Here’s some recent stuff:
- Why atheism is politically unpopular in the US (Economist) – “One problem is that they are hardly a cohesive group. Another issue is simply branding. ‘Atheist’ has an ugly ring in American ears and it merely defines what people are not. ‘Godless’ is worse, its derogatory attachment to ‘communist’ may never be broken. ‘Humanist’ sounds too hippyish. A few have taken to calling themselves ‘Brights’ for no good reason and to widespread mirth. And ‘secular’ isn’t quite the word either; one can be a Christian secularist. But another failing of the irreligious movement has been its tendency, frequently, to pick the wrong fights.”
- Why the Flying Spaghetti monster is a poor analogy (ReasonableFaith) – “The real lesson to be learned from the case of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that it shows how completely out of touch our popular culture is with the great tradition of natural theology. One might as well be speaking a foreign language. That people could think that belief in God is anything like the groundless belief in a fantasy monster shows how utterly ignorant they are of the works of Anselm, Aquinas, Leibniz, Paley, Sorley, and a host of others, past and present.”
- Dawkins a ‘Cultural Christian’? (BBC) – “This is historically a Christian country. I’m a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims.”So, yes, I like singing carols along with everybody else. I’m not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history.”
- Christianity and Violence (About.com) – Here’s a supposedly ‘good’ list of Christian atrocities across the ages. Of course, many of these can be easily refuted, but I thought you might like to see them (For refutations, see Atheist Atrocities, The Real History of the Crusades, Modern Myths About Christianity – Witch Hunts)
