Fire Zone News
Bush's Legacy of Deceit: A
Firefighter Speaks-out on the election, national security and Iraq,
by Bruce Monson, Freethought Firefighters, 10/27/04
George W. Bush will never admit it, but there were at least three deadly
mistakes committed by him in the run-up to the war: inadequate body armor,
insufficient manpower and no exit strategy – three things that firefighters
know more than a little about.
Society
Under no circumstances -- and I can't state this too strongly -- should my
fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass
ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it. Furthermore, it is my
firm hope that, when the time comes, any discussion about terminating my
medical treatment should remain private and confidential. Living in
Florida, however, I am acutely aware that the legislative and executive
branches of state government are fond of meddling in family matters, and
have little concern for the privacy and dignity of individuals.
NEW
A Thin View of 'Life',
by E.J. Dionne Jr.,
Washington Post, 3/25/05
What does it mean to be pro-life?
The label is thrown around in American politics so
blithely that you'd imagine it refers to some workaday issue such as a tax
bill or a trade agreement. Might the one good thing to come out of the
rancid politics surrounding the Terri Schiavo case be a serious discussion
of the meaning of that term?
Church-State
NEW
Refuting a
Bogus James Madison Quote: "Ten Commandments of God,"
a letter to the editor, Colorado Springs Gazette, by Bruce Monson
(March, 2005)
The letter from Bruce Pennington
(Letters, March 19) citing James Madison as author of the quote: “We have
staked the future of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind
for self government . . . to sustain ourselves according to the Ten
Commandments of God.” is a prime example of how disinformation gets
disseminated to the masses, whether through honest error or more nefarious
purposes.
Atheist Presents Case for Taking God From Pledge,
by Linda Greenhouse, New York Times, 3/25/04
WASHINGTON, March 24 — Michael A. Newdow
stood before the justices of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pointed to one
of the courtroom's two American flags and declared: "I am an atheist. I
don't believe in God."
With passion and precision, he then
proceeded to argue his own case for why the daily recitation of the Pledge
of Allegiance in his daughter's public school classroom violates the
Constitution as long as the pledge contains the words "under God."
The Founders
Confront Judge Moore, by Thom Hartmann, CommonDreams.org
Religious fundamentalists, pandered to by Fox's evening
entertainers, turned the showmanship of an Alabama judge (soon to be
political candidate) into a national media circus just in time to divert
media coverage away from George W. Bush gutting the Clean Air Act. The
judge's main arguments for keeping a graven image of the Ten Commandments
in the Alabama Supreme Court rotunda were, he said, that America is a
Judeo/Christian nation founded by Christians, and that the foundation of
American law is the Bible and the Ten Commandments.
America is Not a Christian nation, by Robert
Carver, Letter to the Editor, Illinois Conservative, 11/20/03
This is one of the better rebuttals I have seen (in
terms of limited space afforded to most letters-to-the-editor) in response
to the endless letters we see printed from Christians frothing "Christian
nation" claims and citing spurious or out of context "quotes" from the
likes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc., in order to convince the
populace that the separation between religion and government is part of a
massive conspiracy by left-wing radicals trying to persecute and destroy
Christians. (ffi)
War, Terrorism & U.S. Foreign
& Domestic Policy
The
Bush administration is desperately trying to keep the full story from
emerging. But there is no longer any doubt that prisoners seized by the U.S.
in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have been killed, tortured, sexually
humiliated and otherwise grotesquely abused.
NEW
Op-Ed Columnist: What's Going On?
By PAUL KRUGMAN, New York Times, 3/29/05
Once the Schiavo
case settles, look for more intimidation in the name of God and
undermining of the rule of law from the right.
NEW
American Homicide, Boston Globe Editorial, 3/25/05
WHEN THE world first saw photos of the sexual abuse
and humiliation
American Homicideof Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib, apologists for the
US soldiers involved minimized the incidents by noting that the prisoners
might have been on leashes or menaced by dogs but were not killed.
Gradually, however, military investigators and journalists learned that US
troops had, in fact, killed as many as 31 detainees in Afghanistan and
Iraq in cases that are confirmed or suspected homicides.
Science & Technology
NEW
Okay, We Give Up, by The Editors, Scientific American, April 2005
Issue
There's no easy way to admit this. For
years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed
out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more
balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile
defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to
be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed
Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific
Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a
new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were
wrong.
Religion
NEWIntimations
of Immortality from Recollections of the
Tsunami,
by
Paul Albrecht (Spring
2005)
I was pained by the
injustice of it because it reminded me of a callous article setting out a
Christian opinion about the tsunami by the pious Paul Johnson, who was
blandly dismissive. He said the deaths were unimportant because the victims
were going to die one day anyway, and in killing them now God was revealing
his loving nature by reminding us of our mortality. How’s that for a
sanctimonious shrug! I disliked being tarred with the same brush as a man I
thought should be tarred and also feathered for this attitude.
NEWThe
Twin Towers -- A Prayer, by Paul Albrecht (Spring
2005)
Almighty God, Creator of all things
Hear our petition. Take away our faith
And our belief in
You, but most of all
Our certain knowledge of the life to come,
Where You’ll exalt the good and burn the bad. ...
Religion, the
Ultimate "Moral Compass"? by Ron Valladao,
June, 2004
Recently, a friend of mine, whom I respect as an intelligent and
thinking individual, in the course of a conversation in which I suggested
that religion is unnecessary said, "but what about the children? What kind of
moral compass will they have? How will they distinguish right from wrong?".
This immediately dismayed me because it is one of those thoughtless lines of
reasoning akin to holding that the sun rises and sets. It also betrayed his
utter disbelief that a human being is capable of reason and self discipline
without appealing to a deity that either will reward or punish.
Honest Reply to Proselytizing Christmas Card, by Bill Warner
I think most of us have received Christmas cards from
certain family or "friends" who feel it is their duty to proselytize to us
about the "Glory of Jesus" whilst informing us of the "error of our ways."
This response to one such letter is well written, both for its efficient
rebuttals to the things our Christian friends & family frequently say to
us, and for its touch in trying to politely educate while also trying not
to cut-off the family relationship. (ffi)
Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? by Dan
Barker, 2003
During the 19 years I preached the
Gospel, the resurrection of Jesus was the keystone of my ministry.
Every Easter I affirmed the Apostle Paul's admonition: "If Christ has not
been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has
been in vain." I wrote a popular Easter musical called "His Fleece
Was White As Snow" with the joyous finale proclaiming: "Sing Hosanna!
Christ is Risen! The Son has risen to shine on me!"
But now I no longer believe it. Many
bible scholars and ministers--including one third of the clergy in the
Church of England--reject the idea that Jesus bodily came back to life. So
do 30% of born-again American Christians!
KooKoo the Tree God, by Farrell Till
In a recent letter to the editor, Mahala Lafferty
offered a personal experience she had recently had as evidence that her god answers
prayers. After relating a close call her son had had while hauling a tractor on I-474, she
concluded that a prayer she had said had saved him from dying in a horrible accident. She
asked if anyone could now question that her god answers prayers.
I regret to say that I do have to question that her prayers had
anything to do with her son's narrow escape, because she gave no indication that she had
prayed to Kookoo the tree god, who lives in a small grove of trees behind my house. . . .
Defying the
Dependent Deity, by Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 9/2/03
In April 1966, Time magazine asked in a famous cover,
"Is God Dead?" The cover triggered an enormous controversy, especially at Emory
University, where a theologian at the school had sparked debate by propounding something
called "Christian Atheism." Now, all these years later, the answer to Time's
question is clear. God is not dead, but he's on welfare.
On the Trail of
Bogus Quotes: Was Catholic Hitler 'Anti-Christian'?, by Richard Carrier, Freethought
Today, November, 2002
We often hear accusations that "Adolf
Hitler was an atheist and look what he did!" The idea that Hitler believed in God,
that he even claimed Christ as his own, is so shocking to people that they will go to any
lengths to deny it. But the notion that Hitler was an atheist has already been soundly
refuted.1 He was unmistakably a god-fearing Christian.
Is God a
Criminal?, by Bill Schultz, Internet Infidels
The essential belief of those who believe in the
Judeo-Christian God is that God created the universe and all that is within it. Thus, in
the minds of believers, their God’s creation includes any human abilities to
recognize anything resembling a moral value. So, from a believer's perspective, we do not
(and, by the nature of being part of God’s creation, cannot) legitimately call any
acts of God "immoral." This is true by the very nature of morality being
subservient to God’s will, and a part of God’s creation (the universe).
But it is increasingly apparent that our human sense of
morality is inconsistent with belief in the Judeo-Christian God and the consequent truth
of the above paragraph. Thus, some atheists try to formulate a Moral Argument
Against God as part of a proof of atheism. As my own contribution to this
genre, I will argue that humans increasingly (additively, over long periods of time)
recognize certain broad moral principles as applicable to everybody, regardless of any
characterization of their position within the whole group of human beings. The existence
of any such principles defeats the whole concept of moral relativism
as a possible primary moral rule because there is nothing for these overarching moral
rules to be relative to. They must, then, come out of an objective moral foundation that
is, unfortunately, not well understood.
Leaders were trying to heal
boy, pastor says: Church minister arrested after an 8-year-old stops breathing, dies
during prayer service, by Lisa Sind and Allison Smith, Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, 8/23/03
A pastor said Saturday that church leaders were
trying to heal an autistic 8-year-old boy when he inexplicably stopped breathing and died
during a prayer service Friday night.
During the hourlong session, the boy's feet and hands were
restrained by his mother and other church members who prayed intensely for his violent
tendencies to cease, the pastor's wife said.
"He just passed away," Pastor David Hemphill said of
the boy. "God is a mysterious person, and if he wants to call a life back, he
does."
Dealer
Arrested in Jesus Relic Forgery, CNN, 7/24/03
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Police have arrested an
Israeli antiquities dealer suspected of creating two forgeries that shook the religious
and archaeological world, including a burial box purported to be that of Jesus's brother
James.
See also: 'Jesus Box' Exposed as Fake,
CNN, 6/18/03
A forgery. No kidding? What
a shocker--NOT! (ffi)
Why I Don't Buy the Resurrection Story, by
Richard Carrier, 2000
If you read nothing else, read this! Professional historian,
Richard Carrier, provides a systematic and comprehensive examination of the alleged
resurrection and demonstrates how it utterly fails in the area of "evidence" and
historical claims to truth.
W.'s Christian Nation: How Bush
promotes religion and erodes the separation of church and state, By Chris Mooney, The American
Prospect, 6/1/03
To see what's new and dangerous about Bush's approach to religion, you have
to look beyond the president's copious prayers and exhortations, which are legally
meaningless. Clinton also showed immense political sympathy for religion, but he didn't
nominate a slate of right-wing judges who could give the law a decidedly majoritarian,
pro-Christian bent. And Bush has gone further than that. From school-prayer guidelines
issued by the Department of Education to faith-based initiatives to directives from
virtually every federal agency, there's hardly a place where Bush hasn't increased both
the presence and the potency of religion in American government. In the process, the Bush
administration lavishly caters to the very religious-right groups that gave us the dubious
Christian-nation concept to begin with. Consider Bush's faith-based initiative. . . .
THE WEATHER'S REPORT--It has to be said: Religion is a dangerous thing,
by E. Weathers, Memphis Flyer, 4/26/03
Today is a good day to say it because we
have a praying president convinced that he is plugged in to the will of God, and his
conviction is leading the United States to holy war, first in Iraq and later . . .
wherever his prayers might take us. The Muslim world is right: George W. Bush is on a
Crusade. He believes that God is on his side, just as Osama bin Laden believes that God is
on his side, and the PLO thinks God is on their side, and the Irish Republican Army is
certain God is on their side. The list of those who have made war in the name of their god
is too long even to start here.
THE STORY BEHIND
ATHEIST'S INVOCATION AND AFTERMATH OF WALKOUT
Since the appearance of an article about me [Herb Silverman] in The Post and
Courier on March 27, "Some on city council snub atheist's invocation," readers
have deluged me with questions. Why was I invited? Why did I want to give an invocation in
the first place? What did I say that was so offensive?
The story began when a number of local organizations held a "Meet the
Candidates" forum prior to the last Charleston City Council election. Each sponsoring
organization was allowed to ask one question of the candidates on the panel.
The organization to which I belong, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, asked
this: "As you know, the City Council starts meetings with a prayer. Since you will
represent all your constituents, not just those who are religious believers, will you
consider periodically allowing nonbelievers to give the invocation?" Kwadjo Campbell
was the only candidate who agreed. After winning the election, he invited me to give the
invocation at the council meeting on March 25.
Clergymen
Share Culpability for Mother's "Sacrifice" of Children, Annie
Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation, 5/13/03
This statement was released following news reports that
fundamentalist mother Deanna LaJune Laney, of Tyler, Tex., has been charged with killing
two of her three sons on Saturday, May 10, because "God told her to."
She is charged with bludgeoning two sons to death with rocks.
A third son, 14-month-old Aaron, is in critical condition. Laney was described as a
longtime church member and intensely devout woman. She is the sister-in-law of Pastor Gary
Bell of the First Assembly of God in Tyler, where she was a choir member.
Rev. Bell's response: "The main thing we need is
prayer." The case strongly parallels the recent tragedy involving another intensely
religious Texas mother, Andrea Yates, who was convicted of drowning her children to
"save" them.
Overpopulation:
a Threat Caused by Religion, by Janet Brazill, The American Rationalist,
5/03
The tragedy of 9/11 in 2001 forced us to recognize the
dangerous link between excess populations and terrorism. Yet this disaster might never
have happened had we heeded the warning of the United States Security Council in 1979,
when they determined that world population growth seriously threatened the security of all
nations, including our own.
Critique
of John Warwick Montgomery's Arguments for the Legal Evidence for Christianity,
by Richard Packham, 1998
I agree wholeheartedly with Montgomery that "The
Christian claims can be tested as to their truth by 'the very reasoning employed in the
law to determine questions of fact.' These facts are 'historical facts, open to ordinary
investigation,' about the man Jesus, his claims, and his resurrection" and that
"legal rules of evidence are reflections of 'natural reason.'"
I also agree wholeheartedly that the first question to be
answered is "Are the historical records of Jesus [the canonical New Testament
writings] solid enough to be relied on [to establish the claims of Christianity]?" If
the answer to this question is negative, the other three questions become moot.
Montgomery has considerable problems with documents and
what they can prove and what they cannot prove. First of all, he does not distinguish
sufficiently between the meaning in the law of a document being "authentic" and
the question of whether the content of the document is admissible or probative as
evidence. Those two questions are quite different. An "authentic" document is
not necessarily believable. The Mormons have a document which is "authentic,"
written by Joseph Smith with his own hand, accurately dated to about 1832, in which he
says he was visited by Jesus, and in which he quotes Jesus' words to him. Now, does this
"authentic" document establish (or even tend to establish) in your mind that
Jesus actually did visit Smith?
|
