I got the book! You know, the one with the best arguments for God
Jerry Coyne lists books to read before criticizing atheism (just as theists keep issuing books about the ‘best’ arguments for god which they insists atheists must read before drawing any conclusions). Coyne, as I’ve mentioned before, actually reads books by those whom he slightly mocks as “sophisticated theologiansTM” and responds in detail in occasional posts on his blog.
In contrast, most religious people never concern themselves with such sophisticated arguments.
People impressed by these arguments are very easily impressed.
Here are four great videos by Stephen Fry about Humanism, and how we know what’s true:
And here’s a nice quote about what religious persecution really means:
Religious persecution is the maltreatment of an individual or group because of their religious beliefs. The Holocaust is one example. Shia versus Sunni violence in Iraq is another. Despite what Fox News, the Christian Right and the Republican Party will have you believe, religious persecution is not government refusing to grant Christians the ability to persecute others.
And finally for tonight, Jerry Coyne on that survey about whether people need to believe in ‘God’ to be moral.
Must you be religious to be moral?: A worldwide survey, and its lesson
[T]he primary reason for abject child poverty in … Southern states is that more than a third of children have parents who lack secure employment, decent wages and healthcare. But thanks to religion, these poor saps vote for the party that rejects Medicaid expansion, opposes early education expansion, legislates larger cuts to education, and slashes food stamps to make room for oil and agriculture subsidies on top of tax cuts and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy. Essentially, the Republican Party has convinced tens of millions of Southerners that a vote for a public display of the Ten Commandments is more important to a Christians’ needs than a vote against cuts in education spending, food stamp reductions, the elimination of school lunches and the abolition of healthcare programs.
