The BBC reports that the while the US is one of the most religious countries in the west, it is undergoing a period of doubt.
It may be daring to say it but America seems to be experiencing an atheist moment. Although “In God We Trust” was declared the national motto by an act of Congress more than 50 years ago and has been stamped on the currency for longer than that, some considerable doubt has developed of late.
…
More than anything, people without faith hate the description of them as empty or soulless. They have long been singled out for a special kind of hell.
The constitution of the state of Texas, for example, allows discrimination against atheists in employment or jury duty – provisions that have been nullified by federal laws.
And even my mother used to lower her voice in the kind of whisper reserved for people with terminal brain cancer when she described a neighbour as…. an atheist.
Non-believers say they have also been aided by the revulsion of fair-minded Americans to the religious zealotry behind the September 11 attacks and the subsequent violence on behalf of radical Islam.
You can read the entire article here: here.
Haven’t read the article yet, but it sounds promising. Something to lift the mood a little for this morning.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Simply the fact that such an openly secular article (not demonising the atheists etc.) shows how far we in Europe have come on the path to a wholly secular society.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Good article. I do have to object to atheists being referred to as a religion. We are not united by any belief other than we have none. We have varied view points on the world and not all are the same or even remotely alike in some cases. But we discuss these things and will point out flaws in arguments and revise our ideas when confronted with new information. We do not threaten each other with violence, wag war or evoke hell fire. We don’t claim god is on our side in a conflict wile the other side does the same. If god is routing for both sides then he just wants slaughter!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I call Cheesecake! mmhhh
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Personally I don’t care if because I am an athiest they refer to me as souless…what is a soul? Isn’t it something made up by the religious? If a soul means I am cognizant or self-aware, then I guess I have a soul. If it means that it is something that is supernatural and goes on forever to be tortured or lifted to some form of heaven, well excuse me while I do some projectile vomitting.
.
I agree with the author, things do seem to be lightening up a little, but as Carl Sagan stated in the Demon Haunted World, humanity is one step away from the dark ages. If something like 9/11 can send the nation into a dizzying spin of zealotry, can you imagine what can happen if all the lights were to go out?
.
Take a look at today’s latest and greatest TV shows. There are literally dozens of shows about finding ghosts and spirits. If that isn’t all about pandering to the superstitious side of the human psyche, I don’t know what is.
.
As long as the majority of us carbon-based life forms can be suckered in by a ghost story or two, we will always be susceptible to faith, religion and all the accoutrements and devastation that comes with it.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The article is pretty good. I get toothpaste.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ Iron Bess- I thought a soul was something you walked on?
I’d use it as a metaphor more than anything else. And I’m certainly not without metaphor!
I was reading one of your other posts. Yes it is sad the 4christsake left, I liked him. He actually made an effort to argue intelligently, even if his thinking was based on an inherent flaw.
.
@Pam- Cheese cake huh? I’ll see what I can do.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Is the Texas part true? Fuck, the US doesn’t end with the surprises for me.
.
Stop with the god deal, they still haven’t noticed that it only brings violence and hatred.
.
Hell, no hell for me…it is too hot and I already live in a tropical country.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pluto. I didn’t like him, he attacked me because he was mad at you and he couldn’t make a valid argument to reufute what you were telling him.
.
Bah, there should be schools out there that do not include religion in their curriculum. I would be glad to put my kids-to-be there. I bet they will become better persons without judging people because they don’t believe in a so-called god.
.
My grandma tells me that I will go to hell cuz I don’t care about church. and I tell her that I won’t go to hell cuz it is too hot.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I see what you’re getting at Bess, we get it on the sci fi channel in England; Ghost whisper, median and the like. However some of us can tell the difference between fact and fiction so shouldn’t worry about zombies and vampires. Not being able to tell the difference would indicate mental illness. In that view the US should hold a grad meeting of all the members of all the Christian faiths in one of the shitter states (I won’t play the naming game, but they know who they are) and quickly build a wall around the whole lot and declare it the world’s biggest asylum ever!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ PacificPam (IF)- I remember, but we all ridiculed him for it. Besides what does it matter what he thinks, we all know you’re lovely and that’s what counts baby.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pluto. Yay, Cheesecake!.
.
@Iron Bess. I think there is no such thing called soul. I was trying to sell it but it seems that it is not that important. No one wanted to buy it. I even told them it was brand new! I called god and the devil, none of the two answered.
.
I have lived a godless life for a while. And let me tell you, the mistakes that I have made were because my lack of judgement. The ammendments to them are due to the fact that I grew up, that I developed my sense of judgement, not because I went to a church and confesses all of my sins (a priest will die in that moment …no, Pluto?) and I prayed 10 times. Why do they thinkg they are the center of the universe? They have all that money that they can put into ending hunger, into studies to discover the cure for so many diseases, into my fund to go see Pluto.
Look at the fucking pope, he has so much money…if he knew he was a person that worked for a foundation that didn’t fill its pockets only, he wouldn’t be moving around in that secured car (sorry I don’t remember the word).
.
Yes, I feel a lot of hatred towards them and I don’t feel bad about it. If they were doing the right stuff, they wouldn’t be rich…they’d rather live a life of humbleness and do as much as they can to make this world better. I am not talking about giving people free foor, rather giving them the education and the tools and resources so they can grow and harvest their future.
.
Fuck, I am mad. Do you have that cheesecake for me, Pluto?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Sigmund Freud predicted that as civilization progresses, religion will dissipate… here… lemme find that somewhere…
“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.” –Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis,1933.
“Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.” –Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, 1927
“Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. [...] If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man’s evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity.” –Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, 1939
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
But, now that I think about it, I don’t see what this article has to do with the FSM, we aren’t atheist, we’re Pastafarian!
???
lols
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Hahahahaha Hey, Pluto…I watched your videos, I almost died! They were fun!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Deelawn – well kudos for Sigmund, learn something new every day.
.
@Pacific Pam – everyone lives a godless life, every day of their lives. There is no such thing as god. So good, bad or in between, it is all about our choices. I hope you really don’t believe that it should be up to the churches of the world to give education and charity to the poor and needy. When that happens, that education comes with a price, that price is called Faith.
.
@Pluto – the idea is not that they can’t tell the difference, the idea is that they are so close to believing, that anything will push them over the brink. Ghosts, goblins, vampires, god…it is all the same crap. (By the way, SOLE, is something that you walk on. Soul is a make believe creation of the religious.)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Iron Bess. I don’t believe that it is up to them. They claim that they are good people, but instead they are filling their pockets with the faith of sutpid people that believe in what they say.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pacific Pam – filled my dear, filled (past tense). I don’t believe the church is all that much powerful these days. The money they have now, is money left over from hundreds of years of thievery. I believe (I hope)the catholic church is rapidly diminishing. Thanks to pedophile priests, media attention and the lack of new indoctrinees, it is losing its power and money base.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Iron Bess. hahahahaah I thought I wrote something incorrectly. Well that is true what you say.
.
I was watching a South Park episode last night and they were showing catholic priests with kids tied on a leash! I was like that is so funny, yet so not right!
.
May the noodly one fill my pockets with tons of beer stamps.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
And Cheese cake
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Just a comment on “soul”. I’d propose that ALL LIVING CREATURES – to a greater or lesser degree – share our inner experiences of joy, fear, anger, love, kindness, and perhaps more abstract experiences as well, and, therefore, share the makings of whatever a “soul” is with us humans. So, perhaps, “soul” is evolving together with our bodies.
I think that it’s true that – after the English got over their fury and dismay at Darwin’s evolutionary heresies – they recovered their senses and came to realize that the Modern Englishman stood at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, with Lesser Races occupying a subservient position, LOFLMAO.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Keep the baby, Faith – I think you are confusing soul with self awareness.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Bess- “By the way, SOLE, is something that you walk on. Soul is a make believe creation of the religious” really? Do tell! (Yes that one was actual a play on words for a change rather than an actual mistake. Guess I should be prepared for it with my track record). Back to the TV bit, we have this show called Most Haunted with a guy called Collin Fry. People think the sun shines out his arse, even though an investigative reporter set him up and proved him a liar.
They took Collin to a house and told him about an old man who was murdered there.
So he stars “channelling the dead” being possessed by the old man an shit when the journo tells him it was all a lie and that to his knowledge no-one had ever died on the actual property. The look on the guys face, priceless.
But they still let the cunt do shows. Last one I saw he was in Egypt “channelling” dead kings. He would say a bunch of shit, you know the sort “I keep hearing a name”, even though none of the dead kings spoke ancient Egyptian. Then the local guild would say that it was, as far as they knew, true. This was supposed to be proof the guy is psychic, rather then proof he can read a history book!
I guess some people would rather believe a proven lie than embrace the truth.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ Keep the baby, Faith- And how many shrooms have you eaten?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Look at the fucking pope, he has so much money…if he knew he was a person that worked for a foundation that didn’t fill its pockets only, he wouldn’t be moving around in that secured car (sorry I don’t remember the word).”
.
I think the word you are looking for is “Popemobile”, which is probably one of the best words ever. Should we make a “Bobby Hendersonmobile”? It could have a canon on top; I like canons.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ Pluto – something that sounds very similar, with bad psychics looking at Egyptian sites is discussed here – http://badarchaeology.net/news/latest.php
.
That link takes you to the latest article on the site. If you happen to visit after they’ve gone and written something new, it’s under the Bad Method link on the left. This one’s that Derek whatshisname presenting it, and the show being fairly well trashed by a couple of archaes.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ EP – example of effective “faith” in action. The Popemobile has bulletproof glass.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pluto – sorry my apologies, for soul and sole.
.
Shows like that make me wig-out, can you say gullible? It’s like the fundies in the states. Over and over and over the TV Evangelists keep falling off the sin wagon and getting caught stealing, screwing, fraud(ing), lying, generally fucking up over and over and over again, then the idiot fundies keep giving them money and forgiving them. Of course that goes wayyyyyy beyond gullible and right smack into stupid.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Iron Bess
In fact, I was probably equating “soul” and self-awareness, but that could be wrong and you right.
@Pluto
Shrooms (if you’re referring to mushrooms) are an important component of spaghetti sauce. If you’re referring to a delusion-inducing vegetable alkaloid (?) of some sort, none. My delusions are self-induced, heehee. Hope my proposition didn’t really irritate you.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
ha! BobbyHendersonmobile!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pluto:
My friends and I *L*O*V*E* watching “Most Haunted”. I was personally devastated when they took Derek off; it was almost a drinking game, waiting for him to get revved up with some wild, semi-coherent tale of sordid misery and murder, all during which a small ticker ran across the bottom of the screen:
.
“…THERE HAS BEEN NO EVIDENCE DISCOVERED TO SUPPORT THAT AN ELIZABETH LIVED HERE…”
.
and after which he would get possessed by random resident entities and start barking like mad (partial Brit pun, ha!) or saying even crazier things in interesting voices, and then require a hug from the cameraman to recover. It was great fun!!!
.
Perhaps what he was sensing there — in the dark with the ‘nostril-cam’ — was the Touch of His Noodly Appendages…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@Pluto
Oh! If you took umbrage at my comment about Englishmen, I do – truly – apologize for insensitivity. The remark was really aimed at the too-human foibles of all of us.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Hey, I’m not a foible…What is a foible…that doesn’t sound nice!
I would really appreciate if you can help me expand my vocabulary =)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@ Pam – foible
/foyb’l/
.
• noun a minor weakness or eccentricity.
.
— ORIGIN French, obsolete form of Old French fieble ‘feeble’.
.
I quite like the idea of being a foible myself.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Um hi never posted befor and was going through the articals and as a former athiest myself now Pastafarian for two years I dont find there words of america to true and more of a genrelization of people who speak out about such things. My parents and everyone I know racist in any way those who are its all religion and really in response to the 9-11 attacks thats one religion that rules over a nations life not america were religion is optional.
When I say the pleadge I say “and under the Flying Spaghetti
Monster for all.” She doesn’t like when I stand up in Home
Room.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I do like it too, thank you very much Jennyanydots.
.
@NewPastafarian. Congrats!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Speaking of Catholics, they are no longer in the Top 10 American religions! Even Mormons are higher on the list… Mormons. (according to TIME magazine)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Mormons! hahahahaah my dad is a mormon…he is so out there.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
@NewPastafarian – keep up the good work. Remember to dress like a Pirate when preaching the FSM gospel. R’Amen
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I’d say anyone believing in the mormon religion is probably as wacky as the scientologist. But both founders had the right idea, it’s a good way to make money.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I know, I don’t wanna be like Tom Cruise!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I’d like to be a Mormon… I want to have lots of wives… I could be like any other normal Christian, I don’t have to go to church, and I can hide what I truly believe… lol
Plus, that brings me back to that Simpson’s episode where they are talking about two wives… I’m not exactly sure who said what, but it went something like this:
Lenny: Geez, Homer. I thought someone with two wives would be happy.
Carl: No, you’re thinking of someone with two knives.
Moe: (While holding two knives) I gotta tell ya, this is pretty terrific.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I googled scientology…I prefer spider solitaire.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Wasn’t Soul some kind of music?
In that case, I cal live without that shit.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
hahahahaahahah. Wait…to google is not a verb…mmmhhhmm…see what technology does to the languages.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I thought Soul was my cousin…I can live without him. I don’t like him anyways…No, his name was Saul
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
SeOUL is the capital of South Korea…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
And don’t even get me started on the fish and the foot.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Fish and foot?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0