Clipmarks | Atheism Clips

Bl. Miguel Pro, S.J.

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:13:42 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado
clipper's remarks: As the firing squad took aim, Pro spoke his last words. In a firm, clear voice, he said:

"Viva Cristo Rey!" Long live Christ the King.

Clip Source: puffin.creighton.edu

A picture is worth a thousand words. One of the things that brought the attention of the world to the anti-Catholic persecutions in Mexico was the distribution of the photographs of some of the executions.

Plutarco Calles wanted the execution to be a "big show" and had instructed his underlings to invite representatives from all the government secretariats, the press, and photographers. His intention was to show the Catholics as groveling cowards.

Clip Source: puffin.creighton.edu

At ten o'clock in the morning, Pro was the first to be led out to execution. Carrying his small crucifix and his rosary, he walked steadily across the yard.

Clip Source: puffin.creighton.edu

As his last request, Miguel asked to be allowed to pray. He knelt in front of the bullet-pocket walls and fervently prayed briefly. He kissed his crucifix and stood.

Clip Source: puffin.creighton.edu

Miguel stretched his arms out in the form of a cross and facing the firing squad said, "May God have mercy on you. May God bless you. Lord, You know that I am innocent. With all my heart I forgive my enemies."

Clip Source: puffin.creighton.edu

The martyr in death.

Tags: martry, church, state, atheism

Calles Law

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:18:32 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado
clipper's remarks: ...Designed to put teeth into the constitutional articles, it spelled out in specific terms the penalties for violations -- 500 pesos for wearing clerical garb, five years imprisonment for criticizing the laws or inducing a minor to join a monastic order, etc.

The trouble came when Calles mulishly attempted to enforce the laws in strongly Catholic west-central Mexico, particularly the states of Jalisco, Colima, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Michoacán and even more particularly the Los Altos ranch country of northeast Jalisco, focal point of what would turn out to be the terrible 1926-29 Cristero War. Shouting their battle cry of Viva Cristo Rey! ("Long live Christ the King!"), a motley assortment of ranchers, Catholic students and workers from Guadalajara and Indians from Jalisco's northern sierra held off the cream of the federal army for three years.

Clip Source: coloquio.com

Calles was inaugurated on November 30, 1924, and lost no time plunging Mexico into the most severe religious crisis of her history. The 1917 Constitution contained articles which practicing Catholics considered intolerable -- among them were provisions outlawing monastic orders, prohibiting religious organizations to own property and reducing clergy to the status of second-class citizens by taking away their right to vote. Obregón disliked Catholicism but was a practical man who followed a policy of applying the articles selectively -- with rigor in areas where the Church was weak, leniently or not at all in regions where the Church was strong.

Calles, by contrast, was a fanatic determined to extirpate every trace of Catholicism from Mexico. On June 14, 1926, he signed a decree known officially as "The Law Reforming the Penal Code" and unofficially as the "Calles Law."

Tags: catholicism, church, state, communism, religion, freedom, constitution, atheism

Constitutional Separation of Church and State, pt. 3

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:02:01 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado
clipper's remarks: ...There must be in every church building a representative who is responsible to the authorities for compliance with the laws on religious worship in such building, and for the objects pertaining to the worship.

Periodical publications of a religious character, whether they be such because of their program, title, or merely because of their general tendencies, may not comment on national political matters or public information on acts of the authorities of the country or of private persons directly related to the functioning of public institutions .

The formation of any kind of political group, the name of which contains any word or indication whatever that it is related to any religious denomination, is strictly prohibited. Meetings of a political character may not be held in places of worship.

Trials for violation of the above provisions shall never be heard before a jury.

Clip Source: www.ilstu.edu

Article 130.

The federal powers shall exercise the supervision required by law in matters relating to religious worship and outward ecclesiastical forms.

The law does not recognize any personality in religious groups called churches.

Ministers of denominations shall be considered as persons who practice a profession and shall be directly subject to the laws enacted on such matters.

Ministers of denominations may never, in a public or private meeting constituting an assembly, or in acts of worship or religious propaganda, criticize the fundamental laws of the country or the authorities of the Government, specifically or generally. They shall not have an active or passive vote nor the right to form associations for religious purposes.

Permission to dedicate new places of worship open to the public must be obtained from the Secretariat of Government, with previous consent of the government of the State.

Tags: church, state, communism, religion, freedom, constitution, atheism

Constitutional Separation of Church and State, pt. 2

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:54:52 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado
clipper's remarks: ...Places of public worship are the property of the Nation, as represented by the Federal Government, which shall determine which of them may continue to be devoted to their present purposes. Bishoprics, rectories, seminaries, asylums, and schools belonging to religious orders, convents, or any other buildings built or intended for the administration, propagation, or teaching of a religious creed shall at once become the property of the Nation by inherent right, to be used exclusively for the public services of the Federal or State Governments, within their respective jurisdictions. All places of public worship hereafter erected shall be the property of the Nation.

Clip Source: www.ilstu.edu

1917 Constitution of Mexico

Article 24.

Everyone is free to embrace the religion of his choice and to practice all ceremonies, devotions, or observances of his respective faith, either in places of public worship or at home, provided they do not constitute an offense punishable by law.

Every religious act of public worship must be performed strictly inside places of public worship, which shall at all times be under governmental supervision.

Article 27.

Religious institutions known as churches, regardless of creed, may in no case acquire, hold, or administer real property or hold mortgages thereon; such property held at present either directly or through an intermediary shall revert to the Nation, any person whosoever being authorized to denounce any property so held. Presumptive evidence shall be sufficient to declare the denunciation well founded.

Tags: church, state, communism, religion, freedom, constitution, atheism

Pray-for-Atheists Day planned

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:11:32 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse

Clip Source: www.satireandcomment.com

For Immediate release: Pray-for-Atheists Day planned

Rival Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups came together in a press conference in Jerusalem to announce that September 30th will be the first annual "International Pray For Atheists Day". Each religious group is calling on its followers to take time out of their day to pray for the conversion of Atheists

"As shepherds to billions of sheep, we fear for those who refuse to join the herd" stated Bishop Francisco, public affairs rep. for the Christians adding, "This intra faith effort also serves to remind us all that as terrible are the deeds inspired by religious faith, from Crusades to suicide bombers to the denial of science, nothing is worse than atheism-not even homosexuality"

"We must pray urgently and incessantly for Atheists because we are afraid they will destroy the world before the End of the world".

Tags: atheism, prayer

Constitutional Separation of Church and State

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:00:58 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: www.ilstu.edu

1917 Constitution of Mexico

Article 3

Freedom of religious beliefs being guaranteed by Article 24, the standard which shall guide such education shall be maintained entirely apart from any religious doctrine and, based on the results of scientific progress, shall strive against ignorance and its effects, servitudes, fanaticism, and prejudices.

Religious corporations, ministers of religion, stock companies which exclusively or predominantly engage in educational activities, and associations or companies devoted to propagation of any religious creed shall not in any way participate in institutions giving elementary, secondary and normal education and education for laborers or field workers.

Article 5.

The law, therefore, does not permit the establishment of monastic orders, whatever be their denomination or purpose.

Tags: church, state, communism, religion, freedom, constitution, atheism

Understanding does not diminish Awe

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:52:50 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "The religious experience is, at best, a stunted variety of this feeling. Awe without understanding, or at least the desire for understanding, degenerates into mysticism: viewing a mystery not as a challenge to be solved, but something to be worshipped for its own sake. Mysticism states that ignorance is a desirable condition, a state we should glory in. This attitude only keeps us frightened and ignorant, and worst of all, robs us of the deeper and more genuine awe that comes with comprehension. I say, let us explore. There may be problems too high or too deep for us, mysteries we cannot penetrate - but so far, we haven't found any, and if there are any, they will not need to be protected from our investigations."

Clip Source: www.daylightatheism.org

Moving Beyond Awe

The nineteenth-century German theologian Rudolf Otto, in his book The Idea of the Holy, popularized the term "numinous", an adjective describing the sense of mystery and wonder that purportedly stems from the presence of a deity. According to Otto, the sense of the numinous had two main characteristics: the mysterium tremendum, the sense of fear and trembling that comes from the presence of that which is wholly other, and the mysterium fascinas, the sense of fascination and curiosity that such an experience evokes.

Otto's theology concisely sums up the categories of religious experience. But the problem with his conception of the numinous is that it lacks one very important quality - understanding.

For Otto, as for many theists, the numinous is not something we should seek to comprehend.

there is no mention of penetrating the mystery

pulling back the curtain of our ignorance

what humanity has been doing throughout its history: piercing the mysteries that surround us

Tags: atheism, religion, understanding, awe

First Atheist Summer Camp for Children

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:36:16 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

When schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays at the end of July, India Jago, aged 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist.

While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek islands, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, southwestern England, while learning about moral philosophy.

The Jagos, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain's first summer camp for atheists.

The five-day retreat is being subsidized by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of "The God Delusion," and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups.

Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.

"I'm very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds," he said earlier this month. "I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think."

Tags: atheism, children

A Moved Mover

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:38:09 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: An interesting account that names and refute all arguments favoring a godly existence of any sort.
...
As David Hume wrote over 200 years ago in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion,
"What peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought,
that we must thus make it the model of the whole universe?"

Clip Source: www.ebonmusings.org

Unmoved Mover

God is not a being that exists by mere definition (as the ontological argument unsuccessfully tries to establish); nor is God a mere mental state, with no existence independent of people's minds (at least, not according to most theists); nor is God's existence a necessary proposition to make sense of the world (as the presuppositional argument tries and fails to claim). Therefore, we can safely conclude that God's existence is not a properly basic belief, but rather an empirical proposition about the external world; it can only be properly supported by evidence, not mere assertion

it may surprise them to learn that all the most commonly heard arguments for God's existence have been around in one form or another literally for centuries

all of them were refuted soon after they were first proposed

The Ontological Argument

The Cosmological Argument

The Design Argument

The Moral Argument

The Presuppositional Argument

Other Arguments

Tags: atheism

Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:15:20 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

GIVE Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life.

The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine.

The five-day camp in Somerset (motto: “It’s beyond belief”) is for children aged eight to 17 and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups.

Budding atheists will be given lessons to arm themselves in the ways of rational scepticism. There will be sessions in moral philosophy and evolutionary biology along with more conventional pursuits such as trekking and tug-of-war. There will also be a £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn.

Instead of singing Kumbiya and other campfire favourites, they will sit around the embers belting out “Imagine there’s no heaven . . . and no religion too”.

Tags: atheism, children

Bizarre Christian Billboard

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:44:04 GMT

clipped by: Seberka

Clip Source: www.bravenewtraveler.com

Bizarre Christian Billboard Compares Atheism To Murder?

Here we go with the shock advertising again. How does this advertisement strike you - as valid or infuriating?

Why theism is not such a bad idea

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:32:18 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: catholicfire.blogspot.com

Warning: Graphic Content -- Not for children.

[Video]

Tags: atheism, materialism, socialism, communism

An Atheist's Defense Of Religion

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:08:33 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

If there were as such a thing as a scholar-gunslinger, it would be Camille Paglia, the American critic and teacher.

Camille had come to defend religion, she said, but as an atheist who respects it. She grew up in a working-class Italian family where women went to church and men avoided Sunday Mass if they could. She loved the art, theatre and ceremony, but hated the dogma.

Part of the fun of watching Camille is the rock 'n' roll of opposites she presents. She's a jitterbug thinker who loves to butt ideas together and relishes paradoxes.

She's a feminist who hates what she calls a "politically correct" feminist establishment. She's a lesbian who can't stand women's studies and hates all "whining" and "victim"-speak. She listens to right-wing talk radio, as theatre, but is a lifelong Democrat who voted for President Barack Obama.

Her case for religion

Tags: atheism, religion

Why do Christians Insist that Hitler was an Atheist?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:57:02 GMT

clipped by: AcesLucky
clipper's remarks: 4. Regarding atheism, Hitler specifically opposed it in a 1933 speech in Berlin: “We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.”
prussian
5. By order of the Führer (Hitler), Nazi Germany’s soldiers (Wehrmacht) wore belt buckles inscribed “Gott mit uns” (”God is with us”). An atheist would never demand this.

With just these five facts out of many others, why would they still insist that Adolf Hitler was an atheist? Only total ignorance would support such misguided statements

Clip Source: proudatheists.wordpress.com

Facts
1. Adolf Hitler was raised and baptized as a Roman Catholic in the midst of a Catholic family. He also served as an alter boy in the Catholic church.

2. Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: “. . . I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.

3. In 1941 Hitler told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals: “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.” In fact, Hitler was never excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and Mein Kampf was not placed on the Church’s Index of Forbidden Books. Yes, the Catholic church supported the Nazi movement and the killing of millions of Jews. There probably were an undisclosed/unknown amount of atheists killed also.

Tags: religion, hitler, catholic, pope, nazi, atheism

Confessions of a Lapsed Atheist

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:00:57 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie
clipper's remarks: "And enlightened as they are, they've come up with quite the pretense for justifying the righteousness of their bigotry: they are defending the vision of our Founding Fathers from a dominionist conspiracy to establish Christianity as the state religion."

"You see, for liberal Atheists, the only thing worse than religion is the Religious Right, a term they use to encompass all Christian conservatives. And what better way to siphon fuel from the Religious Right than to convince Americans that the government is perpetually on the verge of becoming a theocracy? "

"But above all, Atheists stoke fear among religious and nonreligious alike that conservatives view government as a tool to force religion down your throat."

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

At my extremely liberal college, I was exposed to even more militant Atheism. It was there that I learned the mere whiff of religiosity is worthy of denigration. Many of the people I met approached religion with something between disdain and loathing, and considered all religious belief a form of fanaticism. Christians in particular were characterized as knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing fundies (and that was in polite company.)

In this new environment, my Atheism was more than evidence of good reasoning, it was a socially desirable badge of intellectual superiority. Make no mistake: Atheists think they're smarter than you. Atheism isn't simple skepticism. It is a certainty that believers are wrong, and by extension, intellectually inferior. Religion, especially Judeo-Christian religion, is nothing more than a crutch for dupes.

But Atheists aren't content to leave religion as a mere object of ridicule. They want it cleansed from public life.

Tags: elitism, ridicule, yay! tolerance, cleansing religion, that's what hitler wanted, woohoooooo!