* Atheist's Lawsuit Cites His Treatment in the Army

Saturday, April 26, 2008

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

"But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he's been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn't believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates."
. . .

"Known as "the atheist guy," Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and — just as severe to some soldiers — gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals." More ...

Cross-reference METAXY: Atheists in Foxholes and George Bush's Christian god told him to go to war with Iraq.

New York Times: Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

"It is unclear how widespread religious discrimination or proselytizing is in the armed forces, constitutional law experts and leaders of veterans’ groups said. No one has independently studied the issue, and service members are reluctant to come forward because of possible backlash, those experts said."

* What one Atheist does for fun ...

Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) created the Dilbert comic strip and is the the author of several business commentaries, social satires, and experimental philosophy books.

Dilbert loves technology for the sake of technology. In fact, Dilbert loves technology more than people. He's got the social skills of a mousepad and he'd rather surf the Internet than Waikiki (which, considering the physique he developed after years of sitting in front of a PC screen, is a blessing).

Perhaps Atheists and Agnostics find life to be so rich because they are free of religious dogma--free to be who we are because we define ourselves. ~ BlogHer

God and the Brain

Is Belief a Psychological Condition?
A collection of great articles on the subject.

(1) PAGE2>

Synopsis: Findings seem to point to a region of the brain commonly referred to as the 'God Spot' or 'God Module', that when stimulated creates hallucinations that are interpreted as mystical or spiritual experiences. This 'spot' is stimulated during meditation and prayer and is affected by electromagnetic fields and epilepsy. The resulting hallucinations may be the cause of mystical, spiritual and paranormal experiences as they can give feelings such as a presence in the room or an out of body experience. In the case of epileptics, this may be the reason for many of them becoming obsessed with religion. For those who experience the stimulation it is explained related to their own personal beliefs; a visit from an angel or lost loved one, an extraterrestrial encounter, a higher plane of consciousness or a visit from God.

But what about Atheists? If the research is correct and a "God module" exists, then it might suggest that individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural circuit. I suppose this would apply to Agnostics, as well. But, some of this and some of that instead of all or nothing. ~ BlogHer

Tell me I'm not hallucinating ... if we both see a large brain
riding on the back of a car, then I'm OK and you're OK.

flickr brains

* Daniel Dennett, Thinker ~ Born on This Day in 1942

Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a prominent American philosopher whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Dennett is also a noted atheist and advocate of the Brights movement. Wikipedia

“ . . . I've come to realize it's time to sound the alarm.

Whether we Brights are a minority or, as I am inclined to believe, a silent majority, our deepest convictions are increasingly dismissed, belittled and condemned by those in power -- by politicians who go out of their way to invoke God and to stand, self-righteously preening, on what they call 'the side of the angels.'

. . . Politicians don't think they even have to pay us lip service, and leaders who wouldn't be caught dead making religious or ethnic slurs don't hesitate to disparage the 'godless' among us.

From the White House down, Bright-bashing is seen as a low-risk vote-getter. And, of course, the assault isn't only rhetorical: the Bush administration has advocated changes in government rules and policies to increase the role of religious organizations in daily life, a serious subversion of the Constitution. It is time to halt this erosion and to take a stand: the United States is not a religious state, it is a secular state that tolerates all religions and--yes--all manner of nonreligious ethical beliefs as well.”

~ Daniel C. Dennett, "The Bright Stuff," The New York Times, July 12, 2003

* Atheist David Sloan Wilson & Evolutionary Theory

The Huffington Post
Atheism as a Stealth Religion (series of 6 postings)
David Sloan Wilson

"In today's polarized world, the conflict between atheism and religion is shaping up to be the fight of the century. In this corner, the new atheists, flexing their muscles with books such as God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. In that corner, the religious fundamentalists, who are responsible for 9/11, the Christian takeover of America, polluting the minds of their children, and numberless other atrocities. It's science and reason against dogmatism and blind faith, making it obvious who the enlightened liberal should root for.

"Well, not quite. The truly enlightened liberal should experience a twinge of doubt about the very blackness and whiteness of it. Let me show you how a bit of evolutionary thinking can paint a more interesting picture in shades of gray."

Stealth II: Let's Get Real
Stealth III: Four Questions and Six Possible Answers
Stealth IV: The Transformation of the Obvious
Stealth V: Ineffective, Silly, and Worse

Watch for Wilson's Stealth VI as his final installment in this series.

David Sloan Wilson

"uses evolutionary theory to explain all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, as he recounts for a general audience in Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin´s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam 2007). He is a distinguished professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York. He publishes in anthropology, psychology, and philosophy journals in addition to his mainstream biological research."

Wilson's Website, Evolutionary Religious Studies

Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986)

"What had been an important and strong relationship with God slowly dwindled, as Simone became more and more interested in nature. She came to the realization that earthly joys are not to be given up (as her religion espoused) but instead, to be appreciated. This way of thinking changed Simone for life. She lived passionately and for the moment. In giving up religion she gave up the idea of living for eternity. She also developed a deep sense of aloneness, without a 'witness' or a god to talk to. This feeling lasted for quite some time as well."

"Later in her life, she was dedicated to the feminist movement and spoke out against the way the French institutionalized poor unmarried mothers. She was also a committed atheist who felt strongly that religion supplied a reason to evade truth."

The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of
women's oppression and a foundational tract of
contemporary feminism.

"In the essay Woman: Myth and Reality, Beauvoir argued that men had made women the "Other" in society by putting a false aura of "mystery" around them. And she argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand women or their problems and not to help them. She argued that this stereotyping was always done in societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy so that the lower group became the "other" and had a false aura of mystery around it. And she said that this also happened with other things such as race, class, and religion. But she said that it was nowhere more true than with sex in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy."

March of the Penguins

A conversation with Linus Torvalds:

Margie: How about religion?

Linus Torvalds - Creator of Linux: : Hmmm, completely a-religious—atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both. It gives people the excuse to say, “Oh, nature was just created”, and so the act of creation is seen to be something miraculous. I appreciate the fact that, “Wow, it's incredible that something like this could have happened in the first place.” I think we can have morals without getting religion into it, and a lot of bad things have come from organized religion in particular. I actually fear organized religion because it usually leads to misuses of power.

Margie: As in holy wars?

Linus: Yeah, and I find it kind of distasteful having religions that tell you what you can do and what you can't do. Catholicism is an example of that kind of non-permissiveness, and I think that is very easy to get into if you are an organized religion. Religion is a very strange area. In Finland, nobody cares. Many people are religious in Finland, but it's not a political issue. Over here, [in the US] religion has become politicized, so you have the fringe people in the news. And then people are afraid to talk about it because it has political implications, and that's usually not true in most of Europe. Religion is a personal matter, but does not matter for anything else. That's how I think it should be done. Linux Journal

Wikipedia

Padding the Case for the New Atheism

by Mark P. Shea

2/05/08 "Recently there has been a flurry of books from the "New Atheists." Such figures as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have been holding forth to state . . . well, not anything new. "The reason there is nothing new to say is that there cannot, by the nature of the discussion, be anything new to say." ... Full article at InsideCatholic.com

*This article is a rehash of reasons why atheism misses the mark. There is 'not anything new' in the article unless you have not read such articles before.

* “The Secular Society and Its Enemies.”

Vol.3 No.11

SPECIAL REPORT:

New York City Conference on the Secular Society Draws Sold-Out Audience
By Austin Dacey

On the weekend of Friday, November 9 – Sunday, November 11, the Center for Inquiry-New York City held a landmark conference on religion, politics, and society, titled “The Secular Society and Its Enemies.” More than four hundred people were drawn to the sold-out event, held at the New York Academy of Science’s stunning new headquarters on the 40th floor of the recently rebuilt 7 World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. The Academy’s space offered sweeping 360-degree views of Manhattan, including the site of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, destroyed in the terrorists’ attack of September 11, 2001. The conference attracted an audience that was remarkable for its diversity and included working men and women of all ages, scholars, journalists, young professionals, retirees from across the United States and beyond, and more than forty student members of CFI-On Campus. The events boasted an impressive list of speakers, including Richard Dawkins, Alan Dershowitz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Peter Singer, Wendy Kaminer, Ann Druyan, Christopher Hitchens (by video), and a host of others.

Center for Inquiry-New York City Executive Director Derek Araujo opened the conference on Friday night with an outline of its bold themes. The secular society protects conscience from coercion and government and religion from each other. In this sense, secularism is not unbelief but a positive political philosophy. Its enemies include not only religious fundamentalists and theocrats but also cultural conservatives and multiculturalist liberals. What emerged as the leitmotif in the three days of discussion was what Paul Kurtz, in his opening remarks, dubbed multisecularism. Within the broad framework of freedom, different cultures historically develop diverse traditions of secular values.

The evening continued with a birthday salute to Carl Sagan, who would have been 73 years old on that date. His widow Ann Druyan, CEO of Cosmos Studios, joined astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson in a touching tribute to Sagan, a close friend and founding member of the Center for Inquiry. Following their remarks, Paul Kurtz inducted Druyan and Tyson into the International Academy of Humanism as two of the Academy’s 2007 Humanist Laureates. Derek Araujo and Wendy Kaminer then presented Matthew LaClair, the brave New Jersey high school student who blew the whistle on his teacher’s proselytizing, with the Council for Secular Humanism’s 2007 James Madison Religious Liberty Award. Edward Tabash, Esq., ended Friday evening’s program with an impassioned plea to prevent the appointment of another conservative justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The historical layers of “multisecularism” were explored during the weekend’s plenary sessions, starting with a Saturday morning panel discussion featuring intellectual historians Susan Jacoby, Rebecca Goldstein, and Jennifer Michael Hecht. Hecht highlighted non-Western secularism, and Goldstein rebutted the claim that the European Enlightenment was an outgrowth of Christianity. Susan Jacoby reminded the audience that public avowal of religious skepticism still constitutes political suicide in the “secular society” of America.

The harmony (and tensions) between science and secular values were spotlighted in two sessions moderated by D.J. Grothe, host of CFI’s popular podcast and radio show “Point of Inquiry.” The first was a discussion on science education among Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan, and Victor Stenger. Druyan movingly proclaimed science a “permanent revolution,” and Dawkins described the “poetic function” of science alongside its “utilitarian function.” Tyson and Stenger compared their experiences as science educators, with Tyson exalting science as our only reliable antidote to self-delusion. Later, in a probing one-on-one conversation with Grothe, Dawkins aired his misgivings about whether his confrontational stance on religion is strategically wise.

To these historical and scientific secularisms, Peter Singer added ethical secularism, demonstrating in his keynote address that nonreligious ethics provide a compelling account of the morality of life, from beginning to end, and a rationale for extending moral concern beyond homo sapiens. The conference took on Christian enemies of the secular society. A panel featuring Edward Tabash, Wendy Kaminer, Damon Linker, and Michelle Goldberg engaged in a counterpoint on reports of the Christian Right’s demise and the prudence of entering into strategic alliances with religious liberals. In a wide-ranging interview of Christopher Hitchens by Derek Araujo (Hitchens having been forced to cancel his appearance due to a scheduling conflict), the iconoclastic writer sounded an alarm over the recrudescence of orthodoxy in Putin’s Russia.

A moderated conversation between Tawfik Hamid and Paul Berman turned to Islamist enemies of secularism and the Western multiculturalists who appease them. Hamid, a would-be-terrorist turned reformer, shared an insider’s view of “petro-Islam.” Berman closed by imploring his fellow secular liberals to come to the aid of Muslim dissidents everywhere.

On the conference’s closing day, Alan Dershowitz set aside atheism and enlisted Jefferson to sing the praises of the godless constitution of the United States. The question-and- answer session that followed closed with a touching exchange between Dershowitz and Matthew LaClair. Like Matthew, Mr. Dershowitz is a recipient of the James Madison Religious Liberty Award. Matthew joined other young activists on the panel about the future of the freethought movement, which also featured Nica Lalli, whose memoir Nothing tells of adventures in secular parenting.

As explained by Center for Inquiry staff in a special briefing, the multiple challenges and opportunities facing multisecularism are being taken up by CFI in New York City and around the world. A $6.25 million capital campaign goal has been set to make possible a permanent home for science and reason in Manhattan. To inquire about making a contribution, call Sherry Rook, Vice President of Development, at (800) 818-7071. The conference concluded with a tour of the United Nations led by Austin Dacey, CFI’s U.N. representative in New York. There conference goers read aloud from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” with the emphasis on conscience.

The Center for Inquiry plans to make selected video recordings of the weekend’s event available online.

Austin Dacey is CFI representative to the United Nations in New York

* Will The Golden Compass Turn Kids Into Atheists? ... and so what if it does?

"As part of a two-month protest campaign, the Catholic League has called for a boycott of the film. They believe that while the religious elements of the film will be "watered down" from the source novels, it will still encourage children to read the series, which League president William A. Donohue says "denigrates Christianity" and promotes "atheism for kids", citing author Pullman as saying that he is "trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."

"The Golden Compass is a forthcoming fantasy film based upon Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in the US), the first novel in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, slated for release on December 7, 2007 by New Line Cinema."

Watch the trailers ...

"In October 2007, the Catholic League called for a boycott of the film. Several key themes of the novels, the rejection of organized religion and the abuse of power in a fictionalized Catholic Church, are to be diluted in the adaptation. Director Weitz said "in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots" but that the organization portrayed in his film would not directly match that of Pullman's books. In an attempt to avoid a religious backlash, the Magisterium will instead be a critique of all dogmatic organizations. Weitz said that New Line Cinema had feared the story's anti-religious themes would make the film financially unviable in the US, and so religion and God will not be referenced directly."

* Atheism on the Rise, Almost Doubling AAI Membership

In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers

By Jacqueline L. Salmon

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2007; Page A14

A legion of the godless is rising up against the forces of religiosity in American society.

"People who were ashamed to say there is no God now say, 'Wow, there are others out there who think like me, and it feels damned good,' " said Margaret Downey, president of the Atheist Alliance International, whose membership has almost doubled in the past year to 5,200. It has a 500-person waiting list for its convention in Crystal City later this month.

* An Atheist for President? by Jacques Berlinerblau

The God Vote

Jacques Berlinerblau is program director and associate professor of Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of "The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously" and the forthcoming "Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics." The God Vote is a critical look at the religious rhetoric, activity and theology behind the 2008 presidential campaign. Full bio »

The God Vote | Georgetown/On Faith Archives | On Faith Archives | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | Georgetown

Posted on September 20, 2007

An Atheist for President?

As a means of improving the political fortunes of American Nonbelief , permit me to make a helpful suggestion: I propose that the godless of our great nation nominate their own candidate for a 2008 presidential run. More ...

*Provided by Prof. D. Showley

* Isaac Asimov ~ Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist."

January 2, 1920 ~ April 6, 1992

**I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so we suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.
~ Isaac Asimov, in "Free Inquiry," Spring 1982, vol.2 no2, p. 9

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
~ Isaac Asimov, I Asimov: A Memoir

Intellectual positions

"Isaac Asimov was a Humanist and a rationalist.^[6] He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his father and mother observed Orthodox Jewish traditions, though not as stringently as they had in Petrovichi, and they did not force these beliefs upon young Isaac. Thus he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the Bible represented Hebrew mythology in the same way that the Iliad recorded Greek mythology. (For a brief while his father worked in the local synagogue to enjoy the familiar surroundings and "shine as a learned scholar" versed in the sacred writings. This experience had little effect upon Isaac beyond teaching him the Hebrew alphabet.) For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist, though he felt the term was somewhat inadequate, describing more what he did not believe than what he did. Later, he found the term "humanist" a useful substitute.

"In his last autobiographical book, Asimov wrote, "If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." The same memoir states his belief that Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife of just deserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell". As his Treasury of Humor and Asimov Laughs Again record, he was amply willing to tell jokes involving the Judeo-Christian God, Satan, Garden of Eden, and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.

"Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the New Deal and remained a political liberal ever after. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and in a television interview in the early 1970s he publicly endorsed George McGovern. He was unhappy at what he saw as an irrationalist track taken by many liberal political activists from the late 1960s onwards. In his autobiography In Joy Still Felt, he recalls meeting the counterculture figure Abbie Hoffman; Asimov's impression was that the 1960s' counterculture heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return. (This attitude is echoed by The Wave Speech in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.) His defense of civil applications of nuclear power even after the Three Mile Island incident damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in Yours, Isaac Asimov, he states that though he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" than near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant than in a slum, on Love Canal or near "a Union Carbide plant producing methyl isocyanate" (referring to the Bhopal disaster). He issued many appeals for population control, reflecting a perspective articulated by people from Thomas Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich. Asimov considered himself a feminist even before Women's Liberation became a widespread movement; he joked that he wished women to be free "because I hate it when they charge". More seriously, he argued that the issue of women's rights was closely connected to that of population control. Furthermore, he believed that homosexuality must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction (Yours, Isaac Asimov)."

More about Isaac Asimo at Wikipedia

Quotations from Positive Atheism

**Thanks to my friend, Prof. D. Showley, for turning my attention to this great man.

* A Cruel, Capricious Master of the Universe

Susan Jacoby
Author and reporter

The Theodicy Problem: No Problem for An Atheist

"This question is really the only question for anyone who believes in God (loving or otherwise), and its unanswerability is the main reason why I, and every other atheist I know, can never accept the existence of any deity.

"The only answer offered by believers is that God gives man free will and that it is our fault--not God's--when bad things happen to good people. This is not an answer at all because it does not address the question of why the innocent should suffer for the exercise of "free will" by the guilty. And of course, natural disasters are completely outside the scope of the free will argument--unless you believe that God gave wind, water, and rocks free will.

"People always ask atheists how they can get through the pain and hardships of life without believing in a God who will one day wipe away all tears. After one of my lectures, I had a conversation with a woman whose son had died of cancer at age twelve, and she spoke eloquently on this point. She said that she had joined a support group for parents grieving over the deaths of their children and that she soon realized she was better off, as an atheist, than the religious parents who kept asking why God would take the lives of their innocent youngsters. "I saw cancer as a malignant, random act of nature," she said, "but I never had to ask why, because I don't believe in a benevolent being who oversees the universe. I didn't ask, `Why him?' or `Why me?' because there is no reason. I didn't have to be angry at God, as these people were, on top of my grief."

"The gulf between believers and atheists on this point is unbridgeable. Whenever I hear survivors of natural disasters thanking God for sparing their lives and their homes, I feel nothing but amazement and incomprehension. How can anyone possibly see his neighbor's house destroyed by a tornado and think that a deity had something to do with sparing his own house? What utter arrogance is embodied in such beliefs! As for the victims, the idea that "God must have his reasons" is the embodiment of utter passivity, a survival from the infancy of the human race. There are reasons, and they have nothing to do with gods and everything to do with the human capacity for evil and the indifference of nature.

"If there were a deity responsible for both human evil and impersonal natural disasters, I would hate him. I would prefer to go to hell rather than to make bargains with such a cruel, capricious Master of the Universe."

“On Faith” panelist Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, (2004) which was named a notable nonfiction book by The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and cited as an outstanding international book by the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. She began her writing career as a reporter for The Washington Post, and has been a contributor to a wide range of periodicals and newspapers for more than 25 years on topics including law, religion, medicine, aging, women's rights, political dissent in the Soviet Union and Russian literature. Jacoby has been the recipient of grants from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2001-2002, she was named a fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Jacoby’s other books include Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1984, and Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past. She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008. Her photo is by Chris Ramir."

Susan Jacoby ~ Wikipedia

* Gerda Lerner ~ Feminist/Historian, Author, Teacher, Jewish Atheist

Feminist/Historian, Born April 30, 1920 in Vienna, Austria.

Gerda Lerner is one of the founders of the field of women's history and African-American history. She was a founding member of the National Organization for Women and is a former president of the Organization of American Historians. Lerner has played a key role in the development of women’s history curricula at Long Island University (1965-1967), at Sarah Lawrence College from 1968 to 1979 (where she established the nation's first Women's History graduate program), at Columbia University (where she was a co-founder of the Seminar on Women), and since 1980 as Robinson Edwards Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a professor emerita of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a visiting scholar at Duke University.

Lerner's books "have been a staple of women's studies classes for decades. In her collection of essays, Why History Matters, Lerner described her experiences as a female Jewish atheist: 'More difficult and public was my refusal, four weeks before the appointed date, to go through with my Bar Mitzvah on the grounds that since I no longer believed in God nor in what was taught in religious instruction, it would be hypocritical for me to go through the ceremony. This provoked a family crisis, much noise, anger and pressure of various sorts, but in the end I prevailed. But more--I refused to set foot in a synagogue again and kept to that refusal for over fifty years.' Lerner links her experiences as an atheist with her eventual career choice as a historian. According to Lerner, "What is left to a Jew who refuses the religious community? Antisemitism and history."

Biography

Fireweed: A Political Autobiography,
Introduction and Chapter One

Books

• No Farewell (1955) an autobiographical novel
• The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Rebels against Authority (1967)
• The Woman in American History [ed.] (1971)
• Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (1972)
• The Female Experience: An American Documentary (1976)
• A Death of One's Own (1978/2006)
• The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History (1979)
• Teaching Women's History (1981)
• Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey (1982)
• The Creation of Patriarchy (1986)
• Why History Matters (1997)
• The Rise of Feminist Consciousness (1993)
• Scholarship in Women's History Rediscovered & New (1994)
• Fireweed: A Political Autobiography (2003)

* Baron d'Holbach ~ One of the First Self-described Atheists in Europe.

"If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm and deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them; and that custom, respect and tyranny support them; in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to the gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them."

"All religions are ancient monuments to superstitions, ignorance, ferocity; and modern religions are only ancient follies rejuvenated."

~ Quoted in Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Insulting Quotations

“How could the human mind progress, while tormented with frightful phantoms, and guided by men interested in perpetuating its ignorance and fears? Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught stories about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Occupied solely by his fears, and by unintelligible reveries, he has always been at the mercy of priests, who have reserved to themselves the right of thinking for him, and of directing his actions.”

"Religion has ever filled the mind of man with darkness, and kept him in ignorance of his real duties and true interests. It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of Religion, that we shall discover Truth, Reason, and Morality. Religion diverts us from the causes of evils, and from the remedies which nature prescribes; far from curing, it only aggravates, multiplies, and perpetuates them."

~ Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) (Project Gutenberg e-text), preface

~ Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789)

Religion, Secularism & Politics in the Twenty-First Century

Join the world’s most distinguished defenders of science and secularism!

The 2007 Conference of the Center for Inquiry-New York City will take place at the New York Academy of Sciences at 7 World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, overlooking the World Trade Center site and contruction site of the Freedom Tower. Renowned speakers, scholars, and media personalities will meet to discuss the future of reason and secularism in an America and a world increasingly divided by religion.

Themes include:

• The Age of American Unreason
• The Next Islamic Enlightenment
• Science and the Public
• Student Freethinkers Speak Out
• Secularism through History: from Spinoza to JFK
• VIP Reception and Awards Presentation (with the International Academy of Humanism)

Speakers & Presenters include:

Christopher Hitchens	Alan Dershowitz	Neil deGrasse Tyson	Peter Singer
Wendy Kaminer	Paul Kurtz	Ann Druyan	Nat Hentoff
Susan Jacoby	Eugenie C. Scott	Victor Stenger

A Time of Challenge and Opportunity

The world is finally waking up to the dangers of religious faith. Books defending reason and religious skepticism top the bestseller lists. Secular Muslims are standing up for freedom of thought. The secular perspective has finally gained currency in the media and in cross-cultural dialogue. Young freethinkers and secularists are organizing and speaking out on campuses, ready to carry the torch of secularism into the new millennium.

Yet religious fervor in the United States and abroad remains at an all-time high. Science education suffers from the constant onslaught of creationist activists. Democratic politicians have joined Republicans in pandering to religious prejudices. The American courts are stacked with judges who openly denigrate the nation’s vital and historic separation of church and state. Islamic radicalism is on the rise in Europe as well as in the Middle East. In many ways, societies the world over face the ominous threat of de-secularization.

How do we seize this moment of opportunity to address secularism’s many challenges? How can secularists build a lasting movement? What political and rhetorical strategies should the reality-based community employ? Does vocal criticism of religion help or hinder the cause of secularism? Hear the thoughts of the world’s leading minds on these and many other questions.

* Rich Moral Atheists ~ Buffett & Gates

Follow-up: METAXY Many Christians draw on John 10:10 - "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" as a proof text that their God wants them to be wealthy. Questions: Why don't we hear that some of the largest philanthropic efforts in the world are being conducted without religion? Atheists are often accused of lacking a moral code and so how is it that some are the greatest philanthropists?

THE RICHEST ARE THE ATHEISTS

by Charles Sabillon

April 10, 2007

"If you want to be rich, do not believe in God."

...

"At present, Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffet continue to hold on to the first and second position in the world rankings of the richest.

"The Christian religion, as well as all the other creeds, has always claimed that those who believe in God will get rewarded. Priests not only assure that there will be a reward after death, consisting of a ticket to Heaven. They also claim that there are several gratifications in this life and one of them is material wealth.

"It turns out that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are atheists. Those two men are totally indifferent to what religions preach. They could not care less about Jesus Christ, Mohammed or Buddha and lead their lives without ever thinking if their acts are consistent with religious beliefs.

"Such a situation ineluctably leads to the question: Why would God reward people who disrespect Him? Why would He give the largest pile of gold to those who deny his existence? More still: Why would God send the wrong message to His followers?

"It is obvious that such a situation is not good publicity for the Almighty. When one considers how strongly people covet money, it is evident that by allowing that atheists become the richest, a terrible message is being sent to the world.

"The funny thing is that those two men are not the only atheists enjoying a good life. They are not the exception to the rule, but the rule. In the U.S., in the rest of the American continent, in Europe and in Asia, the people with the highest incomes, are on average those who least show their respects to God.

"That is only inevitable considering that education is the surest way to attain wealth and when people attain high levels of education, the belief in God wanes.

"Education teaches science and science debunks the bulk of what creeds assert. As a result, the more years of education a person acquires, the higher the chances that such a person will develop atheist or secularist tendencies.

"Confronted with those facts, one is inevitably driven to ask again: why would God reward with material wealth the people who most despise Him?

"The only logical answer that can come from those facts is that there is no God. If there would be one, He or It would make sure that those who spend the whole day defending His cause would get the most out of life. Since there is no God, things flow according to the rules of logic and those with the largest brain capacities end up amassing the largest amount of capital."

Warren Buffett gives away his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

FORTUNE Magazine
by Carol Loomis

Website: Bill & Linda Gates Foundation

World’s Largest Philanthropers Atheists?

Celebrity Atheist List: Bill Gates & Warren Buffett

Wikipedia: Bill Gates & Warren Buffet

* May Albert Ellis Rest in Peace

"May I express my profound sorrow about the passing of Albert Ellis. Al was a giant in the world of psychology and humanism. I had known him for over 40 years, and I worked with him on many projects of significance to humankind. The void that is left will be impossible to fill. I trust that his many friends and colleagues will strive mightily to keep alive his name and all that he stood for." ~ Paul Kurtz

"Albert Ellis lived according to what I now see as a core value, or guiding principle: Freedom and liberty. He dedicated his life to help people free themselves from their inner tyrannies and unhealthy restrictions. On the path of freedom, Albert Ellis' footsteps can be found." ~ Bill Knaus, Ed.D

Albert Ellis (September 27, 1913 – July 24, 2007) was an American psychologist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy."

"Because of his forthright espousal of a nontheistic humanism, Albert Ellis was recognized in 1971 as Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. Ellis most recently described himself as a probabilistic atheist, meaning that while he acknowledged that it is impossible to be certain that there is no god, he believed that the likelihood that a god exists is so small that it was not worth his [or anyone else's] attention."

Secularism -- Will It Survive?
by Albert Ellis

"Will secularism survive? Yes, because it is a humanistic philosophy that promotes reason, realism, logic, discourse, and morality, all of which favor humans and other animals and their environment. It simultaneously opposes fanaticism, dogma, damnation, and rigid thinking, feeling, and believing. Along with rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT), it shows people how to unconditionally accept their limitations as people and accept life."

* Religion has made Two Contributions to Civilization ~ by Bertrand Russell

y own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization.

(1) It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and,

(2) It caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them.

These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

~ Bertrand Russell, 1872 - 1970, Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?

Russell's ethical outlook and his personal courage in facing controversies were certainly informed by his religious upbringing, principally by his paternal grandmother who instructed him with the Biblical injunction, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Exodus 23:2), something he says influenced him throughout his life.

For most of his adult life, however, Russell thought it very unlikely that there was a God, and he maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world.

In his 1949 speech, "Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?", Russell expressed his difficulty over whether to call himself an atheist or an agnostic.

Cross-reference METAXY