Indonesian man jailed for two-and-a-half years for writing ¿God doesn¿t exist¿ on his Facebook page. By Sara Malm Published: 21:34 GMT, 14 June 2012 | Updated: 21:35 GMT, 14 June 2012 An Indonesian man was jailed for 30 months after writing "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page.
Alexander Aan, 30, was imprisoned on Thursday for sharing explicit material about the Prophet Mohammed online. He started an atheist group on Facebook on which he shared comic strips of the prophet having sex with his servant, a court in western Sumatra heard today. Alexander Aan, 30, waits in the jail holding area during his verdict at the Muaro Sijunjung district court in West Sumatra today He was found guilty of 'deliberately spreading information inciting religious hatred and animosity', presiding judge Eka Prasetya Budi Dharma told the Muaro Sijunjung district court in western Sumatra. Is he a believer now? Atheist Richard Dawkins SUPPORTS plan for free bibles in schools. Scientist 'shocked' all schools didn't already have oneBut admits he hopes scheme will put pupils off religion'Whatever else Bible might be, it is not a moral book' By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 10:13 GMT, 20 May 2012 | Updated: 06:37 GMT, 21 May 2012 Unlikely supporter: Atheistic scientist Richard Dawkins (above) is backing a Government scheme that is supplying state schools with King James Bibles He is the arch-atheist whose best-selling book The God Delusion argues that belief in a supernatural creator is irrational and harmful to society.
So it may come as some surprise to learn that Richard Dawkins has thrown his full support into a scheme to send free King James Bibles to every state school. The plan, backed by Church leaders, was announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove earlier this year in the hope children will learn about the religious text's impact 'on our history, language, literature and democracy'. In Defense of “Spiritual”
(Photo by Stuck in Customs) In writing my next book, I will have to confront the animosity that many people feel for the term “spiritual.”
Whenever I use the word—as in referring to meditation as a “spiritual practice”—I inevitably hear from fellow skeptics and atheists who think that I have committed a grievous error. The word “spirit” comes from the Latin spiritus, which in turn is a translation of the Greek pneuma, meaning “breath.” Why are believers ignorant about atheists? Did you hear the one about the Anglican minister who said atheists have no reason for grief?
I wish I was joking. I’m not. In a widely disseminated and discussed opinion piece, Anglican minister Rev. Gavin Dunbar made an interesting and even compelling argument that grief is necessary for love and humanity… and then went on to argue that, unless you believe in God, you have no reason to care whether the people you love live or die, or even to love them in the first place. S.A.S.H. Your religion is what they say it is « weird things. Did you know that Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and Kim Jong Il aren’t just responsible for millions of deaths and some of the most wretched atrocities against fellow humans in the past century, they’re also the ultimate proof that atheism is evil?
No? Really? Yeah, neither did I considering that Hitler was a Catholic who constantly mentioned God and his divine mission in Mein Kampf, Stalin was a seminarian and Asia’s communist dictators were and are very far from both atheistic or communistic. Meaning and Nothingness - A personal journey by James A. Haught. Church of Awesome. New Humanist (Rationalist Association) - discussing humanism, rationalism, atheism and free thought. The Guardian has a disturbing report on the plight of Alexander Aan, an Indonesian civil servant who is currently in custody and facing an 11-year prison sentence for expressing his atheism on Facebook.
In Indonesia, the law guarantees citizens freedom of religion, but only as long as they adhere to Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism. Why criminals believe in heaven: Study finds crime rates vary according to religious beliefs. Research in the US finds higher crime rates in nations where most people believe in punishment in the afterlifeStudy examined data from more than 140,000 people in 67 countries By Rob Preece Published: 21:19 GMT, 23 June 2012 | Updated: 06:49 GMT, 25 June 2012 Crime rates are higher in countries where more people believe in heaven than in hell, researchers have found.
The finding emerged from a study into 26 years of data involving more than 140,000 people from almost 70 nations. The results suggest that people are more likely to feel they can get away with criminal behaviour if they don't believe they could be punished in the afterlife. Punishment: A US police officer makes an arrest. Academics discovered that offences such as murders, robberies and rapes were more common in societies where punishment forms an important part of people's religious beliefs. Mark Morford: How to Make a Creationist Weep. Do you want to know the real reason Barack Obama is going to win the 2012 election?
The big, grinning hunk of overwhelming evidence that has little to do with the not-very-terrific job he's doing and not nearly enough to do with the fact that the man has actually accomplished quite a lot, despite being savaged and hobbled and compromised at nearly every turn? New Humanist Magazine (Rationalist Association) Blog Archive » Attenborough reveals creationist hate mail for not crediting God. NEXUS: Criminal History of the Papacy - Part 1/3. The DeathList 2012. 5 Steps to Getting Unstuck and Pursuing Your Goals. Jordan English Gross is the Founder/COO of Saber Seven, a new media company developing sites like Dorthy.com connecting people with content.
He blogs at blog.dorthy.com and can be reached using @jordanenglish. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural Introduction | "R" Reading | Curse of the Pharaoh | End-of-the-World Prophecies Index | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z At long last we're able to get this Encyclopedia up online.
It's created with David Joffe's dictionary compilation software TshwaneLex, and it's a labor of love on the part of my good friend Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. We are very grateful for their generous donation of talent, time, and dedication. James Randi Educational Foundation. Creating God in one's own image : Not Exactly Rocket Science. For many religious people, the popular question “What would Jesus do?” Bart Ehrman - Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code. Disbelief Is Not a Choice. When the contemporary secular movement is compared to the gay rights movement, objections are sometimes raised by those who distinguish between the two on biological grounds.
Whereas sexual orientation is not a choice, the argument goes, one's religious outlook is. Marginalia on Radical Thinking: An Interview with Graham Harman « The Loyal Opposition to Modernity: Graham Harman is a professor of philosophy at the American University in Cairo, one of the prime-movers of Object-Oriented philosophy and Speculative Realism as development in post-Continental philosophy, as well as an excellent writer on Latour and Heidegger as well as H.P. Civic life and law must bind us, not ritual and religion. No surprise that the Queen defends the established church, as she is the anointed defender of the faith. In a week of attacks on secularism she has invented a new role: "not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.
" Who is threatening the free practice of any faith? RationalWiki. Secular Web: The Lies of the Encyclopedia Britannica. You must acknowledge that you have read the following disclaimer in order to view documents in the Historical Library. The Historical Library contains writings written before 1970, only. For material written during or after 1970, please refer to the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library. This Historical Library is provided for those doing research into the history of nontheism. Famous Atheists and Freethinkers.
Miracle buster: Why I traced holy water to leaky drain- 03 July 2012. The priest and the very active Catholic laity organisations associated with the Our Lady of Velankanni church in Mumbai were promoting the idea that water dripping from the feet of a statue of Jesus was a sign from God. I'm Condemned to Eternal Damnation!