What can an atheist say to a grieving friend?

What can an atheist say to a friend who is grieving the death of a loved one? Believers have a standard repertoire: "He's with God now." "I'll pray for you." "She's in heaven now." As I've written before, I don't really have a standard phrase to utter in those situations, but that's probably for the best. I certainly don't want to sound like a greeting card. Greta Christina recently raised this same issue. She and her readers compiled a list of approaches for people who don't believe in God. Her extensive list includes the following: 1. "I'm so sorry." 2. "I remember when... /My life is so much better because of..." 3. "What can I do to help?"

Continue ReadingWhat can an atheist say to a grieving friend?

Why we kill and why THEY kill

Here's what Glenn Greenwald has to say about the way we characterize the motives of Americans who kill others versus others who kill Americans:

Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivated U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to allegedly kill 16 Afghans, including 9 children: he was drunk, he was experiencing financial stress, he was passed over for a promotion, he had a traumatic brain injury, he had marital problems, he suffered from the stresses of four tours of duty, he “saw his buddy’s leg blown off the day before the massacre,” etc. Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivates Muslims to kill Americans: they are primitive, fanatically religious, hateful Terrorists.
Although Greenwald doesn't analyze it in such terms, this is the classic ingroup-outgroup effect. For ingroup members, we make excuses. For members of outgroups, we pour on the venom. Most Americans are repulsed by the idea that we would actually try to understand the "terrorists'" actions by trying the see the world through their eyes. What is that viewpoint? Greenwald offers some ideas:
[T]hey’re responding to American violence in their country; they are traumatized and angry at the continuous deaths of Muslim children and innocent adults; they’ve calculated that striking at Americans is the only way to deter further American aggression in their part of the world.

Continue ReadingWhy we kill and why THEY kill

What would happen without public funding for family planning?

How important is it to publicly fund family planning? Consider the following information from a mass emailing I just received from Guttmacher Institute:

Publicly funded family planning services play a crucial role in improving maternal and child health, helping women and couples achieve their fundamental childbearing goals and achieve economic security for themselves and their children. These efforts save almost $4 for every $1 invested and help avert almost two million unintended pregnancies per year, which would otherwise have resulted in 860,000 unintended births and 810,000 abortions. Without these services, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.
The email included this link for additional information on this topic of public funding. Consider the information provided by Guttmacher under the heading: "WHO NEEDS CONTRACEPTIVE SERVICES?" • The typical American woman, who wants two children, spends about five years pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant, and three decades—more than three-quarters of her reproductive life—trying to avoid pregnancy. • About half of all pregnancies in the United States each year—more than three million—are unintended. By age 45, more than half of all American women will have experienced an unintended pregnancy, and three in 10 will have had an abortion. • There were 66 million U.S. women of reproductive age (13–44) in 2008. • More than half of these women (36 million) were in need of contraceptive services and supplies; that is, they were sexually active and able to become pregnant, but were not pregnant and did not wish to become pregnant. The number of women in need of contraceptive services and supplies increased 6% between 2000 and 2008. And consider the following, under the topic, "Who Needs Publicly Funded Service: • Among the 17.4 million women in need of publicly funded contraceptive care, 71% (12.4 million) were poor or low-income adults, and 29% (5 million) were younger than 20. Four in 10 poor women of reproductive age have no insurance coverage whatsoever. Guttmacher offers a wealth of statistics here.

Continue ReadingWhat would happen without public funding for family planning?

Big shake

It was the middle of the afternoon and my family and I (my wife and I have two teenaged daughters) were in the car headed for home. We agreed that this would be a junk food moment, something we don't do often. The two items most mentioned in the car were french fries and a chocolate shake. "Hey, there's a White Castle up ahead," I mentioned. I pulled up and ordered the "large chocolate shake" and some fries. None of us drink soft drinks, though we had all heard that there were some large serving sizes out there. What emerged from the window nonetheless startled all of us: A 44-ounce chocolate shake. We hauled it home and split it among the four of us. By the time we all gave up on it, there was still a bit left. Which inspired me to check the White Castle nutrition website. This 44-ounce drink is 1030 calories including 210 calories of fat (White Castle's large strawberry shake is as much as 1,300 calories in many regions). I'm not writing this to single out White Castle--many fast food joints offer similar fare. It was a worthwhile anthropological adventure, though, to see what (I assume) some people drink all on their own. PS. We all enjoyed the shake.

Continue ReadingBig shake