I don’t have very many religious friends, so I haven’t often been put in a position where my beliefs were really challenged. I received an email from a friend recently concerning a very interesting dilemma he’s facing (I’m including most of the letter intact since James is an excellent writer):

[T]here’s something atheism-related that I’d be interested to get your input on. In fact, if you feel it’s a topic worthy of discussion on one of the podcasts, please feel free to bring it up. Basically, a lifelong friend of mine (he’s my Karate instructor, who I’ve known since I was six) is having his kid Christened, and asked me to be a godparent. Obviously, as an atheist, there is something of a conflict of interest there.

At face value, I have no problem with it, and don’t take my own anti-theism so seriously that I can’t stand there in the house of our lord, chuckle a little bit at the biting irony, and just spout the Biblical gobbledegook for the sake of ceremony. What matters is that I’m pledging to do right by this kid, to set good examples and make sure he turns out to be good peoples – all the Christian mumbo jumbo is just that. I don’t feel the need to be militant and tell my friend that, “Your religion is full of shit and I want nothing to do with putting this poor little bastard on the evil path of the Church,” even though that’s basically how I feel.

But here’s the thing; my other half is a Zen Buddhist (essentially Buddhism without a lot of the mumbo jumbo – it’s basically more like Taoism). She finds Christianity just as ludicrous and offensive as I do, but she was asked earlier this year to be the godparent of her brother’s newborn baby. She felt a lot more conflicted than I did, and was initially going to refuse on the grounds of her own beliefs. But when she saw how cool I was about being a godparent for my Karate instructor’s kid, she decided that she’d likewise just chuckle at the irony of it all and do her part.

So, I’m sitting there in the Church, watching her stand there in front of all the gaudy trappings of Christianity while some crossdressing kiddy fiddler talked about how the godparents were pledging to “surrender to Our Lord Jesus Christ” and all this crazy shit, and I’m thinking to myself, “Fuck me – if I was her I’d probably have to walk out right about now, because this is just bullshit.” It was one thing to play it cool in principle, and say that I would bite my tongue to service the message, not the missive, but seeing my other half standing there while all this pantomime morality was going on… it made me feel genuinely queasy.

I’m now very torn on the matter. One half of me is still of the opinion that the guy (who, incidentally, really doesn’t like religion or the church at all – I think he’s just doing the Christening because it’s “what people do” with a new kid) should do what he wants, and his intentions are honourable, and I don’t want to be as bad as a Christian missionary by throwing my own beliefs in his face, especially on such an occasion. But on the other hand – thanks to my increased awareness of atheism and the atheist community, which is entirely the fault of you and your site – I really don’t want to be the one to let the side down by cowtowing to this Christian bullshit. And of course, there’s the fact that my Buddhist partner only stood there with gritted teeth because she knew her atheist boyfriend was going to do the same thing…

Seeing as how this is mostly a consequence of poor James being tuned into atheism, it seems more than fair that I should answer the man. For starters, I understand exactly what you mean when you refer to the quiet rage you felt listening to these guys talk. When you’re off the bullshit wagon, you begin to see all the subtle and manipulative things the church does and says. So yes, in that regard it can be pretty damn difficult to suffer through it.

In regards to your friend, you probably both realize that the purpose of the ceremony is merely to make something as personal as the status of godfather seem more concrete. Say what you will for their dogma, but Christianity has always had a stellar reputation in understanding how to help foster the bonds of trust. A ceremony is nothing more than a way of making sure everyone involved is on the same wavelength. Think of these guys as the equivalent of a bunch of bureaucratic lawyers with a religious bent.

You mention being confident in your beliefs, but there is obviously a part of you that still feels threatened by the whole affair; the lone atheist surrounded by believers who demand that you conform to their ceremony. You can change that by adding your own part to the process so as to reclaim it. In other words, if you find a way to create your own form of bonding ceremony that is not religious with your friend, you won’t feel cheated out of the experience. Your time in church listening to the sermons will seem quaint.

The tough part about being an atheist is that we have no real ceremonies and custom that allow us to connect with other human beings the same way religions do it. It is ultimately what makes them infinitely more popular. It does not mean that we cannot find our own ways of expresing the most beautiful of human emotions; we just have to work a little harder at it.

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Last week, the Nation Secular Society in England was busy debaptising over 1500 people. If you are like me and wonder what the hell happens at a “debaptism”, Religious Intelligence has the story:

The recipient of the certificate declares they “reject all [the Church’s] Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged Original Sin, and the evil power of supposed demons.”

It continues: “I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.”

It’s all part of an interesting new attitude that atheist have now. A few years ago, you would have never imagined such a thing possible, let alone the huge number of people doing this. As silly as these debaptisms seemed to me at the time, I have come to appreciate just how bold the message out there is: “get your religion out of my face, and out of my life”. We’re finally standing up for ourselves, and it feels fucking great.

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I am not a rebel. Although I like to think that I am a controversial, in reality if push came to shove, I would probably retreat to the safety of conformity rather than suffer an ignoble fate. It’s why I find the following story so striking: It’s an article in the Saudi Gazette about all girl coffee shops, which is where today’s young Saudi girls are going to let loose, have fun, and enjoy life. All of this is highly subversive, and there are lots of people that want to see them shut down.

Women have no real rights in this country. They instead have duties and responsibilities, most of them unpleasant and restrictive, that do not allow them to truly enjoy life. Although they make up about 70% of University graduates, they make up only 5% of the workforce. So to escape their shitty lives, young women are retreating from this cold reality by going to these all girl coffee shops, putting on makeup, and smoking shisha until their throats hurt.

Government officials and religious clergy are aghast at this type of behavior, which they see as the corrupting influence of the west. They aren’t wrong. We believe that individuals are free to pursue their own interests, regardless of gender. But to the Saudi, this type of rebellion is usually met with swift and brutal action. I wouldn’t be surprised if these types of places were soon shut down, and the women who frequent these establishments were punished. It’s just the way things are in that part of the world.

The human need to rebel is strong, and some of these women may not realize to what degree they are challenging their country’s social mores. I hope this all ends positively, but considering that women still aren’t allowed to drive in that part of the world, it doesn’t look too promising.

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Your average, moderately religious person is deadly afraid of cults. It’s not the brainwashing they are afraid of, but rather the type of brainwashing that is used. After all, the most distinguishing characteristics of cults is that they usually take a very literal approach to their religion, and this uncomfortable reality often reminds the faithful that there is a dark side to their own belief system.

Consider the following case in Baltimore: a mother denies her 16 month old son food and water because he did not say “Amen” at mealtimes. This of course may seem harsh by modern ethical standards, but in most old world religion, this type of stuff happened all the time. It’s not uncommon for parents to commit filicide (murdering your own child has a name, so you know it happens quite a bit), and the Bible has special rules about disobedient children that demand they be stoned to death.

If this was the end of the craziness, it would be only another sad tragedy brought to you by religion, but this case is special: The mother along with other congregants of the “One Mind Ministries” prayed over the boy’s body for days thinking they could resurrect him. The court psychiatrist concluded before the trial that the mother was not insane since she was following religious doctrine, and her beliefs were shared by others who also participated in the neglect of the child (see, if one person believes they are Napoleon, he’s crazy. If 20 people agree with him, he’s a prophet). If this sounds like a massive cop out, consider what their “expert” psychiatrist said before the trial:

Although an inability to think critically can be a sign of brainwashing, experts said, the line between that and some religious beliefs can be difficult to discern.

“At times there can be an overlap between extreme religious conviction and delusion,” said Robert Jay Lifton, a cult expert and psychiatrist who lectures at Harvard Medical School. “It’s a difficult area for psychiatry and the legal system.”

It’s only difficult because we refuse to admit that all religious convictions are a form of delusion. Most of the time these delusions are benign, but when books like the Bible are suddenly taken literally, the result is often sad, tragic and terrible. To some degree or another, a religions are cultist in nature; how much devotion and uncritical thinking they encourage will determine whether or not they can coexist with society. Personally, I find them all equally revolting, but for vastly different reasons.

Another sad death caused by religious stupidity, gullibility, and the unenlightened words of the Bible. Why are we still reading this fucking book in the 21st century? If it’s any comfort, the woman in this story agreed to cooperate, but asked that the sentence be reduced if her son is resurrected during her incarceration. Yep, totally sane woman here, doc.

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Just when I thought the whole Texas Board of Education nonsense was over when the creationists were narrowly defeated, but it looks like they are introducing another amendment that would allow teachers to tell students that there is some “debate” as to the age of the Universe. If you think a debate amounts to every serious scientist on this planet accepting the modern estimates at 13.5 billion years versus a group of undereducated religious morons who think it’s 6000, then yeah, it’s a debate. By that logic, I think every class should also debate if the earth is flat, and also whether or not women should be allowed to be in a public building when they are menstruating.

Unless some miracle happens, this will be allowed to pass, and then the floodgates will burst open and allow every religious wackjob with a soapbox to demand that more dogma be introduced in the science curriculum. Get your shit together, Texas. You’re litterally dragging humanity down.

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Deborah and Paul Rees make their living by scamming people. They probably aren’t fully aware of the fraud themselves, convinced that they are helping families by their cheap “psychic” act. The British government seems to think the practice is kosher, and has awarded a 4,500 pound grant for them to teach other people how to talk to the dead.

I hate to rain on their parade, but if these two clowns really want to prove their psychic abilities, they can apply to the JREF and win a million dollars if they can display even a speck of psychic abilities. I bet the house that it won’t happen. If James Randy has proven anything with his prize it’s that none of these guys are interested in proving that what they do is real specifically because it’s all make believe bullshit.

What annoys me is that this business grant went to two scamming quacks who charge 65 bucks for their ridiculous workshop. The money should have gone to people who actually contribute to society, not two parasites that pray on sad individuals who’s only wish is to talk to their relatives one last time. Lots of psychics think they are helping grieving families, but hey only cause more confusion and make it difficult for people to accept their losses.

Let’s hope that the government takes a second glance at this grant and do the right thing here. Give the money to a real business, not some fucking scam, please.

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The Lancet is one of the most well respected and read peer reviewed medical journals in the world, and they were not impressed with Pope Benedict’s statements that condoms made the spread of HIV and AIDS worst, so they issued the following statement:

Whether the Pope’s error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear.

When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record.

Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/Aids worldwide.

There you have it. It’s a double slap in the face for old benny, who just can’t seem to do anything right. Even high ranking officials inside the Vatican are begging him to reconsider his stance on condom use, since the clear reality is that they are a matter of life and death for many Africans.

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