Sunday, March 16, 2014 9:22:56 PM
World Poll Finds Striking Connection Between [More] Wealth And [Less Belief That] Belief In God [Is Essential To Morality]
Afghan children learn to read the Quran, Islam's holy book, at a local Madrassa, or seminary, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March. 3, 2014. Islamic seminaries in Afghanistan are generally considered a source of education for poor families and children whose families could not afford expensive fees of formal schools.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
by Stephen Calabria
Posted: 03/13/2014 7:40 pm EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 2:59 pm EDT
A new Pew Research survey [ http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/worldwide-many-see-belief-in-god-as-essential-to-morality/ ] of global attitudes on religion finds that a great number of people around the world think a belief in God is vital to leading a moral life.
The survey of people in 40 countries found that majorities in 22 countries believed that having God in one’s life was essential to being a moral person. Majorities in all five African countries surveyed, as well as every Middle Eastern country except Israel, believed God is vital to a person’s morality.
The reaction was mixed in other parts of the world. While majorities in most countries in Latin America and in the Asia/Pacific region believed God necessary for a moral life, no European country surveyed had a majority saying the same. The United States registered a slight majority believing God was necessary to be an moral person, while Canada registered a strong majority in the opposite direction.
Opinions broke down along largely economic lines. The higher a country’s GDP, the less likely its citizens were to believe God necessary for a moral life. The exceptions were the United States and China.
“Americans are much more likely than their economic counterparts to say belief in God is essential to morality, while the Chinese are much less likely to do so,” the report says.
Pew's survey included telephone and face-to-face interviews of 40,080 people from 2011 to 2014.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/god-morality-poll_n_4959921.html [with comments]
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Nigeria attacks: 100 killed in attacks on villages in Kaduna
In central Nigeria, the settled farming community has been the target of attacks
At least 100 villagers have been killed in Nigeria's central Kaduna state in attacks linked to disputes between ethnic groups, officials say.
16 March 2014 Last updated at 08:50 ET
Heavily armed men entered three villages in the Kaura district in the south of the state.
It is not clear who was behind the attacks, but residents blame members of the mainly Muslim Fulani tribe.
Central Nigeria has often witnessed violence stemming from disputes over land and religion.
Thousands of people have been killed in recent years in violence blamed on semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen attacking Christian farmers.
A member of Kaduna's state assembly, Yakubu Bitiyong, visited the scene of the most recent attacks, which took place on Friday night.
Most of those killed in the villages of Ugwar Sankwai, Ungwan Gata and Chenshyi, had been so badly burned they could not be identified, he told the BBC. Houses were destroyed by fire and food supplies looted.
Mr Bitiyong said two of the attackers were also killed and their bodies taken away by police, who have sent in reinforcements.
The unrest is not connected with the continuing Islamist insurgency carried out by the Boko Haram group, which wants to impose Sharia law in the north.
The attacks in Kaduna came only a day after reports emerged of 69 people being killed over several days in northern Katsina state when dozens of armed men arrived in villages on motorbikes.
Violence in that area has also been blamed on Fulani attacking local farmers from the Muslim Hausa ethnic group, rather than the Christian community.
BBC © 2014
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26602018
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Religious Violence Across World Hits Six Year High According To Pew Study
01/23/2014
(Reuters) – Violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments and rival faiths have reached new highs in all regions of the world except the Americas, according to a new Pew Research Centre report [ http://www.pewforum.org/2014/01/14/religious-hostilities-reach-six-year-high/ ].
Social hostility such as attacks on minority faiths or pressure to conform to certain norms was strong in one-third of the 198 countries and territories surveyed in 2012, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, it said on Tuesday.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/religious-violence-pew-survey_n_4596169.html [with comments]
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Ted Cruz Is Now the Tattooed Badass Rock Star of the GOP’s Dreams
[ http://redalertpolitics.com/2014/03/15/posters-of-tatted-up-ted-cruz-appear-in-l-a/ (with comments)]
by Luke O'Neil | 4:22 pm, March 15th, 2014
While the process has been in the works for years now, the exact moment at which tattoos stopped seeming edgy and cool can be dated to Thursday night in California. The cause of death was a series of posters [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/14/Ted-Cruz-Posters-Appear-in-Beverly-Hills ] plastered around Los Angeles of a shirtless Sen. Ted Cruz covered in ink with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking like a cross between a gang-banger and a Social Distortion fanboy.
Social Distortion are a very influential So-Cal band known for their bluesy punk and rockabilly style, something I wouldn’t assume needs explaining anywhere else besides an article about Ted Cruz.
Despite having his head photoshopped onto the type of body that Cruz supporters live in mortal terror of on a daily basis, the reactions online to the makeover [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904 ] from some on the right have been rather positive.
“Actually, kinda cool looking,” wrote one Free Republic commenter [ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3133539/posts ]. “Maybe we can all get tats and stuff and form a ‘gang’. Call it the Patriot Gang or something. Put some drive-by fear into the liberals.”
Maybe!
“The Ted Cruz posters make me want to go get a giant eagle tattoo,” tweeted [ https://twitter.com/SaintRPh/status/444896495242719232 ] another Cruz supporter.
You can’t really blame them, I suppose, this literally being the first time a Republican has ever appeared with a modicum of cool in known existence, unless you count the time Rand Paul came out as a Minor Threat straight-edge hardcore fan [ https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/439852635143688193 ] a couple weeks ago.
The posters, as Breitbart reports [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/14/Ted-Cruz-Posters-Appear-in-Beverly-Hills ], “have appeared in front of popular L.A. Clubs: the Viper Room, the Seventh Veil, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, as well as on car windshields and utility poles among other places.”
Look closer, and the piece on his right arm appears to be an image of the old British Bulldog himself, which makes sense because Cruz is scheduled to appear at the Claremont Institute’s annual Winston Churchill dinner. The dinner in question, however, will be held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, not the Beverly Hilton, as the posters advertise. Perhaps a bit of misdirection from libtards hoping to confuse attendees on their way to their event? Although that doesn’t add up, because anyone attending a Claremont Institute dinner would be cowering in the backseat afraid to look out the window driving in any of the neighborhoods where the posters appeared. Tickets for the sold-out event range between $250-15,000.
So what does it actually mean? No one has taken responsibility for the posters as of yet, but it certainly paints Cruz in a different light than we’re accustomed to seeing him. Unless you count his days as an actor at Harvard [ http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/11/10/ted-cruz-was-polarizing-figure-harvard-law-foreshadowing-his-partisan-profile-senate/gEUPs0iVgOyoidafkNe94H/story.html ] getting too wasted on Everclear to perform. Maybe he’s cooler than we’ve thought this whole time.
At the very least, he’s got a sense of humor about it [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904 ]:
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
6:58 AM - 15 Mar 2014
Saw this, but noticed an error. So I wanted to make one thing clear: I don't smoke cigarettes http://bit.ly/1nqK08i pic.twitter.com/tPFNqg9vu8 [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904/photo/1 ]
UPDATE: The images appear to be the work of a Los Angeles artist Leonard Sabo [ https://www.facebook.com/sabo.unsavoryagent/photos ], who posted an attempt at the design back on March 9. I’ve reached out to Sabo for comment, and will update when I hear back. His political and artistic views are, uh, interesting, to put it mildly, most offensive of which is that he seems to think Cruz could actually be president some day.
© 2014 Mediaite, LLC
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-cruz-is-now-the-tattooed-badass-rock-star-of-the-gops-dreams/ [with comments]
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God and Morality: Never the Twain Shall Meet
by Jeff Schweitzer [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/ ]
Posted: 03/15/2014 12:07 am EDT Updated: 03/15/2014 10:59 am EDT
Ah for every one step forward two steps backward. The Pew Research Center just published a survey [ http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/worldwide-many-see-belief-in-god-as-essential-to-morality/ (the same as referenced in the first item in this post)] conducted in 40 countries demonstrating that many people in the world still hold onto the idea that one must believe in god to be moral. That view is more common in the poorer countries; and the idea is nearly universal in Africa and the Middle East (with the exception of Israel). The survey is deeply depressing because the idea that faith in god is essential to morality is one of humanity's most dangerous and destructive myths.
Five Pillars
As I argued in Beyond Cosmic Dice [ http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Cosmic-Dice-Moral-Random/dp/0981931103 ], religion pathologically persists in service of five different masters of human weakness: fear of death and the promise of seeing lost loved ones; the need to explain away the unknown; hope for controlling one's destiny; a desire for social cohesion; and the corrupting allure of political power. So we create, each of us, and collectively, a god who is all-powerful and all-knowing to address some combination of these five masters, or all of them.
There is no link between morality and the five pillars; nothing about being moral would lead to a belief in god. The two concepts do not intersect. The history of religion proves the point.
That morality does not derive from, or lead to, religion has been the conclusion of some of our greatest minds, including David Hume, the father of religious studies. Due to certain inconveniences, like the possibility of being burned alive at the stake, Hume restricted his writings to polytheism. But it takes no great leap to read between the lines and apply his words to monotheism and Christianity in particular. Hume did not believe morality is a gift from god because he thought religion a false construct and therefore no foundation for human behavior or thought. Instead, humanity's first beliefs in a higher power were borne of ignorance and fear of the natural world: every disaster that befalls us demands an explanation. Naturally, multiple unknown causes leads to the idea of multiple powers; polytheism is the natural state of a primitive mind.
We hang in perpetual suspense between life and death, health and sickness, plenty and want; which are distributed amongst the human species by secret and unknown causes, whose operation is oft unexpected, and always unaccountable. These unknown causes, then, become the constant object of our hope and fear.
From Many, One
But so too does this apply to belief in one god; one is just a derivative of many. The idea of powerful gods, or a god, controlling each important aspect of our lives would not by itself be satisfying. We want to put a face to the power; we want to be familiar with the deities that control our fate; we want to know them so that we can communicate with them and solicit their interventions. We are all Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, seeking to reveal the nature of the man behind the curtain, hoping to strike up a conversation with whoever is in charge.
By no coincidence then do our gods take on idealized human form. Our egoistic species has a universal tendency to transfer human-like qualities to surrounding objects, giving them characteristics that are familiar to us. This tendency to anthropomorphize everything around us has the consequence that we attribute human malice or benevolence to inanimate objects, and of course to the gods above. With their human form, gods also take on human personalities, with passions and weaknesses that make them jealous, vengeful, spiteful, fickle, wicked and foolish. How comforting to know that one's fate and fortune, tossed about by unknown causes, can be controlled by dialogue with an invisible power that possesses familiar sentiments and intelligence!
But attributing human qualities to a higher power has a paradoxical consequence, one leading inevitably to the idea of multiple gods, at least initially. We raise our own estimation of ourselves as god-like, but diminish the power of the very gods we create by humanizing them. Once again, Hume is right on the money:
They suppose their deities, however potent and invisible, to be nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind, and retaining all human passions and appetites, together with corporeal limbs and organs. Such limited beings, though masters of human fate, being, each of them, incapable of extending his influence everywhere, must be vastly multiplied, in order to answer the variety of events, which happen over the whole face of nature. Thus every place is stored with a crowd of local deities; and thus polytheism has prevailed.
The idea that deities are "nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind" of course applies to more than the old discarded gods of the past. The words exactly describe Jesus. The link between the one god of today and the many of the past is forged in steel. The characteristics that originated in polytheism continued to apply even as the number of gods diminished. One could argue, in fact, that today's religions are not truly monotheistic. Christianity has created hundreds of objects of worship in the guise of saints, who have become minor gods to many followers. So this conclusion from Hume is particularly poignant:
...it will appear, that the gods of all polytheists are not better than the elves or fairies of our ancestors, and merit as little any pious worship or veneration. These pretended religionists are really a kind of superstitious atheists, and acknowledge no being, that corresponds to our idea of deity.
So we conclude that most of the multiple divinities of the ancient world were supposed to have been human or human-like, thereby diminishing their power. Yet Christianity is no different: we have Jesus, in the flesh, bleeding like a regular guy, no different from what Hume disparages in his idea of a cruder polytheistic god. Like many gods, one god is nothing better than the elves or fairies of our ancestors. Nowhere in this narrative is there any suggestion that morality is linked to religion, or that morality elsewhere derived would lead to a belief in god.
While I emphasize David Hume as the father of religious studies, we cannot neglect to mention its grandfather, Baruch de Spinoza, who preceded Hume by almost 100 years. When Spinoza took on the question of ethics he created a path to secular enlightenment that Hume did not fully assimilate. I raise this here because at no point in Spinoza's masterpiece, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus did he ever link the development of human morality with a future belief in god. As did Hume later, Spinoza concluded that the history of religion precludes any connection at all between morality and religion, in any order.
Poseidon and Morality
Religion's history begs an important question: why of all the gods does the god of Abraham own the right to morality? The history of religion can be understood as the winnowing of gods from many to one. What this means is that all of us are atheists, even the most devout, undoubting, dedicated priest, rabbi or mullah. Atheist means "without god," and all of us are without at least some gods. All monotheistic believers reject all gods, except one. They reject all the Greek elder gods Cronus, Gaea, Uranus, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Themis, Iapetus, Coeus, Crius, Phoebe, Thea, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Metis, and Dione. Muslims, Jews and Christians all deny the existence of the Greek Olympic gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus. All major religions today dismiss as nothing but myth the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Cupid, Mercury, Minerva, Ceres, Proserpine, Vulcan, Bacchus, Saturn, Vesta, Janus, Uranus and Maia. Yet this roster of gods was real to multiple thousands of people for thousands of years, every bit as real as the one god worshipped by Christians, Muslims and Jews today. Was the morality derived from a belief in those gods any different from what we see today with one? If asked, Christians, Jews and Muslims today would use numerous and diverse reasons to deny the existence of Greek and Roman gods, who were so important to so many people for so long. I simply extend that reasoning to include the one remaining god. Everybody rejects as silly the idea of gods; I merely exclude the existence of one more god than those who consider themselves religious.
Something that we all reject is hardly a sound basis for morality. A more compelling basis would be the Tooth Fairy. Hear me out. No adult takes the myth seriously, of course. Yet the evidence for the existence of the Tooth Fairy is in fact more compelling than that for any other belief system. As a child, you put your recently yanked tooth under your pillow. The next morning, lo and behold, you have a dollar where the tooth used to be. That is concrete, real, undeniable evidence that the Tooth Fairy came to visit during the night. What other explanation could be possible with such incontrovertible evidence? What could be more compelling: you can hold that dollar in your hand, and you know for a fact that the previous night only a tooth lay beneath your head. The Tooth Fairy exists, end of story. Now, science might try to convince you, as a five-year-old, that there indeed is a more rational explanation for the nocturnal switch, such as a caring parent acting the part, for example, but you will have none of it. You believe the Tooth Fairy exists, have evidence to support your belief, and dismiss the scientific explanation as heretical. Just a bunch of pointy-head liberals who don't understand that of course the Tooth Fairy is real.
Fortunately, we all grow out of believing in the Tooth Fairy. Well, no, we don't. We just transfer that belief to something we call "god." God is the Tooth Fairy, and the Tooth Fairy is god. Instead of looking for a dollar under our pillow, we look to miracles as evidence to support our belief, ignoring the fact that belief cannot be supported by evidence. Yet, we insist. We see statues of the Virgin Mary crying blood, or the face of Jesus on an eggplant, or witness a healer laying hands giving ambulation to the disabled. Instead of the story involving a tooth and quarter, our narrative becomes more complex (we are adults after all), with the plot thickening to include creation and an afterlife. But both stories are made up, figments of our imagination, equally supported by "evidence." Both are valid only because we believe. The first impulse would be to dismiss as completely absurd any equality between god and the Tooth Fairy. But resist the temptation, and ask yourself a simple question: how do the two really differ? Whatever argument you come up with to support a belief in god, can you not also apply to the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, or trolls under a bridge in Ireland? Yes, of course, the concept that the Tooth Fairy is real is lunacy. But so, too, the belief in god. The notion that god exists is as childish and as silly as the belief that a mythical creature enters your bedroom at night to give alms for your milk teeth. This is a poor foundation for human morality.
Morality and Biology
Fortunately, we can understand the basis for morality without invoking god either as a cause or a consequence. Morals are not derived from religion, nor god's grant of free will, but instead arise from inherent characteristics embedded in human nature as a consequence of our sociality. What we view as moral behaviors -- kindness, reciprocity, honesty, respect for others -- are social norms that evolved in the context of a highly social animal living in large groups. The evolution of these social norms enabled a feeble creature to overcome physical limitations through effective cooperation. Morality is a biological necessity and a consequence of human development. Morality is our biological destiny, deeply embedded in the human psyche. Our moral characteristics are primeval adaptations that helped our ancestors survive. In a world of dangerous predators, early man could thrive only through mutual cooperation: good (moral) behavior strengthened the tribal bonds that were essential to survival. What we now call morality is really a suite of behaviors favored by natural selection in an animal weak alone but strong in numbers. Religion has nothing to do with morality: our understanding of human history, and the development of religion over the ages provides compelling evidence that morality is not derived from religion, nor leads to a belief in god. Morality is an embedded human trait that has been corrupted and lost in the cathedrals of false promise and empty threats of eternal damnation. Human are moral without being bribed and cowed; we are moral because we are human. We do not need religion to offer us a morality nurtured on fear and hope or based on the ideas derived from primitive nomadic tribes from 2000 years ago; our morality is stronger than that.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/god-and-morality-never-th_b_4968631.html [with comments]
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Bill Maher: New Rule - Holy Ship
Published on Mar 15, 2014 by CRUClEFICTION [ http://www.youtube.com/user/CRUClEFICTION ; http://www.youtube.com/user/CRUClEFICTION/videos ]
Bill Maher, 3-14-2014.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I do not claim ownership of this material. I realize no profit, monetary or otherwise, from the exhibition of this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4l_55pDh0 [with comments] [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld_tg4W7Hf8 (with comments, and embedded at "Buckle Up: Maher Calls God 'A Psychotic Mass Murderer' - This May Be Bill Maher's Most Intense Rant Against Religions – All Of Them - Yet", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/15/bill-maher-god-psychotic-mas-murderer_n_4970831.html {with comments}), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-IUYUgliU (with comments) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mttUxtSaeRo (with comment)] [non-YouTube version of the same embedded at "Bill Maher Absolutely Trashes the Bible and ‘Psychotic Mass Murderer’ God", http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-absolutely-trashes-the-bible-and-psychotic-mass-murderer-god/ (with comments)]
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The Great Flood
Uploaded on Dec 30, 2009 by DarkMatter2525 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
The logistics of Noah's Ark. People actually believe this story. It's time for a dose of reality. The YouTubers known as KaseyAkira, Bluetrilobite, and Vashcat encouraged me to debunk the story of Noah's Ark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I225Vcs3X0g [with (over 10,000) comments] [at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98128173 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98526103 and preceding and following]
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"Without God we are nothing" Debate: Dan Barker Vs Cardinal George Pell
Published on Jul 29, 2010 by Macquarie University [ http://www.youtube.com/user/MacquarieUniversity ]
http://www.mq.edu.au/ Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell and leading American atheist and co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Dan Barker debate the topic, 'Without God we are nothing'. The debate was a joint venture between two student groups, the recently-established Macquarie University Atheist League and the Catholic Society of Saint Dominic at the University. The debate took place in March 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2knl_QTLpY [with comments]
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Richard Dawkins vs Cardinal George Pell on Q&A (10-4-2012 [April 10, 2012 Australian Eastern Time])
Published on Apr 9, 2012 [U.S. time] by tubester4567 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/tubester4567 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/tubester4567/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
Richard Dawkins and Catholic Cardinal George Pell discuss religion, morals and evolution on Q&A. (10-4-2012 ABC TV)
It baffles me how the Catholic hierarchy can concede most of the bible stories are myths, but continue to teach it as fact in Sunday school, religious schools and in church. The only part of the bible the Catholic church stands by is the death and resurrection of Christ. If the most senior catholics dont believe 99% of the bible why should anyone else?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD1QHO_AVZA [with (over 23,000) comments] [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4oMfY7q-Uo (with {over 8,000} comments), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFzLo6fbxzc (with comment), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8hy8NxZvFY (with {over 6,000} comments)]
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Cardinal Pell Complains of Exaggeration of Catholic Child Rape
Published on Nov 16, 2012 by nonameisacat [ http://www.youtube.com/user/nonameisacat ; http://www.youtube.com/user/nonameisacat/videos ]
No description available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S25rMLwErJU [with comments]
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7News : EXCLUSIVE: Full interview with George Pell
Published on Feb 28, 2013 by 7NEWS [ http://www.youtube.com/user/7NEWS ]
Australian Cardinal George Pell sits down with Seven's Chris Reason to discuss the Pope's retirement and his chances of taking on the top job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGg4041E1Bc [with comments]
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THE LIES OF GEORGE PELL: Loss of Faith - 60 minutes
Published on Mar 24, 2013 by jayness33 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/jayness33 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/jayness33/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
If there is one video that Australians need to watch and share, it's this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajWT4BERoHc [with comments]
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Sunrise : Cardinal Pell admits to cover-up
Published on May 27, 2013 by SunriseOn7 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/SunriseOn7 ]
Cardinal George Pell has admitted there was a systemic cover-up of child abuse at an inquiry. Loretta Ryan and Derryn Hinch discuss the day's hot topics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MGOqKB_AHg [with comments]
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Quarterly Essay: David Marr on George Pell
Published on Oct 21, 2013 by WheelerCentre [ http://www.youtube.com/user/WheelerCentre ; http://wheelercentre.com/videos ]
David Marr's revelatory Quarterly Essay on (then) PM-in-waiting Tony Abbott [ http://www.quarterlyessay.com/issue/political-animal-making-tony-abbott ; http://www.amazon.com/Quarterly-Essay-47-Political-Animal-ebook/dp/B0093ISD4K ; http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/september/1347234466/david-marr/political-animal-making-tony-abbott ] made national headlines. Now, he's turned his merciless eye to Cardinal George Pell [ http://www.quarterlyessay.com/issue/prince-faith-abuse-and-george-pell ; http://www.amazon.com/Quarterly-Essay-51-The-Prince-ebook/dp/B00F9130T8 ; http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/david-marr/2013/11/27/1385530029/david-marr-and-george-pell-correspondence-following-quarterly- ], leader of the Catholic Church in Australia and Abbott's confessor -- at a time when the church's handling of sexual abuse is being closely investigated.
How did Pell rise to prominence? How has he handled abuse claims in the past? What motivates him, and how deep does his political influence go? Marr answers all that and more with Heather Ewart chairing the conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYz4gn-HlDY [with comment]
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Cardinal George Pell on Ash Wednesday and Lent 2014
Published on Mar 2, 2014 by Xt3dotcom [ http://www.youtube.com/user/Xt3dotcom ]
Today (5 March 2014) is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and a day of fasting and abstinence. Catholics are called to give up meat and limit meals on this day - we do this in order to overcome our attachments to earthly things, and draw closer to God -- just as Jesus did during his 40-days in the desert. Have you prepared your resolutions for the next 40 days? To kick-start your Lenten journey, here is reflection for Ash Wednesday by Cardinal George Pell, who is now the Prefect of the new Secretariat for the Economy, Rome. Today is a day to make a change in your life... are you ready?
-- Online Xt3 Lent calendar: http://www.xt3.com/lent
-- App for iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xt3-lent-calendar-2014/id501585138?ls=1&mt=8
-- App for iPad: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xt3-lent-calendar-hd-2014/id501580809?ls=1&mt=8
-- App for Android Smartphones: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xt3.lent2011
-- App for Android Tablets: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xt3.lent.hd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf9W8glxgh8 [with comment]
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My Employer Shamed Me for Using Birth Control
Getty Images
By Jessica R.
Posted: 03/14/2014 11:52 am EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 11:59 am EDT
The Affordable Care Act makes effective birth control more affordable for millions of women by requiring employer-based health plans to include no-cost coverage for contraceptives. On March 25, the Supreme Court will hear arguments [ https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief-reproductive-freedom/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-conestoga-wood-specialties-corp-v ] from companies that want to violate this law. Here is a story from one of the many women whose boss has tried to deny her birth control. For fear of losing her job, she requested to remain anonymous. Jessica R. is not her real name.
For the past three years, I have worked at the same Catholic university that I attended as a student. I love my job, and I can't afford to lose it. But I'm afraid that I will be fired if I press my employer about whether contraception should be covered in our health plan. No one should be forced to choose between her job and her dignity, but that's what I feel I'm being forced to do right now.
When I was first hired, the Human Resources secretary quickly told me that neither of the school's two health insurance options covered birth control. But when I looked through the plan brochures, I noticed that contraception was not actually listed as something that was excluded. When I called the insurance companies myself, I found that they did both cover birth control -- HR just didn't want me to know it.
For over a year, I had no problem getting my birth control pills covered. I went off of birth control to have a child -- a beautiful baby girl. After she was born, I went back on the pill because my husband and I weren't yet ready for another child.
You can imagine my surprise when my pharmacy told me out of the blue one day that my insurance company had denied coverage for my monthly prescription. Assuming it was just some sort of administrative error, I called my insurer. But there was no mistake -- my employer had demanded that the insurance company refuse to cover birth control for employees unless they had a "prior authorization" from their OB-GYN. My doctor agreed to write a letter explaining that I needed birth control for contraceptive purposes. But according to the insurance company, family planning isn't "medically necessary," and the insurance company denied coverage again. I had to go back to my OB-GYN and ask her to tell the insurance company the second reason why I need birth control pills: to regulate my periods. My doctor did, and the authorization was ultimately accepted.
After the insurance company first denied me birth control, but before I learned that it was my employer who'd demanded they change their policies, I made an appointment with the university's Human Resources director. I assumed it was a problem with the insurance company, and thought our HR director would want to know. Boy, was I wrong. The HR director told me that birth control is something the university should never be expected to cover, and that I should be more responsible for my reproduction and "proud" of my child. Using birth control is the responsible decision for me and my family, and I was outraged that he would suggest that my family planning decisions somehow called into question my love for my daughter.
Ever since that conversation, the HR director gives me dirty looks whenever I pass him in the hallway. I discussed the situation with my boss, who was sympathetic, but advised me not to bring it up to anyone else in the university's administration... because they might fire me.
I love my job and can't afford to lose it, which is why I bite my tongue when I see the HR director, and why I'm not using my real name in this blog. But I should not have to choose between keeping my job and losing my dignity.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-r/my-employer-shamed-me-for_b_4964537.html [with comments]
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Maher on GOP Voters: ‘Corporate America’s Useful Idiots’
by Evan McMurry | 12:03 pm, March 16th, 2014
On Sunday morning, Meet the Press’ Harry Smith profiled Bill Maher during the comedian’s red state tour, and found him just as pugnacious about the GOP’s “useful idiots” on their home turf as he is on his HBO show.
“In the last twenty years, it’s not really been a choice,” Maher said as to whether Democrats or Republicans were more to blame for the country’s current malaise. “They just drove the short bus to crazy town.”
“I understand why the richest 1% vote Republican,” Maher continued. “They deserve those votes. They represent the richest 1% perfectly. Anybody else who does, just corporate America’s useful idiots.”
But Maher said his show went over like gangbusters, even in Romney strongholds. “There is not a place in America so red that I can’t get 3,000 screaming atheists to come see me — on a Sunday,” Maher said.
Watch the clip below, via NBC News:
[video embedded; original, with transcript, at http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/bill-maher-dishes-red-state-performances-n53896 ]
© 2014 Mediaite, LLC
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-on-gop-voters-corporate-americas-useful-idiots/ [with comments]
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Media Should Stop Giving Space To Climate Change And Science Deniers
by Jack Mirkinson
Posted: 03/10/2014 8:16 am EDT Updated: 03/10/2014 9:59 am EDT
Count everyone's favorite astronomer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, among the list of people who think the media should stop giving equal time to climate change deniers and their ilk.
The issue has been in the news recently, thanks to a rare flare-up of coverage of climate change. Some of that coverage was criticized for setting up the issue of climate change as a debate [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/15/meet-the-press-climate-change_n_4794206.html ].
Tyson was speaking to CNN about his new series, "Cosmos," on Sunday. "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/02/25/cnns_brian_stelter_on_climate_change_some_stories_dont_have_two_sides.html ] asked him about the media's coverage of climate change and other science issues.
Tyson was emphatic in his response:
I think the media has to sort of come out of this ethos that I think was in principle a good one, but doesn't really apply in science. The ethos was, whatever story you give, you have to give the opposing view, and then you can be viewed as balanced...you don't talk about the spherical earth with NASA and then say let's give equal time to the flat-earthers.
Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick. You know, I said this once and it's gotten a lot of Internet play, I said the good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.
I guess you can decide whether or not to believe in it, but that doesn't change the reality of an emergent scientific truth.
(h/t Raw Story [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/09/neil-degrasse-tyson-tells-cnn-stop-giving-equal-time-to-the-flat-earthers/ ])
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/neil-degrasse-tyson-media-climate-change_n_4933814.html [with video of the CNN segment, original at http://reliablesources.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/09/the-great-american-science-divide/ (with comments), embedded, and comments]
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Neil deGrasse Tyson Interview - Late Night with Seth Meyers
Published on Mar 15, 2014 by Late Night with Seth Meyers [ http://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth ]
Cosmos, comic books and alternate universes with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIyCT1K1ME [with comments] [also embedded at "Neil deGrasse Tyson: If You Don’t Believe in Science, ‘Just Move Back to the Cave’", http://www.mediaite.com/tv/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-meyers-if-you-dont-believe-in-science-just-move-back-to-the-cave/ (with comments)]
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Cosmos: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY
Presented by FOX Sun 9/8c and National Geographic Mon 10/9c
Full Episodes
Watch Latest Episode:
Standing Up In The Milky Way
Season: 1 Episode: 1
Expires: 49 days
A thrilling, new adventure across space and time begins.
http://www.cosmosontv.com/watch/183733315515
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53353948 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=97730818 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98233680 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98423258 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98526103 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98833302 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98835668 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98838872 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98872096 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98877969 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98885327 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98893460 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98896577 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98897793 (and any future following)
Afghan children learn to read the Quran, Islam's holy book, at a local Madrassa, or seminary, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March. 3, 2014. Islamic seminaries in Afghanistan are generally considered a source of education for poor families and children whose families could not afford expensive fees of formal schools.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
by Stephen Calabria
Posted: 03/13/2014 7:40 pm EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 2:59 pm EDT
A new Pew Research survey [ http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/worldwide-many-see-belief-in-god-as-essential-to-morality/ ] of global attitudes on religion finds that a great number of people around the world think a belief in God is vital to leading a moral life.
The survey of people in 40 countries found that majorities in 22 countries believed that having God in one’s life was essential to being a moral person. Majorities in all five African countries surveyed, as well as every Middle Eastern country except Israel, believed God is vital to a person’s morality.
The reaction was mixed in other parts of the world. While majorities in most countries in Latin America and in the Asia/Pacific region believed God necessary for a moral life, no European country surveyed had a majority saying the same. The United States registered a slight majority believing God was necessary to be an moral person, while Canada registered a strong majority in the opposite direction.
Opinions broke down along largely economic lines. The higher a country’s GDP, the less likely its citizens were to believe God necessary for a moral life. The exceptions were the United States and China.
“Americans are much more likely than their economic counterparts to say belief in God is essential to morality, while the Chinese are much less likely to do so,” the report says.
Pew's survey included telephone and face-to-face interviews of 40,080 people from 2011 to 2014.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/god-morality-poll_n_4959921.html [with comments]
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Nigeria attacks: 100 killed in attacks on villages in Kaduna
In central Nigeria, the settled farming community has been the target of attacks
At least 100 villagers have been killed in Nigeria's central Kaduna state in attacks linked to disputes between ethnic groups, officials say.
16 March 2014 Last updated at 08:50 ET
Heavily armed men entered three villages in the Kaura district in the south of the state.
It is not clear who was behind the attacks, but residents blame members of the mainly Muslim Fulani tribe.
Central Nigeria has often witnessed violence stemming from disputes over land and religion.
Thousands of people have been killed in recent years in violence blamed on semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen attacking Christian farmers.
A member of Kaduna's state assembly, Yakubu Bitiyong, visited the scene of the most recent attacks, which took place on Friday night.
Most of those killed in the villages of Ugwar Sankwai, Ungwan Gata and Chenshyi, had been so badly burned they could not be identified, he told the BBC. Houses were destroyed by fire and food supplies looted.
Mr Bitiyong said two of the attackers were also killed and their bodies taken away by police, who have sent in reinforcements.
The unrest is not connected with the continuing Islamist insurgency carried out by the Boko Haram group, which wants to impose Sharia law in the north.
The attacks in Kaduna came only a day after reports emerged of 69 people being killed over several days in northern Katsina state when dozens of armed men arrived in villages on motorbikes.
Violence in that area has also been blamed on Fulani attacking local farmers from the Muslim Hausa ethnic group, rather than the Christian community.
BBC © 2014
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26602018
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Religious Violence Across World Hits Six Year High According To Pew Study
01/23/2014
(Reuters) – Violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments and rival faiths have reached new highs in all regions of the world except the Americas, according to a new Pew Research Centre report [ http://www.pewforum.org/2014/01/14/religious-hostilities-reach-six-year-high/ ].
Social hostility such as attacks on minority faiths or pressure to conform to certain norms was strong in one-third of the 198 countries and territories surveyed in 2012, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, it said on Tuesday.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/religious-violence-pew-survey_n_4596169.html [with comments]
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Ted Cruz Is Now the Tattooed Badass Rock Star of the GOP’s Dreams
[ http://redalertpolitics.com/2014/03/15/posters-of-tatted-up-ted-cruz-appear-in-l-a/ (with comments)]
by Luke O'Neil | 4:22 pm, March 15th, 2014
While the process has been in the works for years now, the exact moment at which tattoos stopped seeming edgy and cool can be dated to Thursday night in California. The cause of death was a series of posters [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/14/Ted-Cruz-Posters-Appear-in-Beverly-Hills ] plastered around Los Angeles of a shirtless Sen. Ted Cruz covered in ink with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking like a cross between a gang-banger and a Social Distortion fanboy.
Social Distortion are a very influential So-Cal band known for their bluesy punk and rockabilly style, something I wouldn’t assume needs explaining anywhere else besides an article about Ted Cruz.
Despite having his head photoshopped onto the type of body that Cruz supporters live in mortal terror of on a daily basis, the reactions online to the makeover [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904 ] from some on the right have been rather positive.
“Actually, kinda cool looking,” wrote one Free Republic commenter [ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3133539/posts ]. “Maybe we can all get tats and stuff and form a ‘gang’. Call it the Patriot Gang or something. Put some drive-by fear into the liberals.”
Maybe!
“The Ted Cruz posters make me want to go get a giant eagle tattoo,” tweeted [ https://twitter.com/SaintRPh/status/444896495242719232 ] another Cruz supporter.
You can’t really blame them, I suppose, this literally being the first time a Republican has ever appeared with a modicum of cool in known existence, unless you count the time Rand Paul came out as a Minor Threat straight-edge hardcore fan [ https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/439852635143688193 ] a couple weeks ago.
The posters, as Breitbart reports [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/14/Ted-Cruz-Posters-Appear-in-Beverly-Hills ], “have appeared in front of popular L.A. Clubs: the Viper Room, the Seventh Veil, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, as well as on car windshields and utility poles among other places.”
Look closer, and the piece on his right arm appears to be an image of the old British Bulldog himself, which makes sense because Cruz is scheduled to appear at the Claremont Institute’s annual Winston Churchill dinner. The dinner in question, however, will be held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, not the Beverly Hilton, as the posters advertise. Perhaps a bit of misdirection from libtards hoping to confuse attendees on their way to their event? Although that doesn’t add up, because anyone attending a Claremont Institute dinner would be cowering in the backseat afraid to look out the window driving in any of the neighborhoods where the posters appeared. Tickets for the sold-out event range between $250-15,000.
So what does it actually mean? No one has taken responsibility for the posters as of yet, but it certainly paints Cruz in a different light than we’re accustomed to seeing him. Unless you count his days as an actor at Harvard [ http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/11/10/ted-cruz-was-polarizing-figure-harvard-law-foreshadowing-his-partisan-profile-senate/gEUPs0iVgOyoidafkNe94H/story.html ] getting too wasted on Everclear to perform. Maybe he’s cooler than we’ve thought this whole time.
At the very least, he’s got a sense of humor about it [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904 ]:
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
6:58 AM - 15 Mar 2014
Saw this, but noticed an error. So I wanted to make one thing clear: I don't smoke cigarettes http://bit.ly/1nqK08i pic.twitter.com/tPFNqg9vu8 [ https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/444834924609019904/photo/1 ]
UPDATE: The images appear to be the work of a Los Angeles artist Leonard Sabo [ https://www.facebook.com/sabo.unsavoryagent/photos ], who posted an attempt at the design back on March 9. I’ve reached out to Sabo for comment, and will update when I hear back. His political and artistic views are, uh, interesting, to put it mildly, most offensive of which is that he seems to think Cruz could actually be president some day.
© 2014 Mediaite, LLC
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ted-cruz-is-now-the-tattooed-badass-rock-star-of-the-gops-dreams/ [with comments]
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God and Morality: Never the Twain Shall Meet
by Jeff Schweitzer [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/ ]
Posted: 03/15/2014 12:07 am EDT Updated: 03/15/2014 10:59 am EDT
Ah for every one step forward two steps backward. The Pew Research Center just published a survey [ http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/worldwide-many-see-belief-in-god-as-essential-to-morality/ (the same as referenced in the first item in this post)] conducted in 40 countries demonstrating that many people in the world still hold onto the idea that one must believe in god to be moral. That view is more common in the poorer countries; and the idea is nearly universal in Africa and the Middle East (with the exception of Israel). The survey is deeply depressing because the idea that faith in god is essential to morality is one of humanity's most dangerous and destructive myths.
Five Pillars
As I argued in Beyond Cosmic Dice [ http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Cosmic-Dice-Moral-Random/dp/0981931103 ], religion pathologically persists in service of five different masters of human weakness: fear of death and the promise of seeing lost loved ones; the need to explain away the unknown; hope for controlling one's destiny; a desire for social cohesion; and the corrupting allure of political power. So we create, each of us, and collectively, a god who is all-powerful and all-knowing to address some combination of these five masters, or all of them.
There is no link between morality and the five pillars; nothing about being moral would lead to a belief in god. The two concepts do not intersect. The history of religion proves the point.
That morality does not derive from, or lead to, religion has been the conclusion of some of our greatest minds, including David Hume, the father of religious studies. Due to certain inconveniences, like the possibility of being burned alive at the stake, Hume restricted his writings to polytheism. But it takes no great leap to read between the lines and apply his words to monotheism and Christianity in particular. Hume did not believe morality is a gift from god because he thought religion a false construct and therefore no foundation for human behavior or thought. Instead, humanity's first beliefs in a higher power were borne of ignorance and fear of the natural world: every disaster that befalls us demands an explanation. Naturally, multiple unknown causes leads to the idea of multiple powers; polytheism is the natural state of a primitive mind.
We hang in perpetual suspense between life and death, health and sickness, plenty and want; which are distributed amongst the human species by secret and unknown causes, whose operation is oft unexpected, and always unaccountable. These unknown causes, then, become the constant object of our hope and fear.
From Many, One
But so too does this apply to belief in one god; one is just a derivative of many. The idea of powerful gods, or a god, controlling each important aspect of our lives would not by itself be satisfying. We want to put a face to the power; we want to be familiar with the deities that control our fate; we want to know them so that we can communicate with them and solicit their interventions. We are all Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, seeking to reveal the nature of the man behind the curtain, hoping to strike up a conversation with whoever is in charge.
By no coincidence then do our gods take on idealized human form. Our egoistic species has a universal tendency to transfer human-like qualities to surrounding objects, giving them characteristics that are familiar to us. This tendency to anthropomorphize everything around us has the consequence that we attribute human malice or benevolence to inanimate objects, and of course to the gods above. With their human form, gods also take on human personalities, with passions and weaknesses that make them jealous, vengeful, spiteful, fickle, wicked and foolish. How comforting to know that one's fate and fortune, tossed about by unknown causes, can be controlled by dialogue with an invisible power that possesses familiar sentiments and intelligence!
But attributing human qualities to a higher power has a paradoxical consequence, one leading inevitably to the idea of multiple gods, at least initially. We raise our own estimation of ourselves as god-like, but diminish the power of the very gods we create by humanizing them. Once again, Hume is right on the money:
They suppose their deities, however potent and invisible, to be nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind, and retaining all human passions and appetites, together with corporeal limbs and organs. Such limited beings, though masters of human fate, being, each of them, incapable of extending his influence everywhere, must be vastly multiplied, in order to answer the variety of events, which happen over the whole face of nature. Thus every place is stored with a crowd of local deities; and thus polytheism has prevailed.
The idea that deities are "nothing but a species of human creatures, perhaps raised from among mankind" of course applies to more than the old discarded gods of the past. The words exactly describe Jesus. The link between the one god of today and the many of the past is forged in steel. The characteristics that originated in polytheism continued to apply even as the number of gods diminished. One could argue, in fact, that today's religions are not truly monotheistic. Christianity has created hundreds of objects of worship in the guise of saints, who have become minor gods to many followers. So this conclusion from Hume is particularly poignant:
...it will appear, that the gods of all polytheists are not better than the elves or fairies of our ancestors, and merit as little any pious worship or veneration. These pretended religionists are really a kind of superstitious atheists, and acknowledge no being, that corresponds to our idea of deity.
So we conclude that most of the multiple divinities of the ancient world were supposed to have been human or human-like, thereby diminishing their power. Yet Christianity is no different: we have Jesus, in the flesh, bleeding like a regular guy, no different from what Hume disparages in his idea of a cruder polytheistic god. Like many gods, one god is nothing better than the elves or fairies of our ancestors. Nowhere in this narrative is there any suggestion that morality is linked to religion, or that morality elsewhere derived would lead to a belief in god.
While I emphasize David Hume as the father of religious studies, we cannot neglect to mention its grandfather, Baruch de Spinoza, who preceded Hume by almost 100 years. When Spinoza took on the question of ethics he created a path to secular enlightenment that Hume did not fully assimilate. I raise this here because at no point in Spinoza's masterpiece, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus did he ever link the development of human morality with a future belief in god. As did Hume later, Spinoza concluded that the history of religion precludes any connection at all between morality and religion, in any order.
Poseidon and Morality
Religion's history begs an important question: why of all the gods does the god of Abraham own the right to morality? The history of religion can be understood as the winnowing of gods from many to one. What this means is that all of us are atheists, even the most devout, undoubting, dedicated priest, rabbi or mullah. Atheist means "without god," and all of us are without at least some gods. All monotheistic believers reject all gods, except one. They reject all the Greek elder gods Cronus, Gaea, Uranus, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Hyperion, Mnemosyne, Themis, Iapetus, Coeus, Crius, Phoebe, Thea, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Metis, and Dione. Muslims, Jews and Christians all deny the existence of the Greek Olympic gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus. All major religions today dismiss as nothing but myth the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Cupid, Mercury, Minerva, Ceres, Proserpine, Vulcan, Bacchus, Saturn, Vesta, Janus, Uranus and Maia. Yet this roster of gods was real to multiple thousands of people for thousands of years, every bit as real as the one god worshipped by Christians, Muslims and Jews today. Was the morality derived from a belief in those gods any different from what we see today with one? If asked, Christians, Jews and Muslims today would use numerous and diverse reasons to deny the existence of Greek and Roman gods, who were so important to so many people for so long. I simply extend that reasoning to include the one remaining god. Everybody rejects as silly the idea of gods; I merely exclude the existence of one more god than those who consider themselves religious.
Something that we all reject is hardly a sound basis for morality. A more compelling basis would be the Tooth Fairy. Hear me out. No adult takes the myth seriously, of course. Yet the evidence for the existence of the Tooth Fairy is in fact more compelling than that for any other belief system. As a child, you put your recently yanked tooth under your pillow. The next morning, lo and behold, you have a dollar where the tooth used to be. That is concrete, real, undeniable evidence that the Tooth Fairy came to visit during the night. What other explanation could be possible with such incontrovertible evidence? What could be more compelling: you can hold that dollar in your hand, and you know for a fact that the previous night only a tooth lay beneath your head. The Tooth Fairy exists, end of story. Now, science might try to convince you, as a five-year-old, that there indeed is a more rational explanation for the nocturnal switch, such as a caring parent acting the part, for example, but you will have none of it. You believe the Tooth Fairy exists, have evidence to support your belief, and dismiss the scientific explanation as heretical. Just a bunch of pointy-head liberals who don't understand that of course the Tooth Fairy is real.
Fortunately, we all grow out of believing in the Tooth Fairy. Well, no, we don't. We just transfer that belief to something we call "god." God is the Tooth Fairy, and the Tooth Fairy is god. Instead of looking for a dollar under our pillow, we look to miracles as evidence to support our belief, ignoring the fact that belief cannot be supported by evidence. Yet, we insist. We see statues of the Virgin Mary crying blood, or the face of Jesus on an eggplant, or witness a healer laying hands giving ambulation to the disabled. Instead of the story involving a tooth and quarter, our narrative becomes more complex (we are adults after all), with the plot thickening to include creation and an afterlife. But both stories are made up, figments of our imagination, equally supported by "evidence." Both are valid only because we believe. The first impulse would be to dismiss as completely absurd any equality between god and the Tooth Fairy. But resist the temptation, and ask yourself a simple question: how do the two really differ? Whatever argument you come up with to support a belief in god, can you not also apply to the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, or trolls under a bridge in Ireland? Yes, of course, the concept that the Tooth Fairy is real is lunacy. But so, too, the belief in god. The notion that god exists is as childish and as silly as the belief that a mythical creature enters your bedroom at night to give alms for your milk teeth. This is a poor foundation for human morality.
Morality and Biology
Fortunately, we can understand the basis for morality without invoking god either as a cause or a consequence. Morals are not derived from religion, nor god's grant of free will, but instead arise from inherent characteristics embedded in human nature as a consequence of our sociality. What we view as moral behaviors -- kindness, reciprocity, honesty, respect for others -- are social norms that evolved in the context of a highly social animal living in large groups. The evolution of these social norms enabled a feeble creature to overcome physical limitations through effective cooperation. Morality is a biological necessity and a consequence of human development. Morality is our biological destiny, deeply embedded in the human psyche. Our moral characteristics are primeval adaptations that helped our ancestors survive. In a world of dangerous predators, early man could thrive only through mutual cooperation: good (moral) behavior strengthened the tribal bonds that were essential to survival. What we now call morality is really a suite of behaviors favored by natural selection in an animal weak alone but strong in numbers. Religion has nothing to do with morality: our understanding of human history, and the development of religion over the ages provides compelling evidence that morality is not derived from religion, nor leads to a belief in god. Morality is an embedded human trait that has been corrupted and lost in the cathedrals of false promise and empty threats of eternal damnation. Human are moral without being bribed and cowed; we are moral because we are human. We do not need religion to offer us a morality nurtured on fear and hope or based on the ideas derived from primitive nomadic tribes from 2000 years ago; our morality is stronger than that.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/god-and-morality-never-th_b_4968631.html [with comments]
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Bill Maher: New Rule - Holy Ship
Published on Mar 15, 2014 by CRUClEFICTION [ http://www.youtube.com/user/CRUClEFICTION ; http://www.youtube.com/user/CRUClEFICTION/videos ]
Bill Maher, 3-14-2014.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I do not claim ownership of this material. I realize no profit, monetary or otherwise, from the exhibition of this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4l_55pDh0 [with comments] [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld_tg4W7Hf8 (with comments, and embedded at "Buckle Up: Maher Calls God 'A Psychotic Mass Murderer' - This May Be Bill Maher's Most Intense Rant Against Religions – All Of Them - Yet", http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/15/bill-maher-god-psychotic-mas-murderer_n_4970831.html {with comments}), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-IUYUgliU (with comments) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mttUxtSaeRo (with comment)] [non-YouTube version of the same embedded at "Bill Maher Absolutely Trashes the Bible and ‘Psychotic Mass Murderer’ God", http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-absolutely-trashes-the-bible-and-psychotic-mass-murderer-god/ (with comments)]
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The Great Flood
Uploaded on Dec 30, 2009 by DarkMatter2525 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
The logistics of Noah's Ark. People actually believe this story. It's time for a dose of reality. The YouTubers known as KaseyAkira, Bluetrilobite, and Vashcat encouraged me to debunk the story of Noah's Ark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I225Vcs3X0g [with (over 10,000) comments] [at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98128173 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98526103 and preceding and following]
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"Without God we are nothing" Debate: Dan Barker Vs Cardinal George Pell
Published on Jul 29, 2010 by Macquarie University [ http://www.youtube.com/user/MacquarieUniversity ]
http://www.mq.edu.au/ Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell and leading American atheist and co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Dan Barker debate the topic, 'Without God we are nothing'. The debate was a joint venture between two student groups, the recently-established Macquarie University Atheist League and the Catholic Society of Saint Dominic at the University. The debate took place in March 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2knl_QTLpY [with comments]
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Richard Dawkins vs Cardinal George Pell on Q&A (10-4-2012 [April 10, 2012 Australian Eastern Time])
Published on Apr 9, 2012 [U.S. time] by tubester4567 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/tubester4567 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/tubester4567/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
Richard Dawkins and Catholic Cardinal George Pell discuss religion, morals and evolution on Q&A. (10-4-2012 ABC TV)
It baffles me how the Catholic hierarchy can concede most of the bible stories are myths, but continue to teach it as fact in Sunday school, religious schools and in church. The only part of the bible the Catholic church stands by is the death and resurrection of Christ. If the most senior catholics dont believe 99% of the bible why should anyone else?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD1QHO_AVZA [with (over 23,000) comments] [also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4oMfY7q-Uo (with {over 8,000} comments), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFzLo6fbxzc (with comment), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8hy8NxZvFY (with {over 6,000} comments)]
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Cardinal Pell Complains of Exaggeration of Catholic Child Rape
Published on Nov 16, 2012 by nonameisacat [ http://www.youtube.com/user/nonameisacat ; http://www.youtube.com/user/nonameisacat/videos ]
No description available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S25rMLwErJU [with comments]
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7News : EXCLUSIVE: Full interview with George Pell
Published on Feb 28, 2013 by 7NEWS [ http://www.youtube.com/user/7NEWS ]
Australian Cardinal George Pell sits down with Seven's Chris Reason to discuss the Pope's retirement and his chances of taking on the top job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGg4041E1Bc [with comments]
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THE LIES OF GEORGE PELL: Loss of Faith - 60 minutes
Published on Mar 24, 2013 by jayness33 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/jayness33 ; http://www.youtube.com/user/jayness33/videos?view=0&flow=grid ]
If there is one video that Australians need to watch and share, it's this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajWT4BERoHc [with comments]
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Sunrise : Cardinal Pell admits to cover-up
Published on May 27, 2013 by SunriseOn7 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/SunriseOn7 ]
Cardinal George Pell has admitted there was a systemic cover-up of child abuse at an inquiry. Loretta Ryan and Derryn Hinch discuss the day's hot topics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MGOqKB_AHg [with comments]
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Quarterly Essay: David Marr on George Pell
Published on Oct 21, 2013 by WheelerCentre [ http://www.youtube.com/user/WheelerCentre ; http://wheelercentre.com/videos ]
David Marr's revelatory Quarterly Essay on (then) PM-in-waiting Tony Abbott [ http://www.quarterlyessay.com/issue/political-animal-making-tony-abbott ; http://www.amazon.com/Quarterly-Essay-47-Political-Animal-ebook/dp/B0093ISD4K ; http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/september/1347234466/david-marr/political-animal-making-tony-abbott ] made national headlines. Now, he's turned his merciless eye to Cardinal George Pell [ http://www.quarterlyessay.com/issue/prince-faith-abuse-and-george-pell ; http://www.amazon.com/Quarterly-Essay-51-The-Prince-ebook/dp/B00F9130T8 ; http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/david-marr/2013/11/27/1385530029/david-marr-and-george-pell-correspondence-following-quarterly- ], leader of the Catholic Church in Australia and Abbott's confessor -- at a time when the church's handling of sexual abuse is being closely investigated.
How did Pell rise to prominence? How has he handled abuse claims in the past? What motivates him, and how deep does his political influence go? Marr answers all that and more with Heather Ewart chairing the conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYz4gn-HlDY [with comment]
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Cardinal George Pell on Ash Wednesday and Lent 2014
Published on Mar 2, 2014 by Xt3dotcom [ http://www.youtube.com/user/Xt3dotcom ]
Today (5 March 2014) is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and a day of fasting and abstinence. Catholics are called to give up meat and limit meals on this day - we do this in order to overcome our attachments to earthly things, and draw closer to God -- just as Jesus did during his 40-days in the desert. Have you prepared your resolutions for the next 40 days? To kick-start your Lenten journey, here is reflection for Ash Wednesday by Cardinal George Pell, who is now the Prefect of the new Secretariat for the Economy, Rome. Today is a day to make a change in your life... are you ready?
-- Online Xt3 Lent calendar: http://www.xt3.com/lent
-- App for iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xt3-lent-calendar-2014/id501585138?ls=1&mt=8
-- App for iPad: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xt3-lent-calendar-hd-2014/id501580809?ls=1&mt=8
-- App for Android Smartphones: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xt3.lent2011
-- App for Android Tablets: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xt3.lent.hd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf9W8glxgh8 [with comment]
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My Employer Shamed Me for Using Birth Control
Getty Images
By Jessica R.
Posted: 03/14/2014 11:52 am EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 11:59 am EDT
The Affordable Care Act makes effective birth control more affordable for millions of women by requiring employer-based health plans to include no-cost coverage for contraceptives. On March 25, the Supreme Court will hear arguments [ https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief-reproductive-freedom/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-conestoga-wood-specialties-corp-v ] from companies that want to violate this law. Here is a story from one of the many women whose boss has tried to deny her birth control. For fear of losing her job, she requested to remain anonymous. Jessica R. is not her real name.
For the past three years, I have worked at the same Catholic university that I attended as a student. I love my job, and I can't afford to lose it. But I'm afraid that I will be fired if I press my employer about whether contraception should be covered in our health plan. No one should be forced to choose between her job and her dignity, but that's what I feel I'm being forced to do right now.
When I was first hired, the Human Resources secretary quickly told me that neither of the school's two health insurance options covered birth control. But when I looked through the plan brochures, I noticed that contraception was not actually listed as something that was excluded. When I called the insurance companies myself, I found that they did both cover birth control -- HR just didn't want me to know it.
For over a year, I had no problem getting my birth control pills covered. I went off of birth control to have a child -- a beautiful baby girl. After she was born, I went back on the pill because my husband and I weren't yet ready for another child.
You can imagine my surprise when my pharmacy told me out of the blue one day that my insurance company had denied coverage for my monthly prescription. Assuming it was just some sort of administrative error, I called my insurer. But there was no mistake -- my employer had demanded that the insurance company refuse to cover birth control for employees unless they had a "prior authorization" from their OB-GYN. My doctor agreed to write a letter explaining that I needed birth control for contraceptive purposes. But according to the insurance company, family planning isn't "medically necessary," and the insurance company denied coverage again. I had to go back to my OB-GYN and ask her to tell the insurance company the second reason why I need birth control pills: to regulate my periods. My doctor did, and the authorization was ultimately accepted.
After the insurance company first denied me birth control, but before I learned that it was my employer who'd demanded they change their policies, I made an appointment with the university's Human Resources director. I assumed it was a problem with the insurance company, and thought our HR director would want to know. Boy, was I wrong. The HR director told me that birth control is something the university should never be expected to cover, and that I should be more responsible for my reproduction and "proud" of my child. Using birth control is the responsible decision for me and my family, and I was outraged that he would suggest that my family planning decisions somehow called into question my love for my daughter.
Ever since that conversation, the HR director gives me dirty looks whenever I pass him in the hallway. I discussed the situation with my boss, who was sympathetic, but advised me not to bring it up to anyone else in the university's administration... because they might fire me.
I love my job and can't afford to lose it, which is why I bite my tongue when I see the HR director, and why I'm not using my real name in this blog. But I should not have to choose between keeping my job and losing my dignity.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-r/my-employer-shamed-me-for_b_4964537.html [with comments]
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Maher on GOP Voters: ‘Corporate America’s Useful Idiots’
by Evan McMurry | 12:03 pm, March 16th, 2014
On Sunday morning, Meet the Press’ Harry Smith profiled Bill Maher during the comedian’s red state tour, and found him just as pugnacious about the GOP’s “useful idiots” on their home turf as he is on his HBO show.
“In the last twenty years, it’s not really been a choice,” Maher said as to whether Democrats or Republicans were more to blame for the country’s current malaise. “They just drove the short bus to crazy town.”
“I understand why the richest 1% vote Republican,” Maher continued. “They deserve those votes. They represent the richest 1% perfectly. Anybody else who does, just corporate America’s useful idiots.”
But Maher said his show went over like gangbusters, even in Romney strongholds. “There is not a place in America so red that I can’t get 3,000 screaming atheists to come see me — on a Sunday,” Maher said.
Watch the clip below, via NBC News:
[video embedded; original, with transcript, at http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/bill-maher-dishes-red-state-performances-n53896 ]
© 2014 Mediaite, LLC
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-on-gop-voters-corporate-americas-useful-idiots/ [with comments]
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Media Should Stop Giving Space To Climate Change And Science Deniers
by Jack Mirkinson
Posted: 03/10/2014 8:16 am EDT Updated: 03/10/2014 9:59 am EDT
Count everyone's favorite astronomer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, among the list of people who think the media should stop giving equal time to climate change deniers and their ilk.
The issue has been in the news recently, thanks to a rare flare-up of coverage of climate change. Some of that coverage was criticized for setting up the issue of climate change as a debate [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/15/meet-the-press-climate-change_n_4794206.html ].
Tyson was speaking to CNN about his new series, "Cosmos," on Sunday. "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/02/25/cnns_brian_stelter_on_climate_change_some_stories_dont_have_two_sides.html ] asked him about the media's coverage of climate change and other science issues.
Tyson was emphatic in his response:
I think the media has to sort of come out of this ethos that I think was in principle a good one, but doesn't really apply in science. The ethos was, whatever story you give, you have to give the opposing view, and then you can be viewed as balanced...you don't talk about the spherical earth with NASA and then say let's give equal time to the flat-earthers.
Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick. You know, I said this once and it's gotten a lot of Internet play, I said the good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.
I guess you can decide whether or not to believe in it, but that doesn't change the reality of an emergent scientific truth.
(h/t Raw Story [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/09/neil-degrasse-tyson-tells-cnn-stop-giving-equal-time-to-the-flat-earthers/ ])
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/neil-degrasse-tyson-media-climate-change_n_4933814.html [with video of the CNN segment, original at http://reliablesources.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/09/the-great-american-science-divide/ (with comments), embedded, and comments]
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Neil deGrasse Tyson Interview - Late Night with Seth Meyers
Published on Mar 15, 2014 by Late Night with Seth Meyers [ http://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth ]
Cosmos, comic books and alternate universes with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIyCT1K1ME [with comments] [also embedded at "Neil deGrasse Tyson: If You Don’t Believe in Science, ‘Just Move Back to the Cave’", http://www.mediaite.com/tv/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-meyers-if-you-dont-believe-in-science-just-move-back-to-the-cave/ (with comments)]
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Cosmos: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY
Presented by FOX Sun 9/8c and National Geographic Mon 10/9c
Full Episodes
Watch Latest Episode:
Standing Up In The Milky Way
Season: 1 Episode: 1
Expires: 49 days
A thrilling, new adventure across space and time begins.
http://www.cosmosontv.com/watch/183733315515
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=53353948 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=97730818 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98233680 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98423258 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98526103 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98833302 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98835668 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98838872 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98872096 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98877969 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98885327 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98893460 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98896577 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=98897793 (and any future following)
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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