Blasphemy to be added to the statute books?

It's been a while since I posted. There have been a few issues I've parked and to which I will return but today this caught my eye and raised my ire. It’s 2009, yet tomorrow the Irish parliamentary committee on justice is considering a new defamation bill including the introduction of a new blasphemy law. Are we not at the cutting edge of modern European secularism? I know the Celtic tiger is in hiding licking its wounds but I thought that its one legacy was the abandonment of catholic guilt. Yet now the Minister for Justice is proposing an amendment to the defamation bill to include the crime of blasphemous libel.
Although there is no crime of blasphemy in Ireland, article 40 of the constitution states :
"The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law".

Now Dermot Ahern wants to introduce the following :
“A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000.”

As our nation moves into a new era of enlightenment, why are our leaders moving into the dark ages, afraid of criticism of the invisible imaginary man in the sky. Is this to protect the catholic church or the muslim imams? How can the Irish atheist express opposition to the very idea of a deity without now drawing the wrath of the law and a €100,000 fine.
I for one, will be writing to my TD to ask his (they are all men in my constituency) opinion on this matter.
Kudos to Pat Rabbitte who is proposing to reduce the fine to €1,000 and “allow” blashemy with literary, artistic, social or academic merit. Do any of our representatives have the guts to make the logical stand, seeing as there is no proof of a deity, remove the need to defend it from both the law and the constitution.

Zero Albedo 29 April 2009

Get on board the Atheist Bus. Next stop Ireland?

If you’re commuting or touring around the UK in the next few weeks, you may see a strange looking advertisement on the side of public transport city buses.

The slogan is simple and thought provoking:

“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”

It all started when a writer, Ariane Sherine saw a religious ad on a bus and after following the URL, found it to be a Christian website which stated that non-believers would be“condemned to everlasting separation from God and then spend all eternity in torment in hell”.

She started campaign on the Guardian’s Comment is free blog to raise money for an atheist bus ad. Her initial intention was to raise around £5000. So far the campaign has raised nearly £140,000. Supported by the Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins, the campaign has taken off spectacularly.

The “probably”, in my opinion, serves two purposes. It provides a less strident, less dogmatic message, so as not to preach to the reader. But it also gets it past the Standards Authority as it’s not making a claim it cannot back up. I find this last one hilarious, as any alternative message claiming the existence of a god is completely un-provable.

There are plans for a second wave of bus ads in April so maybe Dawkins can get to show his teeth on those. He’s already suggesting, on his website risharddawkins.net, “there’s no such thing as a …. Child” (insert religion of choice), or a long list of ex-Gods (Mithras, Zeus, Horus, Wotan etc), all crossed out, with Yahweh and Allah crossed out, or, a favourite of mine, “Religions: They can’t all be right. They can all be wrong”.

Meanwhile buses around the world are being adorned with atheist messages.
In Washington DC, USA, the American Humanist Association launched the bus ad "Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness' sake."
In Genoa, Italy, the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists plan to launch "The bad news is that God does not exist. The good news is that you don't need him", in February.
In Barcelona, a translation of the London slogan is used.

According to Irish Times, the Humanist Association of Ireland has no plans to follow with its own campaign. This is a shame, as it so obviously hit the public mood in the UK. I see no reason for it to fail here in Ireland.

Zero Albedo
15 Jan 2009

Santa Claus - First step to critical thinking

This post is a bit late. I was hoping to have it up on or about xmas day.

The question is: What's the difference between belief in Santa Claus and belief in Jesus Christ?
Further to the question, children are disabused of their belief in Santa and it's seen as a right of passage into adulthood, whereas Christians continue to believe in Jesus into adulthood and old age.
But, what is the difference? Two fictitious, bearded men, with some tenuous, millennium-old basis in reality.

In the Western world, children are encouraged and taught to believe in Jesus and Santa. The former to be a Galilean carpenter, born to a virgin, son of a god, performer of miracles, raised from the dead and sent to this planet to save every human soul. The latter to be an inhabitant of the North Pole (or at least Lapland), master of an army of toy-building elves, owner of flying reindeer, able to overcome time and space by visiting every child’s home in a single night and can enter any home at will via the chimney.
(However he can also gain illicit entry to apartments by some other as-yet-unexplained method.)

Two supernatural, immortal, beings. Each possessed of magical powers beyond the explanation of science.

Adults conspire to teach children that both of these men exist and have some sort of magical powers. Each can see if we’re “naughty or nice” and each has the ability to reward and punish us, in this world and in the next respectively.

Children all over the world believe in both Santa and Jesus with equal fervor. And by the age of 10, they have realized, either by themselves or with the help of older friends and siblings that one is a fake. It can be traumatic at the time, but I don’t think any adult has been emotionally or psychologically damaged by the Santa Claus conspiracy.

As easy as it is to make people realize that Santa is a fake, it is equally difficult to overcome the cult that is Christianity. Any attempt to persuade someone that the Jesus-myth has as much relevance as the Santa-myth results in accusations of blasphemy, heresy and disrespect for the church.

What is the reason for Santa? In the familial sense, he is a method of delivering presents to children. Why can’t parents own-up to giving these gifts? In the commercial sense, he fuels a huge industry of toy, game and equipment manufacturing as well as advertising and distribution. Christmas as a season is grossly commercialized event that has evolved out of control.

Ironically, the celebration of the birth of Jesus has been overshadowed by visit of his Nordic counterpart.
At least the adult population is aware of Santa’s status. i.e. Fiction.

These two peas in a pod should be treated with equal contempt. One for encouraging commercialization and unnecessary consumerism, the other for discouraging free-thought and critical thinking about the world around us.

Perhaps we can take some solace from the fact that it is easy and harmless to prove the non-existence of Santa. That every child experiences the reality and accepts it. Maybe belief in Santa and the inevitable reality-check can be used as a prototype for helping others to see the equally ridiculous beliefs held as true.

Happy New Year 2009.

Zero Albedo
03 Jan 2009

Getting Started - SGU

As this blog evolves, I'm sure it will cover all the topics and subtopics that concern the sceptical community at large. I'll be making a list and hopefully get into the rhythm of regular postings.
I'm not sure what my "mission statement" is but it should become apparent as time goes on.
In the meantime to get the ball rolling, I'll share how I was introduced to the community.

As an amateur astronomer, I am a regular listener to the Astronomy Cast podcast hosted by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Astronomy, beginner or expert. Each week they tackle a subject in a clear and easy to follow manner. Galaxies, Black Holes, the Moon etc. Over the last few years they've recorded over 100 weekly casts and are now producing two every week. The standard podcast and second one, answering listener questions.

Check them out in iTunes or at www.astronomycast.com

Back in the summer of 2007, Fraser and Pamela were guests on the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast and mentioned the fact on their podcast.
So I listened to that episode and compared to the very education orientation of Astronomy Cast, I found it a bit frivolous and light hearted.

I didn't listen again for a while until I heard some other mentions of the Skeptics' Guide and decided to give it a try. I started listening to the latest casts and eventually, once I'd become familiar with the "Rogues" I went back and listened to every episode from the beginning. Some 100 podcasts. Now I'm hooked and wait avidly for the Saturday morning upload.

I'll leave the review of the Skeptic's Guide to another day. Suffice to say that it was my Gateway Podcast. From there I picked up Skepticality and Skeptoid and from there Science Talk, Science Weekly etc.

There's now a Skeptics' Guide 5x5 podcast also. As the main podcast is regularly over an hour long, this is a bit-size 5 minute cast covering a particular topic or news item.

One thing that becomes apparent is that there is a larger community out there and most people are not aware that others share their outlook and view of the world. The podcasts are great for opening up the avenues and recommending resources such as books and websites.

As time goes on I'll review the various podcasts, books, websites etc.

Keep reading. Keep thinking.

Zero Albedo
23 Dec 2008

Welcome

I am a sceptic. I am an atheist.

It is with these words that I embark upon a new journey. It is with these words that I enter the fray.

I had planned to start this blog in the New Year. But tonight it struck me that the New Year is but the creation of man. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar to suit our needs. If I mean to begin, why not now? Why begin a task at an arbitrary number such as the 1st of January?

The use of time and calendars. The subject of a future blog entry? (I must start keeping a list)

Anyhoo, here I am. After a bottle of cheap wine, I decided that I would re-invent my blog from a collection of family photos (dogs and babies) into a proper sceptical, critical, secular, humanist, scientific, analysis of the world around us. I’ve been a by-stander for too long. A listener, a reader. Rather than be a consumer of podcasts, a reader of blogs, websites and the occasional book. Why not contribute something to the nascent conflict that is raging below the surface? I think this will become the theme of this collection. As the economic system collapses, as the new world order establishes itself, as the reality of our ecological dire straits becomes apparent, a larger shift in our affairs is about to happen, in my opinion.

The technology available to the average western person is beyond the dreams of our ancestors. We are no longer reliant on “The Media” for our news, education or entertainment. We are entering an era where the self-published opinion is all. We don’t have to wait for the established organs to produce a daily newspaper, a cinema newsreel, a lunchtime radio bulletin, a 9 o’clock news. The news is everywhere. Youtube, the blogosphere, podcasts. We can learn more about what interests us now. Immediately.

We can subscribe to the podcasts that cover our particular topic of interest. We can listen to the digital radio channels that play our favourite music. We can read the news aggregators that give us the headlines we want to read.

In essence, we are becoming worldwide communities of taxidermists, genealogists and phillumenists (look it up).

As the scope becomes narrower, the detail becomes more intricate.

So it is into this new medium I enter. It is my opinion that we are about to embark upon a new age. Next year, next decade, next century. It is inevitable that the human race will awaken from millennia of superstition and belief in the paranormal. As a species, we are detecting planets orbiting distant stars. We are unlocking the secrets of the conception of the universe. We are bridging the gaps in the fossil record to uncover how we evolved to this stage.

Thus I look forward to an age when we can, as a species, abandon forever the redundant belief in a magical supernatural being, who listens to our thoughts, answers our prayers, promises eternal happiness and provokes hatred for our fellow man. I look forward to an age when we can see the world and universe around us as the wonder of scientific, evolutionary and astronomical beauty that it is. I look forward to an age when we can appreciate the time we have on this planet, use it to achieve our potential and treat each other with the respect we deserve.

I presume the following entries won’t be as prosaic as this one. I hope to get into the details of why religion is past its sell-by-date. Why alternative medicine is doing more harm than good. Why we live at the pinnacle of human evolution, yet cling to mad superstitious beliefs in the afterlife that prevent us from achieving our potential here and now on this insignificant rock, orbiting an average star in an mediocre neighbourhood of middling galaxy in a universe that we don’t fully understand.

However you’ve found your way to discovering this blog, keep reading. Keep thinking. Question everything. I’m only stumbling through the darkness, trying to find some truth. But as we analyse the evidence, establish the facts, stand on the shoulders of giants and move forwards rather than backwards, if I persuade one person to think rationally and abandon a superstitious, dangerous, belief, then I’ve achieved something.

Zero Albedo
19 Dec 2008