Atheism

ApostAZ podcast #8 is out: Episode 008 Atheism and Sam Kinnison!!! in Phoenix- Go to atheists.meetup.com/157 for group events! Discussion of Matthew 10:10’s Energeticism. (Matt: you have an open invite to be on the show and discuss it) Basics of Evolutionary Psychology. http://www.mixx.com/s… Billboards and Photos.This is really #9, and #8 is the “lost” podcast, thanks to the burglary of Brad’s home and theft of his computer. My comments on energeticism may be found at the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group message board. I’ve got a copy of Matthew’s book but haven’t been able to get past the first chapter.

A group of us from the Phoenix Atheists Meetup had lunch today near one of the billboards and used the occasion for a photo op. This is one of the five billboards, which, contrary to my earlier descriptions, are all of the “Imagine No Religion” design. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen the “Beware of Dogma” design up, as well as the “Keep Religion Out of Politics” slogan. (If I obtain permission, I’ll update this photo with one of the group shots, which can be seen at the Phoenix Atheists Meetup site.) There’s some additional coverage in Ed Montini’s column at the Arizona Republic.

Lori Lipman Brown, the nonbelievers’ lobbyist in Washington D.C., will appear on The Colbert Report tonight. She works for the Secular Coalition of America, an organization whose members include the American Humanist Association, the American Ethical Union, Atheist Alliance International, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Institute for Humanist Studies, the Internet Infidels, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, the Secular Students Alliance, and the Society for Humanistic Judaism. UPDATE: She won’t be on tonight–maybe next week? UPDATE (August 30, 2008): She was on last night’s show, which is online. ...

The Arizona Republic has a story up about the FFRF billboards coming to Phoenix, with quotes from a local atheist, clergy, and a legislator. The quotes from the atheist, Harold Saferstein of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, and the clergyman, Bob Mitchell, senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church, are both quite reasonable. The quote from the legislator, Sen. Linda Gray, not so much. She is quoted as writing in an email that “The FFRF fails to acknowledge history which recognized the strong Christian commitment of those who attended the Constitutional Convention.” First of all, how does she know what FFRF “fails to acknowledge” unless she is very familiar with the organization, which I doubt. Second, it’s Gray who’s talking out of her hat. While most of America’s Founding Fathers were nominally Christian, this was the same Constitutional Convention that voted against opening its meetings with prayers and produced a document that contains no references to a deity except in the year before the signatures ("Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth"). It is a document which explicitly says in Article VI that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Its primary author, James Madison, was a strong advocate of strict separation of church and state who thought that even government-paid legislative chaplains were a violation of religious liberty. Mitchell, the pastor quoted in the story, is quoted as saying “I don’t have a problem with people expressing their points of view in public. … I would prefer that there was serious tolerant dialogue that might emerge from this publicity campaign because it is much needed.” The article says he hoped that there would be no backlash against the billboards, but would not be surprised if it happened. I agree with him. (My previous posts on the FFRF billboards coming to Phoenix are here, here, and here.) UPDATE: The Arizona Republic fails to note that much of the money for these billboards was raised by the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group. Here are the specific billboard locations: The five new billboard locations are confirmed and approved by CBS Outdoor. They are on surface streets all within 1 to 3 miles of central Phoenix. Billboards are numbered and say CBS on them. #2501 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: 19th Ave & Fillmore. Located just west of the State Capital area on 19th Ave. Best viewing occurs while traveling northbound on 19th Ave just prior to Fillmore. The sign is on the west side of 19th Ave. This location is within a few blocks of the Capital Complex. #2701 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: Van Buren & 15th Ave. Located just north east of the State Capital area on Van Buren. Best viewing occurs while traveling eastbound on Van Buren just prior to 15th Ave. The sign is on the south side of Van Buren and is located within a few blocks of the State Capital complex. #2821 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: Indian School & 23rd St. Best viewing occurs while traveling westbound on Indian School Rd just after 23rd St. The sign is on the south side of Indian School Rd. #2911 Start Date: August 29 Cross streets: McDowell & 14th St. Located just northwest of the downtown area on McDowell Rd. Best viewing occurs while traveling eastbound on McDowell just after 14th St. The sign is on the north side of McDowell. The Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center is within a few blocks. #2945 Start Date: August 29 Cross Streets: McDowell & 3rd St. Best viewing occurs while traveling westbound on McDowell. The sign is on the southwest corner of McDowell and 3rd St.UPDATE: I was interviewed today by Brian Webb of KNXV-TV ABC 15 News and by Melissa Gonzalo of KPNX NBC 12 News about the billboards, as a local member of FFRF and the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group. Their stories should air tonight, at 5 or 6 p.m. on 15 and at 6 p.m. on 12. The NBC story should appear on their website after it airs, and both suspected that the stories would air again with footage of the actual billboards on Friday. This story has also been covered by NPR locally, and is the subject of a very poorly worded poll on Fox News 10, which seems to think that the only two possible reactions to the billboard are not be offended because it’s free speech (not because you agree with it) or to be offended because America needs religion. P.Z. Myers has pointed Pharyngulites to the poll, so at least it has a sizable majority supporting freedom of speech. UPDATE: The Channel 15 interview aired at 5 p.m. and I was happy with the result. (This video is two segments, one 0:41 segment that I’m not in, and a 1:36 segment where I appear from about 0:49 to 0:52.) Here’s the video I appear in: The Channel 12 interview aired at 6 p.m., and Melissa Gonzalo did a better job–she spent more time in the interview, and her piece came out better, in my opinion (but what’s with the “Billboard Battle” tagline? What battle?). It’s here: ...

The latest ApostAZ podcast is out: Episode 007 Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- Go to atheists.meetup.com/157 for group events! Monthly Meetup Epilogue. Debate Tactics and Rhetoric. Sweden Rules Against Prayer as Truth: http://www.guardian.co.uk/. Prayer and Aggression. Obama and Faith Based Initiatives. Pickett Church? http://www.atheistrev.com/ Aggression study: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120083092/abstract. Greydon Square’s Album ‘The Compton Effect’Funny analogy from Shannon: “Prayer is a homeless dude on your couch." Charity Navigator is another site similar to CharityWatch. Shannon incorrectly states that McCain is a creationist. He’s not. And the Creation Museum is in Kentucky, not Tennessee. Picketing churches on the basis of its beliefs and doctrines is a terrible idea that should be left to Fred Phelps and similar kooks. The picketing of the Church of Scientology has generally been based on its behavior, not its doctrines–to the extent the focus is on opposing criminal behavior, that’s reasonable.

The Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group has sent a letter (PDF) and ten questions (PDF) to John McCain, Barack Obama, and the 114 candidates for the Arizona State Senate and House of Representatives who are listed in the Citizens Clean Election Commission candidate statement booklet. Any received answers will be posted here. The ten questions are: 1) Given a legislative voting scenario that presents you with a direct conflict between your religious beliefs/values and your duties to uphold the Constitution which do you choose and how would you make that decision? 2) What is your position regarding prayer while acting in your official capacity as an elected official and what role if any do you think prayer should play in the legislative body you wish to hold? 3) What is your position on enacting law that has religious tenets and/or dogma as its main motivation and reasoning? 4) Is it acceptable for elected officials to hold back or alter scientific reports if they conflict with their own views, and how will you balance scientific information with politics and personal beliefs in your decision-making? 5) Should the modern synthesis of Creationism known as “Intelligent Design” be taught in the public school and is it acceptable for religious ideology to interfere in science? 6) Would you allow a non theistic individual (atheist, humanist, freethinker, etc) to openly serve on your staff? 7) What is your position on a constitutional amendment to define marriage and if in favor of a constitutional amendment to define marriage are your motivations religious or secular? 8) What is your position on abstinence-only sex education? 9) What is your position on government regulation and funding of stem cell research? 10) With regards specifically to the establishment of the United States as a nation, the history of the United States, and the law of the United States do you consider our country to be a “Christian Nation”?

The FFRF billboards planned for Phoenix that were supposed to be launched on August 18 have been postponed after CBS Outdoor became uncomfortable with the “Imagine No Religion” slogan. They have decided to apply an analogue of their policy requiring that billboards advertising alcohol and tobacco, which must be at least 1000 feet from any school or church. Apparently CBS Outdoor considers atheism to be equivalent to alcohol or tobacco, unfit to be advertised near sensitive churchgoers or students. They are probably within their rights to do this–they own the billboards–but their belief that this is a sound business decision is pretty absurd and cowardly. (I haven’t actually seen the contracts, but I suspect they are crafted in such a way to leave themselves the option to move locations or even cancel the contract if there’s a whiff of controversy that they’d prefer to avoid.) I suspect the locations of the billboards are unlikely to make much difference about whether controversy is generated, but this change gives CBS Outdoor something they can appeal to in response to criticism–see, we tried to be sensitive to religious concerns about the expression of disagreement. The new locations are likely to be approved on Monday, and I’ll report here what they are. I’m actually surprised that there are any billboard locations in Phoenix that aren’t within 1000 feet of a church or a school. (Previously, previously, subsequently.)

The FFRF billboards are going to start earlier than planned, and unfortunately the first one will be up on August 18, when I’ll be in Maryland. Here’s the new schedule: Billboard #2501 Start Date: August 18 – 19th Ave. and Fillmore Billboard #2005 Start Date: August 25 – Jefferson and 13th St. Billboard #2911 Start Date: August 25 – McDowell and 14th St. Billboard #1103 Start Date: September 1 – 3rd Ave. and Van Buren Billboard #1245 Start Date: September 8 – 7th St. and Coolidge Each billboard will be up for one month, so the billboards will be up from August 18 to October 8 instead of from September 1-October 1. (Previously.)

Rod Dreher wrote a column on the Beliefnet blog titled “P.Z. Myers hates Christians exclusively," in ignorance of the fact that his desecration of a consecrated host also included pages from the Koran and from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I think it’s fair to criticize Myers for being too easy on the Muslims who have reacted with violence for the Mohammed cartoons, but to say that he “hates Christians exclusively” is a gross misrepresentation of his views. I’ve responded to a couple of comments at the blog, which is full of comments from blinkered hypocrites who fail to recognize the beams in their own eyes: Houghton writes (July 14, 2008 3:08 PM): “Those who think of themselves as “brights” will now start behaving in increasingly nakedly aggressive ways in America and the rest of the West. There won’t be a need to “spiritualize” at that point, because the snarling rage and violent attacks we’ll witness will be quite open for all to see." But it’s not Myers who has promoted violence or criminal activity, it’s the Catholics who have been sending him death threats and threats of violence against his children, yet where is your condemnation of that? A “Fr. J”, posting at Pharyngula, made a similar remark to the above, and tried to claim that the recent attempted attack on a Christian radio station on College Station, PA was by an atheist–when in fact the man was a mentally ill Christian off his meds. And the FBI’s primary suspect for the 2001 anthrax attacks who just killed himself was a Catholic. Back in 2006, a conservative Christian was arrested in Los Angeles for sending threats and fake anthrax. Francis Beckwith commented (July 15, 2008 11:36 AM): “According to PZ, Catholic outrage is unwarranted, but Muslim outrage is, though the latter hurt their cause because they resort to violence. Muslims are portrayed as victims, albeit irrational and misguided, who harm their cause by overreacting. Catholics are told by PZ to remain completely silent and speak only when spoken to as they sit in the back of the secular bus." Where has P.Z. Myers criticized Catholics for being outraged, as opposed to criticizing them for issuing death threats, threatening the lives of his children, trying to get him fired from his job, trying to get Webster Cook and his friend expelled from the University of Central Florida, and for saying things that are idiotic, like the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy’s laughably absurd statement about the meaning of the First Amendment. You should give that statement a read.

ApostAZ podcast #6 is up: Episode 006 Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- Go to atheists.meetup.com/157 for group events! Jim Lippard teases three cool books. “Squared” from Greydon Square’s ‘The Compton Effect’. Evolution Laments God of the Gaps. Saying Naughty Words. Bad reasons to be an atheist. Outro from ‘Dream’ Greydon Square’s Album ‘The Compton Effect’Comments: The podcast gets better each time. I disagree with the idea that everyone who is an agnostic is just trying to be politically correct, or is fence-sitting out of non-rational reasons. John Wilkins and Paul Draper are two examples of philosophers who are agnostic because they have rational reasons for thinking that there is some balance between arguments for and against the existence of gods, that there aren’t methods for weighing such arguments, or that there isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that gods exist or do not exist. ...