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

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Amanda of Pandagon wonders where atheist author Sam Harris stands on "sperm magic," i.e. abortion. Because he's apparently sympathetic to one form of magic -- reincarnation -- she's concerned that his irrationality may extend to an embrace of the pro-life philosophy. No need to worry. In the The End of Faith he compares fetuses to rabbits, and in Letter to a Christian Nation, as Nicholas Kristof points outs, he mocks conservative Christians for opposing abortion. Although he hasn't written extensively on the subject, I suspect his views on later-term abortions aren't materially different from Amanda's -- he's somewhat queasy about... (309 Words)

At first I assumed that Dawn Eden was being overgenerous in her defense of Feminsting and BushvChoice blogger Jessica Valenti. But however much I reject certain aspects of Valenti's worldview, I must concede that the attempts to demean her efforts and flufferize her reputation are reprehensible. I have closely followed both of Valenti's blogs for over a year. She is as serious and intelligent a political blogger as any. However misguided I believe her to be, she is always informative and certainly conducts her blogs with more dignity than I did mine for most of its run. To dismiss what... (158 Words)

[NOTE The following is a revised and updated version of a post I recently published on another blog]. In an effort to generate money and public support for a bill targeting allegedly deceptive advertising by crisis pregnancy clinics, Planned Parenthood is now circulating the following unsourced anecdote by means of a "ActionAlert" mass e-mail generator: An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group -- one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic,... (884 Words)

Women sometimes "choose" not to have an abortion after talking to a crisis pregnancy clinic volunteer -- but we all know that's not really a "choice" because no woman would voluntarily forgo her right to a constitutionally-guaranteed procedure unless brainwashed into magical thinking. So last month Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney proposed a bill to combat the epidemic of deceptively-procured non-feticides. The measure would prohibit any organization from advertising "abortion services" if it did not actually offer "surgical [or] non-surgical procedures to terminate a pregnancy." Termination by means other than by birth, presumably. Rep. Maloney couldn't round up any of the countless... (505 Words)

Babies gurgle and coo, but only the self-deluded would think that they're self-conscious. It would be more of a crime to throw Tickle-Me-Elmo in a dumpster -- although he also has no idea of what he's saying, at least he can talk. But Kevin T. Keith of Sufficient Scruples, usually sensibly pro-choice, engages in some magical thinking to justify burdening society with the care of useless heaps of post-natal protoplasm: There may be a strong moral reason for treating infants as moral persons even though they're not: many people have strong attachments to infants (even other people's), and regard their... (276 Words)

My conception about conception is ill-conceived, says Professor Myers (see comment 51) of Pharyngula: I'm afraid you are engaging in magical thinking. Your identity was most definitely not established at fertilization, mathematically or genetically. You are the outcome of a long, long chain of equally significant developmental events post-fertilization -- you trivialize a complex process when you dismiss it as nothing but a foreordained computation once two gametes meet. What you are preaching is a kind of genetic predestination that has been rejected by developmental biologists everywhere. It's been about 30 years since a serious biologist made a comparable claim,... (740 Words)

What do authoritarian, women-hating atheists like me do when they realize there's no God to back up their crazy anti-abortion stance? Amanda of Pandagon explains it all: Godlessness and liberalism generally do go together, though, because I think that once you embrace a view of equality, you stop needing a god around to justify hierarchies. That said, it's obvious that a minority of atheists start off as pro-hierarchy and simply try to find replacement religions to justify their arguments from authority -- the Raving Atheist, for instance, is on that list and he's prone to making anti-abortion arguments invoking the... (882 Words)

New York, New York, March 21, 2006 Special to the Unaborted Atheist An online bookseller's anti-choice search engine algorithm has been modified to reflect the preferences of real women for abortion over adoption, according to the New York Times. Until a few days ago, a search of Amazon's catalog of books using the word "abortion" turned up pages with the question, "Did you mean adoption?" at the top, followed by a list of books related to abortion. A query with the corrected Amazon algorithm returns Mapquest and Yahoo maps charting the shortest route to a Planned Parenthood facility, together with... (579 Words)

Today's Voices of Life -- Maribel and her daughter Aja -- can be heard (and seen) in this video clip shot earlier this month. Please view it before commenting. Maribel was under pressure to abort by her family and boyfriend and visited four clinics before my friend Ashli got her phone number from a pro-life volunteer, and helped her make a different choice so she could start a new life. I have linked to their story before (Maribel is identified as "Gabbi" in the post), but it bears re-reading in view of my recent post regarding the nature of the... (255 Words)

In response to one of my posts on crisis pregnancy clinics, Jill of Feministe left a comment here (#47) regarding what she views as unethical practices at the facilities. Last week I addressed her accusation of deceit by the CPCs. Today's installment deals with her criticism of coercion: If they want to have an abortion, and they're walking into their doctor's office, they don't deserve to be accosted by anti-choicers. If they want to give birth, and they go to a CPC for help, that's great. But you don't see pro-choice activists standing outside CPCs yelling at the women going... (934 Words)

In response to one of my posts on crisis pregnancy clinics, Jill of Feministe left a comment here (#47) regarding what she views as unethical practices at the facilities. I'll be responding to her criticism in a series of posts over the next several weeks. Today's installment addresses her accusation of lying: How about helping the women who seek it instead of coercing and lying to them? When women call up CPCs and ask if they can schedule an appointment for an abortion, and the CPC receptionist says, "I'm not sure of the schedule right now, why don't you come... (760 Words)

"Men aren't entitled to an opinion on abortion," is a common pro-choice argument. There are a few exceptions, the primary one being for men who are pro-choice. Like Ted Kennedy begging his lover to have an abortion. Or like pro-choice male members of the Supreme Court (leaving the issue to democracy might not work at times when polls show that the majority of women are pro-life). Or like this guy. Not only does he think he's entitled to his opinion, but he thinks women aren't -- at least those who believe in talking other women out of abortions rather than... (746 Words)

The Raving Atheist welcomes (again) Jamila A., a/k/a SmartBlkWoman of A Day in the Life as TRA's first Voice of Life. Jamila is a twenty-two year old single mother of one who is planning on joining the military. _________________________________________________________________________- Abortion is NOT Empowering!! I have waaaay to many friends that have had abortions. Why are so many abortions performed every year when birth control is easier to find than a water fountain? When I was in college, condoms were sold right next to candy bars in the vending machines. I hate to sound hypocritical and judgmental but I think that... (622 Words)

I knew the bad atheists would ruin Julia Sweeney's mind: Oh -- I've been thinking about this. While I was listening to the Alito Senate hearings, he said, "No one is above or below the law." And I was musing on that phrase, no one being above or below the law. I hadn't heard that before. Then it dawned on me: fetuses! That's what he probably means. Unborn fetuses are below the law in his opinion. Oh -- that's a good one. The Anti-Choice Senators and politicians probably all wink-winked over that -- no more questions, sir! We know where... (136 Words)

Jill of Feministe takes aim at crisis pregnancy centers, asserting that their "very purpose . . . is to lie, mislead and coerce women" out of having abortions. To illustrate this point she highlights the experience of two women, Nichole Embry and "Danielle." Nichole's boyfriend wanted her to abort, but she was having nightmares about it; the CPC counselor told her that the decision would affect her entire life and that the pain "doesn't go away." Danielle too, was being pressured by her boyfriend (and mother) to abort even though it was "against her values." When Danielle said that she... (1388 Words)

New York, New York, January 19, 2006 Special to The Raving Atheist As state officials probed the bureaucratic failures that led to the death of seven year old Nixzmary Brown, Planned Parenthood demanded an investigation of the circumstances surrounding her non-abortion and birth. "Why was this unwanted child ever permitted to live?" asked the organization's national spokewoman, Gloria Michels. "Nixzmary endured a short, brutal and completely worthless existence, one which could have been avoided had there not been a breakdown in the system of reproductive healthcare access and education." Despite signs of earlier abuse that were obvious to caseworkers, neighbors... (182 Words)

Tallmansville, West Virginia, January 7, 2006 Special to The Unaborted Atheist Continuing its policy of compassion to disaster victims, Planned Parenthood is offering free abortions to the widows of the twelve men who died following an explosion at the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. Together with the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood made similar offers to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman noted that access to reproductive services is especially important to those families whose sole income came from mining employment. "The financial pressures occasioned by the loss... (329 Words)

Evil Ashli continues to impose her belief system upon women.... (10 Words)

"Being pro-choice," cautions Debbie Nathan, "is a morality that takes you morally out of the picture." The words of a pro-life advocate decrying the abortion culture's abandonment of any pretext of principle? In fact, Ms. Nathan is a proud volunteer for the Haven Coalition, an organization that provides overnight housing for women who flock to New York for elective, late second-trimester abortions. Its clients come from states lacking clinics capable of stomaching the procedure -- and Ms. Nathan's statement is a celebration of her own indifference to the practice, or more specifically, her ability to fully recognize it as evil... (1384 Words)

An Associated Press reporter lets his politics show: Judge leaves things as they are for now in fetus custody fight. Actually, the fight is over the custody of a baby. Pennsylvania child welfare authorities want to place the boy in foster care because the father is a convicted sex offender believed to have sodomized his own daughter, and the mother is alleged to be a coke and meth abusing prostitute. The mother is eight months and some weeks pregnant, and the court has issued an order requiring her to notify the agency within 24 hours after her son is born.... (218 Words)

Feministe celebrates the life of Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman to become a federal judge. She was a close friend and contemporary of civil rights leaders Rev. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, visiting them in jail, serving as their lawyer, and she was the guest speaker at the 1965 Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded by the two men. Just a hunch here, but . . . The civil rights leaders of Motley’s generation were not pro-choice. All available evidence suggests that Rev. King was to opposed abortion. Rev. Abernathy preached against it until his death. Jesse... (345 Words)

Did I ever mention that I am both (1) anti-abortion and (2) an atheist? A number of bloggers have recently have suggested that the combination is as impossible as being a Jew for Jesus. Hookflash even thinks that The Raving Atheist Has Lost His Marbles: I had a lot of respect for The Raving Atheist until I read this fundy-style drivel, where he exposes a fatally irrational chink in his hitherto sturdy intellectual armor. Turns out RA is one of those frothing-at-the-mouth anti-choice weirdos who can't wrap his mind around the patent fact that potentiality is not the same as... (1231 Words)

I call a cease-fire in the battle for Julia Sweeney's soul to lend my enthusiastic support for Project Max -- Dawn Eden's commendable campaign to publicize Planned Parenthood Golden Gate's reprehensible pro-abortion animation, A Superhero for Choice. Although PPGG has apparently removed the cartoon from its site, you can view the abomination at any of the links listed here and/or read the full transcript here. I have argued previously that the slogan "pro-choice is not pro-abortion" and the notion of "abortion neutrality" are largely myths. Since PPGG receives approximately $1.5 million to perform over 3,000 abortions (estimates drawn from the... (433 Words)

I am both anti-abortion and anti-choice. The anti-choice part of my position, however, is what appears to offend some people the most. After all, I am assured, everyone is actually anti-abortion at heart, and no one seriously takes the cold view that the fetus is a parasite, wart or tumor. Where I've really gone astray, apparently, is in opposing the legalization of abortion; the dispute is one over methodology and procedure. I'm not wrong in opposing the act of abortion -- what's immoral is my support of legislation restricting the practice. In fact -- as it is always in the... (475 Words)

To most of you I am just patterns and sequences of symbols on a screen, like the patterns and sequences of the DNA that have defined my existence from conception. Perhaps as you read this I am sleeping, my consciousness only potential -- so all that exists of me at this moment may again be merely the patterns and sequences of my DNA. And here I am as a fetus. Didn't you love me then?... (75 Words)

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