Heaving Dead Cats » Agnostic

A New Pew Religion Survey

Neece — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:00:24 +0000

There is a new Pew Survey about religion of people coming of age around the year 2000 (called the Millenials) out. It’s quite interesting. I’ve included some of the charts and tables for you.

What is interesting is how the Millenials are less affiliated, but they still believe in the afterlife, miracles, angels and demons to a high degree. I think that’s where atheism is lacking for a lot of people; that comfort that there’s more to life than just the natural, that life doesn’t just end when we take our last breath. Personally I find that it makes life much more precious.

Let’s see some charts and tables!

Note that in the Unaffiliated group are the Religious Unaffiliated, people who describe their faith as “nothing in particular” but say that religion is somewhat or very important in their lives. Whatever that means.

If you take out the religious unaffiliated, you still get a much higher group of unaffiliated than the general population. Note how few people are still willing to label themselves as atheists.

Another chart showing age composition of religions.

Lots of people find religion to be very important to them. Note how religion seems to become more important as the different groups get older. Could that be fear of death?

53% of Millenials are certain god exists. Note the other groups as well.

Interesting how different groups view the bible or other “holy” book.

Here’s a chart for the last table. Note how the different groups change over time in regards to believing the bible is the literal word of god.

Notice how the unaffiliated still believe in the afterlife, miracles, angels and demons. I think this is significant.

How to obtain eternal life table, only the affiliated were asked, of course.

Views of homosexuality as always wrong.

Views on abortion. I’d love to see this as a chart over time.

Is evolution the best explanation for human life? Does Hollywood threaten values? Do you like bigger government with more services? Interesting numbers.

Are there absolute standards of right and wrong? Should government protect morality? Should churches talk politics? The unaffiliated stand out a bit here.

Opposition to prayer and bible reading in public schools. The Millenials stand out again.

So what do you think? Are you an Unaffiliated? Have you ever heard of Religious Unaffiliated? Do you think the Unafilliated results are too muddied by combining those numbers for the rest of the questions? I do. Does this poll seem hopeful to you, or not? And if you’re nonreligious, do you believe in miracles, angels and demons, and life after death?

Thanks to my friend Daniel, for letting me know this had been released.

Holiday Cards For Atheists and Nontheists

Neece — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:28:08 +0000

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting but things got a bit crazy here. My friend Will and I were interviewed for WV Public Radio the other day and that kept me busy getting ready. I will be sure to link you to the broadcast when it goes live next week. It was regarding our billboard and new organization, the Morgantown Coalition of Reason, that I’ve mentioned. It’s been keeping me quite busy.

Anyway, the other thing that has kept me busy is thinking of the holidays that are fast approaching. While I like getting together with friends and family and celebrating, I don’t like the religious nature of it all (of course). One thing that really frustrates me is the card selection.

So I decided to try my hand at designing some irreverent cards! I dug through my favorite winter pictures that I’ve taken over the years, then came up with some messages for nontheists (with the help of my most awesome husband Butch, of course), and uploaded them to Zazzle.

I would like to do a few more, but these are a good start, I think. If you have ideas you’d like to see created, feel free to comment or Email Me.

~ Begin Shameless Promotion Here~

Just Be Good For Goodness Sake! Three cards with original photography by © ZeNeece and 3 slightly different messages.

The Cardinals Agree Card

Retain Your Reason This Season! Card

Snow Angel Jesus Card

See inside messages and matching stamps as well as postcards:


Message in card and on back of postcard: These Cardinals Agree! Just Be Good For Goodness Sake! Enjoy The Season No Matter What You Celebrate	Message in card and on back of postcard: Tis The Season To Retain Your Reason! Just Be Good For Goodness Sake! Enjoy The Season No Matter What You Celebrate	Message in card and on back of postcard: Lighten Up! Just Be Good For Goodness Sake! Enjoy The Season No Matter What You Celebrate
The Cardinals Agree Stamp	Retain Your Reason This Season! Stamp	Snow Angel Jesus Stamp
The Cardinals Agree Postcard	Retain Your Reason This Season! Postcard	Snow Angel Jesus Postcard

~
Sir Lee Tees will customize designs for you, or create something entirely new. Just email them at sirleetees@gmail.com. See more irreverent designs at SirLeeTees.com or their Zazzle Store.

What Are You Doing November 19?

Neece — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:24:52 +0000

I have a MISSION for all heathens across America for November 19. Please watch the following video: (it’s 6 minutes long)

Pharyngula wrote about this the other night and noted that the giveaway is now 100,000 books at 100 universities, that Darwin’s text will remain intact, and the 50 page foreword will be rewritten to be more fair to atheists. (Does that mean it will be 50 blank pages?)

Here’s what I would love to see happen:

Atheists, heathens, skeptics and science lovers go to the universities where these books are being given out, kindly receive the free book and walk away.
(The next bit is optional) Then meet the other local atheists, walk back to the people giving the books away en masse, and quietly and politely rip out the intro, throw it in the trash and smile.
(The next bit is also optional) Then get into a friendly debate with the Comfort/Cameron folks, always staying pleasant and friendly, but defeat them with logic, reason and science facts.

This would serve several purposes:

It would keep the sullied copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species out of the hands of young people who are just learning to think a bit more critically and may not understand that the foreword is complete lies and bullshit
It would make a statement
It would show that Atheists CAN unite for a common cause, for one short afternoon, to do a good deed
If the atheists are polite, friendly and well-spoken, it will show people that we are good, friendly people, not monsters.
It will really upset Comfort and Cameron, which is great fun.

Here’s what you can do:

Contact your local atheist/brights/freethinkers/skeptical/science/physics/logic/critical thinker, etc. group and talk to them about getting a group together to meet, receive a book, and perhaps make a statement with it en masse once you all have a copy.
Help us find out what schools the books will be handed out at so we know where to go. I am not sure how to find this out.
Go to your university on November 19 and at least get your copy of the book.

I think if possible (and yes, I know I’m publishing this to my blog), we would best be served if we kept this a bit quiet, at least for now. But spread the word, tell all your evolution-loving, blasphemous, hell-bound heathen friends and family about it.

We can disseminate information through here for now, so let us know if you have any ideas, suggestions and updates about the event, as well as if anyone can find out at which schools the books will be given out.

EDIT: Here is the pdf of Comfort’s 50 page foreword. I think this is the original one. When his revised version comes out, let me know so I can link it here!

Mr. Deity and the Skeptic! (Michael Shermer)

Neece — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:49:50 +0000

Mr. Deity is awesome. Here’s the latest with guest Michael Shermer, PhD:

If you haven’t seen all the episodes, they do sort of build on each other. You can subscribe to them on iTunes (search for Mr. Deity) or you can go to MrDeity.com to catch up. Season 2 is only available there now, I believe. So go watch them and get a chuckle!

I Have 2 Dogs, But Neither Is god. I’m Sure.

Neece — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:15:07 +0000

I’m bored. I have about 5 matters I should be attending to, but I’m uninspired to tackle any of them at the long end of a productive day. So I’m doing what every self-respecting blogger/Geekess/hermit does. I’m stumbling the internet.

Oh, and now is the time to remind you that I officially live under a rock. Someday I’ll take a picture of my rock so you can see how nice it is. But suffice it to say, I’m not a newshound, always up on the latest and greatest of everything.

So in my stumbles I come across a BusinessDay article, a South African paper. This is how I learned this awesome explanation of the difference between an atheist, 2 kinds of agnostics, and a theist. Here we go:

The difference between an atheist, an agnostic and a theist can be summarized by their responses to the question: do you have a dog?

The atheist will simply answer, “No”. If you go to his house to search for a dog, you won’t find one. There will be no signs in the house or the yard that there ever was a dog there. None of his relatives or friends will remember having seen a dog there. They’ll ask, “Does he have a dog? How could I not have known?” And they’ll be absolutely right. There are no signs that there could ever have been a dog at the atheist’s house or indeed anywhere where he spends his time. Not at his home, not at his work, nowhere.

The agnostic who thinks that there’s simply insufficient proof for either having or not having a dog will be a great deal less certain.

When asked, she’ll look around her house searching for traces of a dog. When pressed, she’ll say, “Oh, I’ve searched my house, but what’s to say that there’s not a dog in my garage as I’m searching the house, and what’s to say that dog isn’t going to be in my house while I search the garage?”. If asked, “Do you believe you have a dog, despite there being no signs of it?” She’s likely to answer firmly: “There’s simply not enough evidence to support the fact that I don’t own a dog to come to that conclusion.”

Then there’s the agnostic who doesn’t believe that he owns a dog, but is nevertheless not willing to completely rule out the possibility.

When asked, he’ll say, “I have no dog at home, that’s for sure.” Pondering the question further, he’ll say, “But, obviously, I can never be everywhere all at once. So, there must be some small possibility that there’s a dog out there somewhere that’s got a disk on its collar saying I’m the owner. That I don’t know about it isn’t sufficient proof that it doesn’t exist.”

Needless to say, you won’t find traces of a dog at his home either.

Finally, there’s the theist. When asked, she’ll answer an empathic “Yes!” But if you go to her house and search for a dog, you’ll not find a trace of a dog there either. Nowhere is a dog to be found.

Naturally you’ll ask her why she thinks she has a dog when there’s no evidence. You might find relatives and friends who say she has a dog, but who’ve never seen it, heard it, or felt it licking their face.

“It’s a matter of faith,” the theist will proclaim. “I have faith in this (or that) which says so. My friends say so. My parents said so. So who are you to question the fact that I have a dog?”

Other perspectives:

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. HL Mencken

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. Bertrand Russell

I agree completely! What a great explanation. I have no god. There is no evidence of a god. If you look in my house and my yard, you won’t find any evidence of a god either. I’ve never had a god.When I was a kid everyone told me I had a god but when I got older I caught on that just like Santa, it was make believe and they were lying. There’s a lot of evidence that they have been making up stories for millennia, by the way.

I live my godless life quite happily. I don’t have to make believe, I don’t have to doubt and wonder and worry and pretend and pray. I don’t have to think I’m being watched or judged by some invisible friend who is jealous, angry and crazy. I am my own counsel. I am my own moral compass. I am responsible for me entirely. It’s simple, sensible and smart, and leads me to live each moment of my life fully and with happiness and awe among the wonders of the universe.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I do have 2 dogs, though. I have evidence of them snoring quietly on the floor at my feet.

“Imagine No Religion” is Blasphemous?

Johnny — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:39:34 +0000

Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF.org) recently put up a billboard near Pell City, Alabama. One of their classics, modifying a line from one of John Lennon’s songs: “Imagine No Religion.”

The sign is located on east-bound I-20 just past the Pell City exit. Atheist billboards really are nothing new, especially to those of us in the atheist community. What makes this one notable is that it is believed to be a first in Alabama; and is one of a very few in a bible-belt state. Eleanor Strote commented “A lot of people didn’t even know there was an atheist group in town. And they do now.”

FFRF local chapter president, Pat Cleveland said it is not meant to be a recruiting tool, but meant to inform. “There are people of no religion in Alabama. I’m one of them.” This is a way to let atheists, agnostics, and non-believers know there is a group for them in the bible-belt, “more like a member information campaign.”

The local news coverage tries to sound unbiased, but when they refer to the billboard as ‘impious‘ and ‘irreverent‘ its obvious even they are against it. Shall we take a look at how Atheist [Bus & Billboard] Campaign got started? FFRF placed their first billboard in Wisconsin in October 2007. However the real ‘war’ started after JesusSaid.org ran bus advertisements inviting people to their website (in mid-2008). Upon visiting the website, people were greeted with the bold statement that “all non-Christians would burn in hell for all eternity.” Way to be respectful, pious, and reverent there Christians!

Ariane Sherine coined a response, and launched the campaign in October 2008. The initial response and one of the most popular, started running on 800 buses in the UK in January of 2009: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Since then FFRF has stepped-up their billboard placement, and several other organization have also started running billboards and bus ads. Several have met resistance; most have weathered the fight though.

Would you expect any less for this latest? Especially being located in the bible-belt. Here’s what makes this story different, probably the one of the last persons you would expect to take offense: a local gay man who was ostracized and booted from church.

Joseph Weldon has started a petition asking the Alabama Freethought Association to removed the billboard prior to their paid for time (through July 31st). Thankfully a petition for something like this really does nothing but allow him the opportunity to whine, and draw more attention to it. A petition might work to let a company know their consumers are dissatisfied; but in this case AFA and FFRF already knew there were people that wouldn’t like the billboard. All the petition does is give them a list of names of the people that don’t like it; the petition will not convince them to take down the billboard.

What is really pathetic is how skewed this guy’s view is. “You know, you see church billboards all up and down the interstate inviting people to come pray with them and listing service times, things like that.” Okay, so he acknowledges those, and apparently doesn’t have a problem with them; but a non-religious billboard is a different story. “I didn’t really pay any attention to it at first, but then after I read about it in the newspaper, I found it really offensive.” Seriously?! Its a line from a song. Theoretically it should invoke a thought provoking exercise for the imagination.

He has also made the petition available online via MySpace. This is even better, because we all know online petitions work the best.

“I’ve spoken to many, many people, and all of them felt offended. It’s just really inappropriate.” This guy is so stupid he doesn’t realize he keeps contradicting himself. “Everyone should respect everyone else’s beliefs and opinions.”

Joseph considers himself more spiritual than religious, and does not attend church. “I’m also gay, and when I came out, I was asked to leave my church.” So let’s play the image game prompted by the billboard. Imagine a world with no religion Joseph, in that world you would not have been shunned and ostracized from your community for being born different than the majority. Seems to me like that might be a better world for you Joseph.

“Alabama is a Southern state. Most people here do believe in God, and religion is a part of the culture. Having this billboard up there over the interstate feels like a slap in the face. It’s blasphemous, but they don’t see that because they don’t believe.” Blasphemous? Really? If you noted the biased descriptions from the news team mentioned above, you might find the definition humorous: blasphemous (adjective) impiously irreverent. “Saying ‘Imagine No Religion,’ is blasphemous to me.”

Joseph thinks atheist and freethinker groups should advertise themselves like churches. Atheism is not a religion! Non-belief is not a belief. Bald is not a hair color. And not collecting stamps is not a hobby.

Happy Treaty of Tripoli Day!

Johnny — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:11:50 +0000

The Treaty of Tripoli was negotiated while George Washington was president; eventually ratified by the U.S. Senate on June 7th, 1797; and then signed by President John Adams on June 10th, 1797. Although this treaty is no longer in effect today, Article 11 provides some significant insight into the infancy of the United States as a nation.

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

This ratification by the Senate was recorded as one of the few unanimous votes be the Senate (339 votes taken). Additionally the entire treaty was printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and two New York newspapers. There is no evidence of any government or public opposition to the terms of the treaty.

This isn’t like some of the 100-plus-page bills that go to the Senate today, where they might sneak this paragraph in somewhere. The Treaty of Tripoli is a single page.

In my opinion this is a clear indication of what our founding fathers, the government, and the public in-general thought. To maintain “freedom of religion” the government must remain “free from religion.”

We recently saw President Obama reference the Treaty of Tripoli; and many people gasped that a modern-day politician had even heard of it. Unfortunately he skipped over that first sentence in Article 11, but did point out that “the Government of the United States of America…has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of [Muslims].”

There are a few separation of church and state advocates urging people to update their Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or other social-site status to remind everyone of today’s anniversary.

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Since we are on this topic, I’d like to briefly hit on some of the arguments I’ve heard as to why people think the U.S. was established as a Christian nation. Neece had a Separation of Church and State post awhile back, and illustrates a nice example of how it benefits everyone (both religious and non-religious). I want to focus on some of the individual arguments though.

The laws of the U.S. are based on the ten commandments.

How many of the commandments do we have equivalent laws for? So many religious people argue this case without thinking about it long enough to realize. Of the biblical ten commandments, only TWO are laws: 20%. Thou shall not kill and Thou shall not steal. Some people argue a third, Thou shall not bear false witness because of perjury laws; but outside of a courtroom you can lie without legal repercussions so you can’t really count it.

Say you work at a company that says they have based their entire employee policy from a management book that the president of the company once read. Then you go through the employee policy handbook and compare it to the original management book. You find that only about 20% of the message from the original book actually made it into the policy handbook. Yet the handbook has a multitude of additional policies never covered in the original book. Would you personally conclude that the handbook was based on the original? Or would you conclude ideas might have been taken from the original, but they just as likely came from another source?

What about the fact that “don’t kill” and “don’t steal” are the two most basic universal laws in every society; even those that have never been exposed to the Bible, and especially those who predated the Bible.

The founding fathers referred to “God” in the Constitution.

This one is great because it illustrates that they don’t know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence has “God” appear once, and “Creator” appear once; but neither appear in the Constitution.

…to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…

…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…

Neither of these refer to Jesus, and neither specify the judeo-christian god Yahweh; in fact this is very similar to the language used by deists of the time (which leads to our next claim).

The founding fathers were all Christian.

There were many founding fathers who were Christian, but there were many who were agnostic or deists; some would probably be considered atheist by today’s standards (or with today’s scientific knowledge). More importantly the majority agreed in opposing the idea of christianity or any religion being allowed in government.

Thomas Jefferson was an openly admitted deist. He believed in a generic ‘Creator’ that created the world, and then left man to his own devices; he did not believe in the judeo-christian god and openly stated that the church had twisted religion for its own gain.

George Washington, although being a practicing Christian, is speculated by many to have been a deist; he repeatedly avoids using ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ in speech and text, instead only referencing the ‘Creator.’

Benjamin Franklin was also a deist who thought the church had it wrong and was corrupt besides; and often expressed philosophies that would be considered atheist by today’s standards.

The Presidential Oath of Office has the president swear on the Bible “So help me God.”

Neither the Bible nor the phrase “So help me God” are required parts of the oath of office. For early presidents it was common place to say a prayer after completing the oath; although others might have said it, Chester A. Arthur is the first president officially on record having ended his oath with “I will, so help me God.” Another interesting tid-bit here is that since it is not part of the oath, it is technically illegal for the Chief Justice to say it; the president has the option, but the Chief Justice shouldn’t prompt it. Something else of interest with the most recent oath, since the Chief Justice botched it so badly at the inauguration it was considered possibly invalid; so President Obama retook the oath the morning of the 21st, and did it without a Bible.

The founding fathers created “In God We Trust” as a national motto and put it on money. Besides that they put “under God” in the Pledge.

I really love this one too, because so few people realize how “young” these are. Any reference to God was not placed on money for the specific reason that it could be seen as the government backing a form of religion. “In God We Trust” did not appear on money until 1864. After the Civil War is was a popular sentiment for church leaders to point to the nation moving away from God as the reason for the war. This lead to many appeals written to the government; among these were direct appeals to the Secretary of the Treasury stating that the US currency should display that the US is a “god fearing” country. So on April 22, 1864, Congress passed an Act (that over turned several other Acts, and ultimately went against the Constitution), directing that “In God We Trust” be stamped on two-cent coins. In March of 1865 they passed an Act allowing all coins to be minted with the motto.

The Pledge of Allegiance was not even written until 1892, and “under God” was not added until 1954. “In God We Trust” was not made the official motto until 1956.

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So what other arguments have you heard?

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