Jesus needed to go into Jerusalem because that was where he was to be killed as a blood sacrifice to his Father God on Friday of that week and where he was to rise from the dead on the first day of the following week. He knew that. It was part of the deal. Jesus, God the Son, was God, as were God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father always seems to have had the last say over God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But together they are worshiped by Trinitarian Christians as one triune god. The Trinity. Never mind if that doesn’t make sense. It is not there to make sense. It is there for you to believe, no matter how irrational or improbable. That’s how things are in religion. If it made sense, it would not be a religious teaching, but a demonstrable fact.

Outside of Jerusalem, on the Sabbath, Jesus instructed his followers to go and steal a colt, the foal of an ass, and bring it to him. If anyone questioned, they were to tell them the Lord hath need of it. Just why hauling off the animal, the property of another, is not forbidden work on the Sabbath is not explained.

Jesus and his followers trooped into the town, with Jesus riding on a donkey. Some threw leaves in their way. One might wonder if this gesture was mean as praise or as ridicule.

Jesus’ first reported act in Jerusalem was an assault upon merchants lawfully selling things like doves for sacrifice and changing money, whatever that means. It could mean exchanging Jerusalem money for, say, Egyptian money. Anyhow, in a violent act against merchandising and free trade, Jesus forced the money changers to abandon their work stations in the temple. One account, the Gospel of John, says he made and used a whip, drove merchants and animals out of the temple, and overturned the tables of the merchants and the numismatists. It was an ungodly outburst of temper and quite unfitting behavior for a gentle ass riding messiah. Or so it seems. Under today’s secular moral code, known as “laws,” the behavior of Jesus could be prosecuted for at least assault and criminal mischief.

Just how, or why, one wonders, do the money changes of today, and many very wealthy merchant families, insist on our government passing laws to protect that which they do best. It is perfectly lawful that they do so. But to credit Jesus with being the inspiration for their mercenary ways is somewhat amazing, given the tantrum in the temple story.

For the rest of this week, this blog will attempt to tell you more about Holy Week. You have been warned.

Edwin
Edwin Kagin © 2012.

Press Release

For Immediate Release:

Who: Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists

What: will speak at Eastern Kentucky University on why people believe in gods and on “The American Religious Civil War (ARCW)”

When: 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 5th, 2012.

Where: Herndon Lounge, Richmond, Kentucky.

Admission is free.

Edwin

Edwin Kagin
National Legal Director
American Atheists, Inc.
P.O. Box 666
Union, KY 41091
Phone: 859.384.7000
Fax: 859.384.7324
Email: ekagin@atheists.org
Web: www.atheists.org

Jesus Christ has returned to Earth! He returned on Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012. Palm Sunday is a sacred day in the Christian Religion It is one week before Easter Sunday when Jesus, the Christ, was said by Christians to have recovered from being dead. On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass, while followers threw palm fronds in his path.

The promised reappearance of Jesus occurred at Independence, Missouri, where prophesied.

Throughout the world, the effect was instant and electric. His Holiness the Pope has stepped down from his golden throne and given his seat to the Messiah, who also took over control of all church property, banks, and other holdings. Jesus said these must be liquidated and the proceeds given to the poor.

Jesus said the new rules are still the old rules, with the Sermon on the Mount suggested as a summary and guide. The Lord brought specific attention to the rules requiring penitence and prayer to be undertaken only in private, not public, settings. In the U.S., the Department of Science has been transformed into the Department of Miracles and the Department of Education has become the Department of Dogma, with Ken Ham as its new chairman. All teachings of science, or other heresies, have been abandoned in favor of a biblical based orientation to the truth.

All war has ceased. Bibles are being dusted off and read. Persons heretofore de-baptized are being re-baptized in record numbers.

American Atheists has been disbanded. David Silverman, President of American Atheists, said the decision was the only rational option, with the Second Person of the Triune God, the Son, having now appeared in Harry Truman’s home town.

More on this fast breaking story right after “Survivor.”

Edwin
Edwin Kagin © 2012.

Tonight is the last time during this Lenten Season when Roman Catholic churches put on a fish fry at their church. They have been so doing, and I, to my pleasure, have been attending for some years now. I do so every Lent. Look forward to it

But this is the last time, this season, this very Friday. That is because next Friday is Good Friday and it just wouldn’t be right to be feasting on delicious deep fried cod while the Christ was laying unannointed in a local tomb. So this is shut down night, and after tonight I will just have to wait for the next Ash Wednesday. That is when one proclaims the starting of the next Lent by portraying, by a smudge of ashes on the forehead, an act of public penitence, something the Christ specifically forbad in the Sermon on the Mount. See Matthew: 6.

So here is something the churches (or some of them) got right. How to put on a fine fish fry.

And, others to the contrary, I have no problem giving the church good money for a good meal. There is nothing bad about getting value for value, is there?

Where did the whole idea come from? It is susposed to be a sacrifice, a giving up of better food or something. But given a choice, I would take a good fried fish dinner over a lot of other options. So how is that a sacrifice? It is another of those mysteries of faith.

Someone said that the thing got going when some Pope, a thousand or so years ago, owned a fish farm, and well……

Edwin.
Edwin Kagin © 2012.

Reason Rally Poem. March 24, 2012. Washington, D.C., by Edwin Kagin © 2012.

We are here to make history.
To say we do not like to be punished
If we do not believe in your god of love.
We do not want to be denied the right
To sit on juries, or to take an oath to tell the truth;
We do not want to be barred from public office.
Because we do not believe as you believe
Because we reject a supernatural world that you embrace.
Know now, our fellow citizens who do not trust us,
We are the most despised group in America,
We are not believed in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Today, we stand to say “Enough!”
Here we are.
Look at us!
We are those evil atheists and other fellow travelers.
Among you whom you fear without reason.
Against whom you discriminate without cause.
We are those whom you injure by hatred.
There is nothing special about atheists.
We have families, and jobs, and children, and grandchildren.
We are here, and we are part of “We the People.”
A big part.
More than you know.
More than you would believe.
Atheists are on their feet and off their knees
To “come out” to tell you they do not believe.
That it is okay to be an atheist.
That it is okay not to believe in a god.
Because our nation was set up that way.
We only ask that you do not continue
To try to make your catechism our creed.
We ask that you do not continue
To defile the graves of our martyrs.

Notice to Commenters, Know-it-Alls, Crazies, etc.:

I did not write the article that follows.  It was, as clearly set forth, written by Kyle Cupp, who is described further at the end of the article.

It is found here: http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/kylecupp/2012/03/20/religion-for-atheists/

The article is quoted by me for the purpose of criticism, education, and satire. I put it here so you can see it, which is more likely than if you were just given the above link.

In no way do I claim it to be my own work.

If any Experts on Everything think this is plagiarism or copyright violation, please tell me how so I can make amends and corrections.

My response to the article is clear.  Atheists do have rituals.  Want to see one such?

Attend the de-baptism scheduled for the day following the Rally for Reason at 8:00 pm. at the American Atheists Convention.

Edwin.

 

Religion for Atheists

by Kyle Cupp on March 20, 2012

 

Ned Resnikoff challenges the supposedly easy path of superficially translating religious ritual and practice into forms that an atheist might find acceptable and beneficial:

A fully developed theology is born out of conflict and dialogue: dialogue with tradition, intuition, philosophy, the hard and soft sciences, and the critiques of other denominations and religions (not to mention atheists). The idea that you can just skip the whole dialogue and get straight to establishing rituals that conform to your own vague pre-existing sentiments is frankly bizarre.

Doing so, says Ned, “would have atheists export some of organized religion’s worst diseases: bland and indistinct ‘spirituality,’ the thoughtless reenactment of ritual for its own sake, and the smug certainty of chronic incuriosity.”  Instead, if atheists have an interest in reforming and putting religious rituals to their own purpose, they would be wise to build a theological foundation and seriously engage “with moral philosophy, epistemology, and even — perhaps especially — the theology of real-life theists.”

This is exactly right.

A religion is irreducible to a set of tenets and practices, meaning that you can’t treat it like a cafeteria without corrupting the whole.  This goes for traditional religions and for secularized religious rituals.  Why? Because religion is a way of being-in-the-world.  The intelligibility of a its parts emerges only within the framework of the religion’s whole logos and mythos. The liturgy of the Eucharist, for example, makes sense only when understood in the contexts of biblical interpretation, Christology, ecclesiology, Old and New Testament narrative, theology of prayer, sacramental theology, the goals Christian life, etc.

Any religious ritual that’s worth a damn needs a theological (logical and mythological) foundation, developed over time and situated within society and the larger world.  Without this, you may have some nice clothing for a “spiritual” journey, but you won’t have a new or improved sense of direction or a cause to take a first step.

Tagged as: Atheism, Logos, Mythos, Religion, Ritual

 

Kyle Cupp is a freelance writer who blogs about culture, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion. He is a contributor to the group Catholic blog Vox Nova. Kyle lives with his wife, son, and daughter in North Texas. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Atheists to cheer for godless USA at ‘Reason Rally’

The following was excerpted from a USA article:

 

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Atheists, humanists, skeptics and free thinkers are descending on the hallowed civic ground of the National Mall this Saturday for a Reason Rally.

British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins will lead a score of speakers on separation of church and state at an atheist rally in Washington.

….. they plan to head for Washington just like religious groups do — to strut their strength as a voting block, lobby for public policy and raise their social profile.

Organizers expect more than 10,000 people to celebrate unbelief, dance to punk band Bad Religion, hear a score of speakers led by celebrity British atheist Richard Dawkins, and shout out for separation of church and state

Shouting out (quietly) for God will be a small band of Christians from TrueReason.org, says Tom Gilson of Yorktown, Va., who does strategy work for Christian missions. They plan to venture “into the lion’s den” to pass out booklets refuting atheism and water bottles and to “offer a better message … that reason, properly applied, comes from God and leads back to God.”

The Reason Rally has a harder edge than the image of a godless Woodstock conjures. It follows in the wake of last year’s D.C. rallies by conservative talker Glenn Beck and liberal newsmen/comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. And it comes when the culture wars are raging and religion is a contentious point in the 2012 presidential election campaign.

Dwayne Windham, 34, says he booked a $160 round-trip bus ticket from Austin, not to wage war on religion but to show force for thoughtful atheism. “The majority of us just want rational public policies based on facts, not someone’s book of cobbled together fantasies. Atheists have to carry our weight on an intellectual and a moral basis. The worst thing you could do is be immoral and stupid,” says Windham.

The second worst thing is to go unnoticed and afraid, says American Atheists president and rally organizer David Silverman. He estimates that “99% of all atheists are closeted. We have to take back the word ‘atheist,’ because it has been demonized by critics.”

The Reason Rally is the day before the atheists’ annual conference in nearby Bethesda, Md. The conference theme is “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Speakers will include atheists of every race and ethnicity, including “Pastor M,” a clergyman who will speak in disguise so he can keep his pulpit even though he’s lost his faith.

The rally, Silverman says, is meant to be “a unification event, a fun time.” Still, he adds, “We are proud to be the Marines of free thought, proud to be the edge of the sword.”

They are, after all, the group founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the prime mover in the Supreme Court case that drove adult-led prayer and Bible recitation out of the public schools, leaving religious expression to students’ choices.

The Public Religion Research Institute’s 2011 American Values Survey, released in November, found that 67% of Americans would be very or somewhat uncomfortable with an atheist president. That’s more than say they’d object to a Muslim (64%), Mormon (42%) or evangelical (28%) as head of state. Currently, there’s only one “out” atheist in Congress, U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.

Ten years before the Reason Rally, planned for March 24th, the American Atheists sponsored the Godless Americans March on Washington.

The American Religious Identification Survey finds no-God atheists and maybe-God agnostics added together have more than doubled their market share of U.S. adherents between 1990 and 2008 — up from 0.7% in 1990 to 1.6% in 2008. Meanwhile, Catholic, Baptist and mainline Protestant denominations all saw declines. There were more unbelievers in 2008 than Mormons (1.4%), Jews (1.2%) or Episcopalians (1.1%).

Atheists, however, get disproportionate attention because “they are the ones who make the noise and the news. They are the radicals and provocateurs,” says Barry Kosmin, co-author of the ARIS survey and director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Famous rip-religion advocates include lecture circuit stars and best-selling authors such as the late Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great; neuroscientist Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and founder of “Project Reason”; and Dawkins, a retired Oxford evolutionary biologist and author of titles such as The God Delusion.

Dawkins recently told the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, that the probability of a supernatural creator was “very, very low.” The idea of life starting from nothing is, he said, “such a staggering, elegant, beautiful thing. Why would you want to clutter it up with something so messy as a god?”

More non-believers

The percentage of atheists and agnostics in the USA has more than doubled since 1990:

Source: American Religious Identification Survey

Still, not everyone is coming to gawk at Dawkins, says Rebecca Watson, 31, leader of the group blog Skepchick. She had a public confrontation with him last year over how women often are overlooked or demeaned in the non-religion movement.

“One of the beautiful things about being an atheist is there is no pope. I don’t have to agree with Dawkins,” says Watson, who is coming in from Buffalo for the event, eager to hear an array of female speakers who don’t often get called to the podium.

The 20 sponsors underwriting the $300,000 price tag for the rally include the American Humanist Association, the Center for Inquiry, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Secular Coalition of America.

Sarah Hamilton, 23, of Indianapolis, also has a bus ticket to the rally. She calls herself “a skeptic who understands the scientific method and applies it universally to uncover the what is right and true. Skepticism is like the gateway drug to atheism.”

Annie Johnson, with her husband and their 12-year-old daughter, is heading to the rally from Gainesville, Fla., where they recently joined a local humanist group that organizes volunteer and community service projects as “a way to help the world without joining a faith group,” she says. “Humanism offers a way to define my way of living and navigating through the world.”

Unbelief does not equal inactive, says Hemant Mehta, who blogs as the Friendly Atheist and runs the Reason Rally website. “The idea is not that we all just get together and not pray. We’re going to talk about ways to surround yourself with community and for these communities to make positive contributions.

This is not the American Atheists’ first march on the Mall. In 2002, nearly 3,000 attended the first Godless Americans March on Washington.

At that rally, Ellen Johnson, then president of the group, stood with the Capitol dome at her back and proclaimed that “all Americans are godless Americans because there is no God.”

“Beating back public scorn is nice. And reason is great, but you can’t reason for your rights. You have to play hardball. You have to change laws,” says Johnson, who now heads a group called Enlighten the Vote.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ’s. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/christian-fraternities-sororities_n_1363072.html

By ELLIOT SPAGAT 03/19/12 08:13 PM ET

Two unidentified member of Alpha Delta Chi pray before the chapter meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga. (AP Photo/Peter Prengaman)

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a request by Christian groups on a college campus to allow them to limit membership based on religious beliefs.

Justice turned back a legal effort by a Christian fraternity and sorority at San Diego State University that challenged an anti-discrimination policy at California state universities.

The lawsuit filed in 2005 said the plaintiffs should be allowed to insist members follow their religious standards of conduct and avoid sex outside of marriage between a man and woman.

Susan Westover, head of the California State University system’s litigation unit, welcomed the Supreme Court decision,

“We don’t want our students to discriminate, just like we don’t want our employees to discriminate,” she said.

The Alliance Defense Fund, based on Scottsdale, Ariz., argued the case for the groups, David Cortman, senior counsel for the fund, said San Diego State will “remain a stronghold of censorship” as a result of the court decision.

The Alpha Gamma Omega-Epsilon Chapter fraternity and the Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter sorority continue to exist but have struggled.

Refusing to go along with the school’s nondiscrimination policy made the groups ineligible for a host of privileges such as getting student funding, posting signs on campus, reserving office and meeting space, using the school name or mascot and promoting themselves on the university website.

With Monday’s decision, the justices let stand a federal appeals court ruling that found San Diego State University’s nondiscrimination policy doesn’t violate the Constitution.

The decision to stay out of the case avoids revisiting questions that resulted in a 2010 decision that said a law school can deny recognition to a Christian student group that wouldn’t let gays join. An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled then that University of California’s Hastings College of the Law could refuse to recognize campus groups that excluded people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.

In that case, the court on a 5-4 judgment upheld the lower court rulings saying a Christian group’s First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise were not violated by the college’s nondiscrimination policy.

Several religious groups recognized by San Diego State also welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to stay out of the 2010 case.

“I think it’s a great policy. I don’t think there should be any discrimination at all, in any way,” said Curtis Lester, 22, a fifth-year student and president of the Aztec Christian Association.

Lester said school recognition has been critical for his group. Along with being able to use the school mascot in its name, the Aztec Christian Association posted signs on campus for a meeting that drew about 80 people on campus.

Jayson Nicholson, assistant for the Agape House Lutheran Episcopal Campus Ministry at San Diego State, said recognition allowed that group to recruit students at a table during Welcome Week for new students and hold religious services on campus. He enthusiastically backs the school policy.

“I personally feel it is positive not to discriminate in any way, shape or form,” he said.

The case is Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, 11-744.

The soon to be famous Reason Rally happens on Saturday, March 24, 2012, on the National Mall, Washington, D.C.

Here is information:

http://www.reasonrally.org/

The American Atheists Convention follows. See:

http://atheists.org/events/2012_National_Convention

Dave Silverman was just on CNN talking about the rally, and he was excellent!

Now, current weather forecast calls for rain in Washington, D.C. on March 24th.

If it rains, should you still come to the Reason Rally?

Hell Yes!!

Some who were planning to attend may now be thinking maybe they should not because of rain.

Well, if you think that way, maybe you are right.

You might melt.

Maybe the enemies of freedom will wait to attack until you are warm, dry, well rested, feeling good, well fed, and comfy.

Maybe the forces of unreason will wait for some time when their attack will not interrupt anything else you might have or want to do.

This is the 100th year of the cherry blossoms in our nation’s capitol.

The cherry blossoms are blooming early for us.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-cherry-blossoms-blooming-early-212/2012/03/16/gIQAUnTtGS_video.html

What global warming?

Anyhow, if it is just plain not “convenient” for you to attend this history making event, worry not.

Others will defend your rights and the rights of generations to come.

They always have so far.

But you really should be there.

Do you have something more important to do this weekend?

Edwin
Edwin Kagin © 2012.