Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
A link to the essay ‘No, It’s Not Your Opinion. You’re Just Wrong’ came across my Facebook feed the other day and I fell in love with it. If I could I would have the post’s babies. Writer Jef Rouner sums up exactly how I feel when someone tries to avoid being wrong by saying ‘It’s my opinion..’. I am saving this text for the future because I will need it.
Today, my sister would have turned 52 years old. She passed away from cancer in 2003 at the age of 40. Even after all these years she’s been gone, she is not far away in my memories. Countless times I’ve remembered funny things she did and I also remember the challenging times due to her being mentally challenged. I wanted to honor her on her birthday and to share the eulogy I wrote and gave at her funeral.
What started out as story about a soccer team invoking religious privilege, that was posted on an atheist blog, took a left turn as the author and many commenters didn’t seem to be concerned with an Islamic school soccer team forcing two Catholic girls to sit out half a match because the Muslim player’s religion wouldn’t allow them to mix with strange females. Could the fear of Islamophobia lead some atheists to overlook obvious religious bigotry? Looks like it can.
Hemant Mehta, over at Friendly Atheist, posted a story about two girls who played on a boy’s soccer team in Ontario Canada:
Being a Humanist and an atheist, I get exposed to a range of views on religion. On the strict atheist side I hear about how religion should be left in the dustbin of history while on the Humanist side I tend to hear that religion is just pretty words that make people feel good. I’ve always found the idea that religion is just pretty words to be at best naive and ignores the reality in the world.
Last Wednesday, Reza Aslan, writer and scholar of religious studies, was on the Daily Show for an interview.
The atheist community recently erupted when Atheist Ireland publicly issued a letter of dissociation from atheist blogger PZ Myers over some comments he recently made concerning a speech by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The real issue is the cult of personality that seems to infect people like Atheist Ireland chair Michael Nugent who is more interested in being a fanboy of some famous atheists and protecting them when they are called out for doing or saying stupid stuff.
I’m not going to rehash the entire history of the feud between Myers and Nugent here. Ashley Miller does a good job of summarizing the past couple of years. Check out her post and follow the links she provides: