Thursday, August 29, 2002
A Secular Government
There's a worrysome trend in the ole U.S. of A. of religion becoming part of government platform. Witness the furor over the pledge of allegiance as an example. Why is this worrisome you may ask, isn't our very way of life based on religious conviction and values? Well, not entirely. The whole idea, and I've mentioned this before, was and is to sepearte church and state. You can have a free country with a secular goverment of no religious affiliation or you can have one rooted in religion but don't expect it to be free in the way we know. Let's put it this way since we're so close to September 11th here, name one muslim country with a secular government? There isn't one. And the muslim religion is obviously a very powerful political force. A great number of muslim countries strictly enforce their version of it as well and this should never mean to imply freedom of anything if you stop to think about it. Living in such a country would mean death for me if I were to post something saying Mohammed didn't know what he was talking about. If your a woman, well, you know that story already.
Ah but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves because we all know god is on our side. We won't mention there was a time when religion and the church held great power over European countries. The bible held all the answers to human knowledge and everything was self-evident. To question it via science or any other method could lead to death or other form of punishment. Nooo, that's not right you may say, well, just ask Galileo. He was just pardoned this century, a little late though.
Many muslim countries now find themselves in the same quandry as 13th century Europe. It was only when religious control began to weaken that Europe shed it's yoke of religion and moved out of the dark ages. The Muslim world is much like this today, in a dark age, moving backwards, with modernity shunned as herecy.
There's a worrysome trend in the ole U.S. of A. of religion becoming part of government platform. Witness the furor over the pledge of allegiance as an example. Why is this worrisome you may ask, isn't our very way of life based on religious conviction and values? Well, not entirely. The whole idea, and I've mentioned this before, was and is to sepearte church and state. You can have a free country with a secular goverment of no religious affiliation or you can have one rooted in religion but don't expect it to be free in the way we know. Let's put it this way since we're so close to September 11th here, name one muslim country with a secular government? There isn't one. And the muslim religion is obviously a very powerful political force. A great number of muslim countries strictly enforce their version of it as well and this should never mean to imply freedom of anything if you stop to think about it. Living in such a country would mean death for me if I were to post something saying Mohammed didn't know what he was talking about. If your a woman, well, you know that story already.
Ah but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves because we all know god is on our side. We won't mention there was a time when religion and the church held great power over European countries. The bible held all the answers to human knowledge and everything was self-evident. To question it via science or any other method could lead to death or other form of punishment. Nooo, that's not right you may say, well, just ask Galileo. He was just pardoned this century, a little late though.
Many muslim countries now find themselves in the same quandry as 13th century Europe. It was only when religious control began to weaken that Europe shed it's yoke of religion and moved out of the dark ages. The Muslim world is much like this today, in a dark age, moving backwards, with modernity shunned as herecy.
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Religious Affiliation
I've often wondered if there's been a turn to or away from religion since September 11th. Or have things stayed more or less the same even? There are arguments for both but I wonder what the honest stats are. I figured that wouldn't be easily known but then I've often wondered about religion in general and are people turning away as time progresses? You often read that churches are seeing declining attendence but I've also read the opposite, that people are returning to church. Anyway, went to StatsCan to see what I could find. They have Census data and here's a chart of population by religion for 1981 and 1991 to compare. Most of Canada identify as Catholic at 45% in 1991, with 36% being Protestant. Being an Atheist I'm more interested in the bottom row there, those identifying with no religion. That doesn't mean they're atheists of course but I doubt it was an option on the census. The number identifying with no religion climbed from just under 2 million in 1981 to over 3 million in 1991, a growth of over 5% of overall population. I'm hoping that's a sign that we're headed to world without beliefs in superstition and humanism is the order of the day. Everyone sing along with me now ... Imagine there's no heaven ... It's easy if you try ... no hell below us, above us only skyyyyyy ... c'mon now, you can do it ;o)
I've often wondered if there's been a turn to or away from religion since September 11th. Or have things stayed more or less the same even? There are arguments for both but I wonder what the honest stats are. I figured that wouldn't be easily known but then I've often wondered about religion in general and are people turning away as time progresses? You often read that churches are seeing declining attendence but I've also read the opposite, that people are returning to church. Anyway, went to StatsCan to see what I could find. They have Census data and here's a chart of population by religion for 1981 and 1991 to compare. Most of Canada identify as Catholic at 45% in 1991, with 36% being Protestant. Being an Atheist I'm more interested in the bottom row there, those identifying with no religion. That doesn't mean they're atheists of course but I doubt it was an option on the census. The number identifying with no religion climbed from just under 2 million in 1981 to over 3 million in 1991, a growth of over 5% of overall population. I'm hoping that's a sign that we're headed to world without beliefs in superstition and humanism is the order of the day. Everyone sing along with me now ... Imagine there's no heaven ... It's easy if you try ... no hell below us, above us only skyyyyyy ... c'mon now, you can do it ;o)
Monday, August 12, 2002
The Beginning
I've been extrapolating the whole notion of whether you can know god. It's a mute point if you're an atheist as you can no more know god that you can Bugs Bunny. The exercise is more to show that religion attempts to know god and describe god and yet one of the first arguments a theist would throw back at you would be that we cannot know god's way. It's very convenient to have it both ways of course. Speaking of having it both ways I recently read yet another letter to the editor (they seem to be on a role with religious topics this year) from a theist indicating that because science cannot attest to the beginning of our universe and how things like atoms and what not are created there must be creator and that creator is indeed god (who else?). That's a common argument but of course it falls apart when you ask well then who created god? Science does try and answer many of the questions of our beginning and we may never understand it of course. The difference though is that Science would either completely throw out a theory or modify it accordingly as knowledge grows. Religion rarely grows in this fashion but they do conveniently modify things in the bible to help explain things that are obviously incorrect. But then I was under the impression from some that the bible was the word of god? Hmmmmmm
I've been extrapolating the whole notion of whether you can know god. It's a mute point if you're an atheist as you can no more know god that you can Bugs Bunny. The exercise is more to show that religion attempts to know god and describe god and yet one of the first arguments a theist would throw back at you would be that we cannot know god's way. It's very convenient to have it both ways of course. Speaking of having it both ways I recently read yet another letter to the editor (they seem to be on a role with religious topics this year) from a theist indicating that because science cannot attest to the beginning of our universe and how things like atoms and what not are created there must be creator and that creator is indeed god (who else?). That's a common argument but of course it falls apart when you ask well then who created god? Science does try and answer many of the questions of our beginning and we may never understand it of course. The difference though is that Science would either completely throw out a theory or modify it accordingly as knowledge grows. Religion rarely grows in this fashion but they do conveniently modify things in the bible to help explain things that are obviously incorrect. But then I was under the impression from some that the bible was the word of god? Hmmmmmm
Saturday, August 03, 2002
Popestock
It's been a week now but hundreds of thousands of the young and deluded converged on Toronto last week to hold mass with the Pope. Some of the deluded where using the throng of people as proof of the truth of Jesus etc. I even read of some Catholics taking issue with polls and stats indicated that most Catholics don't agree with the churches stance on issue like birth control, or gay rights. Some seem to think that all Catholics or those whom profess to be Catholic are bound by the church's word and that all Catholics don't practice birth control. Now that's seriously deluded. I don't consider it much more deluded than the Catholics themselves whom do practice something like birth control (which an obviously large percentage do) and yet wouldn't consider themselves in breach of Catholicism yet the leaders of the same church most certainly do. It certainly is ironic that some profess to believe in something and yet disobey the very leaders like it's some sort of democracy. I've got news for you, it isn't and your not. Does this make you a horrible person doomed to hell. Well, I'll leave that up to you. I wouldn't think so but then the very religion you say you believe in would most certainly have an issue with it dontchathink?
So Can You Know God?
I've still recieved no useful commentary on the whole question. I sent the notion out to a few but the only thing I got back from at least one was that it was more or less a waste of time to discuss it with me. I then got directed to some sermons online of which I listened to the first so far. The minister stated that man cannot understand spiritual truth while at the same time was telling the flock about spiritual truth. Again the irony was too much to take. This man had the courage to state that intellectual curiosity is often used to cover up a moral problem. So to question it then is indicative of a lapse in moral judgement I guess. He then went on to say that human reason unaided cannot grasp the truth. Ummmm, errrrrr, so then .... ummm, errrr, how is it then that anyone would know? But of course, anyone who wasn't a believer was also lost and in need of guidance back to god. I would like to conclude that the opposite is indeed true ... a lack of intellectual curiosity is often used to cover up denial.
It's been a week now but hundreds of thousands of the young and deluded converged on Toronto last week to hold mass with the Pope. Some of the deluded where using the throng of people as proof of the truth of Jesus etc. I even read of some Catholics taking issue with polls and stats indicated that most Catholics don't agree with the churches stance on issue like birth control, or gay rights. Some seem to think that all Catholics or those whom profess to be Catholic are bound by the church's word and that all Catholics don't practice birth control. Now that's seriously deluded. I don't consider it much more deluded than the Catholics themselves whom do practice something like birth control (which an obviously large percentage do) and yet wouldn't consider themselves in breach of Catholicism yet the leaders of the same church most certainly do. It certainly is ironic that some profess to believe in something and yet disobey the very leaders like it's some sort of democracy. I've got news for you, it isn't and your not. Does this make you a horrible person doomed to hell. Well, I'll leave that up to you. I wouldn't think so but then the very religion you say you believe in would most certainly have an issue with it dontchathink?
So Can You Know God?
I've still recieved no useful commentary on the whole question. I sent the notion out to a few but the only thing I got back from at least one was that it was more or less a waste of time to discuss it with me. I then got directed to some sermons online of which I listened to the first so far. The minister stated that man cannot understand spiritual truth while at the same time was telling the flock about spiritual truth. Again the irony was too much to take. This man had the courage to state that intellectual curiosity is often used to cover up a moral problem. So to question it then is indicative of a lapse in moral judgement I guess. He then went on to say that human reason unaided cannot grasp the truth. Ummmm, errrrrr, so then .... ummm, errrr, how is it then that anyone would know? But of course, anyone who wasn't a believer was also lost and in need of guidance back to god. I would like to conclude that the opposite is indeed true ... a lack of intellectual curiosity is often used to cover up denial.
