Reader Request 2: Why is Atheism Better … for US?

Much of this post is duplicated in the adjacent one, because I wanted to separate out the responses.

Thinking about writing a book about how I’m handling the death of my Dad, I realized I was going to have to answer the question “Why is atheism better?”

After all, if the title of your (might-be) book is “Saying Goodbye to Dan: An Atheist Deals With Death,” you’re pretty much obligated to attempt to differentiate yourself, and your named-in-the-title philosophy, from the traditional method of dealing with death — the religious one.

I have a lot of my own ideas about how to answer the question, but I’d like to ask YOU about your own answers.

Because we wouldn’t BE atheists — would we? — if we didn’t have SOME idea that it was better.

Unlike most religious thinkers, who would always assume we’re atheists because we’re bad, the real reason we’re atheists is because we’re GOOD. Or at least trying to be. Trying to be better, righter, more accurate, more oriented toward real-world facts and truth.

So the two questions are:

1) Why is atheism better for you as an individual?

2) Why is atheism better for society?

This specific post asks that second question:

Why is atheism better for US?

 

Reader Request 1: Why is Atheism Better … for YOU?

Much of this post is duplicated in the adjacent one, because I wanted to separate out the responses.

Thinking about writing a book about how I’m handling the death of my Dad, I realized I was going to have to answer the question “Why is atheism better?”

After all, if the title of your (might-be) book is “Saying Goodbye to Dan: An Atheist Deals With Death,” you’re pretty much obligated to attempt to differentiate yourself, and your named-in-the-title philosophy, from the traditional method of dealing with death — the religious one.

I have a lot of my own ideas about how to answer the question, but I’d like to ask YOU about your own answers.

Because we wouldn’t BE atheists — would we? — if we didn’t have SOME idea that it was better.

Unlike most religious thinkers, who would always assume we’re atheists because we’re bad, the real reason we’re atheists is because we’re GOOD. Or at least trying to be. Trying to be better, righter, more accurate, more oriented toward real-world facts and truth.

So the two questions are:

1) Why is atheism better for you as an individual?

2) Why is atheism better for society?

This specific post asks that first question:

Why is atheism better for YOU?

 

Jesus Shines Beam of Light on Miracle Dog

Here’s a story that is nothing short of a miracle.

I know this because the story teaser appears today on the front page of ABCNews.com, and the article, not marked as a blog or commentary, even uses the phrase “nothing short of a miracle” to describe the rescue of the title-referenced dog.

Not Photoshopped: Beam of Light Shines on Fallen Soldier’s Miracle Dog

Argh. I agonize over stories of soldiers in Iraq and their families. Mainly because I think Iraq was a disaster for the U.S. for soooo many reasons, economic and moral and political and corporate war profiteering reasons, for instance, and I especially hate the fact that more than 4,400 of America’s boys and girls — not to mention deliberately uncounted numbers of civilian non-combatants in Iraq itself — have died as a result. The symbolic finding of Bush and Blair to be war criminals is more than justified, in my opinion.

But … anytime you write about those fallen-soldier stories in detail, you have to take into account that the people in them are real, and they really are dealing, as best they can, with the death of a loved one. You want to be careful, for the sake of those hurting family members, in how you react to the core events of the story.

However! When it comes to reporting those stories, and the reporter steps way over the line and deliberately muddies the news with bombastic, preachy Christian metaphors, the reporting itself is definitely fair game.

The mythology projected at us in this story is that God took time out from his busy schedule of ruling the universe in order to … well, listen:

Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?”  It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in the backyard. All of a sudden, the clouds broke and a light began to solidify in a beam directly down on Hero — a kind of vertical halo.

Talk about reaching. ABC’s Kimberly Launier might as well be going door to door handing out religious pamphlets.

As this dramatic ray of light was shining on Hero she turned to look at me, and it was all I could do to hold the camera steady and not drop it in astonishment. It was an unforgettable moment, and made me wonder if in fact Justin was in there. Then the light vanished.

There’s also this bigger picture surrounding the story — that it is aimed at more than the grieving family. It seeks to persuade the larger audience to buy into some sort of faux-Christian mythology, that a young man killed in military action might “return” and somehow inhabit the body of a female dog, and that a mystical superbeing might shine light on the dog while a photographer was present in order to give evidence of that fact.

And that part … well, I have my reservations. As a writer of fiction, I might justify it. As a writer of NEWS, I never could.

Warning!! Vicious Hate Crimes Described Herein!!

You may be shocked by the following account of dastardly hate crimes.

You may be horrified.

You may cry aloud “Merciful heavens! Is there no limit to the unmitigated perfidy!”

Sweet Jesus give me strength, I can barely recount these abhorrent acts. Brace yourself for a disgustingly graphic description of assaults sure to leave even strong men prostrate, tearing their hair in horror at the wanton, inhuman nature of the merciless transgressions.

I only dare do this after the fold, so that squeamish readers can be forewarned and hie themselves off to less intense news elsewhere. Continue reading “Warning!! Vicious Hate Crimes Described Herein!!”

Anne McCaffrey Dead at 85

Well, heck.

Author Anne McCaffrey is no longer among us.

The creator of the Dragonriders of Pern series, and Helva, the Ship Who Sang, and so much else in an almost 60-year career, she died of a massive stroke on Monday, Nov. 21, at the age of 85.

McCaffrey blazed trails for female writers in winning first-ever Hugo and Nebula awards for a woman. Her first Pern story, Weyr Search, won a Hugo in 1968 for best novella; her second Pern story, Dragonrider, took the 1969 Nebula award in the same category. Continue reading “Anne McCaffrey Dead at 85”

You Cain’t Hiiiiiide, Yore Slutty Eyes

(With apologies to the Eagles for the title)

Saudi women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover even them up, if resolution is passed

Women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover them up under Saudi Arabia’s latest repressive measure, it was reported yesterday.

The ultra-conservative Islamic state has said it has the right to stop women revealing ‘tempting’ eyes in public.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, said a proposal to enshrine the measure in law has been tabled.

“Tabled” in western vernacular means postponed, but elsewhere, as in this use (I think), it means “presented for serious discussion.”

They’re gonna talk about it.

Because those seductive Arabic jezebels just insist on sparking the irresistible urges of  poor Arabic men.

BTW, this is from those jolly scamps of correct behavior, Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, who brought us 15 dead schoolgirls in 2002, when

… the committee refused to allow female students out of a burning school in the holy city of Mecca because they were not wearing correct head cover.