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Their creators, of course.

Thanks, Mom and Dad! You provided me with 23 chromosomes each, and I strive every day to make the best of them since I realize my limited command of these 46 chromosomes is temporary. I take your gift and live each day to the fullest!

The title of this post was a question posed at MetroDaily News. I registered and left my comment above. I’ve noticed two or three things on the internet questioning whether atheists could be thankful or not and it strikes me as a no-brainer.

I’m also thankful for our Sun, the star that provides the energy our planet consumes for photosynthesis and the warmth we need to avoid the cold, darkness of space. That warmth and photosynthesis is at the base of our ecosystems, which ultimately make the turkey, potatoes, and home-made cranberry sauce a reality on my table today.

Sure, nearly any religionist can ultimately pin their thanks on a supernatural, imagined being once they encounter a point at which they are ignorant. For some, that point arrives closer in the chain of events that we call reality than for others. But all religious believers would probably like to point out that I can’t thank a sun and try to argue that to be thankful I must be willing to thank a “who” -but this, of course, is pure nonsense. I can be thankful without thanking an imagined being. I can be grateful for coincidence, happenstance, or random chance. Just the other day, I was 10 cents short for a diet coke from the machine at work so I decided to check the coin return. There was a dime left by someone who overlooked their change. I was thankful for that person’s carelessness and grateful for the coincidence. No thanks to any single agent, just the results.

So happy Thanksgiving, folks! Whether you’re a theist or an atheist, be thankful for [insert whatever].

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"Get thee behind me..."

Which is what the New York Times described the National Scout Jamboree as in an article dated yesterday.

And they’re right. The Boy Scouts are a very limiting and bigoted in-group that overtly disallows gays, atheists, and girls (at least until the Explorer age). Clearly, they have built in mechanisms that exclude nearly all non-whites, though these are probably quite accidental and unintentional (for the most part). But I personally know of parents who favor the Boy Scouts because they’re a “white institution.” And one of these parents proudly referred to it as “one of the last white institutions.” Luckily his kids didn’t have any interest in scouting, much to his chagrin.

But, honestly, I don’t mind if the Scouts exclude whomever they want. It just irks me that they receive public favor in the way of rent discounts, donations, etc from government. Scouts can meet rent free at public schools, rent buildings at deep, deep discount, and are donated land use (or leased at deep, deep discount) by the DoD for jamborees and events. If they’re going to accept these gifts or subsidies, then they should conform fully to equal opportunity standards and be open to inspection.

To quote the article above on the topic of racial diversity in the Scouts, “A Scout study from a few years ago on ‘tapping into diverse markets’ said that parents of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians had ‘no emotional connection to scouting.’”

You have to think that if the Boy Scouts truly were an organization that believed in its way of life, that it might be trying harder to reach out to people of color and ethnic diversity (the National Jamboree does have a mosque for its Muslim scouts). And, if they truly thought that their religious worldviews were correct, then they would eagerly welcome both gays and atheists. After all, aren’t these the very people they would seek to educate and inform?

Perhaps the real reason they don’t allow openly gay or atheist members is they fear their influence. Perhaps down deep, they know their worldview has a fault of being wrong. That their religiously guided motivations fly in the face of reason. That if their numbers are invaded by gays and atheists, then reason will also invade. And then Scouting wouldn’t be that “last white institution.” College graduates that also have Boy Scout and Explorer experiences listed in their volunteer section have an advantage among conservative, white employers.

It says, “I was raised as one of you and I’m proud of it.”

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There are just some things that you’d think the Phelps clan wouldn’t try to out-do. They tried to picket Twitter (epic fail). Now they tried to picket Comic-Con, triggering a counter-protest. Guess who won? LOL.

At the end of the scope's model number, you can read "JN8:12", which is a reference to the New Testament book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (King James Version) (ABC News)

Once upon a time, The East India Company greased its rifle cartridges with pork or beef lard. This was bad for two reasons: 1) to load rifles in the 1800s, a rifleman had to bite the paper cartridge open and pour the powder in the breach, and 2) the rifleman for The East India Company was invariably either a Muslim or a Hindu, one of which would have a problem ingesting pork, the other beef. This, probably completely unintended faux paux of the East India Company is what likely became the final spark of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Now, a defense contractor, Trijcon, has manufactured and sold to the U.S. military rifle scopes that are encoded with bible verses as messages. No kidding. Forget the separation of church and state violation, what might the possible outcome be when so many Muslims realize that we’ve been training them on religious weaponry. What about the Muslims that we’re supposed to be defending and helping when they realize that we adorn our weapons with religious spells and incantations.

From ABC News:

Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.” The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.

“Mikey” Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has stated that the little bible codes are wrong and unconstitutional.  ”It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles,” he said.

In addition, the ABC News report also states that Weinstein was told by servicemembers that there are military commanders who have claimed the sites are spiritually transformed into Jesus rifles.

Another bible verse used by Trijicon is “2COR4:6″, 2  Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 6, which reads, “for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

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I happened upon a Christian blog today in which the author was critical of a message on the Starbucks coffee cup he read:

We invite you to listen to your desires and to renew your hope. To see the world not as it is, but as it could be. Go ahead. Wish. It’s what makes the holidays the holidays

Now read his criticism:

Wishing, it says, is “what makes the holidays the holidays.” Try not to see reality, the world as it is. Wish for something else. That’s what the celebration is all about.

Doesn’t that seem sad to you? It does to me. Not bad, not evil, but sad. How does wishing help us to renew hope? Maybe by allowing us to imagine that things don’t have to be this way. Great reforms have been led by men and women who have said, “this is not good, and it can be changed.” These are dreamers, though—not wishers. They live their lives in pursuit of fulfilling those dreams. Wishes are passive. Without a wish-granter, like some lucky leprechaun or fairy godmother, they are poignant reminders that things are not as we would like them to be. Beyond that they do nothing.

My first thought was, “I agree.” 100%. It’s nice to wish for change and hope for the best, but those prepared for reality and willing to effect change through personal sacrifice are the members of society that get it done. Sometimes these are religious people. Sometimes they’re secular or even atheist. I always like it when I find a common ground with a religious person and this blogger clearly is. The title of his blog is Thinking Christian, so perhaps this implies he’s a Christian who thinks. That would be good.

Then it occurred to be, even before I left the paragraph above, that if you replace “wish” for “prayer,” you really haven’t changed the criticism. I don’t mind people who pray. I don’t even mind those that pray for change or pray for good fortune. As long as their prayers aren’t interfering with me time or imposing on me, they can have at it. And, as long as they’re willing to invest their own effort (personal sacrifice) and time to effect change, I can still respect the outcome.

To be fair, the blogger seemed to anticipate my argument above that compares “wishing” to “praying,” but he did a poor job of defending it. But, also to be fair, there’s little one can expect of a religious adherent in the way of defending prayer. The argument is bound to be circular and supernatural and, to date, never grounded in reality. Still, he ends his post with this:

My sadness is for those whose holidays are about what the coffee cup says they are: wishing the world was different. It is a cup that tastes of disappointments and empty hopes. In reality the holiday of Christmas is about God making the world different, full, and bright. It’s about hopes fulfilled and disappointments turned into joy.

The author both criticizes ineffectual wishing the world was different and then appeals to an ineffectual superstition to make the world different. The kettle has thus referred to the pot as blacker than he. Perhaps “Christian” in the blog title was an adjective and not a noun after all.

My “wish” for the holidays: that more people begin to think and rise above superstition. But we cannot just wish for this sort of thing. We must make efforts to spread inquiry and rational thought; reach out to those around us -inspire them to think and engage them in discussion and debate, and, where appropriate, push them into both.

Happy Holidays

I just realized that my previous theme didn’t show a “Comments” link or the comments unless you clicked on the post title, so I’ve temporarily changed the theme until I find one that suits my needs. I’m looking for a WordPress theme that has 3-columns with the main column for posts rather wide.

I rather like the color scheme of this one, but I’ll need a new banner… Hmm…

One of the many criticisms leveled at George W. Bush by atheists and secular free thinkers was his tendency to favor “Faith-Based Initiatives” as a means to solve social problems such as substance abuse, physical abuse, homelessness, criminal reform and recidivism, and so on. During the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives National Conference on June 26, 2008, Bush was introduced by the Chicano Federation’s Edith Espinoza:

How beautiful was that? From being a homeless mother of two to introducing the President of the United States. There has to be a higher power. I love being with members of the armies of compassion, foot soldiers in helping make America a more hopeful place. Every day you mend broken hearts with love. You mend broken lives with hope. And you mend broken communities with countless acts of extraordinary kindness.

For Bush and others in the political mainstream, Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) and Faith-Based Initiatives (FBIs) were presented as a viable and efficient means to a social ends. These organizations were, and are, given preferential favor and attention, with the assumption that they exceed secular organizations’ ability to provide the same or similar services. There is also the implied assumption that these organizations are moralistically the right choice since they’re religious in foundation. And not just any religion. These organizations are predominantly Christian with just a few exceptions.

But conservative politicos aren’t the only ones heralding the benefits of FBOs. During his campaign, Barack Obama made a speech promoting faith-based initiatives to which he managed to garner criticism from both sides of the issue: he’s still clearly in favor or using FBOs to address social problems; but he also sees some limitations that should be placed upon how they are funded. He doesn’t believe, for instance, that a federally funded FBO should mandate acceptance of its religion in order to receive services. This, it would seem, is contrary to what many faith-based programs contain in their curricula, since many include “acceptance of God into the heart” and relinquishment of one’s “self to God” as core methods of overcoming substance abuse or adversities such as homelessness.

Funding
Since Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, government funding to FBOs has increased by 10%. Interestingly enough, CARE, a secular non-governmental agency (NGO) that has been sending aid to developing nations for decades had its funding from the government cut. Republican Senator Rick Santorum alleged that they were not respecting the core values faith-based groups by allowing their aid to favor secular groups.

Meanwhile, the government is generating newsletters and hiring liaisons to get information into the hands of decision-makers who work in faith-based groups on how to take advantage of grants. The Bush administration also funded additional government offices which work within existing government agencies like the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Veteran’s Affairs as well as the Small Business Administration, and the Agency for International Development.

Weren’t the Republicans supposed to be against big government? Perfectly good agencies and departments now have increased funding and probably personnel to promote faith-based initiatives within these agencies.

Do FBOs actually work?
There are many, many different types of faith-based services that target various groups. Among the most notable perhaps is Alcoholics Anonymous which includes a 12-step program that demands the person receiving service to accept a particular notion of god -the Christian god. It doesn’t matter if you’re a drunk Arab or Navajo, or just an atheist, if you want to complete AA, you’ll need to admit your shortcomings to God and beg him to remove these shortcomings.

The efficacy of AA, however, has been shown to be poor. AA brags that anyone that completes their 12-steps is successful, but they fail to count the vast majority who do not.

This seems to be the same fallacious trend in all attempts I made to find outcomes of service delivery for faith-based organizations: they counted only those participants who complete their programs and exclude from their metrics anyone who is kicked out, quits, fails, etc.

I’m still looking for outcomes. I’ve scoured some obvious journals and government websites. Tried Google for search terms like “faith based service delivery outcomes” and the like. All with low results. There is a lot of discourse on how to measure and the importance of measuring, but I’ve found no data as yet. As an interesting aside, the website to the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives (http://www.fbci.gov/) appears to be down since March 2008.

The funding of FBOs in the manner they are is fundamentally wrong. This practice didn’t begin with George W. Bush, but rather Bill Clinton. Bush did, however, set the Executive Order in motion that would effectively remove any check and balance from funding Christian organizations who are willing to proselytize and witness to those in need of services.  Obama has stated several times that he’ll ensure that FBOs that receive funding won’t be able to do this, but if the playing field is intended to be fair, why bother with “faith-based inititives” to begin with. Why not just be willing to fund charities with sound proposals and continue to fund those with proven outcomes regardless of their “faith?”

Bibliography

Ebaugh, Helen Rose; et al (2008). Where’s the Religion? Distinguishing Faith-Based from Secular Social Service Agencies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42 (3), 411-426.

Hula, Richard; Jackson-Elmoore, Cynthia; Reese, Laura (2007). Mixing God’s Work and the Public Business: A Framework for the Analysis of Faith-Based Service Delivery. Review of Policy Research, 24 (1), 67-89.

Wuthnow, Robert; Hackett, Conrad; Hsu, Becky Yang (2004). The Effectiveness and Trustworthiness of Faith-Based and Other Service Organizations: A Study of Recipients’ Perceptions. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43 (1), 1-17.

Fischer, Robert L. (2004). The Devil is in the Details: Implementing Secular Outcome Measurement Methods in Faith-Based Organizations. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 15 (1), 25-40.

Gibelman, Margaret; Gelman, Sheldon R. (2002). Should We Have Faith in Faith-Based Social Services? Rhetoric Versus Realistic Expectations. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 13 (1), 49-65.

Washington Post (2008). Faith-Based Obama. Editorial in the Washington Post, found online at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001658.html

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I’m sorry, but I just had to say it.

This story got past me earlier this month, even though it was local news. I heard it mentioned on The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast that was released earlier this week.

For those that don’t live in Dallas County, Texas, John Wiley Price is a nobody. Indeed, for many in Dallas County he’s also nobody, but his stupidity earlier in the month of July should reveal it to the rest.

Price reacted illogically, irrationally, and, perhaps, with the deliberate intention to race bait another Dallas County politician during a recent county meeting regarding traffic tickets. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield remarked that the central collections for the county was “a blackhole” since so much paperwork gets lost within its office.

This is where John Wiley Price’s ignorance and/or stupidity comes in. Price responded with (probably feigned) indignation and said, “excuse me!” then stating that the office is a “white hole.” Price and a judge in the meeting then proceeded to demand an apology from Mayfield for his “racist” remark.

I didn’t read each comment that followed the Dallas Morning News blog post linked above, but the first dozen or so I read were overwhelmingly critical of Price -and rightly so.

This sort of nonsensical race-baiting does nothing but perpetuate tensions between races, which assholes like Price capitalize upon for their own gain. And it cheapens and degrades genuine racial issues that actually do exist in the county both within politicians and citizens.

The very first commenters at that blog got it exactly right: Price’s response makes him out to be either more ignorant than the average 5th grader or a bigoted race-baiter and, as the commenter concluded, there really isn’t any other choice. I would add that either choice also makes him incompetent for the job he was elected to.

And for citizens of Dallas County, he’s an embarassment.

The state of Texas recently made it legal for clergy to abuse children.

No shit. [via Pharyngula]

I’ve been thinking of writing a post that looks at exorcism from an anthropological and psychological perspective for some time now, and I’ll probably return to this topic again in the future.

For now, however, I think its important to make a quick post regarding a recent Texas Supreme Court decision that essentially makes it okay to abuse children if the reason is religious.

Here’s the background:

Demonic Possession in Christianity
Demons have been taking possession of humans since the days that the alleged Christ (one of several Christian deities) allegedly walked the shores of Galilee. Many may recall the story in the Gospels that tell how Jesus casts demons out of hapless humans and into a bunch of swine who then run off and drown themselves in the sea. But there are other examples in history, such as the Benedictine abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, who in the 12th century CE, was accused of being demon-possessed when she herself claimed to be singing in tongues -words spoken by channeling the Holy Spirit (another of several Christian deities).

Ignatius Loyola, of the 16th century CE, found himself speaking in tongues during prayer and wasn’t sure if it was the voice of God (a primary Christian deity) or a demon (a minor Christian deity).

The Roman Catholic Church defines demon-possession as:

when Satan enters and takes over the physical and mental capabilities of a victim, however, the soul and will remains free. Satan acts through the victim without the victim’s consent, thus the victim is morally blameless. Satan does not act alone when he possesses an individual. He works side by side with many evil spirits such as spirits of lust, hate, destruction, suicide, revenge, anger, anxiety, desperation, death, torment, etc. Such an example is found in Luke 8:30 the case of the possessed man in the territory of the Gerasenes: “Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him “.

And how do the religious identify the possessed? The link above offers these signs and symptoms:

• Victim speaks or understands unknown languages without ever studying the language being spoken or heard
• Victim clearly knows things that are distant or hidden
• Victim can predict future events (sometimes through dreams)
• Victim has an intense hatred for holy things
• Victim shows a physical strength far above his age or normal condition

One is left to wonder how the observer is to know that a bit of babbling is actually an “unknown language.” Isn’t an “unknown language” by definition unknown? Likewise, the remaining signs on the list have their faults, which I’ll not go into. Rational thought reveals them.

There are also reasons listed as to why people become “possessed” to begin with:

• Pure Diving Permission (goddidit)
• Subject to a Curse
• Grave Hardening of Sin (sexual perversion, drug use, abortion)
• Proximity to Evil Places or Persons (hanging out with drug users, perverts, abortionists)

Conservative Protestants

The religious nutjobs in the United States who believe in demonic-possession are legion, to borrow a cliche. The Religious Tolerance website echoes a report by ABC’s Good Morning America that over 500 deliverance ministries in the U.S. specialize in exorcising people and, they say, it’s big business. The site also refers to J.F. Cogan’s Demon Possession Handbook for Human Service Workser, a book that attributes many human failings to “demon-possession” including, spousal abuse, child abuse, physical disabilities, childhood learning disabilities, mental illness, etc. Oh, and all serial killers are demon-possessed.

The trend is clear: disavow any human responsibility and deny that it is human nature to do bad things or be imperfect.

The Court Case in Texas

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday threw out a jury award over injuries a 17-year-old girl suffered in an exorcism conducted by members of her old church, ruling that the case unconstitutionally entangled the court in religious matters.

[...]

Laura Schubert testified in 2002 that she was cut and bruised and later experienced hallucinations after the church members’ actions in 1996, when she was 17. Schubert said she was pinned to the floor for hours and received carpet burns during the exorcism, the Austin American-Statesman reported. She also said the incident led her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric help.

She was still in high school and was at an event sponsered by her church’s youth ministry. Initially the girl and her family were awarded $300,000 after a jury found the church liable for abuse and false imprisonment. Now the TX Supreme Court has said that physical abuse and imprisonment are okay aslong as it’s done with a religous intent.

I’m going to delve more into demonic-possession and exorcism in future posts, focusing on both historical and modern cases of this spell of thinking which inflicts humans the world over. I’ll also examine the anthropological, sociological, and psychological aspects of belief in demonic-possession.

Just curious: how many atheist bloggers are on twitter? I’ve been using Twitter with another username for a while and I’ve got to say it has its advantages.

I was skeptical about whether or not I’d find it useful at first, but now I keep a Twitter window open all the time. It’s a great way to pass links and notes about new developments and news. Once you’ve established a circle of friends that you follow, you’ll see their “tweets,” a timeline of short, 140 charact messages that can include hypertext links (Tiny URL becomes a must).

Initially, I just kept a twitter tab open in Firefox or Opera, but now I’m using two different Twitter clients. One is a widget for Opera, the other is Twitux. My primary operating system is Ubuntu Linux, and both work well there. But at the Twitter Downloads Page, there are several clients, widgets and gadgets for iGoogle, Firefox, Opera, Windows, Mac, mobile devices, etc.

Signing up is simple, just choose a username & password and enter an email address. You can then add friends by letting Twitter search your email contacts, or you can search key words like “atheists,” “science,” etc.

Give it a whirl. If you find you don’t like it, you can always delete your username from Twitter. There aren’t a lot of social networkng sites that allow that.