Posted inMorality Religions

Religious people have no right to discriminate against gays

Oh, man. As if I needed another reason to hate religious bigotry. But there it was, couldn't be ignored... a New York Times story that got my moral blood boiling: "Anticipating Nationwide Right to Same-Sex Marriage, States Weigh Religious Exemption Bills." So what do these religious jerks want to be exempted from? Treating homosexual people with the same dignity and respect due everybody else.  As it looks increasingly likely that the Supreme Court will establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage later this year, state legislatures across the country are taking up bills that would make it easier for businesses and individuals to opt…
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Posted inReligions

No U.S. President should attend prayer breakfasts

A few weeks ago I said that I agreed with Obama's statement at a prayer breakfast regarding wrongs being committed by adherents of all religious faiths. But a Salon article argues for a broader conclusion: no President should be attending prayer breakfasts, since this supports the ridiculousness of religion.  Check out "Faith-fueled forces of hatred: Obama's religion speech was troubling -- but not for the reasons the right alleges." What, some might ask, could be wrong with prayer? By common definition, prayer entails someone sitting for a quiet moment and beseeching his or her Lord for intervention in matters of…
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Posted inReligions Science

Oregon should eliminate non-medical reasons for not vaccinating

People who irrationally fear vaccines shouldn't be allowed to opt out of vaccination laws for either philosophical or religious reasons. After all, a lot of scientific research shows that vaccines are safe and effective. Sure, there are some risks. But there are risks in everything, including wearing seat belts. Once in a while you hear of someone dying after being trapped in a burning car by his or her seatbelt. Seat belts save many more lives, though. Same is true about vaccines. There are occasional mostly minor side effects, yet clearly the benefits both to the individual and to society…
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Posted inReligions Science

Dissolve life’s imaginary problems. Don’t try to solve them.

The best way to resolve a problem is to realize that it doesn't really exist. Poof! Gone. Problem isn't solved; it is dissolved.  More and more, I'm concluding that this is a big drawback with religions. They want us to believe in problems that aren't evident to a non-believer. Like: (1) How does one come to know God? (If God doesn't exist, this isn't a problem)(2) How can our sins be forgiven? (If sins are imaginary, this isn't a problem)(3) How can we be sure of going to heaven after we die? (If there is no heaven, or life after…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Religions

Obama is right: religious believers of all faiths commit wrongs

Yesterday President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. Here's some of what he said -- the part that deeply irritated dogmatic Christians in this country. Now, over the last few months, we’ve seen a number of challenges -- certainly over the last six years.  But part of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we've seen professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also twisted and misused in the name of evil.  ...We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in…
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Posted inReality Religions

Humanism is way better than religion. Yet mystery remains.

On the whole, I'm pleased to call myself a humanist. As noted in this post about a humanist book, someone called me this during my sophomore year in college --  before I even knew what humanism was. This is one of the points made in an interesting You Tube video a regular Church of the Churchless visitor told me about today: "Christian man says humanists are debauched. Andrew Copson explains what Humanism is really all about."    If you're like me, you'll find the preachy Christian guy who speaks at the start of the video to be irritating. But here's…
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Posted inReligions Science

Everybody accepts the reality of inner experiences. But not of religion.

"Don't you believe in love?" Whenever I see a comment like this on one of my blog posts from a religious believer, I'm dumbfounded. it's a ridiculous thing to say. For one thing, I don't believe in love. I experience love. There's a big difference between believing and experiencing. Likewise, I don't believe in consciousness; I experience consciousness. Nor do I believe in life; I experience being alive.  Same is true for everybody. Atheists. Agnostics. Religious people. Scientists. Musicians. Farmers. Young. Old. Men. Women. Everybody.  The only way any one of us knows anything about reality is through experiencing. It's…
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Posted inReality Religions Science

Religion is a failed paradigm deserving of ridicule

Even after more than ten years of blogging on this here Church of the Churchless, I continue to be surprised by how often visitors to this site believe that religious belief shouldn't be subject to ridicule. Um, didn't they notice the word "churchless" in the blog name? Or the tag line, Preaching the gospel of spiritual independence? Today a comment interchange on a recent post pointed to this inability of true believers to recognize that their worldview lacks a solid foundation. Here's what "x," a religious skeptic, said: I don't preach anything...I just comment on preachiness...like yours. You think you're…
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Posted inReligions

If a cartoon inflames religious passions, so what?

Over on my other blog today I put up a post, "Statesman Journal should put Mohammed cartoon on opinion page."  It irritated me that the editorial page editor of our local newspaper, which is part of the Gannett chain, said that he'd probably never publish a cartoon that included a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, because this is offensive to Muslims. Well, the cartoon above is the cover of the next issue of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine that courageously is going to publish shortly after a dozen staffers were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists.  The caption at the top…
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Posted inReligions

Religious bias against gays is wrong, not religious

Like I've said before (quite a few times), and almost certainly will say again (after this time), religious beliefs shouldn't allow people to ignore laws. Where does this end, if we allow it to begin? Some Christian religious bigots believe homosexuality is a sin, so they refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple who want one for their wedding. Which, by the way, is completely legal in 36 out of 50 of these United States, where gay marriage is allowed. Yet as Frank Bruni says in his thoughtful New York Times piece, "Your God and My Dignity," this…
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Posted inReligions

Charlie Hebdo murders show danger of religious dogmatism

So many people have been saying so much that is right about the atrocious killings by Islamic extremists of staffers at a French satirical magazine, I don't feel that I can add much to the 100% justified outrage. This is what happens when religiosity goes over the brink. For me, the big question is: who is responsible for the possibility, indeed obvious likelihood, given the course of history, that religious true believers will act in murderous, violent, oppressive, or other unacceptable ways? On the whole, my sympathies are with those, like Sam Harris, who argue that "moderate" religion provides the foundation…
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Posted inReligions Science

Religion is what might remain after science explains

David Lane, a.k.a. the Neuralsurfer, has made another provocative short video. It's called "Remainder Conjecture: Driving Science to the Brink of an Epistemological Cul de Sac."   Here's my take on Lane's basic point, which seems unarguable to me. Assume that science can explain what currently is unexplainable. If significant mysteries eventually remain that science can't explain, this is where supernaturalism, or at least a radical restructuring of how we look upon reality, can be seriously explored. This is much different from the "god of the gaps" approach where whatever science can't currently explain is taken as proof of God's…
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Posted inReligions

No special rights for religion: three churchless thumbs-up

Here's three godless good news pieces that popped into my web browser recently.  I liked Russ Belville's (a.k.a. Radical Russ) "No More Special Rights for Religion" a lot. I learned about Belville, who lives in Portland, via our shared interest in supporting Measure 91 -- which was passed by voters this month, leading to legalized recreational marijuana in Oregon. Along with him, I've also wondered why religious reasons for doing this or that should get more legal standing than personal reasons for doing this or that. After all, holding a religious belief is a personal decision. Why should it be treated…
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Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Why atheists are more “spiritual” than religious believers

Maybe this statement seems paradoxical to you: I feel more genuinely spiritual now that I've stopped believing in God.  But it makes good sense to me. Here's the main reason why. I no longer feel special. Virtually every religion and spiritual path considers that its adherents have a special relationship with God or whatever other supernatural entity they believe in.  There are so many chosen people on Earth, they vastly outnumber the unchosen, the non-special group I'm pleased to be a part of. I understand that feeling special has its own delights. In my case, I was a member of…
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Posted inReligions

In Kapparot, Jews transfer their sins to a chicken, then kill it. Weird!

Every religion is strange. Within every strange religion, some rituals and practices are even more strange. Such is the case with Kapporot (or Kaporos), a Jewish ritual of atonement. I hadn't heard about it until I got an email from someone affiliated with The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos. In part, she said: I am writing to ask that you cover this topic so that the cruel ritual of using chickens as Kaporos is brought to light and ended.  I have photos and video, and the founder of the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos is available for interview. …
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Posted inReligions Science

Religion stifles innovation. Glad I live in Oregon.

Thanks to an email from a regular reader of this here Church of the Churchless, I learned about an interesting article in Mother Jones, "Study: Science and Religion Really Are Enemies After All." Are science and religion doomed to eternal "warfare," or can they just get along? Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and atheists debate this subject endlessly (and often, angrily). We hear a lot less from economists on the matter, however. But in a recent paper, Princeton economist Roland Bénabou and two colleagues unveiled a surprising finding that would at least appear to bolster the "conflict" camp: Both across countries and also…
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Posted inBooks Religions Spiritual practice/meditation

Religion’s false story about the “Great Other”

So here we are in this world, surrounded by the universe and an even greater cosmos beyond the limit of what can be observed in our corner of the space-time continuum. Understanding this is a life's work. Well, many lives. From the dawn of recorded history, and certainly well before that, humans have been extending the boundary of what is known. Of course, as physicist John Wheeler said, "As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance." However, for various reasons religions, philosophies, spiritual belief systems, and mystical practices aren't willing to accept the mystery of…
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Posted inReligions Science

Subjective and objective: the key to understanding everything!

"Ah, it's all becoming clear to me... so clear... I'm on the verge of grasping The Meaning of It All!" (Mentally insert the sound of cackling laughter, and a vision of a crazed man rubbing his hands together with glee). This is how I've been feeling lately. After fifty years of so of searching for the big "T" Truth through science, spirituality, mysticism, psychedelic drugs, philosophy, dog walks in nature, prayer, pleading, meditation, pondering, athletics, caffeine, and more, it's dawning on me that two words pretty much sum up both the Question and the Answer. Subjective. Objective.  This blog post…
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Posted inReligions Science

Physics and religion are both weird, but in different ways

I'm an avid consumer of physics books aimed at the general public. "Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn" and "The Island of Knowledge" are my most recent reads.  What comes through loud and clear in both books is how freaking far out modern physics and cosmology have become. Believe me, this isn't the sort of science I remember from high school, where the teacher had a model of an atom that looked like a miniature solar system. That way of looking at the atomic realm was recognized to be wrong even back then, of course. Quantum mechanics demolished the old way of…
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Posted inReligions

Religious freedom in the name of discrimination is crap

Let's do away with religious freedom. There's no need for it. For lots of reasons it makes no sense. Let me explain. I'm fine with people being free to believe whatever they want to. So let's simply have believing freedom. After all, religious belief is just one form of believing. Some people believe in God. Others believe in playing golf, in listening to rap music, in eating meat -- none of which I believe in. So be it. Each to his own. Beliefs, that is. If we all looked upon life the same way, we'd be identically programmed robots. Boring.…
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