Archive for February, 2009
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Friday, February 27th, 2009
It has been a while since I last updated. I’ve been thinking very hard the past couple weeks about exactly what exactly I want this website to be about, etc.
I have done the blog thing before (for years, actually) and been semi-successful with it (under different names that you may or may not be aware of). I began this website as a sort of clearing house for the essays that would comprise a book. I reluctantly added the blog feature so that I could post some small clippings of things that I had thought of as they occurred (or made announcements about new essays that I had written.) Blogs are great, and they serve a purpose. I plan on continuing to update this website and blog as often as I find useful, but I am not intending for the blog to be the purpose for this site.
The essays on this site as they currently stand are in what I’d call a 2nd draft version. I still have the goal of writing a book, and I expect to do a full re-write on every single article that I’ve posted.
I’ve also decided that by the time I finish the book, fully half of the book will be posted to this website. The book is taking shape to be around 300 pages long (maybe more), and I’ve been writing a number of essays that will only appear in the book.
I also have about… 20 other projects that I’m working on simultaneously, and a few more that I am helping others with (one of which I hope to be allowed to go public with in the next 2 weeks).
Thanks for your support! Expect to see a few new essays in the next couple of days!
- Conversational Atheist
Tags: Blog, Weblogs, Writing
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
This is just getting ridiculous… I really hope I can help with some sort of effort to stop this nonsense.
February 11, 2009
A far-right Dutch politician was denied entry to the UK yesterday, sparking a diplomatic row.
Freedom of speech is in real trouble in Europe.
Tags: Europe, Free Speech, Freedom of speech, Geert Wilders, islam
Posted in Spineless | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
I realize that I spend a disproportionate amount of time criticizing the major monotheisms of the world over polytheism. Today’s post should go a small way to balancing things just a bit.
So… some people just really get upset if they see consenting adults dating. Oh man, don’t even get started on how mad it makes some people to see others “cosying up to each other.”
Valentine’s Day : Hindu radicals threaten to marry off dating couples
Friday, February 06, 2009
Indian couples planning to date on Valentine’s Day could end up taking vows sooner than expected, as a self-styled moral brigade, Sri Rama Sene (SRS), on Thursday threatened to marry-them-off forcibly, a report in the Indian Express said.
SRS founder Pramod Muthalik said his activists would hold protests at hotels, hostels and colleges where Valentine’s Day celebrations would be held, the paper said. “Those found dating, expressing their love, cosying up to each other would be married off,” Muthalik, who has been released on bail in the Mangalore pub attack case, was quoted.
The Magalore pub attack case? You know, where the 28 brave men upholding good conservative Hindu values went and beat up some women that were in a pub.
Mangalore pub attack: all 28 accused granted bail
Johnson T A Posted: Jan 31, 2009
Exactly a week after the attack on women at a Mangalore pub by the Right-wing Hindu outfit, the Sri Rama Sene, a magistrate’s court in the city on Saturday granted bail to all the 28 accused, including Pramod Muthalik, the Sene chief who is accused of instigating, justifying, and conspiring the attack.
*sigh* — What is there to say when you publicly declare your allegiance with the Hindu god Rama? What would Rama do? Rama doesn’t exist? Stop beating up women? If people canoodle and this upsets you, get over it?
These are difficult questions.
Tags: Hindu, Hinduism, Mangalore, Rama, valentines day
Posted in Negative Religious Influence | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Friend of mine shared this quote with me, and it made me smile…
“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.”
- Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)
In reflecting on it a bit, I think that perhaps he should have said something besides intelligence — perhaps: education, questioning, learning about the world, critical thinking, logic…
What do you think?
Tags: Bertrand Russell, Christianity, Education, Philosophy
Posted in Historical Non-Believers | 7 Comments »
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
So, another news story that clearly shows the kinds of things that happen when Shariah law is implemented. First the news story, then a few specific quotes from the Hadith that these aspects of Shariah law are based on.
By HEIDI VOGT (Associated Press)
“In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, ‘Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,’” Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge’s chambers waiting for a recent hearing.
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There is no law in Afghanistan prohibiting the translation of the Quran. But Zalmai is accused of violating Islamic Shariah law by modifying the Quran. The courts in Afghanistan, an Islamic state, are empowered to apply Shariah law when there are no applicable existing statutes.
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The prosecutor wants the death penalty for Zalmai and the cleric, who have now spent more than a year in prison.
… In January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for asking questions about women’s rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison. … In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a puppet for the West for letting him live.
Islamic leaders and parliament are right to accuse President Karzai of being a puppet of the West for letting a Muslim apostate live. The leaders and parliament are basing the punishment directly from Sharia law. This is not some mob that got upset and happened to kill a person. This is the ruling that courts and Islamic leaders come to and publicly announce after some thought.
I am annoyed that these stories tend to mention that Islamic leaders press for the death of apostates, etc., based on Sharia law, and yet, they do not cite WHY these leaders think that death is appropriate. I go into some detail in my essay, Apostasy in Islam. Until I looked into it myself, I sort of imagined that these death penalty type sentences were just the expression of extreme annoyance and that there is no way that Islam actually teaches these things at its core.
Turns out that is not the case: I will post some of the relevant verses here.
First, a brief background: Hadiths are oral traditions about prophet Muhammad. The most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths was collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari (810 – 870 CE) is called Sahih al-Bukhari (which means “authentic al-Bukhari”).
The following quotes from the Hadith come from the USC Compendium of Muslim Texts and I’ve linked each one to the source material.
Direct quotes from the Sahih al-Bukhari:
Hadiths about apostates…
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260:
Narrated Ikrima:
Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, ‘Don’t punish (anybody) with Allah’s Punishment.’ No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’ “
Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57:
Narrated ‘Ikrima:
Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to ‘Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn ‘Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’“
Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17:
Narrated ‘Abdullah:
Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.“
What happens when people believe that these texts are divinely inspired and should dictate how every aspect of their lives should be lead? Well, the cited news story (and the other incidents that it mentions) are some very obvious examples.
Tags: Capital punishment, islam, Sahih al-Bukhari, Sharia
Posted in Negative Religious Influence, islam | 8 Comments »
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Sam Harris has written a response to the responses to an essay about the conflict between science and religion posted on Edge.org. By the way, the title of this post comes from the concluding paragraph and Sam is writing satire (and is damn good at it).
It is awesome.
His essay can be enjoyed without reading any of the things that he refers to…although reading through the post and the responses first will give added enjoyment.
Feast on just one small sample from:
It’s All True (link loads the page at Sam’s response on the page that includes the original article and other responses)
For instance: it is now becoming a common practice in Afghanistan and Pakistan to blind and disfigure little girls with acid for the crime of going to school. When I was a neo-fundamentalist rational neo-atheist I used to criticize such behavior as an especially shameful sign of religious stupidity. I now realize—belatedly and to my great chagrin—that I knew nothing of the pain that a pious Muslim man might feel at the sight of young women learning to read. Who am I to criticize the public expression of his faith? Bateson is right. Clearly a belief in the inerrancy of the holy Qur’an is indispensable for these beleaguered people.
Ok, I just couldn’t keep it down to 1 quote. One last bit from the same article:
Is there a conflict between scientific rationality and a belief in magic spells? Specifically, is there a conflict between believing that epilepsy is a result of abnormal neural activity and believing that it is a sign of demonic possession? Dogmatists like Coyne and Dennett clearly think so. They don’t realize, as Dyson must, that the more one understands neurology, the more one will understand—and honor—demonology.
Read and enjoy!
Tags: atheism, Muslim, Sam Harris
Posted in Atheist Authors, islam | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Samira Jassim -- rape organizer / suicide bomber recruiter
My most recent nominee for worst person ever: Samira Jassim (Jassem).
I’m not sure that she’ll win, but hopefully it’s enough of a dishonor just to be nominated. ”Who is she?” you might ask. ”And what has she done?”
Glad you asked, but you won’t be glad about the answers.
Article from: Agence France-Presse
A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.
That’s right, she organized the rape of 80 women. Beyond that, she didn’t just convince them to kill themselves because they were raped. She convinced them to become suicide bombers to escape the “shame” that she had brought upon them.
As stated in this BBC article, of these 80 raped women, 28 had gone forward and launched their attacks.
There are so many terrible things about this woman I don’t even know what to say.
——
Edit: I was just going to let blog entry speak for itself, but on some of the social bookmarking sites there has been some discussion, so I thought I’d just add one extra piece.
I’m not going to make the argument that this woman was motivated by Islam — the only point I’d make is that the doctrine of martyrdom made her job easier. Some say that religion can give people comfort in times of grief. That is probably true, but anything that has the ability to comfort can be turned around to bring added stress to a time of grief. I would say that the raped women in this story were the victims rape and an unhelpful ideology for coping with this kind of trauma.
There is a framework that is being exploited when you can convince a person that the best way to recover from the “shame” of being a victim is by going into a marketplace and killing yourself and as many other people as you can.
Tags: Death, Martyr, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attack
Posted in Negative Religious Influence | 5 Comments »
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