Tag Archive for 'religion'

Is “Friendly Atheist” a Stupid Term?

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on April 1, 2009
in Commentary
. Comments

My friend Franklin recently posted a critique of the term “friendly atheist”. Franklin reviews a definition of “friendly atheist” by Hemant Mehta and says,

He continues by saying that almost all atheists he has met are friendly atheists, and I have to agree with him. I’ve always said (and by always, I mean for a while now), that the term “friendly atheist” itself is stupid, as it implies that most atheists aren’t, or at least only a subcategory of them are. Quite silly.

I posted a comment in response to Franklin, where I said,

You’re missing the forest for the trees. The point isn’t with the word “friendly atheist,” or “new atheist” for that matter. The point is that there are two opposed camps within the atheist community — those who think religion itself is a problem and should be eradicated (“new atheists”) and those who are critical of aspects of religion but not religion itself (“friendly atheists”). This is what the distinction refers to. Although the word is not perfect, it refers to a real difference. Some have even referred to it as the Great Atheist Schism.

Perhaps you think it is an unimportant distinction because so many of the people you have met have been friendly atheists, but I don’t think we should be so quick to lump all atheists together. When I polled the group at least 19 (28%) people agreed with the statement, “Atheists should try to eradicate religion because it is a major source of problems in the world.” Mind you, it doesn’t say be critical of religion — it says eradicate. I really don’t consider these people to be friendly atheists, and I don’t see how you could either. A simple search for “atheist appeasers” will also show you that you’d probably make several atheists even angrier than they already are either by lumping them in with friendly atheists or dismissing them as an unimportant subcategory of atheism.

As for your other point, I can understand why you might think the word implies “that most atheists aren’t [friendly atheists], or at least only a subcategory of them are,” but you also have to remember that the term is a response to the very negative image that society has of atheists. While it is unfortunate that we have to do so, calling ourselves friendly atheists is a way of undermining the stereotypes and assumptions that others have about us, and gives us a better chance of engaging others in dialog.

I would love it if all atheists were friendly atheists, but we’re not quite there yet, so I think it’s important to use the word — or some word — to talk about the differences that exist among atheists.

What do you think?

The Internet is My Religion Pt. 2

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on March 9, 2009
in Pop Culture
. Comments

I can’t really explain what is so wonderful about this video to me, but it is.

I suppose part of it is just seeing people from an older generation, who have their own charisma and rawness at that, respond to contemporary pop music. I also like the way it gives some insight into their lives, however contrived the situation may be.

I know, I know, this really isn’t that different than cable access TV. But the difference is that I don’t have to live in whatever town this is being produced in to be able to see it. I’m also able to share this with other people much easier than I would if I were watching it on TV.

Via Buzz Feed.

Click here to read “The Internet is My Religion Pt. 1.”

The Internet is My Religion Pt. 1

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on October 24, 2008
in Pop Culture
. Comments

Occasionally there are these Zen-like moments of mystical harmony, pleasure, and peace that I experience when surfing the ‘Net — this set of synchronized videos is one of them. This is the junkie’s high that sustains my gambling spirit. This is the immanent God that we have wrought with our own hands. This is postmodern religious art.

Part of what I find so beautiful about this is the incredible number of informal and decentralized collaborations that were necessary to make it possible in a holistic sense.

Please note, though, that I am not directly praising technology in any naive or uncritical sense. I enjoy this in just the same way that I am critical of religion yet enjoy the classical religious art that was created in the past.

Via Boing Boing.

Related: Wesch’s An anthropological introduction to YouTube.

Religulous

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on October 17, 2008
in Pop Culture
. Comments

For atheists in the know there isn’t much if anything that is new in this film, such as the connections between Jesus and other pagan gods, but I’m sure there are still a lot of people, atheist or not, who haven’t learned some of these things yet.

The strength of the film, however, as one would hope, is in its humor. Maher peppers the film with witty and vulgar one-liners, as well as hysterical sound effects and “moment of zen”-like video asides. A good example of this can be found in this clip of Maher interviewing so-called “ex-gay” John Wescott.

One interesting detail that stands out in the film is that, amidst all the extreme examples of religious thinking that Maher uses to make his point, the Catholics he speaks to make their religion seem pretty reasonable — a Catholic astronomer argues that it is impossible for there to have been science in the bible and takes issue with a fundamentalist reading of the bible, and another Catholic says that, yes, his religion is full of silly beliefs, but what are you going to do? (Edit: I forgot to mention the other Catholic who says that the bible meant to say that it is not a sin to engage in same-sex relations if you were born gay.)

Unfortunately, the end of Religulous takes a surprisingly serious turn from the comedy in the rest of the movie when Maher argues that we must destroy religion before religion destroys us. Aside from disagreeing with Maher’s argument, I thought the ending of his movie was just too over the top. It seems to replace the fire and brimstone messages of (some) religion(s) with a secular fire and brimstone message.

Put simply, I don’t think that the situation is as dire as Maher makes it out to be — indeed, Maher doesn’t give religion any credit for holding the world together in addition to tearing it apart. Nor do I think the problems we face as humans can be neatly subsumed under the heading “religion” — these problems are instead the result of an absence of liberal democratic values and the attack that has been made upon these values by the growth of neoliberal capitalism.

Maher also starts off the movie by saying that science created dangerous things, such as weapons and pollution producing industries, before we matured enough from our religious phase to use them properly, but that is where his critique of science stops. It would have been far better if Maher had ended up in a gray space that is more representative of reality than the black and white grunt of “science good, religion bad.”

Either way, as an atheist, it’s still great to have a cathartic movie like this out there for us. The movie is filled with lots of sacrilegious guffaws, so if you atheists go with that in mind and tune out the oh so serious ending, then you’ll have a gay ol’ time.

Daily Journal Entry #11843 06/02/08 Mon

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on July 10, 2008
in Journal and Pop Culture
. Comments

Superbad

Time passed (i.e., feeds), and in the evening I watched watched Superbad. I’d been wanting to see it for a while at Hubert’s suggestion. Some friends online chastised me for watcher Superbad while in Tokyo, but I gently explained that Tokyo is expensive, I’ve been here before, and I’m going to be here for a good while.

I thought this movie was amazing. In particular I really liked this updated model of masculinity that it presented. Gone is Fast Times at Ridgemont High and in it’s place is Superbad, where the male characters show actual emotional attachment to each other, and one even forgoes having sex because the moment doesn’t unfold in a manner that holds proper meaning for him.

It was also touching to see how these male subjects had to keep their emotional attachment for each other hidden (though everyone was aware of it). Thus, it was terribly sad to see them part at the end, where, even though they each get the girl, they do so at the expense of losing each other.

Minutiae

  • I stopped by the CoCoICHI curry house and was surprised to hear random songs like Boyz II Men’s “So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and Collective Soul’s “Shine.” They also quickly offered me an English menu, which I’ve never experienced before.

Links

  • Susannah Breslin posted this awesome song and video by Le Le titled “Breakfast.” Hola hola hola, oatmeal and granola — you breakfast!
  • This do not pray list spoof is hilarious. (Via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Journal Entry #11827 05/17/08 Sat

Published
by
Jason C. Romero
on June 12, 2008
in Journal
. Comments

Jehovah’s Witnesses

I got a visit from some Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they said some standard things, like, “Where do you think the universe came from?” I said that, like God, the universe is mysterious and likely without a beginning. I also explained how natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and meteor strikes make it difficult for me to believe in God. They said that these things are part of the endtimes, and that God is going to cleanse the earth of wickedness like He did with the flood. I didn’t know they thought this (they are premillenialists as opposed to postmillenialists). They also talked about how Christians are better than non-Christians, because non-Christians don’t care enough to go around to people’s doors to talk to them, though I do know of some atheists who did this.

The Nonexistent Post Office

I need to get a post office box for the summer, but I forgot the post office closes early on Saturday and got a slow move on, so when I left the house the post office I wanted to use was closed. However, the USPS website showed that there was another post office that was still open, so I decided to go there. I didn’t find it in the spot where I thought it was, and had to get on a computer in the union to get the address again. Eventually, I found the building it was supposed to be in — but it was an old(?) mathematics building and the doors were locked. I called the USPS and it didn’t list this location. So, the USPS lied to me. I’ll just have to go on Monday before I head out of town.

Myrdene Sighting

As I was heading home I saw Myrdene Anderson walking across the street — she must be here for the qualitative conference that I completely forgot about. I parked as quickly as I could and ran after her, but could not find her again. Preemptive answer: I don’t think she has a cell phone.

ScanSnap Lust

I’ve known about the Fujitsu ScanSnap for a while, and I was jealous when Karen Nakamura got one, but I got the urge again lately for some reason, and the videos I watched didn’t help. I didn’t realize that there is a portable version in addition to the desktop version, but it’s still a little expensive ($280 as opposed to $430). It’s this video of someone slicing off the binding on some manga that has really got me going though (I think he is using an XD-500 stack paper cutter). That is exactly what I have always dreamed of doing — slicing up books and magazines and scanning them. At least until I can afford this $250,000 automatic book scanner or the Scan Robot.

Rape by Fraud

I mentioned this NPR story about a woman who was tricked into having sex with her boyfriend’s brother (he pretended to be the woman’s boyfriend) to Angie, and she made the connection to a scene in Revenge of the Nerds where Louis tricks a cheerleader into having sex with him by pretending to be her boyfriend. I never would have thought of that, and it’s weird how such a morally questionable moment is stuck in there and flew under my radar so long ago. Some others blog about this “rape scene” here and here.

As for the case, while it definitely seems wrong, it’s hard for me to consider it rape, since there was no force involved and there was some form of consent. However, it does remind me of the inability to consent if you are drunk. So maybe this could somehow be counted as rape because you cannot consent to sex with someone unless you know who they are. Like the story mentions, though, this seems to cast the net too widely, where it includes people who don’t disclose their “real” identity, such that anonymous sex would count as rape, as would lying about being a CEO or a rock star. I suppose this example sits in that gray zone where many lies cannot be prosecuted under the law, even if those lies are used to have sex with someone.

“English Mill Town Welcomes Lesbian Families”

This NPR story says, “Hebden Bridge was just another dying mill town in the English county of Yorkshire until a new community developed in the area. By 2001, the proportion of lesbian to heterosexual residents in the valley had outstripped London, Manchester or Brighton. The lesbians have found a welcoming environment where they can raise families without stigma.” Interesting to think about the social effects of economic power and security. Certainly puts some wind into the ol’ base and superstructure debate.

Review

I’m not entirely sure how or why the day passed by so quickly without me doing anything of substance. I guess I sank into my feeds, which I was trying to catch up on. I finally cleaned up my mess too, but that didn’t take long either. I thought about going to see Iron Man, but it just doesn’t appeal to me, so I stayed home to read The Power and the Glory and listen to Mr. Oizo instead.

Links

  • Looks like there is another full feature film on YouTube: The Cult of Sincerity. (Via Film Flap.)
  • There’s a good video that explains podcasting. (Via the Society for Applied Anthropology podcast blog.)
  • There’s something striking about this parent notification system, but I can’t put my finger on it.