Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1958

25 Things That Don’t Disprove Evolution

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses 25 things that don’t disprove evolution:

A rough transcript of the video can be found on the YouTube page in the “About” section.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!

And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon.

Canceling the Kickstarter Project

After receiving a lot of negative feedback over the past 24 hours, I’ve decided to put a stop to the project. Even if I believe the concept behind the book is a valid one, the execution was poor and it upset a lot of good people. My apologies to anyone in that crowd.

To everyone who supported the project so far, I appreciate your understanding. I hope you’ll support whatever I decide to do next.

Christian Radio Host: Ebola Could Cure America’s Atheism Problem

On his show yesterday, Christian radio host Rick Wiles (below) told his listening audience that there’s an upside to the Ebola outbreak:

Now this Ebola epidemic could become a global pandemic and that’s another name for plague. It may be the great attitude adjustment that I believe is coming. Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography, and abortion.

If Ebola becomes a global plague, you better make sure the blood of Jesus is upon you. You better make sure you been marked by the angels so that you are protected by God. If not, you may be a candidate to meet the Grim Reaper.

Who knew the cure for Ebola was spreading some Jesus all over your body?!

You know, if that were true, you would think the African nations where the virus is spreading would be protected, given all the Christian missionaries who visit them…

John Hagee and David Barton Claim You Can’t Be True Christians if you Support LGBT Rights and Abortion

We know Christianity is a big tent. There are super-conservative Christians as well as very progressive ones (who are in many ways more closely aligned with atheists than the Tony Perkins types).

One of the non-obvious differences between the two groups, in my experience, is that progressive Christians are much more comfortable with the idea of the big tent. They know not everyone who’s a Christian will agree with them on every topic… but that’s okay.

And then you have people like Pastor John Hagee, who said in a recent sermon that Christians who were pro-choice or supported LGBT rights were not real Christians at all:

“In God We Trust” is not just a phrase. It better be a fact. Because when we quit trusting in Him, the foundations are gone… When a nation embraces abortion, the death rate is greater than the birth rate, and so the nation is dying, because you’re burying more people than are being born. And when you push Christianity out, that’s what happens. And you people who are running around calling yourselves Christians supporting abortion, you are not!…

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Our greatest problem in this nation is counterfeit Christianity…

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… Those of you who got on national television and endorsed homosexual lifestyle because the President did so, you are a counterfeit Christian, you are a moral coward, you are a hireling shepherd. Shame on you.

There’s so much wrong in there… just because people have abortions doesn’t mean the death rate outpaces the birth rate. Women who have abortions aren’t “burying” anything. We have a lot of problems in this country; counterfeit Christianity is pretty low on that list. And I promise you no one — not even Christian pastors — began supporting marriage equality just because President Obama voiced his support of it.

That aside, his point is clear: If you don’t agree with me, you must not be a real Christian.

You know, I’ve criticized conservative atheist S.E. Cupp a lot on this site because her views are just ridiculous. I even called her a self-loathing atheist after she said she wished she was a person of faith. But it makes no sense to say “she’s not really an atheist.” If she says she doesn’t believe in God, then she’s an atheist whether we like it or not. End of story.

Not with Hagee, though. There are the people who agree with him… and a bunch of liars who only call themselves Christians.

Pseudo-historian David Barton echoed Hagee’s thoughts, too, saying on his radio show yesterday that Christians who supported cohabitation and abortions and homosexuality are leading to America’s destruction:

Whoa! There is nothing in the Bible — nothing — that aligns with this. How can you be a Christian and be a follower of Jesus Christ when you don’t follow his teachings on these things? So what we have is a real biblical illiteracy…

I’m not the first person to say this, but if you listened to 1,000 different Christians, you’d hear about 1,000 different kinds of Christianity. What Hagee and Barton are doing — and part of me is thrilled they’re doing it — serves to divide an already fractured group of people even more.

One reason more people are claiming to have “No religion” even if they believe in a higher power is because they want nothing to do with an exclusive faith that serves as an audience for people like Hagee and Barton.

Eventually, these guys will just whittle themselves down to the True Believers and have a blast with their congregations of one.

Author of Bible Parody Book Receives Death Threats Before Attending Weekend Conference

Last year, I posted about a book called the Awkward Moments (Not Found In Your Average) Children’s Bible documenting many of the Bible’s little-known verses.

Like these pages quoting Exodus 21:20-21:

The book was written by “Horus Gilgamesh” and illustrator “Agnes Tickheathen” (Agnostic Heathen) — both obviously pseudonyms. It received incredible reception online, becoming a mainstay atop Amazon’s books about atheism.

And now, despite the attempt at anonymity, their identities have been discovered by a Christian who just sent them a death threat:

Why Seattle? The authors will be there for the Atheist Alliance of America’s annual convention.

I write under a pen name, I separate my writing from my personal life as much as possible, in order to maintain family privacy while protecting my other businesses from the unknown. You feel pretty safe until you open your personal mailbox to find an odd letter addressed to your private name — no return address, just a postmark from a couple of hours away.

A lot of things go through your mind while standing in the middle of the road, reading a letter like this: How did they get this address? How did they find my real name? What is this verse? Who are they? What do they want? This is obviously the King James? Are they serious? Would someone actually track me down at a speaking engagement to cause me harm? Where’s my wife? Where’s my gun?

Panic. Fear. Just what they were hoping for. Possibly just what they’ve been taught…

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Honestly, my first reaction was, “Holy crap! How have we never illustrated this little bit of madness before?” My second reaction was, “I stand corrected — some Christians apparently do read their Bibles.”

Gilgamesh went to the police, but they understandably couldn’t do much without more information.

He told me over email he’s not letting this threat deter him:

In the midst of fear and a sense of helplessness, I have been absolutely amazed and humbled by the support and encouragement I have received after sharing this story. Within minutes, I received countless messages offering everything from personal protection by off-duty military officers to safe beds for my family. The onslaught of selfless generosity simply overwhelmed me.

At the end of the day, I came out publicly with this situation because I won’t be silenced. Whether or not I ultimately choose to present at the conference in Seattle is actually irrelevant — I will continue doing the work I do on a daily basis. God’s Little Helper has already lost — showing an ugly side of his or her religion — that almost any dirty deed can be justified by the Good Book. This, of course, is not my problem to solve — but that of everyday Christians who would be quick to denounce this pathetic bully. But, would they be right to do so? Is he not following scripture — the laws of Moses? Sure, many Christians will claim that this person isn’t a “real Christian” or that, “the laws of the Old Testament no longer apply because Jesus came and…”. Of course, they conveniently forget Christ’s own words on the matter from Matthew 5:18-19 and Luke 16:17. Again, their problem — not mine.

I spoke with AAA’s President Chuck VonDerAhe over the phone yesterday and he told me authorities have already been notified and everyone attending the conference should feel very safe.

(Thanks to Adrian for the link)

These Are Pretty Bad Reasons for the Catholic Church Not to Sell Some of Its Assets

After CNN’s Daniel Burke posted about the lavish lifestyles of some Catholic archbishops, Catholic blogger Kathy Schiffer decided to tackle the inevitable question: Why don’t we just sell the Vatican? Or how about just St. Peter’s Basilica (below)? Or anything, really, since the Church has so much?

Her answer might be what you’d expect: The Church shouldn’t sell anything.

But her reasons are appalling:

Wouldn’t you seem ungrateful if your parents had scrimped and saved to give you a pricey wedding gift, only to have you cast it aside? Likewise, past generations of the faithful — grateful for God’s beneficent care, and eager to share their appreciation by giving of their blessings — have donated the funds, or contributed the artwork, or supported the artist, with the expectation that their gift will be appreciated and will serve as an inspiration to prayer for future generations.

Of course, there’s a difference between keeping an heirloom… and flat-out hoarding everything that comes your way. There’s no reason the artwork couldn’t be given to a museum. Hell, there’s no reason the Vatican couldn’t become a museum itself. No one’s asking Church officials to burn the artwork. But not every building is a historical artifact. Not every painting is priceless. And there are better uses for all the space the Church has.

Here’s another reason Schiffer offers:

Beauty Leads Us to Holiness

… As we appreciate the beauty of a flower, we begin to understand a little more of the beauty of its Creator, and we are drawn to love Him more. Likewise, when a stained glass window enraptures us with its shimmering color and its profound imagery, we appreciate the creator (the artist), and the Creator of the creator (God).

That’s what you say when your logical reasons for believing in God fail: Look at how pretty we are!

And another reason:

The Poor Deserve Beauty, Too.

Sure they do. I’m just saying they’d like a roof over their heads even more. Maybe some food while we’re at it.

The commenters on Schiffer’s site who agree with her bring up a couple of points worth responding to:

Even if you feed the poor, they will be hungry again tomorrow.

So the solution is to let them starve…? The money from the Church could easily pay for the education of many poor people (so they can get out of poverty) or food sources that replenish themselves.

Should the United States sell the Smithsonian Institute to help the poor?

Of course not. There’s an educational purpose to the Smithsonian that’s absent from the Vatican. The goal of the Smithsonian isn’t to indoctrinate you. (And they usually don’t ask for any money, either.)

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I don’t want it to sound like this is an attack on the wealthy or that I’m ignoring every other rich institution. I can freely admit the Catholic Church does plenty of charity work already. And every one of us could probably sell some of our possessions, help others with the money, and not even notice anything’s missing. (Ariane Sherine‘s recent experiment is a prime example of this.)

The problem with the Church is that it doesn’t even seem to acknowledge its excessive wealth. It’s not like they’d need to sell off the Vatican to make a significant change. Even downgrading archbishops’ opulent homes to something much smaller wouldn’t cramp their style — the Pope manages just fine in his small bedroom — and the money they’d get could actually do a lot of good. That’s true for all of us, of course, but we don’t all have billions of dollars in assets just lying around.

It’s also a PR problem. Mother Teresa, for all of her faults, was generally well-regarded by the public because she wasn’t just helping the poor; she was right in the trenches with them. But you’re not going to take very seriously a Church official who says he’s all about helping the poor, as he wears fancy clothing and walks out of his lavish home.

The Church won’t sell its assets, though. It’ll continue building up its wealth. Too bad the Bible never said anything about rich people.

(Image via Wikipedia)

After Alabama County Votes to Put Up “In God We Trust” Plaque, Atheists and Pagans Fight for Their Own Displays

Back in June, the Mobile County Commission (in Alabama) voted 2-1 to put the words “In God We Trust” on a plaque in the city’s Administration Building. (The most surprising thing about that? Until now, “In God We Trust” wasn’t on a government-issued plaque in Mobile, Alabama.)

Before the vote took place, eight people spoke to the commissioners about the plaque — and seven of them opposed it, including Amanda Scott (below):

[Faulkner State Community College] student Amanda Scott addressed the commission first, advocating a different phrase instead of the proposed religious motto.

“I strongly urge the commission to reject the display ‘In God We Trust,” she said. “It would only serve to divide Mobile on religion when we’re already so divided on other issues,” she added. Scott proposed the Latin phrase “E pluribus unum,” meaning “out of many, one,” or “one of many.” She declared herself as an atheist and said the proposed display would exclude her in others in the public building.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter. Two of the commissioners — President Connie Hudson and Jerry Carl — voted to move forward with the plaque.

But now the fun starts. It turns out Christians aren’t the only people who want a plaque displayed in Government Plaza:

… Pagans, Universalists and atheists want to propose their own privately-funded displays.

The Mobile Atheist Community would like to see a display that reads “in reason we trust,” Universalists want one that says “coexist” and Pagans are lobbying for “in Goddess/es we trust,” according to the organizers.

There is also a petition [by Amanda Scott] to not display “in God we trust.”

The displays would likely be on plaques.

Representatives from all three groups will attend the Commission’s meeting today to discuss their options.

Let the fireworks begin. If the Commission rejects their pleas, it’s possible they would be on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

(Portions of this article were posted earlier.)

Pittsylvania County Board Told That It Still Can’t Open Meetings with Christian Prayer, Despite Supreme Court Ruling

In 2012, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors in Virginia began each meeting with a prayer to Jesus Christ.

An anonymous woman had sued the city in response — but a judge ruled that the only way for the lawsuit to proceed was if she revealed her identity.

In a country where atheists can get harassed for simply suggesting, “If people want to pray, they should do it privately, not on the taxpayers’ dime,” it’s no surprise the person wanted to keep her identity hidden.

But the lawsuit was too important and Barbara Hudson decided to shed the anonymity so the case could proceed:

The lawsuit against the board is not an attack on anyone’s religion, Hudson said. Supervisor-led sectarian Christian prayers during public meetings amount to government promotion of one religion over others. That creates a danger to everyone’s religious freedom, she said.

Why don’t the supervisors just pray to one God, with an all-encompassing invocation? Hudson asked.

“They could have avoided the whole thing by praying in the name of God,” said Hudson, who is not a Christian. “They want to promote their own version of religion.”

“I just think it’s very sad that the board of supervisors refuses to embrace the idea of God as a source of comfort and guidance, that it has to be sectarian religion,” Hudson said.

Hudson declined to reveal her faith.

“I think religion is a very deeply personal issue,” Hudson said.

(Well, it wouldn’t have been okay in my opinion if they prayed to a generic God, either, but at least the lawsuit continued.)

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled in Greece v. Galloway that sectarian prayers could be recited at government meetings. So that should settle the Pittsylvania case, right?

Not exactly. There’s a big difference between citizens delivering a religious or non-religious invocation — which is what the Supreme Court said was okay — and government officials doing the same thing.

It turns out the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors had already been told by Judge Michael Urbanski that they could not open their meetings with supervisor-led prayer. They requested an injunction on that ruling so they wouldn’t have to follow it.

This week, Urbanski (thankfully) told the commissioners the injunction was pretty much still in effect:

Put simply, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors involved itself “in religious matters to a far greater degree” than was the case in Town of Greece… In so doing, the prayer practice in Pittsylvania County had the unconstitutional effect, over time, of officially advancing one faith or belief, violating “the clearest command of the Establishment Clause… that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.”

It also hurt the Commissioners’ cause that, because they were saying their own Christian prayers, no one else ever had a chance to deliver, say, a Humanist invocation. They also told everyone in the audience to stand during their prayers, adding to the coercion factor.

Urbanski said he could possibly modify the injunction, but it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

So there’s some irony for you: Greece v Galloway could have allowed these commissioners to have overtly Christian invocations at nearly every meeting… but their own Jesus-y greed put a stop to their public prayers altogether. At least for now.

(Via Religion Clause. Image via Shutterstock. Portions of this article were posted earlier.)

North Carolina Diner Halts 15% Discount for Praying Customers After FFRF Sends Warning Letter

Earlier this week, we learned that Mary’s Gourmet Diner in Winston-Salem, North Carolina gave customers a 15% discount if they were seen praying before a meal:

Even though the discount was supposedly open to people of all faiths, it was clearly geared toward Christians and offered no alternatives for atheists.

Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Liz Cavell wrote a letter to the diner’s owner Mary Haglund a few days ago warning her of the legal repercussions of her actions:

It does not matter that the promotion is available to customers regardless of which god they pray to. Your restaurant’s restrictive promotional practice favors religious customers, and denies customers who do not pray and nonbelievers the right to “full and equal” enjoyment of Mary’s Gourmet Diner. Any promotions must be available to all customers regardless of religious preference or practice on a non-discriminatory basis.

We urge you to discontinue this discriminatory discount. If you truly wish to reward gratitude in customers regardless of religion, you must do so in a way that does not single out customers who pray for favorable treatment.

That letter did the trick. Haglund announced late last night that the diner would be putting an end to the prayer discount, courtesy of a hand-written note in the window:

We at Mary’s value the support of ALL our fellow Americans. While you may exercise your right of religious freedom at this restaurant by praying over your meal to any entity or non-entity, we must protect your freedom from religion in a public place. We are no longer issuing the 15% praying in public discount. It is illegal and we are being threatened by lawsuit. We apologize to our community for ANY offense this discount has incurred.

You can almost see the rage seeping through that note… in any case, it’s the right thing to do. If they can’t offer the discount to everyone, then they can’t offer it to anyone. I’m sure some Christians will complain at the supposed “injustice,” but the owners are still welcome to give that 15% discount to everyone if they choose. They just can’t single out religious customers.

Secular Group Showcase: Secular Students at Iowa

We asked you to tell us about your local secular group in an attempt to encourage the start-up and growth of “good without god” communities. We’ve received a lot of responses already (Thanks!) and here’s a glimpse at our next group: The Secular Students at Iowa. They’re a fairly new group, but they’ve already accomplished enough for Center for Inquiry to take notice. They’ve just been awarded CFI’s 2014 Campus Affiliate Award for Best New Group!

Our group is hosting an event in September where Sean Faircloth will be coming to the University of Iowa to give a lecture. The lecture is entitled “The Pursuit of Social Justice through Secular Government”. His talk will address how religious bias in law harms many different facets of society, including men and women in uniform, public health policy, LGBTQ rights, women’s health and rights, the freedom to die with dignity, and other relevant contemporary issues.

You can read more of our interview here.

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Want to be featured in this series? If you can fill out most of the questions below, your group is probably a good candidate to be showcased on our page. We hope to hear from you! E-mail submissions to SecularGroups@gmail.com!

Group name:

Location:

Mission Statement:

Links to group’s Facebook. website, Twitter, etc.:

When was your group established?

What does your group do for fun to connect with each other?

What community/volunteer activities does your group participate in, if any?

What political/social activism does your group do, if any?

Does your group have a favorite charity to fundraise for or promote?

Do you have any stories to share about your city having a positive reaction to your group?

What are some challenges your group has faced?

What advice would you like to share with other groups struggling to grow or are just starting up?

**Please attach some photos of your group as a whole, in action, and having fun**