth, to determine the cause of their dramatic change. Their conclusion was that the indoctrination didn’t fail completely, but instead worked rather well. The “Amazing Atheists” group overwhelmingly stated they gave up their faith because they could not make themselves believe what they had been taught. They decided that the religious dogma was not true. This adherence to the truth came, ironically, from their strong religious upbringing. As children they had been taught to do the right thing, to be ethical and have integrity. However, when religious questions were not answered to their satisfaction, religion took second place to truth.
        The authors stated, “They were trapped...and had no other choice. So as a first cause, their upbringing was not repudiated by their apostasy, but startlingly fulfilled by it.... If they had cared less, if their home religion had not fostered a strong drive for the truth and integrity in them, and if they had not overcome their fear of going it alone, they probably would not have quit it.”
        Another factor in this group was intelligence. The members of the “Amazing Atheists” group were quite bright and may have searched for answers through reading and study. When they found flaws in traditional religious teachings, they wanted to decide for themselves rather than accept religious teachings on faith.
        In the total study which questioned both religious and non-religious people, almost everyone admitted to having doubts about their own beliefs at some point in their lives. However, most of the religious people who remained religious after a period of doubt, dropped the questions or resolved them in their religion’s favor. Many consulted parents or ministers who, of course, shepherded them back to their religions.
        Those with weaker religious backgrounds or those who were both inquisitive and intelligent were more likely to search more widely and their questions may have turned into active doubts.
        The authors of the study found that many atheists from non-religious homes admit to having gone through a religious period in their lives, usually starting around age 7 or 8, and this period may have lasted several years. In most cases, non-religious parents don’t preach against religion, but rather expect their children to decide for themselves. Some children, of course, decide to stay in the religion, but many eventually see the flaws their parents saw and leave.
        Serious doubts about religion among the “Amazing Atheists” usually emerged in adolescence (median age of 15, but ranging from age 5 to 50.) What triggers these doubts? Most skepticism began over ideas.
        More than any one thing, atheists say reading the Bible started them questioning. Some say interest in science or evolution was a trigger. Some mentioned reading books by atheists or freethinkers. Hypocrisy in churchgoers bothered others. A few started doubting religions when they learned there was no Santa Claus. Many doubted reports of religious miracles, bleeding statues or were skeptical of the sincerity of TV evangelists. Most realized that all religions couldn’t be true, so maybe none were. Many were put off by religious intolerance, including homophobia. Many were disturbed by the history of religion, including atrocities committed in the name of God during the Crusades and the Inquisition, and more recently by religious terrorists.
        One additional factor was that many were turned off by the Religious Right and its attempts to interfere with government. Thus, by their aggressive tactics and inflexible opinions, instead of attracting more people to their religious beliefs, they actually drove people away from religion.

        I grew up in a highly religious home. What triggered my atheism? Probably all of the above to some extent or other. But I have to agree that reading the Bible was the trigger that started my doubt and was the biggest factor in my rejection of religion. Once a little stone fell out of the structure of my parents' beliefs, more cracks formed as I found more and more inconsistencies and impossibilities in religion. Eventually it all crumbled before me. 

Please see my post: WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part 1

      

WOMEN AND RELIGION - Part 1

STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY, American feminist, social reformer (1815-1902):

• “The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman’s emancipation.”

• “Every form of religion which has breathed upon this earth has degraded women. Man himself could not do this; but when he declares ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ of course he can do it.”

• “The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstitions of the Christian religion.”

• “Woman’s discontent increases in exact proportion to her development.” (Running Press, The Quotable Woman, 1991)

ANTHONY, SUSAN B., American suffragette (1820-1906):

• “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

• “I tell them I have worked 40 years to make the W.S. platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon, and now if need be I will fight the next 40 to keep it Catholic enough to permit the straightest Orthodox religionist to speak or pray and count her beads upon.”(speaking about the Women's Suffrage platform)

• “I was born a heretic... I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.”

• “To no form of religion is woman indebted for one impulse of freedom, as all alike have taught her inferiority and subjection... Throughout this protracted and disgraceful assault on American womanhood, the clergy baptized each new insult and act of injustice in the name of the Christian religion, and uniformly asked God’s blessing on proceedings that would have put to shame an assembly of Hottentots.” (Statement signed by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage.)

• “The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God.”(from Rufus K. Noyes, Views of Religion, quoted from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief)

• “What you should say to outsiders is that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our Association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it.” (Susan B. Anthony: A Biography, by Kathleen Barry, New York University Press, 1988, p.310)