Archive for June, 2007

One year and a day for Mrs. Hovind, whose charming husband — who’s now holding comical not-quite-Socratic dialogues with God, it would seem — once told her she needed to “advance” because she was actually starting to feel twinges of guilt and remorse over their dishonest and criminal activities. I’m not adding the “schadenfreude” tag to this one, because I actually feel a little sorry for Jo. It’s evident she’s played the role of quiet submissive Christian wife putting up with all manner of verbal bullying from an arrogant and self-righteous husband much too long. I hope when she gets out, she will advance — right down the road to the divorce court, to start over in a new life.

From the world of phony sports — to which I customarily pay zero attention — comes this grisly tale of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife and child and then killed himself. After killing his family, he placed a Bible next to their bodies. This isn’t going to be another of those posts full of “religion kills” bromides. In this case, the possible reason for Benoit’s rampage may be linked to his use of too much of what the bodybuilding world calls Vitamin S. But the role the Bible plays here is interesting. Having no expertise in the mental health field at all, my built-in atheist’s “skepdar” (a wonderful term someone on the ACA’s Yahoo group came up with) tells me that Benoit was using religion as many people do in life: a forgiveness quick-fix, the moral equivalent of using Fix-a-Flat to pump up a punctured tire. While Christians go on about how no one without religion can possibly have a moral compass to follow, what they never talk about is the way in which people who do embrace religion, however fervently or casually, typically behave no better than unbelievers, and oftimes worse. And when they do behave worse, they use religion as a convenient thing to fall back upon, either to justify their actions, or to showboat a fake display of remorse. Many Christians will respond to this by agreeing wholeheartedly, then by attacking those people for moral hypocrisy and not being “true” Christians. This misses the point. I think Christianity unintentionally sets itself up to be used in this way by giving people a poor understanding of morality, and of the difference between right and wrong in the first place. As Stephen has pointed out here, Christianity paradoxically wants people to be good, then gives them bad reasons to do so. Christian morality is entirely tied in to how well one obeys divine rules and commandments. One should not kill or steal because it will anger God...
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Word is now getting around that the Supreme Court made the wrong decision regarding sudent free speech rights, when, this morning, they decided against a student who had sued his high school for suspending him over displaying a farcical banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”. Evidently even the hint that a student might be promoting drug use, even when the display is quite obviously a stupid joke, is enough that a principal can justifiably trample over that student’s expression. “It was reasonable for (the principal) to conclude that the banner promoted illegal drug use — and that failing to act would send a powerful message to the students in her charge,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority. Please. “Reasonable”? Only if you have two feet of a broom handle lodged up your colon. That the banner is an admittedly juvenile and stupid expression of humor ought to be obvious. There’s not even any context for the statement. To take it seriously prompts the question: is “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” advocating behavior to be enjoyed on general principles, or is it advertising a school club? No, it was just a teenager writing something dorky that other teenagers would find amusing on a banner, just to get a reaction. That may be immature, but should it be a forbidden form of expression? One ought to be wary of slippery slope fallacies, but I can see this opening the door to other restrictions on student speech simply based on someone even thinking there may be the possibility that a student has just said something promoting an illegal act. Over the years there have been many attempts to ban certain books from school libraries, ban certain clubs (yes, I do happen to think those “pray around the flagpole” groups have a right to do their thing, as long as it isn’t sponsored by the school, and they only meet before or after school hours), and what have you. This decision...
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Been getting way behind with these. Here’s another double feature. Really good stuff in these. #498 — 4/29/07: Russell takes on Bogus Creationist Arguments. #499 — 5/6/07: Special guest Victor Stenger discusses his book God: The Failed Hypothesis.

Here are links to the things I’m reading from on today’s episode of The Atheist Experience: Trying to Understand Angry Atheists written by Rabbi Gelman, a big jerk who makes me angry. Angry Rabbi Tries to Understand Angry Atheists, a commentary on the above. The latest front in culture wars: Atheists attack How dare you call me a fundamentalist by Richard Dawkins American Atheists interview with the late Douglas Adams - Russell