Consider the reasoning process of our top leader, who has the responsibility of steering us through incredibly dangerous times. The following excerpt is from Editor and Publisher: I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true . . . One, I believe…
I have to admit, when I read grumpypilgrim’s post that the evidence supporting Christianity is on par with the evidence supporting alien abduction, I got nervous. It sounded so very harsh. I couldn’t help thinking of the many sincerely Christians who would be insulted by such a comparison. I’m well aware that many Christians (including many of the people who regularly visit this site) are incredibly generous people who give much more back to this world than they take. I truly admire their good works. It is not my purpose (and I’m sure it’s not grumpypilgrim’s purpose) to insult them. I’ve tried to make this clear as part of other posts.
On the other hand, grumpypilgrim’s post reminded me of some of the many questions Daniel Dennett raised in his recent book, Breaking the Spell (2006). On page 210, for example, Dennett cited Richard Dawkins (from A Devil’s Chaplain):
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
I have often criticized believers who are so absolutely certain of their own beliefs, all of which are based upon a personal “feeling” and apocryphal writings, that they take political steps to disparage the beliefs and doubts of all other people. Jimmy Carter has termed such people “fundamentalists,”:
…A fundamentalist believes, say, in religious circles, that I am close to God. Everything that I believe is absolutely right. Anyone who disagrees with me, in any case,
I can’t believe that it’s actually necessary to argue that we should allow medical research that might give numerous people a fighting change to survive horrible diseases. But here we are. We live in an age where many things have been turned upside down.
I wrote the following letter on November 27, 2005 after attending Catholic Mass at a church in my neighborhood. I attended because I had heard that priests throughout Missouri had been instructed by their superiors to preach against a proposed Missouri Constitutional Amendment that would allow stem cell research to continue
Washington University in St. Louis is a major medical research center that conducts stem cell research. The Missouri legislature has regularly threatened to prohibit stem cell research in Missouri, giving rise to a proposed Amendment that is being promoted by The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.
MCLC describes the amendment as follows:
…Should Missouri patients have access to medical cures that are available to other Americans?
That’s the key issue that led a coalition of patient and medical groups to develop the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, a voter referendum measure proposed for the November 2006 statewide ballot.Stem cells could provide cures for diseases and injuries that afflict hundreds of thousands of Missouri children and adults and millions of other Americans – including diabetes, Parkinson’s, cancer, heart disease, ALS, sickle cell disease and spinal cord injury.
Unfortunately, some politicians in Jefferson City are trying to pass state laws that would ban
Part I: What's really in the Bible? Although I have regularly picked up my King James Bible, I haven't had the stamina to plow all the way through. Kudos to the authors of the "Skeptic's Annotated Bible." We know they really made it to the end because they left proof…
I love that there are people like Erich Vieth in the world, people who take the time to refute dangerous “fact” spouters like the Creationists who got themselves powered up to the top of the Google listings for vestigial organs. I love that he researches so thoroughly and carefully points out the enormous flaws in what passes for logic in the world of the fanatical faithful. They need to be pointed out, those flaws. Because in recent years, their voices have become very, very loud. And often, unfortunately, loud wins. Especially when loud is accompanied by legislation, or worse, explosives.
Seems fanatics, whether they be Christian, Muslim or otherwise, are dead-set on yelling the loudest and therefore claiming victory. It pains me. It obviously pains lots of people; even most flocks of the faithful can see that anything carried too far becomes dangerous. People like Erich, or Al Franken, say, do good work. I applaud them.
I, on the other hand, might be more likely to just cover my ears and say “la-la-la-la-LA-I-CAN’T-HEAR-YOU!”
Yeah, yeah, I know, not particularly effective in the battle against ignorance. It’s just that I get soooo tired of it. Of the fighting, of the rhetoric, of the nonsense that parades as so much religion and the often arrogant verbosity working to knock down the many points of faith, one at a time, but not being heard because, after all, if you believe, you don’t need proof. Or un-proof, as it were.
I happen …