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A New Atheist Group?

Posted on October 31st, 2008 by Jason

I know some of you have already been active in this discussion over at atheist.ie.

To give some background Dick Spicer from the HAI wrote an article on atheist.ie suggesting a new more assertive atheist group should be set up.

While there has been much to and fro on the topic the general feeling seems to be supportive of such a move.

The suggestion I made for a next step is below, what do people here think? What would people think of the MWH offering to host such a convention?

Do people think we need a new national organisation? Should we concentrate on building the membership of the HAI instead?

If we do want a new group I’d suggest we call a convention. What I mean is that we form a temporary organising committee and then select a date and location and advertise as widely as possible with the aim of starting a mass movement with local branches throughout the country. The convention would have to run over a couple of days and work on a constitution, name, aims & objectives. This might need to be done by a series of committees and then voted on by those present. Existing groups like the HAI and ISS should be invited to participate.

As I see it the rationalist position will only be treated seriously when we have numbers, another 200 member group won’t change anything. People have criticised the HAI but please remember that it is a entirely voluntary organisation. If we can garner enough support we can have full time paid staff, that means people who are available to write press releases/blogs and appear on TV or radio. There is only so much free time people can give to any organisation.

Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Desperate Measures…

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by dj357

…is all I can call it. Aside from intellectually rage-inducing and just plain annoying.

By which I am referring to the following piece of “snail spam”, i.e. unwanted post in the letterbox generally sent en-masse in a carpet-bombing-like affair:

The Useless Virgin

This thing is a rather laughable attempt to try and convince the reader that the Virgin Mary made specific promises to the entire planet, and not only will she keep those promises, but she is honorable enough to demand strict obedience and daily prayer of the rosary before she will “solve the problems of the world, and our own problems too.” – Actual quote!

Actually, I’ll just give you the entire text of this piece of nonsense, and I shall highlight the outrageously silly/redundant pieces. (To be honest, it would be easier to highlight the pieces that are NOT outrageously silly, but anyway…)

Like most people nowadays you may have problems…

Are you worried and uncertain at times? Do you wonder what the future holds for you and your family? Do you feel threatened by so many dangers and problems that surround you? (so Mary only helps the severely depressed or disadvantaged…?)

Worry and anguish are written on countless faces. People are no longer able to hide their troubles. Even when someone is smiling, it is often to try to forget the things that make him weep inside. (hmm…they make the entire world out to be emotionally stunted and unable to adequately deal with their emotions…ah, appealing to their target audience…now I understand…)

Isn’t it true that people are giving in more and more to anguish, worry and affliction? Do you know why this is happening? It is because the world has forgotten God! (……AHAHAHA!!! No, nothing of the kind, my dear friend. It seems you have begun with the assumption of God, followed it with a shot of bald-faced assertions about the “horrors afflicting our world” and then you downed a pint of widespread Godless-ness and now you are understandably drunk from your severe lack of logical thinking.)

It was for these troubled souls – for you (yes, you!) – that the Virgin Mary appeared in Fatima, bringing the real solution from Heaven! (okay, so first you expect us to believe COMPLETELY unverified claims of the Fatima farce, then you expect us to believe that these apparitions were an attempt from someone up above to bring us a solution to problems that only exist in your head?!?)

Here is the great solution you need…

In 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima, Portugal, to three children on six occasions. After showing the children a frightening vision of Hell, She warned of terrible chastisements that would fall on the world if we did not amend our lives. (No, she didn’t. If there was even a remote possibility of this having happened, okay, fine, but there isn’t. Epic fail, my friend...hey, wait a second…I’m sorry, WHAT? She showed CHILDREN a frightening vision of HELL??!? …..WHY??!?! And WE are the ones to receive chastisement?! I think in any fair situation the “Blessed” Virgin Mary would be chastised in the form of legal proceedings for REPEATEDLY exposing children to horrific imagery in an attempt to scare the love of Jesus into them, or have I simply been perverted by the “Godless” legal system of most nearly ALL the 1st world countries…?) During each of the apparitions, Our Lady insisted that we should recite the Rosary every day. She promised that, if we heeded her requests, the problems of the world would be solved, and our own problems too. (Ah yes, now I understand. The reason double-blind, triple-checked, peer-reviewed extensive experiments with the “power” of prayer showed absolutely NO evidence in favour of positive effects resulting from prayer, was because they were praying the WRONG prayers for the WRONG reasons to the WRONG arbitrarily appointed Blessed Problem-Solver…it’s all become so clear to me now)

The benefits of praying the Rosary

Why not heed her request? You will see: praying the Rosary to Our Lady only brings advantages. (in the form of heightened expectations and a propensity to mental delusion, sure) And not to pray it is to neglect a great remedy for our own problems and those of the world. You can be sure that the Rosary is something which will profoundly change your life and the lives of your loved ones.

This is because the Rosary greatly favours union within the family, especially these days in immoral education, laws and fashions, threaten to break this union. (….it seems my “Godless” law system is to blame again. Would you like to provide some evidence of this immoral education and law you speak of?) The Rosary, recited in the family, constitutes a specific antidote to these evils. Hence the well known motto: “The family that prays together, stay together.” (…I give up…)

The Church teaches that the Rosary purifies our souls, enriches us with graces and with virtue, gives us an ardent love for Jesus Christ (clearly EVER-SO important) and is a treasure that enables us to pay our debts to God and to our fellow man. (I’m sorry but how do I owe a god who does not exist, and who I do not believe in, A SINGLE THING?)

To sum up, you will obtain all this if, out of your 24 hour day, you will take a mere 15 minutes to pray the Rosary. Why not to decide to begin right now? (probably because prayer is SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN to be simply a way to do absolutely nothing, and still think you’re making a difference i.e. it’s bloody useless! And besides, a vindictive b***h like the “Blessed” Virgin Mary who only has the grace to save the world, which is apparently within her power somehow, once she has received enough prostrations and fawning adulation does not DESERVE 15 MILLISECONDS out of my day let alone 15 minutes!)

Start today…

Even if you haven’t prayed for years, don’t worry. Now is a good time to start. And if you want something to help you to pray and meditate on the Rosary, then order your Rosary book today, and put it to use as soon as it arrives.

We will enclose a free rosary with every book ordered. Just fill out the coupon opposite, detach it and put it in the nearest post box. You don’t even need a postage stamp.

It goes on to describe how you will receive a free wooden rosary and the wonderful book containing the “15 promises” the Blessed Virgin Mary was SO kind to bestow upon us.

And as if they hadn’t had enough of the bald-faced assertions, on the reverse of one of the folded sections they have the following to present as “evidence” for the power of the Rosary….yeah, right…

Eloquent Testimonies:

Do you know that the(sic) praying the Rosary is a most efficacious means to obtain from the Blessed Virgin Mary the solution of all sorts of problems? Look at some examples:

  • Family breaking up restored to harmony (NOTHING to do with prayer.)
  • Woman in despair avoids suicide (NOTHING to do with prayer, and the suicidal tendencies probably had root in feelings FOSTERED by prayer and religion.)
  • A young alcoholic recovers from his condition (NOTHING to do with prayer except for a placebo/crutch effect, but there MUCH are better methods than prayer for assisting in difficult situations like that.)
  • The father of a family succeeds in avoiding default of mortgage (Yeah, because the Virgin Larry appeared to the bank manager, showed him a frightening vision of Hell and warned of severe chastisements if he didn’t lay off the poor pious father of five…give me a break!)

These are only a few examples among so many that could be cited. (hahaha….oh really? And how many of them exactly constitute ACTUAL evidence for the efficacy of praying the Rosary?? Sorry, what was that?)

I welcome your comments on both this piece of trash, and my evaluation of it and it’s message. Oh, and if you want a good laugh, or to induce a fit of intellectual rage upon yourself, check out the website of the people responsible for this charming little flyer, the “Irish Society for a Christian Civilisation”, http://www.isfcc.org/

Now I’m off to annoy those silly Catholics with some awkward questions and some demands looking for evidence for their ridiculous claims!

p.s. excuse the odd colour changes in the quote boxes, I had a tousle with the text editor, and no matter how I smacked it with that hammer it didn’t quite come out right. I think it will remain obvious which pieces of text are in fact my pithy derision of the Catholic faith…

Filed under: atheism, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , , | 7 Comments »

Religion and the Modern Society

Posted on October 19th, 2008 by dj357

Hello all, dj357 here (Darragh J.) one of the new authors on this blog. I hope you won’t find my anti-theistic tendencies and sentiments too over-bearing, but please, if you do, let me know, as I am still relatively new to writing articles and I would like to alienate as few people as people with my somewhat vitriolic stabs at organised religion.

So, on to my first post, it’s kind of a long one, but what the heck!

These ideas have been harvested from a lengthy discussion with one specific member of the RichardDawkins.net forum, who was of the strong opinion that Religion was an extremely important factor in the history of the world and is responsible for many good things in modern society, as it fulfills it role successfully according to Functionalism. This member was of the opinion that Religion would never truly die out because the role it fulfills in society is too big, and it does the job too well. The roles it fulfilled were such as promoting conformity and a sense of community.

Here I hope to lay out SOME factors as to why Religion is NO LONGER necessary in a modern Irish Society (or any other society, for that matter!).

From a purely Historical point of view, and with an eye to modern day society:
AT NO POINT in the past was there such a massive disemination of scientific evidence and information about the world we live than today.
AT NO POINT in the past were the general public exposed at such a close level to the events going on around the world than today.
AT NO POINT in the past was it so socially acceptable to profess a disbelief or a lack of belief in god(s) than today. (and to easily join an organisation of people of a similar disposition)
AT NO POINT in the past was there such a widespread surge of democracy where people understand their rights and will stand up and fight for them than today.
AT NO POINT in the past (aside from the last 100 years) was it so okay to attack the church of the country one lived in, without fear of being arrested for commiting a crime in heresy and being tortured and killed.
AT NO POINT in the past did we have such a significant understanding of our world and how it and we came to be where we are today, such that we could render the beliefs and claims of Religions useless than today.
AT NO POINT in the past would it have been possible for an organisation of less than 1000 people (FFRF.org) to challenge the seperation of church and state in a court of law and win their case and further the goals of a secular society than today.

ALL OF THESE FACTORS point to a greater understanding of the world around us.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS point to a greater rejection of ridiculous, illogical claims based on an insurmountable LACK of evidence.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS point to the decline in acceptance by the general public of Religion in nearly all but it’s strongest forms i.e. crazy evangelicals.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS lend severe weight to the claim that religion will soon be rendered useless and disappear as a significant force in our society.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS outweigh the apparent growth in Religious population.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS are contributing to a growing Irreligious population.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS tell us that the disparity between Religious and Irreligious population will soon be shifted in the other direction as the newly indoctrinated religious begin to challenge their beliefs as they fail, time and time again, in the face of rational thought and evidence, contrary to the claims of those beliefs, to rationalise those beliefs against the realities of the universe we inhabit.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS and the utter contempt the Irish people have for the Catholic church is why there is in fact a GROWING NATIVE Irreligious population, despite the outward stereotype that Ireland is still a highly religious country.
ALL OF THESE FACTORS show us that our modern society clearly has the tools to do Religions work and to do it better than Religion could ever have hoped for.

In Ireland it is such that the majority of the youth simply do not care about religion and simply do not dwell on it overmuch, beyond the odd mass, traditional celebrations and holidays or the R.E. class in school. However there are many people that you will find who, when asked directly “Do you believe in a god?”, the majority of them would reply with something to the effect of “I don’t quite believe in God per se, but I think it’s important to have faith”, simply because they are used to the bloody tradition. And if they were pressed as to what Religion they belonged, they would say Catholic, simply because the family is Catholic.

I fear that we are becoming like the Jewish community in the US who have a large proportion of their youth “believing in belief” and in the traditions, but taking absolutely nothing from it into their personal lives beyond running through the motions. However, the light of reason begins to shine deep within these people when you simply begin to discuss these matters with them, stripping away the layers of indoctrination, showing them the nonsensicalities of specific ideas or doctrines etc… and you begin to get the DISTINCT impression that these people truly do NOT believe in the doctrines of their espoused faith, but are mere fence-sitters afraid to upset the family dynamic by tearing apart cherished beliefs, or too polite to wish emotional harm upon themselves or their family due to their beliefs (or lack thereof ;))

A little critical-thinking, and a little introduction to the wonderful continuum of Doubt (and the sexy joys that come from it ;)) and you will see that these people will be able to see through the obvious fallacies and sheer idiocy spouted by the major world religions.

And I’ll tell you one thing, if they can deal with no afterlife, they will be a DAMN-SIGHT happier as a secular person than a god-fearing sheep!

Peace.

Filed under: atheism, skepticism | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

The Names We Call Ourselves

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by Jason

When someone asks you what you are, in the context of religious views, how do you answer?

The options should appear in a random order to help eliminate any bias.

I know short answers rarely capture what people really believe so please feel free to expand on your answer in the comments.

Filed under: atheism, debate, humanism, skepticism | Tagged: , , , | 8 Comments »

Irish Skeptics Meeting

Posted on October 15th, 2008 by Jason

The Irish Skeptics next meeting is on Tuesday November 18th at 8.00pm in the Gandon Suite of the Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

Their speaker is Julian Baggini who’ll talk about his latest book “The Duck that Won the Lottery“. More details about the event can be found here.

It sounds like it’ll be an interesting discussion, to help get you in the mood you can listen to Julian being interviewed on the Little Atoms Podcast.

Filed under: announcements, skepticism | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

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