God Who Cares? (Atheist), DeYtH Banger, VeNgeR GrEenTag [book club books TXT] 📗

more than the individual. Amsterdam, once the most liberal of cities, a haven of commonsense, freedom and diversity, after forty years of determined multiculturalism, is now, in many areas, a dangerous place for anyone who displeases the Muslims. Women are abused, gays are hounded and beaten, clubs are picketed, politicians assassinated… all in the name of Allah. Denmark, once the most liberal, safe, and freedom-loving country on the planet, is now experiencing fear. Ethnic/cultural/religious violence and hatred stalk the streets along with fear of terrorists, and the imposition of oppressive laws – all in the name of respect for Muslim “culture”.

 

Despite these and other warning signs, Australia still promotes multiculturalism over pluralism. [Pluralism respects the individual, not the group]. Must we wait until we have no freedoms left before anything is done? I suspect we will be waiting forever, because the sole concern of governments is the profitability of business. Social stability is required for that, but stability is easiest to manage, particularly in the mega-cities that now sprawl across the globe like scabrous cancers, by Totalitarian government. There’s no profit in personal liberty, justice, or tolerance – they cost far too much and waste too much time. We know the air is becoming too poisonous to breathe, the land too degraded to grow food, the water too polluted to drink… but business can still make a profit and there’s no capital in proposing a reduction in the population, because all religions insist there can never be too many humans! That suits big business because unless the population continues to expand, the world’s Economies will stop expanding!

 

Meanwhile, there’s not much individuals can do except prepare for the worst while demanding that our elected leaders defend the freedoms our forefathers worked so hard and suffered for. It does seem pathetic that our ancestors died for our freedoms, whereas we are prepared give up those freedoms so we can live.

 

Personally, I agree with Patrick Henry: Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it…! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Appendix: It is not surprising that oppression is the preferred means of control by religion. After all, the Bible and the Qu’ran are full of god’s commands to oppress. Here are a few. [You can find lots more unnerving information regarding the Bible, Qu’ran and the book of Mormon at this site: Skeptics Annotated Bible

 

Genesis

* 7:4 God repeats his intention to kill “every living substance … from off the face of the earth.”
* 7:21-23 God drowns everything that breathes air. From newborn babies to koala bears
* 6:7, 17Solomon carries out the deathbed instructions of his father David by having Joab murdered. God is angry. He decides to destroy all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and “all flesh wherein there is breath of life.” He plans to drown them all.
* 11:16 Joab (David’s captain) spent six months killing every male in Edom.
* 15:29 Baasha kills “all of the house of Jeroboam” leaving none “to breath.” This slaughter was done “according to the word of the Lord.”
* 20:28-30 God delivers the Syrians into the Israelites hands, and 100,000 were killed in one day. Of those that escaped, 27,000 were crushed by a falling wall.
* 21:23-25 Jezebel (Ahab’s “strange” wife) “stirred up” Ahab to “work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.” To punish her, God will feed her dead body to the dogs. (He also plans to feed the city folk to the dogs and country folks to the birds.)
* 22:43, 46 Jehoshaphat “did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord” and ” exterminated the homosexuals”.
* 1:4, 17 Ahaziah was sick and sent messengers to Baalzebub to ask if he would recover. God was jealous of the attention given to his competitor and tells Ahaziah that he will die for asking the wrong god.
* 1:9-12 Elijah shows that he is “a man of God” by burning 102 men to death.
* 3:19-25 God instructs the Israelites, through the prophet Elisha, to implement a scorched earth policy on the Moabites. “Strike every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.”
* 9:33-37 God has Jezebel thrown off a wall. Her blood is sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, by which she is trampled. Her body is eaten by dogs and all that remains of it is her hands, feet, and skull. God says that she “shall be as dung upon the face of the field.”
* 10:7-42 Jehu murders every one of Ahab’s sons and family and followers – hundreds and hundreds then did the same to the followers of Baal. And God is greatly pleased with all of Jehu’s killings, saying “because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart [Jehu murdered them all], thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” 10:30
* 15:16 King Menahem rips up all the pregnant women in Tizzah “because they opened not to him.”
* 17:25-26 God sent lions to devour the foreigners in Samaria because “they feared not the Lord,” and even worse “they knew not the manner of the God of the land.”

The Bible says to kill your wife, your daughter, your son, your brother, your friend, etc… if they worship other gods. (Deu 13:6-10 NRSV) If anyone secretly entices you-even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend – saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” whom neither you nor your ancestors have known, any of the gods of the peoples that are around you, whether near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other, you must not yield to or heed any such persons. Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them. But you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Stone them to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, …

(Prov 23:13 NRSV) Do not withhold discipline from your children; if you beat them with a rod, they will not die. The bible says that beating people and inflicting wounds is good for them. (Prov 20:30 NRSV) Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts. (Exo 20:5 NRSV) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.”

The Qu’ran is no better…

1. The curse of Allah is on disbelievers. 2:89
2. Disbelievers will be burned with fire. 2:39, 2:90
3. Allah is an enemy to the disbelievers. 2:98
4. Only evil people are disbelievers. 2:99
5. Those who joke about Allah’s revelations will go to hell. Theirs will be an awful doom. 45:9-10
6. Marry of the women two, or three, or four. 4:3
7. Males are to inherit twice that of females. 4:11
8. Lewd women are to be confined to their houses until death. 4:15
9. You may not forcibly inherit women, unless they are flagrantly lewd. 4:19
10. Instructions for exchanging wives 4:20
11. Men are in charge of women, because Allah made men to be better than women.
12. Don’t pray if you are drunk, dirty, or have touched a woman lately. 4:43
13. Women are feeble and are unable to devise a plan. 4:98
14. When it’s time to pray and you have just used the toilet or touched a woman, be sure to wash up. If you can’t find any water, just rub some dirt on yourself. 5:6
15. A husband can accuse his wife of adultery with only one witness. 24:6
16. Believing women must lower their gaze and be modest, cover themselves with veils, and not reveal themselves except to their husbands, relatives, children, and slaves. 24:31
17. Allah will reward faithful Muslims after they die with “fair ones with wide, lovely eyes.” 44:54
18. If a man has sex with another man, kill them both. 20:13

Conflict between science, religion lies in our brains

 Date: March 23, 2016

Source: Case Western Reserve University

Summary: The conflict between science and religion may have its origins in the structure of our brains. To believe in a supernatural god or universal spirit, people appear to suppress the brain network used for analytical thinking and engage the empathetic network. When thinking analytically about the physical world, people appear to do the opposite.

 

 

The conflict between science and religion may have its origins in the structure of our brains, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Babson College have found.

 

 

Clashes between the use of faith vs. scientific evidence to explain the world around us dates back centuries and is perhaps most visible today in the arguments between evolution and creationism.

To believe in a supernatural god or universal spirit, people appear to suppress the brain network used for analytical thinking and engage the empathetic network, the scientists say. When thinking analytically about the physical world, people appear to do the opposite.

"When there's a question of faith, from the analytic point of view, it may seem absurd," said Tony Jack, who led the research. "But, from what we understand about the brain, the leap of faith to belief in the supernatural amounts to pushing aside the critical/analytical way of thinking to help us achieve greater social and emotional insight."

Jack is an associate professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve and research director of the university's Inamori International Center of Ethics and Excellence, which helped sponsor the research.

"A stream of research in cognitive psychology has shown and claims that people who have faith (i.e., are religious or spiritual) are not as smart as others. They actually might claim they are less intelligent.," said Richard Boyatzis, distinguished university professor and professor of organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve, and a member of Jack's team.

"Our studies confirmed that statistical relationship, but at the same time showed that people with faith are more prosocial and empathic," he said.

In a series of eight experiments, the researchers found the more empathetic the person, the more likely he or she is religious.

That finding offers a new explanation for past research showing women tend to hold more religious or spiritual worldviews than men. The gap may be because women have a stronger tendency toward empathetic concern than men.

Atheists, the researchers found, are most closely aligned with psychopaths--not killers, but the vast majority of psychopaths classified as such due to their lack of empathy for others.

The new study is published in the online journal PLOS ONE. The other authors are Jared Friedman, a research assistant and recent graduate in Philosophy and Cognitive Science who will begin his PhD in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve in the fall, and Scott Taylor, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Babson College.

 

Brain structure

 

The research is based on the hypothesis that the human brain has two opposing domains in constant tension. In earlier research,