Religion

The latest ApostAZ podcast is now available: Episode 013 Atheism and Shit-Free Thought in Phoenix! Go to meetup.com/phoenix-atheists for group events! All Music from Greydon Square- CPT Theorem, Ten Things the Pope Hates About Reality, Some Obama Topics, Family Planning and Stem Cell Research, REBT: Self-Downing. Jan. 31: Filming for ArizonaCOR welcome video (happened today). Feb. 13: Phoenix Atheists meetup new member welcome at Baby Kay’s. Feb. 15: SMOCA 10th anniversary, Phoenix Atheists will attend. Feb. 18: Daniel Dennett speaking at ASU on “Darwin’s Strange Inversion of Reasoning.” Phoenix Atheists will attend. Comments on this episode: I don’t think the difference between a religion and a cult is just the number of members, though growing large enough certainly tends to change social perception. As I’ve written previously at this blog, I think the characteristics that make a group a cult are something like Steve Hassan’s BITE model (Behavior control, Information control, Thought control, Emotional control) or better yet (since it doesn’t depend on questionable notions of mind control), Isaac Bonewits’ Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF).

Via the Village Voice, a prerecord call promoting a Scientology event by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson (and a Scientologist): Eamon Knight (2009-01-30): Is she violating any Fox IP by using the Bart Simpson persona in her pitch? Lippard (2009-01-30): Probably.When Dan Castellaneta introduced Paul Krassner for a standup performance, in character as Homer Simpson, that was recorded for a CD, Artemis Records contacted Fox for permission to use it, and was denied. (But apparently they haven't gone after Paul for putting the MP3 on his website.) ...

A conference on “The Religious-Secular Divide: The U.S. Case” will be held on March 5-6, 2009 at The New School in New York City. The conference will: explore the tension between religion and secularity in the United States, which is long-standing, widespread, and increasingly intense. This is evident in contemporary debates over such issues as evolution and intelligent design, the importance of religion in political decision-making, and in spiritual or faith-based philanthropy. These issues will be addressed from the perspectives of religious studies, legal studies, political science, sociology, and philosophy. Charles Taylor will deliver the keynote address on March 5th at 6:00pm.The conference website may be found here. The current speaker list is: Richard J. Bernstein Jose Casanova David L. Chappell William E. Connolly James Davison Hunter Daniel Dennett Noah Feldman Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad Susan F. Harding George Kateb Mark Lilla David Martin Michael W. McConnell James A. Morone John T. Noonan, Jr. Ann Pellegrini Winnifred Sullivan Charles Taylor Peter van der Veer ...

The latest ApostAZ podcast is now available: Episode 012 Atheism and Nonsense-Free Thought in Phoenix! Go to meetup.com/phoenix-atheists for group events! Solstice Party Wrap Up, January Events, UK Atheist Bus, Papua New Guinea Witch Burning… In This Century! Yeah! Jeremy’s Funeral Proselytization, REBT: Unconditional Other Acceptance.Comments: The “penis panics” (also known as “koro” or “genital retraction syndrome”) are typically in Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin, but have also appeared in parts of Asia such as China and Singapore. Jeremy’s funeral proselytization story is unfortunate. I’ve attended a few too many funeral services of late (six so far this century), of which four have been religious and two have been completely secular. All of the religious ones had a tone to them that occasionally seemed to assume that everyone present was Christian, but none had a hellfire component or a call to Jesus that I remember–they were focused on remembering the person who was gone and addressing the loss of the people present. I have heard of churches that emphasize the hellfire component, and in 2003 a priest at the funeral service of Ben Martinez in Chama, NM, said that the deceased was a lukewarm Catholic who now burns in hell. The family filed a lawsuit over it. Shannon and Noel, congratulations on your engagement! Re: Jeremy’s godfather story–you should say sure, you’ll be happy to tell the kid all about their faith, thinking to yourself, “including that most of what you believe is not true.” ...

The photo P.Z. linked here with was taken in Phoenix, Arizona in February 1999, near the intersection of 19th Ave. and Campbell. The post at this blog which links to it is this one. While you’re here, here’s an index of some of my better posts. Gridman (2009-01-14): It's funny, I live just a few blocks from that intersection and pass it all the time. I can't recall ever seeing the sign. ...

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars points out an account of a 15-year-old kidnapped from his grandmother’s house at the request of his parents, and taken to the Utah Boys Ranch, then run by Utah Senator Chris Buttars. Apparently the mind-control treatment didn’t take, and he started the Utah Boys Ranch Network to expose the abuse. DFV (2009-02-19): Sorry to bother you, but...This is now Feb. 19th - why can't I find ONE DAMNED THING on the Mormon Gulag in major papers, TV, blogs, etc. after January? E.G.: was West Ridge Academy's license renewed? Why wasn't any of this covered by mainstream media?Dan [email protected] ...

Jeff Jacobsen and Mark Bunker are hosting a 90-minute Internet radio show on the battle between Scientology and the Internet that took place before Anonymous, and it’s about to start now (4 p.m. Arizona time, 3 p.m. PST, 6 p.m. EST). A number of old-timers from alt.religion.scientology will likely be calling in. It’s on blogtalkradio, show title is “Old-Timers give a history lesson." First guest: Modemac, skeptic, SubGenius, and author of an Introduction to Scientology website, on the early history of alt.religion.scientology. Second guest: Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology, an early major book-length criticism of Scientology, who was the victim of dirty tricks including framing her for a bomb threat and filing 19 lawsuits against her. Third guest: Ron Newman, author of the Church of Scientology vs. the Net web pages and alt.religion.scientology regular. Fourth guest: Yours truly. UPDATE (January 5, 2009): A few clarifications and additional links: The “Miss Bloodybutt” story Modemac referred to is described in the article Jeff and I wrote in Skeptic magazine, which includes dates. The -AB- posting didn’t predate the event and included information from the police report. I interviewed Tom Klemesrud and Linda Woolard as part of my research for that story. I was taken out to lunch by Scientology’s Mesa Org OSA Director, Ginny Leeson, who asked what they could do to stop the criticism and pickets. My reply was that if they stopped suing people and trying to stop criticism, the pickets would probably stop. Ginny Leeson was soon replaced by a new OSA Director, Leslie Duhrman, who was a lot more hostile and aggressive–she went after picketer Bruce Pettycrew with legal action. I have received legal threats from Scientology and a DMCA notice, but nothing ever came of them; I periodically see Church of Scientology IP addresses visiting my web sites (also here). My Scientology private investigators page is still online, though woefully out-of-date. I wasn’t the one who first called for coordinated international pickets, that was Jeff Jacobsen. I did issue (on behalf of the “Ad Hoc Committee Against Internet Censorship”) the first coordinated press release about why the picketing was occurring, in response to Scientology’s “Cancelbunny” that was issuing cancellations of Usenet posts containing their secrets. There was a Salon.com article in 1999 about Susan Mullaney (“xenubat”)’s posted audio files of L. Ron Hubbard saying embarrassing things, which Scientology used the DMCA to shut down. She issued a counter-notice and the material came back online. Some of those clips were used in very funny Scientology-critical songs by “Enturbulator 009” or the “El Queso All-Stars." I’ve previously posted a “Scientology sampler” of my history of Scientology criticism and some posts about the “Anonymous” protests. This blog has a “Scientology” label you can click to find all my Scientology-related posts.

The creationist video I was filmed for, Creation Ministries International’s “Facing the Fire,” a documentary about the 1988 creation/evolution debate between Ian Plimer and Duane Gish, is available on YouTube in four parts (and embedded below). I first appear around 4:34 in the first segment, at 1:06 in the second, at 1:04 in the third, and at the very beginning of the fourth segment. I described my experience being filmed and reasons for appearing in this documentary here, my reaction to the result here (which includes links to critiques of Gish), and you can find the articles I refer to in the documentary here: “Some Failures of Organized Skepticism," The Arizona Skeptic vol. 3, no. 1, January 1990, pp. 2-5. “How Not to Argue with Creationists," Creation/Evolution vol. 11, issue XXIX, Winter 1991-92, pp. 9-21. “How Not to Respond to Criticism: Barry Price Compounds His Errors," talkorigins.org FAQ, 1993. “Criticisms from an Obscure Corner of the World," review of Plimer’s Telling Lies for God. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: ...

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that the United States is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. ...

Last Sunday, Rick Warren recorded a video for his congregation in which he denies ever comparing gay marriages to incest or pedophilia: I have been accused of equating gay partnerships with incest and pedophila. Now, of course as members of Saddleback Church, you know I believe no such thing, I never have. You’ve never once heard me in thirty years talk that way about that.But Rachel Maddow shows that he made exactly that comparison: I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage. Q. Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married? Oh, I do!Rick Warren has been caught lying, in addition to being anti-gay and anti-evolution. He should ask to be taken off the agenda for the inauguration, and if he doesn’t, Barack Obama should just withdraw his invitation to speak. ...