An Atheistic Examination of the Culture of Belief: How Religious Devotion Trivializes American Law and Politics

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August 2002

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American Atheists has officially weighed in on the controversy over the couple who had sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral as part of a shock jock radio competition. Noting that "at least no children were involved" in the stunt, AA chastised the FCC for fast-tracking the investigation. However, AA's main objection appears to be to the identity of the complainant -- the Catholic League -- and its "long history and unhealthy precedent of demanding that plays, lectures, newspaper and magazine articles which in any way offend the sensibilities of the League be censored." The Raving Atheist dislikes the Catholic League for... (1013 Words)

Washington, D.C., August 29, 2002 Special to The Raving Atheist The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yesterday filed a religious discrimination suit against American Airlines for refusing to hire a Muslim woman, Rania Fneiche, who wanted to wear the terror-inducing Islamic Hijab scarf on the job. According to EEOC spokesman Peter Hanson, the airline failed to make a reasonable accommodation to Fneiche's right to scare the living bejesus out of already jittery airline passengers by donning the Allah-inspired head covering. "American passengers have a right to be greeted by the friendly, threatening face of Islam as they board what they then... (414 Words)

Happy Mann (his real name) is not a happy man. Mr. Mann is a Sikh who's sick that a Canadian helmet law doesn't exempt turban-wearing children from donning protective headgear while riding bicycles. The authorities aren't buying his claim that wrapped cloth is as hard as polyurethane, and he's rebuffed their proposal to ask manufacturers to modify the helmets to fit around the turbans (he claims the new odd-looking helmets would subject the children to taunts, the bullies apparently having already tired of mocking the turbans themselves). So he'll go to the Alberta human rights commission to preserve the kids'... (372 Words)

The Vatican, Rome, August 27, 2002 Special to The Raving Atheist In an historic agreement with an international team of scientists, the Catholic Church has abandoned its opposition to capital punishment in favor of new method of execution. A committee of Cardinals, in consultation with top neurologists and psychologists, have developed a substitute for lethal injection which is not only painless but actually makes death a welcome event. Instead of an injection, the following three passages about the Trinity from Garry Wills' Why I Am A Catholic -- digitized into physicist Stephen Hawkins' synthesized electronic voice -- are piped into... (646 Words)

The Squad declares war on The Raving Atheist this week, in response to a mother who's upset that her bright 15-year old son Sean is "wrestling with the existence of God" and has announced that he is an agnostic. After encouraging her to "be glad that Sean is only an agnostic and not yet an atheist," the Squad offers its "best proofs for God." Things get somewhat hurtful at the end of the answer, when the Squad suggests that atheists have "no reason to get out of bed in the morning and no reason to believe that life has an... (1026 Words)

Chicago, Illinois, August 25, 2002 Special to The Raving Atheist In a bid at entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, author Garry Wills has written a 390 page book entitled "Why I Am A Catholic" which never actually discusses his reasons for believing in God or Catholic doctrine. Ian McWhirter, Director of Record Authentication at Guinness Publishing, suggested Friday that Wills' feat could well be certified as a record in the category "Longest Book Which Never Addresses the Very Subject it is Purportedly Devoted To" by early next week. That category, part of the chapter on literary records,... (830 Words)

Radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony have been fired because one of their producers encouraged a couple to have sex in a cathedral. Note to Cardinal Egan (repeat ten times): When sex in a church results from the negligent supervision of an employee, the supervisor must be fired. When sex in a church results from the negligent supervision of an employee the supervisor must be fired. When sex . . .... (71 Words)

As I noted in an earlier Rave, the Cobb County Georgia School Board assigned its attorney the daunting task of drafting a policy requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution, despite unambiguous Supreme Court precedent forbidding school boards from requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Their counsel has now devised an ingenious scheme to circumvent that legal obstacle: ">a new policy requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. The ACLU, which filed suit against the board Wednesday to make it remove illegal disclaimers regarding evolution from its science textbooks, has vowed to amend that suit to torpedo the new... (118 Words)

Kathy Kinsley has an interesting item on the potential benefits of an Islamic reformation similar to the Protestant one -- the idea being that if the Muslims splinter into a sufficient number of competing rival sects, they'll all hate each other so much that they'll adopt a secular government for the purpose of mutual self-defense.... (55 Words)

Construction of Britain's first Eruv began Tuesday. The American landscape is already dotted with these pole-and-fishing-line-structures, which extend the borders of the house in an imaginary way so that Orthodox Jews can carry objects outside on the Sabbath, an activity otherwise prohibited by an imaginary god. The chief beneficiaries of eruvs are young children and the elderly, who would be housebound without the use of strollers, wheelchairs and canes. So far, two American courts have ruled that a municipality may permit public lands to be used for an eruv without violating the First Amendment's ban on establishing or promoting religion.... (544 Words)

The Fellbrigg Inn in Sheffield, England is being turned into a church -- the first time a pub has been so converted since the 19th century. I guess they'll still serve alcohol at Communion; the main difference will be that the incoherent rambling will begin before the drinking starts.... (49 Words)

After Dennis Heiner splashed white paint over the "Blessed Virgin" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, the sentencing judge declared the act to be one "not of hate, but of love" and let him off with a $250 fine. It is doubtful that the couple who this week engaged in the first act of love ever at St. Patrick's Cathedral -- that is, the first consensual act of love between two adults -- will be so lucky. Technically the charges are obscenity in the third degree and public lewdness, but the uncharged crime of "sacrilege" is what will weigh most heavily... (338 Words)

Child abductions, rapes and murders may now be prevented by chanting "in the name of Jesus Christ, I bind Satan and all his sex-perverted and lust demons off these children." The full incantation (from a letter to the editor of the Alabama Dothan Eagle) may be found at The Raven.... (51 Words)

">The Washington Post addressed the "complicated theological issue" of the efficacy of so-called "flare prayers" -- prayers made to avert death in an emergency situation. The unchallenged premise of the piece, of course, is that there is a god (and just one) and that it listens to prayers. The only unsettled issue, apparently, is what to say to Him and what sort of response to expect. The consensus among the clergy interviewed for the article is that 1) God answers some prayers, 2) God denies some prayers, 3) we can't know which choice God will make in a given... (341 Words)

New York, New York, September 12, 2001 Special to The Raving Atheist God today answered the prayers of thousands of relatives that their missing loved ones would be found alive among the ruins of the World Trade Center towers. His answer, however, was an emphatic "No." "Not even one," God said. "In fact," He added, "not only will you never see them alive again, but the few of you who even get to see the corpses of your kin will have little to gaze upon except badly charred, unrecognizable chunks of flesh and assorted body parts." God added that it... (435 Words)

Norah Vincent has joined the blogging community. The Raving Atheist looks forward to more baffling and incoherent god talk from her to feed his musings.... (25 Words)

The Squad this week explains how to achieve peace in this Middle East, in response to a reader who is heartbroken over all the violence and wants to know what she can do. Their answer: "You can pray." The suggested prayer is long, though, a full four paragraphs, and you have to address God as "Oh God" or "Oh Lord" each time you make a recommendation to him. One specific piece of advice the Squad makes to God is to "[h]elp the Israeli people and the Palestinian people maintain their courage during this time of terror and help them to... (201 Words)

Another annoyingly smug, patronizing and clueless article about atheism in today's New York Times, in connection with the debate over whether to exclude certain Satanist groups from November's Godless Americans March on Washington . The ignorance begins with the headline, "A Turf Battle Between Non-Believers," which, of course, begs the very question in dispute – whether Satanists are in fact non-believers. The author then chuckles that "even atheists" have boundary problems, suggesting that the reader should be surprised that people so indiscriminate as to be godless would be in a position to object any kind of crackpot marching in their... (152 Words)

Golders Green, England, August 17, 2002 Special to The Raving Atheist In a move guaranteed to provide greater freedom to children, the elderly and the disabled, a north London suburb will erect 84 poles, each up to 30 feet in height, and connect them with fishing line, according to The New York Times. "For twelve years, it was impossible to use strollers, canes or wheelchairs on Saturday," said Golders Green resident Abraham Steinberg. "Once the town is enmeshed in an incomprehensibly complex web of string and sticks, the problem will be mercifully remedied. The town board decided to approve the... (408 Words)

I pity the attorney for the Cobb County Georgia School Board. Yesterday, the board unanimously voted to ask him or her to craft a policy permitting the teaching of scientific creationism alongside evolution. I don't know how clever their lawyer is, but whatever policy is drafted will have overcome an unbroken line of Supreme Court and federal court precedent which 1) forbids a state from requiring the teaching of creationism alongside evolution; 2) permits a school district to prohibit the teaching of creationism; 3) forbids a state from banning the teaching of evolution; 4) holds that the teaching of evolution... (222 Words)

In yesterday's Rave I reviewed the Catholic Church's new non-proselytization policy towards the Jews. This move puts Catholics at odds with evangelical Protestants, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC passed a resolution in 1996 calling for renewed efforts at spreading the gospel to Jews, and in 1999 prayed during the High Holy Holidays for the Jews to convert. As noted in the Boston Globe, the SBC has, in response to the Catholic Church's latest declaration, reaffirmed its policy of evangelizing Jews. The SBC position has been harshly condemned by the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL issued a press release... (528 Words)

An ecumenical coalition representing American Catholics and Jews has condemned the targeting of Jews for conversion to Christianity. In a document released Monday -- Reflections on Covenant and Mission -- the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with the National Council of Synagogues in declaring that such conversions, practiced for most of the Roman Catholic Church's 2,000 year history, are no longer acceptable. To The Raving Atheist, of course, this all sounds a bit like the Society of People Who Believe They're Napoleon agreeing not to convert members of the Society of People Who Believe They're Julius Caesar. I... (310 Words)

The Squad cruelly baits The Raving Atheist this week, answering the first question -- "Do you think the rescue of those nine miners in Pennsylvania was a miracle?" -- with an "Absolutely!" The Squad gushes that "[t]hose men and their rescuers in Pennsylvania are not only our heroes, they are also our spiritual teachers in the ways of seeing miracles just by looking up," pointing out that one of the miners said that "God was the 10th man buried down there with us." Ignoring the Squad's inane characterization of passive, helpless (and now Disney-enriched) victims as "heroes" because it does... (666 Words)

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Guatemalan village which is the birthplace of the conjoined twins who were separated last week is crediting marathon prayer sessions for the success of the operation. The Raving Atheist is not surprised that an ignorant, impoverished, superstitious people who have no running water or electricity, much less doctors, would reach such a conclusion, but is nevertheless irritated at how the mainstream press presents such stories: always as a glowing tribute to the "simple faith" of a noble people who, for all we know, may well be right.... (94 Words)

In an earlier Rave, I expressed my distaste for syncretism, the namby-pamby, ecumenical practice which proclaims that "we all worship the same God." As I have pointed out, ceaselessly, there is no God, and, even if there were, as a matter of logic, only one of the countless gods that are currently worshipped could be him. However, if what Pope Leo VIII said in 1885 is true, I may reconsider: To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the... (179 Words)

Sherry F. Colb, a Rutgers law professor raised as an Orthodox Jew, has written an excellent analysis of why the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was correct in striking down New York's kosher laws. The Orthodox Union, of course, simply issued an unreasoned whine upon hearing of the decision. Nobody seems to have learned much from the whole Kosher controversy. California last month enacted the Halal Food Bill making it a crime to falsely advertise that food has been prepared to Allah's taste. New Jersey, Minnesota, and Illinois already have such legislation, and New York, Texas, and Virginia are supposedly... (187 Words)

Norah Vincent has written a "ya gotta have faith" piece so theologically clueless that it leaves even scripture-spouting fundamentalists who agree with it scratching their heads. Jason Steffens of the Christian Conservative blog Antioch Road opines that it "ultimately makes a good point, but says some poorly reasoned things in the process" and questions why Vincent had to say "a bunch of nonsense in order to get to that point." The Raving Atheist agrees that the piece is a poor reasoned bunch of nonsense, but cannot for the life of him figure out exactly what her point is. Like most... (622 Words)

In Sunday's Rave, I forecast defeat for New York State's appellate efforts to employ Orthodox Kosher law as the sole measure of whether food has God's blessing. However, even if I am correct, the state's role in discerning Yahweh's culinary tastes will by no means end. Indeed, it may well expand in a number of noxious and expensive ways. The problem is this. Although the Second Circuit struck down the Kosher laws on the ground that they unnecessarily entangled the state in religious determinations, it nevertheless opined that New York has a legitimate "secular purpose" in protecting Kosher purchasers from... (1616 Words)

The Squad serves up juicier theological meat than usual this week, answering a letter from a Roman Catholic soldier (employed by Operation Enduring Freedom) who wants to know, despite the Fifth (or Jewish Sixth) commandment, if it's okay to kill. Apparently this question never arose during the lad's decades of religious training, nor occurred to him until, after joining the Army, he was forced to sign a document agreeing to defend America against all its enemies. He did have the foresight, however, to ask the Squad rather than the military chaplains, who, he detected, were "biased in favor of the... (464 Words)

In an earlier Rave, I bemoaned the use of my tax dollars to accommodate the religious dietary demands of incarcerated criminals. Being in a cheerful mood, I allowed that the state could (until such time I was declared Atheist Philosopher King) use God's recipes, as long as every God got His due. My charity at the time was inspired by the knowledge that, just a couple of months earlier, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned New York's odious Kosher laws. Specifically, the court ruled that by mandating the imposition of Orthodox Kosher standards upon a Conservative Jewish Kosher... (378 Words)

Religion should re-invent itself as "postsecularism" and thus reap all the benefits that incomprehensibility has brought to postmodernism, says Peter Steinfels in today's ">New York Times. "[T]he eccentricities of prose and obscurities of jargon that are tolerated, even welcomed, among the post[modernists] suggest a different strategy for achieving both scholarly standing and intellectual leeway," he suggests. Moreover, even though there is a debate over whether the postmodernists are talking nonsense, this has not "detracted from the theorists' standing" or posed "a disadvantage in gaining intellectual cachet or establishing academic legitimacy." From whom, exactly, does Mr. Steinfels think the postmodernists took... (472 Words)

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