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Sunday prayer: keep your religion out of our politics

underthemountainbunker:

Andrew Sullivan caught a surprising statement from a Fox “New” anchor:

“This country has a long history of discrimination against certain groups. Eventually we wind up getting it right. Right? Against women, against blacks, the civil rights movement and so on. And in justifying that discrimination when it was in place, some folks turn to the Bible and turn to their religious beliefs and said we have to have slavery because it’s in the Bible. Women have to be second-class citizens because that’s in the Bible. Blacks and whites can’t get married because that’s in the Bible. That wound up in a case. A judge wrote that in an opinion, which the Supreme Court ultimately struck that down, saying that’s not right, judge—the Equal Protection clause says you can’t do that. Why is gay marriage any different?” — Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

Of course Dr. Robert Jeffress, to whom Kelly was speaking, responded with an argument about polygamy—in Utah no less! Let’s think about that… hey! Fun fact — which presidential candidate actually comes from a family which actually practiced polygamy: 1) President Obama or 2) Mitt Romney.

The bottom line is that fundamentalist Christians pick and choose which verses and commandments they’ll follow from the Bible and which verses they’ll ignore. You’ve found a verse about homosexuality being a sin in the Bible? Good for you. What about the thousands of other sins that are described in the Bible which you happily ignore? Where does it say homosexuality and gay marriage are against the law in the Constitution?

A particular sect of Christians shouldn’t be inflicting their BELIEFS on the entire country in the form of political ideology and our nation’s laws. Your beliefs are your business and my beliefs are mine. That’s America and that’s separation of church and state.

Christian fundamentalists should think about this a little harder: what if Mormons became the largest sect of Christianity in America? Do you really want their particular beliefs to be imposed on everyone else, to have their religious practices held up by one political party as the law of the land? The Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States are there for a reason — to protect us from the religious zealotry of the few over the many.

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PSA: Saying that one loud mouthed, obnoxious atheist is representative of all atheists, is like saying the Westboro Baptist Church is the poster child for Christianity…

nonplussedbyreligion:

…or Pat Robertson, Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, Rick Santorum, and the rest of the Christians you like the distance yourselves from.

Sorry to deflate your fist-pumping moment of victory here.  I really am.

 ~ Kim

(via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)

Christians.

I’m fine with what you all do behind closed doors, but I don’t agree with you having your parades, special holidays, getting laws changed and even tax breaks.

Now you even want to be the ones who define what marriage is.

Just keep it out of my face, please.

Sound familiar? 

Why are atheists so angry?

mindbabies:

abaldwin360:

• Putting up with willful ignorance from believers.
• Putting up with attempted social dominance by religion. 
• Answering the same questions over and over again.
• Believers who think it’s their right to push their beliefs on other people.
• Believers who think it’s their right to oppress other people because it’s “practicing their religion.”
• Legislation of religious “morals”.
• Believers pushing creation myths to be taught as science.
• A culture of tolerance for bigotry, hatred, and oppression.
• Constant twisting of facts and circulating propaganda with said twisted facts.

reblog and add your own.  

Hey, I’m an atheist too, fairly new. I’d say I was teetering on the fence of agnosticism for several years before I finally made the final decision. But can I just interject and say, I’m not angry! Why subscribe to that “angry atheist” stereotype? I know, I feel the same way about extreme christians, and any religious extremism, but truthfully, fighting with them doesn’t help, in fact, I think fighting w/them solidifies their faith even more.

Let me share something with you guys that, unless you’ve been following me for awhile, you might not know. My entire family is Catholic, except for a couple Christians. Particularly, my sister, who was fairly secular for most of her life, until recently when she suddenly did a 180 on me and took a dive into The Rock Church here in San Diego (Ugh). If I’ve noticed one thing, their general view of Atheists, it is that they think we’re angry, bitter, hateful people who have no purpose or peace in life.

The few discussions we’ve engaged in have always led to her saying something along the lines of, “Oh, I feel so sorry for you. You don’t have the love of God in your life, no wonder you atheists are always so angry and bitter. It must be so lonely, so sad, so scary to think no one is looking out for you. I’m going to pray for you.”

Angry and bitter? No.

Frustrated? Yes.

And do I get irritated when she throws that self-righteous, holier-than-thou line of “I’ll pray for you” at me? Hell yeah. But my lashing out at her for that isn’t going to make atheism more appealing to her either, is it?

That is pretty much my point. Living as an atheist, for me, is about showing people who DO cling to religion that living without it can be just as rewarding, peaceful, and filled with love-and-*actual*-tolerance for others.

I’m much more about fighting the institution than the individual, and by fighting, I mean spreading awareness about science and how religion tries to oppress it, about bodily autonomy and how religious extremist try to oppress it, about the attempts to legislate morality, about how the GOP is jumping into bed with religious fundamentalist and using it to push a pro-corporate and anti-individual-rights agenda.

I would not be nearly so angry with the religious if they didn’t try to push it on everyone else constantly and try and have it pushed into law so fervently.

I don’t feel it’s a waste of my energy at all to try and combat these things and raise awareness about them.

I can’t stand willful ignorance, it’s a pet peeve of mine, and I will engage individuals who try and spread misinformation, because it’s part of the over-all bigger picture.

Maybe a lot of atheists are stereotypical angry atheists because it just seems like the conservatively religious won’t stop until they have total social dominance and their conversation and talking points do real damage, you can see this in people who feel guilty for having sex, in people who commit suicide because they’re gay, or teenagers who end up homeless because they don’t share their parent’s faith.

I’m all for tolerance, but what I won’t tolerate is the way it’s pushed on everyone else, keep it in the church, keep it at home, keep it among friends and family, hell, I don’t even mind seeing it in public or people discussing it rationally, I really don’t care what people believe as long as people aren’t trying to push this stuff into law, being used in place of science, or being used to justify bigotry, hate, homophobia or sexism.

So yes, I am angry, I do realize change comes slowly, but I’m not going to sit back and wait for it. I am going to try and actively combat this ignorance, hate, bias, and attempts at social dominance.  

(via mindbabie5-deactivated20120604)

1/3 of Texans Believe Humans and Dinosaurs Co-Existed

nonplussedbyreligion:

If God existed, I’d wish he would help his ignorant followers in Texas:

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.

Also here’s some evidence that Texas Democrats are smarter than Republicans:

Democrats (28 percent) are less likely than Republicans (47 percent) to think that humans have always existed in their present form and more likely (21 percent to 7 percent) to think humans have developed over millions of years without God’s guidance. Republicans are less likely to believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals; 26 percent agree, while 60 percent disagree. Among Democrats in the survey, 46 percent agree that humans evolved from earlier species; 42 percent disagree. Perry’s voters were most hostile to this premise — 67 percent disagree.

Looks like there’s a good part of Texas that needs to be told about the last couple centuries of scientific enlightenment.

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Oh my stars, you can’t make this stuff up.  I have friends and followers from TX who I’m proud to say are not amongst the ignorant.  Unfortunately they have to live, work, and vote with them.  {{hugs}}  All emphasis mine.  ~ Kim

(Source: patheos.com, via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)

Why are Right-Wing Christians Obsessed with Paranoid Notions of Liberal Politicians as the Antichrist?

by Sarah Posner | Alter Net

 Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a 21 year old from Idaho Falls, Idaho was charged this week with attempting to assassinate Barack Obama by firing rifle shots at the presidential residence at the White House. The president, Ortega-Hernandez reportedly maintained, is the Antichrist.

Whatever Ortega-Hernandez’s actual motive or mental health, and regardless of whether he truly believes the president is the pivotal figure in an apocalyptic end-times scenario, the idea that Obama might be the Antichrist (or that President Clinton before him, or any unnamed president of the European Union) is a durable one in the evangelical imagination. As the historian Matthew Avery Sutton has noted, such apocalyptism “was fringe among conservatives 150 years ago” but “is now mainstream. It’s just the air they breathe.”

[FULL STORY]

WISCONSIN: State Senate Passes Abstinence Education Bill

nonplussedbyreligion:

The GOP-dominated Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill ordering teachers to downplay any mention of contraception in sex education classes. Because the only thing you need to know is “God hates fucking.”

The new GOP-backed legislation would not ban teachers from discussing contraceptives, but would demand they stress abstaining from sex the only reliable way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. “We are trying to back away from the bill passed last year that we feel mandated sex ed that was too nonjudgmental, too explicit and at too young an age,” said Republican state Sen. Glenn Grothman. Democratic counterpart Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Wisconsin was “taking a step back to the Flintstone era” with the legislation.

Note that the GOP rep actually said that the previous bill wasn’t judgemental enough.
Where can I run to?  Seriously, how do I escape these idiots? Stellar Wisconsin, absolutely stellar. ~ Kim

Dear people in Wisconsin who didn’t vote,

Happy now?

(Source: joemygod.blogspot.com, via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)