Atheism

Minor nitpick: it was time to start worrying about Christian nationalism over twenty years ago. They've been trying to legitimize Christian nationalism since at least the founding of the "Moral Majority" when I was a boy. I've been trying to sound the alarm about Dominionism and Christian nationalism since the second Bush administration.

But if you're late to the game, fine. The second best time to start worrying about Christian nationalism is now.

A deep dive into the policies proposed in Project 2025 reveal the theocratic intent of its framers. Using language that evangelicals will recognize to hide its authoritarian intent demonstrates they recognize how unpopular these policies will be once implemented. But then it'll be too late.

These are the people tasked with developing policy for a second Trump administration. If you're not deeply scared of what they're proposing, you are not paying attention.

The worst part isn't even that they're trying to do this. Of course they've been wanting to do this ever since they started losing power during the Enlightenment. The worst part is that the average American either doesn't know about this, or has somehow talked themselves into believing it's not a real threat. We're watching the scene play out in which the man says, "of course the leopards won't eat my face!"

Because clearly, what we need is yet another Christian Nationalist secret society that only offers membership to men. Right.

Dammit, The Handmaid's Tale is not supposed to be a guidebook!

FTA:

Since the installation of the current conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court, RFRA has been used several times to advance Christian, conservative interests. In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court held that Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policies violated RFRA by precluding a Catholic adoption agency from contracting with the city because it refused to place children with LGBTQ+ families. The court also used the free exercise clause and RFRA to invalidate the mandate for employers to provide contraceptive coverage in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The Ninth Circuit itself relied on the free exercise clause to overturn a public school’s decision not to recognize a Christian student group that required students to hold Christian beliefs to join in Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District.

As Western bombs rain on Gaza’s starving civilians, the New Atheism turns 20. The philosophical genre, which argues for secularism over organized religion, was kick-started by Sam Harris. His 2004 book, The End of Faith, promoted neuroscience-based spirituality in place of irrational groupthink. The philosopher, Daniel Dennett, soon followed with Breaking the Spell (2006), as did the evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, with his 2 million unit-selling, The God Delusion. The late essayist, Christopher Hitchens, completed the quartet, known as the Four Horsemen, publishing God Is Not Great (2007).

Inspired by the attacks of September 11th, the genre appeared on the scene shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It became immediately clear that the Four Horsemen were exploiting Enlightenment principles to justify the bombing of women and children in third world nations. Muslim terrorists are not aggrieved by Western foreign policy, the authors claim, but rather by their fanatical devotion to their faith. The decimation of Iraq was not motivated by elite US strategies to control oil markets, but because “god” told Bush to invade. The state does not exploit religious differences for cynical realpolitik; but rather, hateful mobs randomly attack each other because of their different belief systems.

As I document in my latest book, The New Atheism Hoax, the authors concocted a major fraud. In case after case, their own sources say the opposite of what they claim. This doesn’t happen a few times. It happens almost every time.

With the exception of Hitchens whom, in his final years, became a right-winger, the attention of liberals was diverted by the seductive, anti-religiosity of the New Atheists. Instead of analyzing the world through the only lens that matters—realpolitik—progressives were invited to divide the world into the simple dialectics promoted by George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden’s speechwriters: that of a “clash of civilizations,” to use a phrase popularized by Samuel P. Huntington.

"I dare you to pass this bill and allow me to send chaplains to your schools." -not a verbatim quote.

Reprinted from Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them-A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken by permission of Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright c Al Franken, Inc., 2003. "Supply Side Jesus" illustrations c Don Simpson. All rights reserved. This excerpt, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission.

A 1998 book by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández featuring provocative, sexually-charged themes has resurfaced, likely adding further scrutiny to the already embattled prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine office.

Titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” the 26-year-old work includes graphic descriptions of human sexual relations and discussion of what the Argentinian theologian describes as “mystical orgasm.”

The nearly 100-page-long book also depicts in detail an imaginary erotic encounter with Jesus Christ on the shores of Galilee, which Fernández said was based on a spiritual experience disclosed to him by a 16-year-old girl.

Trevor reviews the state of evangelical attempts to trash science in favor of their beliefs.

(podcast)

scientists led by archaeologist Prof Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver say the truth may be far more gruesome. “There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities,” said Collard.

Keri Ladouceur no longer calls herself an Evangelical Christian.

Like many younger members of this sprawling American religious tradition, she’s left what she says has become a movement mostly defined by aggressive white conservatism and Christian nationalism, the prerogatives of male privilege, and a near obsession with regulating human sexuality.

Brian Dalton reviews the immorality of Mosaic Law and deconstructs the apologetic that says Yahweh didn't reveal his perfect moral code because we weren't ready for it.

Crosspost from !atheism@feddit.de.

An overview of studies which investigate correlations between morality and religious vs. secular / atheist ideologies presented by Phil Zuckerman who is a professor of sociology and secular studies at the Claremont colleges in California, USA.

Summary: Atheists / secular people not only have morals but are even more moral than religious people.

Note: Of course moral is a matter of perspective. In this context we agree that compassion and empathy are our foundations of moral.

Mike Johnson seems to have forgotten he's been elected to public office, not to church leadership. Conflating the two violates our First Amendment right to freedom of conscience.