Clipmarks | BartendingBear's 'religion' clips

Pew Research Shows Churchies Want Out Of Politics

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:29:17 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Can I get an "AMEN!"?

A slim majority of Americans, including more conservatives and Republicans than previously, want to keep religion out of politics, a survey released on Thursday found.

The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans thought that churches and other religious institutions should stay out of politics, an increase of eight percentage points since 2004, when the last U.S. presidential election was held.

Forty five percent in the survey of nearly 3,000 adults conducted earlier this month took an opposite view, saying churches should make their political views heard.

A huge shift came from voters who described themselves as conservative, with 50 percent saying churches should stay out of politics compared to 30 percent in 2004.

Among Republicans, 51 percent held this view, up from 37 percent in August of 2004.

Christianity Dying In Great Britain

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:02:11 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Now, if they could get over this BigBrother camera obsession they have, they might be on the right track.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years' time.

Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all.

Buddhism however, proved more attractive than both Islam and Judaism, and was chosen by nine per cent of those questioned.

Research published earlier this year suggested that church attendance is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation.

According to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, the huge drop off in attendance means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable.

Atheist Army Spc. Exposed As Athiest Now Needs Bodyguard

Fri, 16 May 2008 06:10:35 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Sent home from Iraq because the Army can't ensure his safety from our own military.

Clip Source: www.tampabay.com

Maybe the reason the misperception persists that there are no atheists in foxholes is that nonbelievers must either shut up about their views or be hounded out of the military.

Just ask Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who is making a splash in the news because of the way his atheism was attacked by superiors and fellow soldiers while he was risking his life in service to his country.

Hall, 23, served two combat tours in Iraq, winning the Combat Action Badge. But he's now stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., having been returned stateside early because the Army couldn't ensure his safety.

There is something deeply amiss when we send soldiers on a mission to engender peaceful coexistence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, yet our military doesn't seem able to offer religious tolerance to its own.

This is nothing new to Mikey Weinstein

a former Air Force judge advocate general

Weinstein

has collected nearly 8,000 complaints

from Christian members

tired of being force-fed

evangelical fundamentalism.

Tags: religion, hypocrisy, coercion

The Bible Is Bullshit - Corporate Avenger

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:09:17 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "These are the books that were written by man. They cause wars. Now follow if you can." Hard-edged political rap. Not for the meek.

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: truth, bible, religion, dogma

The Great Derangement

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:31:05 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "A Terrifying True Story Of War, Politics, And Religion At The Twilight Of The American Empire"

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Yoko Ono & Sons Sue Ben Stein For "Expelled" Copyright Violation

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:01:19 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: I love it when the pious ignore the rule of law.

Clip Source: www.avclub.com

You'd think Yoko Ono would be thrilled that her late husband's most famous song is being used, without permission, in a documentary about how Darwinists are like Nazis. Apparently, she's not. Yoko, along with Sean and Julian Lennon and publisher EMI Blackwood Music Inc., are suing the filmmakers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed for using "Imagine" and are seeking to bar them from continuing to include it in the film. The song pops up as an example of how evil science and media folks want to remove religion from the secular mainstream. ("Imagine there's no heaven...") Apparently, the Expelled folks imagined there were no copyright laws.

Will the Clash of Faiths Go on Forever?

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:15:45 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks: Religious conflict rages on, despite claims we live in a "secular age" -- two authors explore the clash of beliefs.

This article reviews:

Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe by Benjamin J. Kaplan

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

religious zealotry is out of control and ought to be reined in. The question is how to do it. On one side of the debate are the hards, those militant atheists who argue that the problem is not so much religious discord as religion itself, an idea that has given rise to repeated horrors not because it is misapplied or misunderstood but because it is false and therefore a poor guide to reality. Bad theories lead to bad outcomes, which is why the best way to deal with theism is to do to it what Copernicus did to Ptolemy, or Darwin to Lamarck -- finish it off as quickly as possible so the world can move on.

On the other side are the softs, those nice ecumenicists who contend that

Religion is

tolerable as long as it's not used as a justification to harass thy neighbor or condemn him to hell over minute theological differences.

Kaplan's version of how people got along in between the era's great battles and confrontations is not unimportant.

Tags: divided by faith, religion, zealotry, clash of faiths, ecumenism, religious tolerance, religious intolerance, christendom, islam, history of relgions

What I've Learned: Michael DeBakey

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:53:27 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Wisdom from one of the most revered doctors in history.

Clip Source: www.esquire.com

One of the rarest things that we do is think. I don’t know why people don’t do it more often. It doesn’t cost anything. Think about that.

There are questions that I’d like answered. But there aren’t any answers to those questions.

If world leaders were doctors, I think they would be more concerned with the welfare of people. There would be less poverty. There would be medical care for everybody, no matter whether people paid for it or not.

In any good society, every member should be interested in the health of every other member. Because if any member is unhealthy, it’s a burden on the society.

Being compassionate, being concerned for your fellow man, doing everything you can to help people -- that’s the kind of religion I have, and it’s a comforting religion. I don’t get involved in discussions of intelligent design. You can’t answer those questions, so why fool with them?

You can never learn enough.

The Wisdom of Blasphemy

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:21:39 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Things to ponder.

Clip Source: atheistblogger.com

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. - Gene Roddenberry

A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. - Samuel Clemens

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca the Younger

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. - Doug McLeod

Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. - Anonymous

On the first day, man created God. - Anonymous

Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. - Steven Colbert

Atheism is a non-prophet organization. - George Carlin

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. - Robert Pirsig

Consumerism: Society's Religion

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 03:06:51 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Saint Greenspan, thy strength is mighty.

Clip Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

IN CASE YOU'VE been wondering what to do with your life, John Boehner has the answer.

House Minority Leader Boehner, a Republican congressman from Ohio, celebrated the recent passage of the economic stimulus package by saying, "The sooner we get this relief in the hands of the American people, the sooner they can begin to do their job of being good consumers." Your title: "consumer;" your mission: "buy stuff." Echoes of the president's call, amid the crisis of 9/11, to get out and "shop."

Is it too much to suggest that consumerism has become a kind of alternative faith, a religion of sorts? Religions are characterized by some vision of a good life, by their rituals and by a particular language. Consumerism seems to be developing all three apace.

Lent, the Christian season of penitence and self-examination, began this week. The sins to be repented are still with us: greed, envy, sloth, covetousness. Only they are no longer sins. They are the virtues of "the good consumer."

Teaching Philosophy To Kids 5 Years-Old

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:17:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: It will never happen here. Teaching kids how to think might cause them to challenge Mom & Dad too much.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

While other five-year-olds are learning to spell their names and tie up shoelaces, infants at one school are debating life's great mysteries - in philosophy lessons.

Staff say that instead of "thumping each other" in the playground, pupils now challenge each other's ideas when they disagree.

The Philosophy for Children course encourages pupils to grapple with conundrums such as free will, religion and the nature of luck.

"Virtually everyone that came here had some kind of emotional or behavioural difficulty."

Formal lessons in philosophy begin at five

Three-year-olds are introduced to the concept of justification through simple exercises, such as getting them to sit on a "magic carpet" and then asking where they plan to travel on it and why.

Five-year-olds are challenged to consider why music sounds harmonious and people are more likely to shout outside.

Lessons of Atheist Dictatorships

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:02:36 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The conclusion of a long and excellent article.

Clip Source: www.butterfliesandwheels.com

Doubtless the reason Americans remain so devoutly religious today has to do with their tradition of separation of church and state. Thus the citizenry, when disenchanted with the government, have had little reason to turn against the church. The lesson is not, however, that communist dictators’ lack of religious belief drove them to commit atrocities in the name of atheism. The lesson is that the best, most sure-fire way to eliminate religious belief in the U.S. is to do what the religious fundamentalists want done, that is to institutionalize religion.

Wisdom From Mike Gravel On Church State Separation

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:40:21 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: He was the only candidate I had any serious respect for. Kucinich was good too, but Gravel had the goods.

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Clearly pointing to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican who recently suggested that we ought to amend the constitution to be brought in line with "God's standards," Gravel said: "I ... really exhort as public policy that we concentrate on keeping religion out of politics, and keeping a very, very strong separation between church and state. Otherwise you will take the oppressive nature of the state and marry it with the oppressive nature of religion, and that is the ultimate oppression of human beings."

Gravel goes on to talk about morality, and how trying to legislate morality reflects a failure of the religious community.

Republican Plan To Kill Off Government

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:46:53 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: View the chart on the right, notice in the past 30 years, how the Repubs have been pushing us down into a deep financial hole. Why? I can only come up with the conclusion that the red side of the aisle is out to kill off government, as we know it, altogether. Allowing them free reign to privatize EVERYTHING in the world which will allow their dreams of a World Global Market, in which they become the rulers of, to come true. The damn pesky Dems keep getting elected in interims and bring the NAT'L DEBT down to a manageable size. Just imagine if they had ruled straight through this 30 year period, their fantasies of total control would be actualized by now. I know this is a simple analogy of what the hell they are up to but maybe that's how they get away with what they are doing. Just act as though their plans are SO COMPLICATED, too difficult for the average American cretin to understand. Waddayathink? Lot's of info in this link: http://www.thethinkingblue.com/natldept.html

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

LOOK AT THE CHART BELOW AND WONDER, IS THIS A REPUBLICAN PLAN TO KILL OFF GOVERNMENT?
Save this picture (click here) print it and pass it around or post it on your website:

Do stimulus packages work?

NOW WATCH: Is this a global recession?

NOW WATCH: US recession fueled by low wages and
consumer debt

THE REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC STIMULUS PLAN AND RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY

by: Elizabeth Spiro Clark

With four alarm fire bells ringing that the US is headed for a bad recession, and agreement that quick stimulus is needed, it seems slightly loony that the President and Republican leaders find it so hard to back away from their market fundamentalist nostrums (secret, quack remedies).

Read with an eye to implications, Republican statements on religion have a lot to say about where they are coming from on economics.

Mitt Romney’s December speech on “Faith in America”

It opens a door on a religious ideology

denies the "other enemy", our own government, billions

for health care, disaster relief

Tags: kill, off, government, republicans, democrats

Religious discrimination

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:41:57 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: I'd recommend you read the whole article at the source.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

A group of religiously diverse young leaders from the organization I run, the Interfaith Youth Core, were on Good Morning America recently. When Robin Roberts asked who had experienced discrimination because of their faith, almost all of them raised their hands.

And here is Christopher Hitchens, in a video displayed prominently on the
home page of this site, proudly proclaiming his contempt for religious people, and stating that he immediately loses respect for someone once he finds out that s/he is religious.

What if Hitchens had proudly stated his contempt for black people, or said that he immediately loses respect for people once he finds out they are Mexican?

If you insult race or ethnicity in this day and age, you are treated like a pariah. If you insult religion, you are nominated for a National Book Award (as Hitchens was).

Tags: religion