Daylight Atheism » The Rotunda

Further Thoughts on Penn's Libertarianism

Ebonmuse — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:58:18 +0000

The last thread about Penn Jillette's book sparked some debate, so I'd like to revisit the topic. This is what Penn says is his view of the legitimate powers of government:

If I had a gun, and I knew a murder was happening... I would use that gun to stop that murder. I might be too much of a coward to use a gun myself to stop murder or rape or robbery, but I think that use of a gun is ... [visit site to read more]

Theocracy Causes Famine

Ebonmuse — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:55:43 +0000

Recently, I got an e-mail from the Foundation Beyond Belief, which is working with USAID to raise awareness of the continuing drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The toll in lives is already appalling, including over 29,000 deaths from starvation and outbreaks of measles and cholera, and hundreds more dying every day. The crisis has ... [visit site to read more]

The Foo Fighters Outsmart Fred Phelps

Ebonmuse — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:57:09 +0000

Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church (which is choosing increasingly random and bizarre protest targets, including a Swedish vacuum cleaner store) decided to picket a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, Missouri. As is their usual strategy, they were no doubt hoping to provoke police or counterprotesters into ... [visit site to read more]

The Ordinary and Universal Magisterium

Ebonmuse — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:55:10 +0000

Although many sects of Christianity consider their own beliefs to be infallible, Catholicism has a formal, bureaucratic process for adding new inerrant teachings to its canon. When the pope speaks "ex cathedra", officially defining a new dogma, it's becomes something that all Catholics are required to profess. (I like to think he has a special ... [visit site to read more]

The Biblical Cruelty of Child Beating

Ebonmuse — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:42:17 +0000

In 1877, the great freethinker Robert Green Ingersoll wrote these words about the then-common practice of corporal punishment:

I tell you the children have the same rights that we have, and we ought to treat them as though they were human beings. They should be reared with love, with kindness, with tenderness, and not with brutality. That is my idea of children.

...I do not believe ... [visit site to read more]

Rick Perry's Prayer Follies

Ebonmuse — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:25:32 +0000

Whether you're an atheist or not, you should be alarmed by the sight of elected officials making a big public show of praying during a crisis. It's not that prayer itself does anything one way or the other - it's that their beseeching the gods for help is a good hint, not just that they have no ideas, but that they've given up even trying and are staking their hopes on a miracle. Which is why this story, ... [visit site to read more]

The Real Meaning of Islamophobia

Ebonmuse — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:45:01 +0000

I don't usually say these sorts of things about Republicans, but good for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is defending his pick of a Muslim for a state judgeship, saying critics of a lawyer who represented suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are "ignorant" and "crazies".

..."This Shariah ... [visit site to read more]

More Filth-Based Initiatives

Ebonmuse — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:54:49 +0000

One of my earliest posts on Daylight Atheism was about the torrent of angry, obscene, hateful messages that inevitably greets any atheist who speaks out in public. We're seeing this happen again, this time aimed at Blair Scott of American Atheists, who recently appeared on Fox News to discuss that group's lawsuit against a cross in the 9/11 Memorial Museum. (Appearing on Fox is a surefire way to bring the angry ... [visit site to read more]

Religious Gas-Lighting

Ebonmuse — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:52:10 +0000

By Sarah Jane Braasch-Joy

In loving memory of my baby brother, Jacob Michael Braasch (01/28/86 – 02/02/10)

Religionists are those who wish to make religious law the law of the land and impose their personal interpretations of religious law upon others. They come in many flavors, be they Christianists, Islamists, or what have you. The Republican Christianists in the US are a particularly vile sort of religionist.

See, we have a little thing called the First Amendment ... [visit site to read more]

6 Ways Atheists Can Band Together to Fight Religious Fundamentalism

Ebonmuse — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:48:40 +0000

This essay was originally published on AlterNet.

If atheists were as politically organized as the religious right, we could accomplish a world of good in combating theocracy and standing up for human rights and secularism. But whenever an atheist political alliance is ... [visit site to read more]

Pro-Family Christians Support Child Kidnapping, Continued

Ebonmuse — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:43:25 +0000

I never thought I'd say this, but I think the Catholic church is actually relieved to be dealing with a scandal that, for once, doesn't involve priests raping children with the protection of their higher-ups. How else to explain their abject contrition over the discovery that, in Australia, they abducted tens of thousands of children born to unwed mothers in ... [visit site to read more]

Ireland Versus the Vatican, Continued

Ebonmuse — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:00:59 +0000

I've mentioned in the past that Ireland, which gave the Catholic church more privileges and greater deference than almost any other country in Europe, was rewarded for its devotion with one of the highest per-capita rates of child rape by priests than any other nation else in the world. That scandal continues to unspool, and today there's another big update.

In 1996, in response to public outcry, a ... [visit site to read more]