Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Chris Arnade is an atheist or so he says in an article in the Guardian that was published on Tuesday. He claims that his atheism was tested after working with and photographing homeless addicts in the South Bronx. He is shocked that the people he met weren’t atheists and then he somehow makes the false connection that having faith and hope is better than not being a homeless addict. He does a poor job selling religion.
The media, both broadcast and social, was a buzz when Phil Robertson who stars on the ‘reality’ TV show Duck Dynasty said some nasty things about gays and African-Americans in a magazine interview. Needless to say my Facebook feed lit up with my conservative friends coming to Phil’s defense and standing with him. Not a peep was said about what he said they only complained about Robertson being suspended from the show. The lack of comments about what Robertson said says a lot about conservatives.
First off I want to head off the casual argument I’ve seen where people try to deny Robertson said anything bad or that he was misquoted.
This week the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) released a report titled ‘The IHEU Freedom of Thought Report 2013’ which focused specifically on discrimination against Humanists, atheists and the non-religious in every country in the world. While the worse result of being a freethinker could be death, there was some kind of discrimination in most countries including the United States.
This about sums up my views on the so-called ‘War on Christmas’
The Associated Press had a wire story on November 10th about the rising popularity of an atheist gathering called the Sunday Assembly. The AP report referred to it as a “mega-church”. A collective panic in the atheist movement screeched about how it wasn’t a church and how dare anyone call it that. However, If you look like a church, act like a church, and meet on a Sunday then don’t get upset when the religious majority think you are a church. This is a prime example of why using warmed over religious terms or activities and in the case of the Sunday Assembly, avoiding talking about atheism can cause confusion and hurt the atheist movement in the long term.
From the AP report: