This Othe Week (of Links) that Was

Jewish kids in the South face prosletyzing by classmates. (found via The Religious Clause)

Mormonism as a Work of Art, yes, really.  Nevermind the fraud and psychosis of Joseph Smith.  It was just artistic license.

The author/translater who popularized Martin Buber passed away this week.  This obituary is an interesting read.

Animals all over the country were blessed this week in honor of St. Francis.  A priest blogs about how pointless it is for the animals, but a feel-good thing for the two-legged owners.  It's funny how often reglious people openly admit that their supernatural pleas really don't have supernatural power, and they don't even realize how hypocritical they sound.

Pakistan has a human rights council!  The Standing Committee on Human Rights addressed the problem of girls being forced to convert from Hinduism to Islam and other issues.  Why aren't boys being forced to convert?  Oh yeah, a man can marry four women, so mathematically the Muslims should be forcing some of their sons to deconvert (or blow themselves up).

In France, a "sweep" netted nine arrests and one death of potential Islamic terrorists.  It was a big multi-city project and they only found this many? 

Posters supporting Israel and portraying Islamic terrorists as "savages" must be posted in Washington, D.C. Metro stations.  There will be only four stations, though.  I imagine the Pentagon will be one, but what are the other three?

Evangelical Pentacostalism is influencing Brazilian fashion!  If the photos are correct, at least there's still some sense of style in the newly converted.  The Pentacostal nutters around here dress like 19th century farmers.

Oh boo hoo... if Mormons keep reaching out to poor countries they may not rake in as much money.  10% of a pittance is what?  A shittance?

Pat Robertson says America belongs to Jesus at the America for Jesus event, which drew fewer than 10,000 people.  Security handles hecklers by praying for them.  Uhhh yeah, keep that up.  If he had a gun would you pray for him to drop it?

Links of the Week

America for Jesus rally in Philadelphia.  Don't these bullies realize they have to travel to heathen cities to connect with the founders?  Hmmmmm  I wonder if any of them will notice that.  Here's some fun:  "Attendees will be asked to start 40 days of prayer and fasting, through the Nov. 6, election, to help turn the nation toward God"  Well wouldn't that decrease voter turnout just a wee bit?  if they're too weak to show up at the polls?

In Indiana religious bullies are trying to redefine abortion out of existence at one clinic, anyway.  Meanwhile,  Uruguay takes a step toward decriminalizing abortion.  In Kansas, the office of the doctor murdered in his own church by a so-called "Christian" has been bought by an abortion rights group.  Very brave of them.

Okay, not specifically religous (usually) but eunuchs live longer, at least in Korea.  And in other news, male scientists are scrambling to find evidence that counters this finding.

My local newspaper is covering a dramatic dispute over whether the right to be a pastor depends on 1) being the son of the former pastor or 2) knowing something about religion, like maybe having gone to seminary.

The new charter schools in New York are supposedly causing the collapse of parochial, especially Catholic schools.   The many proven allegations of pedophilia within the Catholic church couldn't possibly have contributed, no no no...

Donald Trump waived his speaker's fee to give a convocation speech at Liberty University, with Michele Bachmann on stage.  I thought he was just a loose cannon crackpot, but apparently he's one of them.  That explains a lot.

The fourth Wednesday of September is See You at the Pole Day, when Christian students confuse worship of a dead guy on a tree with worship of a secular symbol.  Well, the flag is prettier, but  peer pressure to worship is still creepy.

An ancient Buddhist statue (with a swastika) stolen by the Nazis is truly otherworldly - it's made from a metorite!

Muslims want everyone else to suppress freedom of speech in rules against "religious hatred."  They don't seem to be interested in laws suppressing the freedom to stage violent murderous riots when their feelings get hurt, though.

Meanwhile, Muslims in India seem to be able to handle a comedy about an atheist who meets God.  The plot sounds convoluted but interesting, even if the moral of the story is hackneyed pro-religious nonsense.

Catholics, however, are "up in arms" over the way they've been portrayed in a movie that's not getting good reviews anyway.  Muslims could learn a lesson from the Catholics here.  "Up in arms" for Catholics means being whiny babies, which is enough to threaten release of a film.  No murder or arson so far reported.

Hindus, in return, are whining about yoga being disallowed in a Catholic church in England.  And in other news, the National Turk gets people to read this boring story by hiring a porn star to pose in a braless yoga getup at the top of the article.

...and since most of my readers are heterosexual males, there's probably no point in posting anything after that.

Skepticism: A Key to Accuracy

I stumbled upon this interesting article about the persistence of untruth.  Much of it was a repeat of information I've read elsewhere, such as the fact that people more readily accept a statement as true if it agrees with their prior worldview and opinion.

As I kept reading I got more and more depressed, having all this evidence for the persistence of false memory but then I saw this section header:  "Skepticism: A Key to Accuracy."  It seems that people who have developed a skeptical approach to information tend not to be as easily fooled.

I remember during the run-up to the Iraq war invasion that I was the only one amongst my friends who saw through the lie about Hussein being connected to Al Qaeda.  I (heatedly) pointed out that Al Qaeda is a fundamentalist movement while Iraq is secular under Hussein.  But... I was living in D.C. and my friends had all been traumatized by 9/11 so they were predisposed to accept any idea if it seemed to mean added protection for themselves.  (I suspect Cheney had PTSD too)  I was living in Texas on 9/11/2001, so I had a little more distance from it.

But... I am also skeptical by nature and then developed my skepticism further after waking up to the ridiculousness of religious claims.  (Of course I believe what they say about skepticism because it agrees with me about skepticism being a good thing, but I have also never seen anything to disabuse me of that, and I have seen many attempts)

The article:
http://psi.sagepub.com/content/13/3/106.full?ijkey=FNCpLYuivUOHE&keytype=ref&siteid=sppsi
(pdf version:  http://psi.sagepub.com/content/13/3/106.full.pdf+html)
in Psychological Science in the Public Interest December 2012 vol. 13 no. 3 106-131

International Hatred Day

Hate someone today because you'll restore the balance of the universe! The more people you hate the more you'll tip the balance toward world peace! (or something)

Ted the Atheist vs. Street Preachers

This made me laugh. Enjoy:

Euthanasia

I've been on an emotional roller coaster all week, culminating with the euthanasia of a beloved pet.  Sometimes I wish I could fantasize life "on the other side" for loved ones, but this dog was a real momma's boy.  Non-existence is by far preferable to waiting decades for me to find him on the other side of the "Rainbow Bridge."  Not to mention, he'd have to compete with my other lost pets for my attention.  Tough on me, though.

Because I've been involved in pet rescue and I'm a big fan of one special breed, I have a lot of internet buddies and real-life friends who share my love for the breed and for rescue.  We often don't share much else, though.  So...  I just say "thank you" when they invoke the Rainbow Bridge or tell me they'll pray for me.

Making the decision to euthanize is one of those tough times when being a rationalist is really inconvenient.  As much as I admire the scientific method and need to know the whole truth of my pet's medical condition, I don't want to let go. If you've followed this blog you know that I've been reading books about decisions and beliefs (just started reading yet another one!).  So besides feeling this pull I have the self-awareness of the reasons for my conflicting feelings. 

Fortunately the specialist vet I eventually went to (at 1:00 a.m.!) gave me the whole ugly truth, more than the other two vets I'd seen in the previous two days.  We could do the procedure, which was expensive but affordable for me, but it probably wouldn't make much of a difference and there were specific reasons why it might not even be possible to do it successfully.  The gambler in me wanted to try anyway.  The amygdala is in control of that part and said "DO ANYTHING TO SAVE HIM EVEN IF THERE'S A 5% CHANCE!"  Then the prefrontal cortex stepped in and said "Save the money and use it to rescue the next one.  You've done all you can reasonably do for this dog and it's his time."

Fortunately at that hour the vet hospital didn't need the exam room I was in so I had plenty of time to think it through.  Or feel it through, as the case may be.  When I put him up on his feet and let him walk around for awhile I could tell that he was suffering even though he still had that *spark* of life and his mind was still with me.  An he still wanted to be with me, but I hated that he was suffering, and I couldn't bear to give him only temporary relief only to feel the same way or worse later.  After all the tug-of-war between dreading his loss and knowing the "science" of why it was necessary, in the end compassion took over.

So I called the vet on the intercom and told her I was ready to let him go.  We talked about euthanasia in general and I told her I've met people who became vet techs (veterinary nurses) because they didn't want to do euthanasias.  She responded that she believes she's doing a service, and I had to agree.  Then I blurted out "I wish we could do this for people" while she was giving my dog his first injection.

I have said this a few times before in random places and it generally makes people queasy.  This is the first time someone agreed with me.  She gave me a hug when it was over and told me she understood.  I kind of wonder if she also understood how hard it is to believe in euthanasia for people in our society.  We allow doctors to withhold food or remove "life support" or obey Do Not Resucitate orders and religious objections to life-saving care, but we don't allow them to "humanely" euthanize people.

For a time the Hemlock Society got a lot of attention, but all the right-to-die debates of the last century seem to have been quashed by the religious right.  No more "Doctor Death" debates since Kevorkian went to prison.  The question seems to have been settled. Mass murderers get euthanized by injection because it's "humane" but someone who's never harmed anyone has to suffer in agony until "nature takes its course."

As a society we need to consult all the parts of our collective conscious: our knee-jerk but ultimately selfish "NO!" response to the prospect of losing loved ones, the "death panel" in our collective subconscious that decides when additional intervention would be fruitless, and the compassionate part, which worries more about how the dying person feels than about how we would feel about letting them go.

Christians and other believers ask how we atheists can know what's right without an "objective morality" to consult.  In some cases there is indeed an objective morality:  ask yourself what is the objective of each possible course?  Is it selfish or compassionate?

September 11 Remembrance Video

The music and photos of this school project really go together and convey the events of the day very well. I give the student an "A" I give the extremists who did this an "F" for thinking they could advance their warped theology's cause this way, but an A+ for inspiring the growth of atheism in the U.S.