Allentown Freethought Society Blog

Spectacular! America's Best Christian on God's definition of marriage

2009-06-04T15:34:00.002-04:00

Well worth the time.

wow, something interesting in USA Today? FIrst time for everything.

2009-05-18T06:33:00.003-04:00

Cool graph from USA today showing poll results about religious affiliation. The poll question was not published...irritating. There's a link to a more in-depth article (at least by USA Today standards) and multimedia images, but the eye-catching graph is the thing to see.
PA ranks in a tie for 14th for the number of people identifying as "no religion." The northeast is highest in this category. It makes me wonder if there's a link between socioeconomic status and religious affiliation. I suspect there's an inverse relationship between median income by state and those identifying as religious. With more time I'll investigate. Anyone know if this has already been done?

Big News! Common primate ancestor found!

2009-05-17T12:25:00.001-04:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124235632936122739.html

Similar to my favorite modern animal, the lemur! Oh, frabjous day!

Terrific! 50 proofs that gawd does not exist

2009-04-26T01:15:00.002-04:00

Read them here. My favorite?

Prayer is rank superstition, nothing more. People who believe in the power of prayer are no different than people who believe in the power of crystal balls, horoscopes or lucky rabbits feet. Prayer is scientifically proven to be meaningless.

Score one (more) for evolution

2009-04-23T19:52:00.003-04:00

Discovery of puijila darwini in northern Canada, a seal with legs instead of flippers, supports the theory of evolution as a transitional fossil.

Watch this about transitional fossils and creationism:

Subcomment:
Theory is not defined as "something somebody thinks is true," as opponents of evolution and magical thinkers would have you believe. Visit this site for a nice description of what a theory is.

Incidentally, Miriam-Webster's dictionary site gets it wrong. Okay, maybe they get it wrong on purpose because of its popular use. But it helps explain how theories, though solid, thoroughly debated and tested, and/or capable of explaining phenomena, can be thought of as "an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances."

Here's a nice site from National Geographic which lists seven transitional fossils.
And now a bigger list, just the vertebrates.
Finally, transitional fossils from all flavors of anima l.

Fantastic video. Get in and comment!

2009-04-19T12:15:00.002-04:00

Watch it and giggle...

Fantastic video. Get in and comment!

2009-04-19T12:15:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOfjkl-3SNE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloglines.com%2Fmyblogs_display%3Ffolder%3D76692340&feature=player_embedded

Watch it and giggle...

Gallup poll: fewer identify themselves as Christian in US than in past

2009-04-11T12:55:00.003-04:00

A positive sign for the nonreligious: this Gallup Poll (sample size: slightly over 17k) shows a decline in Americans identifying themselves as Christian. I grabbed a chart from the original site, but be sure to follow the link above -- there's more there.

This made me wonder: given that the fastest-growing ethnic group in the US is the latino community, which identifies itself heavily as Catholic, will these gains be short-lived as the large adolescent latino population ages and become voters? With some research I discovered that:
a) almost 25% of latinos are Protestant, more that my prejudices would allow me to believe.
b) that about 70 % of latinos are Catholic. I assumed it was more like 80 to 90 percent.
c) less than 1 % of latinos are atheist/agnostic.
I'm not trying to single out latinos because of their religious beliefs. I'm just thinking that this data makes it likely that the gains in population of nontheists comes probably from caucasian protestants. That's my guess.

For more good news, listen to this. It's an NPR report from their show, Faith Matters, that say that latinos are leaving the Catholic church...

Hitchens vs. the world

2009-04-09T23:42:00.002-04:00

I haven't even been able to get through all 2 hours of the video, but Hitchens acquits himself well against 4 theists.
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=175ad626166c55fdb819
Watch it.

Lively online atheist community

2009-04-05T01:08:00.002-04:00

See ThinkAtheist for a lively online community. Lots of different media and topics.

They have a radio show which airs once a week on Saturday evenings, lots of video messages, and a lively message board.

Texas falls

2009-03-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

I'm upset. Read this, from the NCSE.
It was looking good for a while.

This one's worth a giggle...

2009-03-28T21:14:00.002-04:00

Nice.

YES! TX avoids diluting science as a concept

2009-03-28T00:20:00.002-04:00

The ongoing battle in Texas to sneak creationist dogma into public school science has been shot down...again. Read here.

The key words: Strengths and Weaknesses...

Why is Texas so important? Because,

"What happens in Texas doesn't stay in Texas. That state is a sizeable consumer of public school textbooks, and it's likely that if it waters down its science standards, textbook publishers all over the country will follow suit. This makes every American school hostage to the caprices of a few benighted Texas legislators."

Having lived in Texas for 10 years ('92-'01) I have anecdotes to back that up, but more importantly, the numbers back it up:
NPR

Too much god in BSG

2009-03-21T08:32:00.004-04:00

Did anyone else watch Battlestar Galactica? There were many omens leading up to last night's finale that portended a holy power, but last night made it worse. It's still a magnificent show and it was quite a finale, but it was all explained by god, god, god. Even the evolution of mankind was brought about by the intervention of a holy power! Disappointing, that.

2009-03-17T21:26:00.003-04:00

College professor PZ Meyers runs a blog entitled "Pharyngula," which is always full of good stuff. One of today's posts, about a confrontation with a pro-lifer, is a good read. It's about when life "begins."

Highlight:

this person wants a specific quote from a biology text that has the words "human life does not begin at conception" in it. That would be tough, because it's a sentence that rather boggles the brain of any developmental biologist — we also tend not to write sentences like, "human beings are not flies".

Whaddya think of these guys?

2009-03-15T12:50:00.002-04:00

The Way of Yo seeks to unite the nonreligious, deists, and buddhists into some sort of uplifting, positive religion which has an "unknowable essence" as a core belief. Anyone encounter or study Yoists?

Do you know science?

2009-03-13T22:59:00.005-04:00

A recently released study, conducted by Harris Interactive and paid for by the California Academy of Sciences shows that Americans as a whole don't know Jack about science. Correlation may not imply causation, but we're also consistently ranked as one of the most religious nations in the world.

Here's a more in-depth quiz asking what you know about science. I got a D. Tough quiz -- the verbiage can often be interpreted in more than one way.

Secular Coalition for America: Rise of the Godless

2009-03-12T01:01:00.002-04:00

The Secular Coalition for America posted an item about the National Review, a journal read by politicians and power brokers, about the rise of the nonreligious as a political entity. You can read the original article after the jump.

Highlight:

"Look out, social conservatives. The secularist, humanist, freethinking nontheists and atheists are growing in number, and coalescing into a movement with a real agenda."

Program on Public Values finds secularity on rise in US

2009-03-10T20:36:00.004-04:00

The Program on Public Values, affiliated with Trinity College in Hartford, CT, published a report that showed a twofold increase in those identifying themselves as "no religion."

The study found 15 percent of respondents identifying themselves as "no religion," as compared to 8.2 percent in 1990 and 14.1 percent in 2001.

Though Trinity is a Catholic school, the team conducting the survey is made up of sociologists, anthropologists, and profressors of religion.

Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.

If you feel a little to cheery about that news, read the comments on ABC News' site here to get depressed.

Official sermons, and my ignorance

2009-01-17T01:54:00.002-05:00

There's been a lot of stink about Rick Warren delivering the Invocation the day of the inauguration of our next president. The result of that controversy is the choice of Reverend Robinson, gay minister, to do some kind of kick-off prayer.

My questions:
a) Is this official state business paid for by tax dollars under the justification that the new prez has the choice to have his faith be a part of it? If so, how is this happening? Shouldn't the financial burden be shouldered privately?
b) How many prayers are involved in the inauguration?
c) What's the difference between them?
d) What, exactly, is Rick Warren invoking?

I confess complete ignorance about all of this. I'd appreciate help in understanding the role of prayer in the Presidential inauguration.

Ricky Gervais weighs in

2009-01-13T00:36:00.001-05:00

The debate is over.

great resource from NCSE -- free!

2008-12-31T20:59:00.001-05:00

Download "15 Evolutionary Gems" here, brought to you by Nature magazine.

The table of contents:
Gems from the fossil record
1 Land-living ancestors of whales
2 From water to land
3 The origin of feathers
4 The evolutionary history of teeth
5 The origin of the vertebrate skeleton
Gems from habitats
6 Natural selection in speciation
7 Natural selection in lizards
8 A case of co-evolution
9 Differential dispersal in wild birds
10 Selective survival in wild guppies
11 Evolutionary history matters
Gems from molecular processes
12 Darwin’s Galapagos finches
13 Microevolution meets macroevolution
14 Toxin resistance in snakes and clams
15 Variation versus stability

Worth reading, and worth keeping on hand.

old news, but good to have in the archives

2008-12-26T13:03:00.001-05:00

The President Elect's speech on the necessity of secularity in a government.

Science is winning out in Texas (so far)

2008-12-25T12:05:00.003-05:00

The Battle of the Failure to Understand the Scientific Method continues in Texas, as the third draft of the TX state science academic standards, has been released. Some pro-creationists, similar to our semi-local battle in Dover, PA, are saying with their actions that it is so important that students get exposed to creationism that they're willing to destroy the students' concept of the process of science.

Recent battles have involved the phrase "strengths and weaknesses" in one standard about the scientific method. Each draft has read as follows:

DRAFT I:
"The student is expected to analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing."

DRAFT II:
"The student is expected to analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information."

DRAFT III:
"The student is expected to analyze and evaluate strengths and limitations of scientific explanations including those based on accepted scientific data, and evidence from students' observations, experiments, models, and logical statements."

There are more changes, but the significance of the inclusion of those particular letters in that particular sequence says a lot about what the authors think. As a 6th grade science teacher, and knowing how influential TX standards are to standards across the nation, I'm going to continue to watch my former home state closely.

Right on, Silverman!

2008-12-24T22:26:00.004-05:00

I was trying to put into words why I think it's okay for me to have an unusually good time at Christmas despite not believing in the Jebus. Then I read David Silverman's last post:

When you make unbelievers comply by force, they will comply the way they can without changing their views, and that's why Santa is more important than Jesus this time of year.

Beautifully said. I'm not going try to top that. And no, I'm not going to midnight mass, either.

Also: Dawkins weighs in on Christmas, Dvorkin just says no, Jim Holt asks us to prove a negative (the comments for this one are the best part).

2008-12-16T18:01:00.002-05:00

Happy holidays from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

to all the atheist educators out there

2008-12-14T00:24:00.002-05:00

If you haven't found it yet, visit the National Center for Science Education's site. They're fighting for the idea that science is science and what isn't, isn't. This usually takes the form of speaking out against, and mobilizing against, teaching of religious ideas in science classes.
They have an rss feed so you can add it to your feed reader, like Netvibes or bloglines.

Anti-religion ad on buses in D.C. attracting attention

2008-12-11T20:48:00.004-05:00

Visit for the short article, but stick around for the comments. It's a lively discussion, and the nature of the web begs for us to contribute to others' work, so post your thoughts there!

The ad was posted by the Washington Humanist Association.

BBC report: religion and nanotechnology

2008-12-09T17:47:00.002-05:00

Acceptance of nanotechnology has an inverse relationship with religiousness of nations, according to researchers publishing in the journal Nature Technology.

Interesting line:

"The researchers say their finding support the idea that underlying cultural beliefs have a stronger influence on opinions formed about nanotechnology than science based information about its potential and pitfalls."

Sketchy results on an online poll? Believe it!

2008-12-07T15:46:00.003-05:00

Philly.com ran a poll next to a Philadelphia Inquirer story about a PhillyCOR billboard on I-95. The question: "Do you believe in God?"
Results:
YES 4039 (27.7%)
NO 9585 (65.7%)
Not sure 967 (6.6%)

As much as I would love to believe this, the likely response is either (a) one person voted many times, or (b) only people predisposed toward not believing in God read the article, then took the extra step to vote in the poll.

My barely educated guess, if everyone in the US voted, would probably be:
YES 65%
NO 15%
NOT SURE 20%

humor via YouTube

2008-12-03T06:56:00.002-05:00

Here's a playful riff on Sandler's Hannukah song, rewritten for atheists:

2008-11-16T14:40:00.002-05:00

I found this article, "Ten myths -- and ten truths -- about atheism," in the Morning Call's web archives related to atheism. It was written by atheist Sam Harris, who has contributed a few interesting editorials for the LA Times. (Here's the Times' posting; no difference, but that's the original.)I went over to their archives and found these gems: "God's Dupes," by Sam Harris. Favorite line:

"Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music."

"Disliked, not oppressed," by Paul Thornton (4/18/07) Favorite line:

"But being disliked doesn't come close to the vitriolic oppression other American minorities and women have endured, and it's disgraceful when prominent atheists like Harris and Dawkins compare their own plight to to the truly repressed in a single breath."

"Stalin was an atheist -- so am I," by Paul Thornton (11/7/07) This article explores a common atheist-Christian debates: guilt by association. Favorite line:

"You're supposed to shame me into adopting religion as a way to save my soul from the moral bankruptcy that ensnared Stalin and Hitler.I'm supposed to shame you into thinking that the delusion demanded by your moderate religious belief shelters the fanatics who wage holy war."

atheist ad will run in DC at Christmastime

2008-11-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Via Atheist News, a story ran in The Springfield, MO News-Leader about advertisements District-of-Columbianites will be seeing on buses with the tagline, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." The coverage from the News-Leader is admirably objective. Kudos to them.

A quote in the article from American Family Association's President Tim Wildmon reads, "It's a stupid ad," he said. "How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world."

So according to Mr. Wildmon, human beings are incapable of deciding right and wrong by thinking about it. They must have God's law to follow. You've got to get pretty irrational to start with, "It's a stupid ad," and then say something even less reasonable.

I checked out the AHA's website, and they've got an article link on the front page. There's more info there, including that interested parties should visit "whybelieveinagod.org." Check it out.

Atheist views in popular culture

2008-11-13T02:25:00.000-05:00

Visit Athesim and Religious Satire in Popular Culture, a blog devoted to sightings of non-religious views (and its neighbor down the block, religious satire). The blog is run by an atheist/secular humanist group out of the University of Minnesota.

In less popular culture, nerdcore rappers MC Frontalot has written a humorous song about creationism. Frontalot's "Origin of Species" has him playing the role of a creationist minister in a tongue-in-cheek call for action toward ignorance (warning: hip-hop, possible profanity, nerdiness after the jump).

I just watched an episode of the Simpsons from season nine, "Lisa the Skeptic." Lisa, on an archaelogical dig with his class, finds a planted "angel skeleton" which turns out to be an elaborate advertising ploy by "Heavenly Hills Mall." Only Lisa doubts the angel's holiness, and she is vindicated in the end.

Where have you seen non- or anti-religious views presented in pop culture?