Republicans: “The biggest threat to America is the gays… and the atheists… The two biggest threats to civilization are the gays and the atheists… and public health care… The three biggest threats to civilization are the gays, the atheists and public health care… and the Employee Free Choice Act. The four biggest threats… Amongst the biggest threats to civilization are the gays, the atheists, public health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.”

(with sincerest apologies to Monty Python)

Not to mention evolution,  climate change (you gotta love this blog’s name, “Axis of Right”, not only identifying themselves as right-wing but also implying “correct” and more patriotic than the left because of the awesomeness of their stars and stripes banner, not to mention putting the word “scientists” in air quotes and accusing the media and the UN of being in on the conspiracy.), NOT torturing, the Fairness Doctrine, pornography, gun control, a black man in the White House and of course not just Islamic terrorism, but Islam itself.

BTW, according to WorldNetDaily, Obama’s economic stimulus package “makes a deliberate – and unconstitutional – attempt to censor religious speech and worship on school campuses across the nation”, purely by prohibiting stimulus money being used to repair religious facilities.

I don’t believe in gods because religion is just tradition, community and ancient mysterious rituals, using people’s natural sense of fear, wonder and curiosity, combined with someone’s view of “morality” and comforting answers to the “big questions” in a way that ensures the perpetual power and influence of the leaders and the obedience of the followers.

As an outsider, this is obvious with the “gods” of the Norse, Egyptians, Greeks or any of the native American civilizations. The challenge comes in accepting this for the religion you were indoctrinated with, which for me was Christianity.

To me, the Old Testament is nothing more than a bunch of campfire stories of a primitive, brutal tribe of Bronze Age desert nomads. The only reason it became the basis for so much of today’s religion is because they famously won all their battles. If any tribe had vanquished the Israelites in any of the battles, our view of religion would probably be completely different. But of course, no one did because the “God” of the Israelites encouraged them to be particularly ruthless and bloodthirsty. “Campfire stories” can be loosely based on truth, but after several generations, will be pretty much unrecognizable, and the whole God part is pure mythology anyway. People love stories of the supernatural, even today, but it doesn’t make any of it real.

Meanwhile, the New Testament is just the marketing materials of the followers of a charismatic leader (assuming he existed at all). They had to use all the standard symbolism of the day (being a god, born of a virgin, etc) to give his words the necessary credibility.

We now know that Earth is an insignificant speck in the universe and the only way human beings evolved to the point we did is essentially luck. This is the only life and the only planet we have, our highest aspiration should be to take care of of others and the planet, because there is no one else out there to do it for us.

( my story at thereprobablyisnt.com )

As far as I’m concerned, that’s what Republicans do, and they do it very well.

They lie about the environment. Look at this story, The Deniers are winning, but only with the GOP. Conservatives have a long, glorious tradition of not only denying the global warming problem, but virulently attacking it, here’s just one example, from newsbusters.org, where the writer repeatedly uses emotionally-charged words like ‘disgraceful’, ‘disgusting’, and ‘despicable’ (I hesitate to even link to it, but I hope rational people will see through the lies and distortions).

Or how ’bout this one, where Fred Singer, a prominent denier, is shot down for claims he never worked for Big Tobacco or Big Oil, with plenty of irrefutable evidence that he did. There’s one document on tobaccodocuments.org that I found particularly fascinating.

Of course, we can’t forget James Inhofe’s 400 deniers, thoroughly debunked.

Here’s a scientific study, “The Organization of Denial”, of 141 “environmentally sceptical” books published between 1972 and 2005, finding that over 92% were published in the US by conservative think tanks. And scientists have been offered cash to dissent.

Sometimes they make it too easy to see through, like when the Conservative Book Club features Lawrence Solomon’s The Deniers, or our friend Fred Singer’s Unstoppable Global Warming. I can’t resist quoting from the opening paragraph of each,

Al Gore and the mainstream media tell us constantly that it’s all settled: global warming is an established fact…

and,

To Al Gore and his disciples, global warming is man-made and dangerous…

This is actually one of the problems, part of the reason these people can’t accept the truth is because Al Gore is so visible in the issue. It remains to be seen if Republicans can change their minds, as one did in this story, Generational Test for Republicans.

(The Conservative Book Club doesn’t stop there, it has entire sections on Global Warming, Radical Islam and The Clintons, appealing directly to the haters.)

Here’s a cleverly-disguised one from globalwarming.org, discussing Lawrence Solomon’s above-mentioned book. By the way, it turns out globalwarming.org is sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), whose website actually reveals a lot,

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace.

Translation: they’re a conservative group working for old-fashioned, hands-off government. This week, we all know how well that has worked out!

Here’s a question, Climate change deniers – stupid or just dishonest? DeSmogBlog has a searchable database on global warming deniers, check it out (of course Fred Singer is there). Or see Exxon Secrets, for info on the individuals and organizations working to keep America ignorant, such as CEI and the Heartland Institute. At least the Rockefeller family tried to stand up to Exxon.

They lie about evolution, which is not up for debate. For example, Ben Stein’s “Expelled” (see “Flunked, not expelled, what Ben Stein isn’t telling you about ID”).  Scientists spend so much time and effort fighting back. At least my favourite Young Earth Creationist felon, Kent Hovind, who lied about his taxes is doing time for his crime (Not Safe For Work, but there’s a hilarious video on YouTube). Oh, speaking of YouTube, in 2007, his goons used fraud to remove critical YouTube videos.

We all know they lie about the economy, which McCain says is fundamentally strong. Maybe it is for these 3 Merrill Lynch officials who may get up to $200,000,000, but meanwhile the World Bank is shovelling up to $250,000,000,000 (!!!) into global money markets.

The US is clearly headed in the wrong way, consider these:

The Republican War on Science, Fascist America (where she forgot one, destroy the integrity of the electoral system), Idiot America, The Assault on Reason by Al Gore, a poll of Americans themselves, a poll outside the US, Making America Stupid,

Don’t forget the famous right-wing lying hypocrites Troy King, Mark Foley, Ed Schrock, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard or the haters Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin. Check out these blogs which largely feature Christians who get caught in their crimes and Republicons.

They even lie to their evangelical Christian base, as evidenced by this 2006 article, Christian Evangelicals: Enablers of the Wayward Republicans, even as the Religious Right is taking over the GOP.

They lie because it’s the only way they think they can beat Obama.

I can’t summarize it any better that the hard-hitting opening line from the “Exact Opposite” by Baron Dave Romm series,

A standard conservative Big Brother technique is to make wild random claims, sling mud and repeat lies until some of the mud sticks or one of the wild claims has a small germ of truth.

So I appeal to all reasonable Americans who are considering voting Republican – If you continue to elect these people, they’ll never learn. I can understand wanting fiscally-responsible spending, but I’m not convinced they’re the ones to do it.

Here’s a Meetup that I’m gonna try to attend, With or Without God, featuring Gretta Vosper, founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity.

First, we have Pope Benedict XVI criticizing atheism (did you know that he was a member of the Hitler Youth? I didn’t. You may also remember when he expressed “sadness and repentance” for the Catholic Church’s insufficient resistance to Nazi ideology, meanwhile, wartime Pope Pius XII is on the path to sainthood.) I could go on and on and on about the Catholic Church, their pedophile priests and genocidal stance on condoms, but Greta Christina does a good job addressing this one.

Then irreligion.org found an old article about the Vatican astronomer who dismisses Creationism as “a form of superstitious paganism”.

The New York Times spoke out strongly against the Texas Education Agency , but who will ever forget how Barbara Forrest pwned them?

These are just 3 stories from the week, but I got particular pleasure in reading each of them, given that two of my biggest reasons for blogging are the absurd theist claim of morality, and the willful ignorance that is creationism/ID.

I’m on Mojoey’s Atheist Blogroll, see his blog at Deep Thoughts. I was actually #503, so it’s not like I’m an internet pioneer or anything…

What I haven’t been able to figure out is how to get the javascript to work to get the dynamic blogroll displayed on my blog. Oh well…

Take the quiz at http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=34703N

The universe functions according to the laws of nature. There’s no evidence for any supernatural phenomena, nor any need for supernatural phenomena to explain how the universe works.

Science can’t completely explain how the universe works, and maybe never will. But it’s only through science that we will get the real answers.

Earth is a small planet orbiting a typical star in an immensely large galaxy, which is part of an unimaginably huge universe. There are likely millions or billions of planets in the universe, the vast majority of which are completely incapable of supporting life. That still leaves an unknown, possibly huge number of planets capable of sustaining life. There is nothing special about Earth, besides having the perfect conditions for life to evolve (and of course, being where we live).

The only reason we exist at all is that we were extremely lucky to have evolved here.

Evolution is science, creationism is myth. There’s no real debate among scientists about the validity of evolution, only the details of how it works. The only ones who reject evolution are the creationists, and only because it conflicts with their religion. Just because you don’t understand science doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Creationism is willful ignorance. When you argue for teaching creationism in school, you are actively perpetuating your ignorance and misunderstanding of science on the next generation. (Denying the Holocaust or global warming, and 9/11 conspiracy theories are also willful ignorance.)

There’s nothing special about humans compared to other animals.

Humans have a built-in capacity for faith and morality. The fact that our brains can have religious experiences does not make them real.

We tend to believe what we’re taught by our parents, teachers, religious leaders and community. It becomes part of our world-view, and it’s difficult to change these beliefs. But that doesn’t mean these beliefs are true.

Most people belong to the religion they were raised in.

If you were born in a different place or time, it’s quite likely that you would believe in a different religion and god(s).

Most, if not all, cultures have had their own religion and god(s). In general, they are mutually exclusive, as in, they can’t all be right.

You may be totally convinced that your religion is the true one, but everyone else is just as convinced that theirs is true.

The majority of people alive today believe completely that your religion is false, whichever religion that may be.

There’s no supernatural credibility in ancient religions, which we now call “mythology”.

You may also agree with me that there’s no supernatural credibility in other world religions, or in their holy texts.

The Old Testament is nothing but a 2,000-year-old book of campfire stories from a bronze-age tribe of nomads living in the desert.

The New Testament is marketing material promoting a new leader (who may or may not have existed), plagiarized from many earlier deities.

The Bible reflects the culture and superstitions of the people who wrote it. They had no understanding of how the universe works, hence any science that they actually got right is purely coincidental.

There is some positive morality in the Bible, the rest of it is an abomination.

Like all other holy texts, the Bible has no credibility in any of its supernatural claims, including God, Jesus, heaven, angels, hell and Satan.

You can’t use the Bible to prove anything about the existence of supernatural phenomena.

There is no more supernatural credibility in Christianity than any other religion.

Religion was created by man to help answer “the big questions”. It’s a human institution, and as such, is capable of both good and evil.

Religion is tribal. If the Israelites had lost just one of the many genocidal battles documented in the Old Testament, their particular god would have perished with them and we would be worshipping an entirely different god (or gods).

Being tribal, religion is divisive and perpetuates an “us-versus-them” mentality. It helps you believe that everyone who doesn’t believe exactly as you do is going to hell.

Hell is an entirely unacceptable concept. It’s an invention of cruel, primitive, vindictive minds to enforce “correct” behaviour by fear and guilt.

If hell is the only thing keeping you from sinning, that makes you a morally weak person.

It’s absurd and insulting (to you) to claim that the Bible is the only source of morality.

The “ethic of reciprocity” (known in Christianity as the Golden Rule) can be considered the modern basis for right and wrong, especially when slightly re-phrased, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you were in their situation“. It’s found in most world religions.

You don’t need to be a member of any religion to live your life according to the Golden Rule.

Your particular “morality” is a combination of nature and nurture, just like everyone else who has ever lived. The fact that you can quote scripture to back up your opinion means nothing as the Bible is so famously ambiguous that you can use it to validate any position.

On the other hand, your religious beliefs and rituals basically amount to “culture”. They’re a product of your environment, they’re self-perpetuating when you pass them on to the next generation and they don’t rely on the actual existence of God, since faith is a virtue in itself.

Looking at religion as “culture” actually helps make some sense of the insanity. All the rules, superstitions, rituals, taboos, bigotry, hatred, closed-mindedness, oppression, genocide and anything else that you want to attribute to religion is really just part of being a member of a tribe in a competitive, brutal world.Like it or not, I think this is a pretty good summary of reality. I’m sure you’ll be tempted to turn it around and give me “your version of reality”, but remember it’s based on superstition, ignorance and a 2,000-year-old book of campfire stories.

GC with about 100 answers in response to the typical Christian question, “Why are atheists so angry?”, but still says she’s only touched on perhaps 1/100th of the things that anger her about religion, here. Powerful reading, some strong language.