I hate him so much.

Photo courtesy of atheistcartoons.com

Defining Facts and Truth

I don't have as much time to blog this week as I would like (damn "real" job) but I found this great photo on the "Godless Girl" blog (really should check it out - great site: www.godlessgirl.com) via rejectfairytales (www.rejectfairytales.com).


Next up: Does the Atheist movement need to drop atom bombs or are a million little pin pricks a better approach? Should be up by Thursday. Come back.


Again, check out Godless Girl - love her site.
 

Thank You Atheist Blogroll

The Atheist Pub has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

A Thought on Children and Belief.....

"It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so"
 - Ernestine Rose






I couldn't agree more with Ms. Rose, the great American atheist, feminist, abolotionist, and suffragist. If children aren't born able to feed themselves, the most primitive of acts, there is no way they have any inate concept of gods (now that's purity). This is why it so imperative that our children are brought up atheist, regardless of the chosen faiths of their parents, to the age where they have the maturity to decide for themselves what they believe. Does this mean that I won't let my daughter attend a religious ceremony with a friend if she asks? Not in the least. In fact, I think exposing children to the range of religious doctrines in the world gives them the opportunity to ask questions and form their mature belief system. The problem arises when the answers to these questions are woven in dogma. My daughter will obviously be exposed to atheist parents but our answers will  not be disrespectful of the other faiths. They will however be accurate: "We don't believe in gods because there is no evidence of them and mommy and daddy base their beliefs on logic and reason. The gods you just heard of are not based on these things and require blind faith - you will have to decide what works for you." What are the chances of believers following a similar path with their children?

If I could design my daughter's future....

• Literal belief in anything supernatural, including the Abrahamic faiths, occupying but the irrelevant fringes of society. People would continue to be free to believe but these believers would exist as an insignificant pocket of society similar to today's readers of palms and tea leaves.
• Today's "super-religions" evolving to become "mythology clubs" with no literal belief. People getting together in churches, temples, and mosques to enjoy the artistic elements of holy books and once-believed myths with open debate on their historical veracity and metaphorical nuances. Similar to a book club but with greater fulfillment, as the members can reminisce over wine about the days where they (and later their ancestors) believed fiction to be non-fiction. "Remember when we thought this was the blood of Christ? hahahahahaha!"
• A society of skeptics. Not in a "don't trust anyone" sense but rather in an intellectually stimulating one. People believing that which has significant sums of measurable evidence; debating and challenging that which does not; and open to being proven wrong.
• A general understanding of the meaning of the word "proven."
• God, Allah, and Mohamed sharing relevance with Zeus, Big Bird, and James Bond.
• A world where wars are not fought because of or behind the guise of religion (because there would  be none). Why not a world with no wars? Because I am an atheist not an idiot. As long as the world has humans it will have wars.
• Schools where science is taught in science class and mythology taught in mythology class.
• Social policy being created by intelligent, democratically elected men and women and shaped by the collective wishes of the skeptical public not by messages from the leader's imaginary friends.
• Men marrying women. Women marrying women. Men marrying men. Men not marrying anyone. Women not marrying anyone. No one really caring about any of these scenarios.
• Mr. Ratzinger and every molester he protected dying in prison.
• The eradication of diseases whose cure or prevention is currently being stifled by dogma.
• People taking control of their lives because they know that only they can control it;  understanding that they are being nice to one another out of pure genetic human volition not because god has given them the morality to do so. Behaviour based on the "pay-it-forward" power of humanity not the fear of divine consequences. 

I've got us started. Post a comment to spread the word of a what a truly secular and free thinking world could look like. Snowballs require snow flakes.