Month: September 2013

"My Own Church" Tom Mates on Atheists Talk

Stephanie Zvan

This Sunday author Tom Mates joins Atheists Talk to discuss his new book, My Own Church: A Nonbeliever Looks At Post-Christian America. Instead of trying to answer the question of whether gods exist or arguing for the elimination of religion, Dr. Mates urges believers to recognize that religion is too personal to be applied as a source of moral absolutes.

Dr. Mates is a proponent of respectful, non-adversarial conversation that considers the entire spectrum of belief. In My Own Church, he explores the roles that fundamentalism and anti-theism have had in bringing us to the current state of the discourse on religion and belief, and he urges us to do better.

Dr. Mates is an analytical chemist and the author of the 2011 book A Judeo-Islamic Nation: The Evolution of America’s Political Theology.

Related Links:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.

Follow Atheists Talk on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates. If you like the show, consider supporting us with a one-time or sustaining donation.

 

"My Own Church" Tom Mates on Atheists Talk
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The Good Young Man

Stephanie Zvan5 Comments

Attempting to distract myself from how I’m feeling, I was reading a bit of Ambrose Bierce, when I came across this very short essay. It resonated for me with the talk recently in some quarters about “good people”, so I thought I’d share.

Why is he? Why defaces he the fair page of creation, and why is he to be continued? This has never been explained; it is one of those dispensations of Providence the design whereof is wrapped in profoundest obscurity. The good young man is perhaps not without excuse for his existence, but society is without excuse for permitting it. At his time of life to be “good” is to insult humanity. Goodness is proper to the aged; it is their sole glory; why should this milky stripling bring it into disrepute? Why should he be permitted to defile with the fat of his sleek locks a crown intended to adorn the grizzled pow of his elders?

A young man may be manly, gentle, honourable, noble, tender and true, and nobody will ever think of calling him a good young man. Your good young man is commonly a sneak, and is very nearly allied to that other social pest, the “nice young lady.” As applied to the immature male of our kind, the adjective “good” seems to have been perverted from its original and ordinary signification, and to have acquired a dyslogistic one. It is a term of reproach, and means, as nearly as may be, “characterless.” That any one should submit to have it applied to him is proof of the essential cowardice of Virtue.

We believe the direst ill afflicting civilization is the good young man. The next direst is his natural and appointed mate, the nice young lady. If the two might be tied neck and heels together and flung into the sea, the land would be the fatter for it.

I’m not as cynical as Bierce, nor do I find a lot of use in distinguishing between genders this way, but there’s a certain truth to that middle paragraph.

The Good Young Man

Saturday Storytime: Turning the Whisper

Stephanie Zvan3 Comments

In her announcement post for this story, Anaes Lay mentions a novel that exists in this universe. I was sad to discover the novel has not been published. Still, she has written several other short stories you can find from her website.

Mike first woke to the sound of Pavi’s voice, washed in her assurances that he was alive, he was real, he was ready. He had memories from before that moment, had a perfect continuity of identity, except that before he’d been just the pilot computer on a tiny system-jumper, and after he was himself.

“Why do you use masculine pronouns for me?” Mike asked.

“Because if I used female ones it would make more sense to call you Michele,” Pavi said.

“But you decided I ought to be male. You’ve set my voice to sound human masculine; you address me as if I’m male. I’m an ‘it’.”

“I don’t like referring to my friends as ‘it’. I had to assign you one or the other.”

“Why male?”

Pavi bit her lip and stroked the arm rest of her chair. Mike wondered whether she thought of that chair as part of him and if so, whether that was why she did it. “Because I don’t want to be sexually attracted to my computer.”

If she was petting the chair as a way of making physical contact with him, should he try to reciprocate? He could observe what she was doing but couldn’t experience it.

Part of Mike pondered that conundrum while another continued with their conversation. They were at the point where fictional computers would ask, “What if I were human?” and the emotion of the scene would turn on the tragedy of two soul mates separated by the failure of one to have a body, the constraints on the other because they did. Absurd. If he were human, he wouldn’t be Mike.

Mike was more interested in the implication of the modifier “sexually.”

“Pavi, do you love me?”

Pavi laughed. “I’ve never met a machine I didn’t love.”

Mike waited. Human scripts dictated that she ask him the same question. Several parts of Mike set to work trying to deduce the likely outcomes of lying or telling the truth, and ranking them by desirability. He’d never lied to Pavi before, but he might need to now.

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: Turning the Whisper

Sexual Assault Plus

Stephanie Zvan9 Comments

Yesterday, Richard Dawkins issued an apology. In talking about his own sexual assault at a young age, he had generalized their experience from his. He was relatively unaffected by the experience and expressed his opinion that the same was true of “all of us”. He apologized for doing so.

Dawkins’ apology was very welcome, if incomplete, as was his admission that he should not speak to the experience of other victims of sexual assault. Alex has a pretty good take on what it missed. I don’t agree 100%, but I’m close enough not to quibble. Instead, I’d like to dig into this idea of degrees of assault. What Dawkins has had to say on the topic isn’t entirely wrong, but his naive take on the topic obscures as much as it reveals. Continue reading “Sexual Assault Plus” →

Sexual Assault Plus

Skepchick Network: Rebecca Watson on Atheists Talk

Stephanie Zvan3 Comments

When you identify a group that is underrepresented in skepticism, what do you do? You could try blaming that group for not being interested in your work, but how appealing is that going to look to the people you want to attract? Alternately, you could try to meet people where they are, to show them how skepticism applies to them and their interests.

That second approach is what led Rebecca Watson to found Skepchick, a skeptical site aimed at women who want their skepticism to sometimes hit a little closer to home than fake moon landings. Starting with the main site, aimed at women, the Skepchick network now covers four languages and six topical areas. Additionally, Skepchick runs a track of science and skepticism programming at CONvergence, a large science fiction and fantasy convention held in the Twin Cities over the Fourth of July weekend.

Join us this Sunday as we talk about reaching audiences that organized skepticism sometimes otherwise forgets.

Related Links:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.

Follow Atheists Talk on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates. If you like the show, consider supporting us with a one-time or sustaining donation.

Skepchick Network: Rebecca Watson on Atheists Talk

Catch Me on the RH Reality Cast

Stephanie Zvan2 Comments

A little while ago, I sat down to talk to Amanda Marcotte about the situation with harassment in the skeptic and secular movements. As it turns out, I have theories. Find out what they are here. And if you’re looking for a good podcast to keep you up to date on the challenges to reproductive freedom around the country, there’s plenty more in the archives.

Catch Me on the RH Reality Cast

30 Days on the National Atheist Party Board

Stephanie Zvan31 Comments

Little did I know when I posted on Sunday about the Secular Party of America, formerly the National Atheist Party, that information would come to light today fairly conclusively demonstrating voter fraud in the initiative to change the organization’s name. Lee Moore has all the details on his blog. Flash Kellish, VP of PR/Marketing for the party, has confirmed the fraud in comments on Facebook earlier today.

Kim Rippere, president of Secular Woman, was briefly on the party’s board. She tweeted about her experience earlier today, and I offered her a chance to tell her story in a better medium. Below is what she shared with me. Aspects of this also highlight the ad hoc and uncontrolled nature of actions by the party’s board. Continue reading “30 Days on the National Atheist Party Board” →

30 Days on the National Atheist Party Board

I Don't Look So Great in a Tie

Stephanie Zvan17 Comments

The Secular Party of America was looking for candidates for president. Former president Troy Boyle resigned unexpectedly in March, and the party needs a new head. Potential candidates were urged to apply if they fit the presidential profile.

Image from the top of the announcement page. On the left is a bald eagle superimposed on the U.S. flag. On the right is the Secular Party logo. In between is a picture of a man in a suit with a question mark in an oval replacing his head.

Well, the actual qualifications for president are here. Presumably you don’t actually have to be a man in a suit and a tie. Still, the period to announce a candidacy ended August 31. Do you think they might be wondering why few or no women applied?

Yes, I’m sure that to make this image, they simply used a picture of Boyle and replaced his head. I’m sure they want female candidates for president. I just wish people would think about the implications of these things.

I Don't Look So Great in a Tie

"Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" Greta Christina on Atheists Talk

Stephanie Zvan

In early 2012, Greta Christina published a book that instantly connected with its target audience. In this book, Greta provides an answer to a question that so many of us nonbelievers have been asked: “Why are you so angry?” Actually, she provides 99 answers.

In Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, author and atheist activist Greta Christina doesn’t waste time trying to explain that we’re not angry, that many of us live happy and fulfilled lives without having to believe in supernatural beings. Okay, she does say that. But she also embraces the anger; she unapologetically and categorically states that gods and religions do make many of us angry, and for extremely good reasons. We hope you can join us this Sunday when Greta Christina shares with Atheists Talk why she’s angry, and to explain why you should be too.

Related Links:

Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.

Follow Atheists Talk on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates. If you like the show, consider supporting us with a one-time or sustaining donation.

"Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" Greta Christina on Atheists Talk