here it comes: the Carnival of the Godless

Welcome to the October 14th edition of Carnival of the Godless. I am sorry, I could not include everybody into this edition, though you will see that most contributions have been included.

A big theme of the current carnival is morality: are atheists more or less moral than theists? Does this even make sense? Can we even consider religious books as a proper source for moral guidance in the XXI century? However this is, as usual, quite an eclectic collection. I hope you'll all enjoy it!

Chris takes us through a brief comparison between Lao Tzu’s Taoism and Spinoza’s Monism in Spinoza: Old Master Philosopher of the West posted at Martial Development. Agnostics, watch yourselves from this post :)

Dorid presents a view of local altruism vs. universal altruism in Altruism, Evolution, and Atheism. posted at The Radula. Because "the TRUE test of humanity, should we deem ourselves to rise somehow above the rest of the animals on this planet, would be in the liberal, and oftimes atheistic view: that we should provide for all, that we need to think globally instead of locally, and that giving should be an act of survival for the entire species. That it's not something we do out of fear of some mythical Hell, but out of genuine concern and empathy". Phil B. also reflects on the relationship between morality and atheism in his post Atheists have Morals « Phil for Humanity.

Norman Doering compairs our beliefs to Bayesian networks in How the religious mindfuck really works posted at A Blog from Hell. "Ignorant Belief Networks are one class of Bayesian Belief Networks that are able to reason on the basis of incomplete probabilistic information and to incrementally refine the precision of the inferred probabilities as more information is accumulated. [...] Instead of just acting on certain beliefs we really act on all the possibilities we can imagine when we don't have enough certainty, including conflicting improbable beliefs. It works as a kind of fail-safe and in extreme circumstances where no other action seems possible we will resort to the most improbable actions". He also shows us a new way of framing atheism through an analysis of Mother Theresa's doubts about God's existence (!) in an amazing essay titled Thank You, Mother Teresa. You've shown me a new way to frame atheism.




The Atheist Jew presents a failed attempt at saving him in The Atheist Jew Goes To Church: "Did you know that barns are red because God made red paint cheap to use for poor farmers so that they could remind us that Jesus and all the blood that he sacrificed started out in a manger? Or that Stop signs are red because God influenced man to make them red so that when we stop, we have time to reflect on Jesus and all the blood that he lost before he died? And fire hydrants are red, and they are shaped like a cross. See, the bible proves everything".

Jack Carlson shows us how the New Atheism really isn't new at all in his post The New Atheism?, posted at Radical Atheist.

Greg Laden suggests that there might be a link between God (well, or the effects of a special helmet, at least) and insanity in Science: God is all in the head: "the helmet induces is a kind of psycho-pathology that could be interpreted as a kind of culture-bound psychosis. The subject of the experiment will interpret the neurological effect in a culturally determined manner, depending on the individual’s pre-existing religious beliefs". Andrew Fox also expands on this topic in his post Not the Same, inspired by a detailed encounter with a college student tripping on acid.

Greta Christina explains Why Religion Is Like Fanfic. It is quite easy to agree with her on the main point raised by the post: "given the rough outline of a narrative, human beings are unbelievably good at filling in the gaps, fleshing out the characters. And if the basic outline of a narrative has flaws and inconsistencies, we are unbelievably good at creating explanations and rationalizations and apologetics. We are unbelievably good at making the inconsistent consistent, making the indefensible defensible. And that's exactly what religion looks like to an outside observer".

Hell's Handmaiden presents God. Sex. Violence. Immorality, an insightful discussion of an article published in the Journal of Religion and Society, discussing how pupularity of evolution theory, STDs, homicide rates and abortion correlate with religious belief. Whether the correlation is negative or positive for each of the items, I will leave for you to guess!

Jeff Hebert takes us through his Near Death Experience and his reflection on whether atheism might actually be part of our instinct, just as others would say that belief in God is. "I used to think, "I don't believe in God," but the truth is that this isn't a choice. I didn't just decide one day that I don't believe -- it's just not present in me. At all. I couldn't change it any more than I could make myself hear if I were deaf, no matter how great the effort." Another must-read post from this edition - as you do not often get to wish the best to somebody who just escaped death.

C. L. Hanson introduces us to a crucial moral dilemma that anyone believing that the Bible can actually be followed for moral guidance will need to face sooner or later in My biggest problem with Biblical morality : "Let me be very clear: There is no context where genocide is right. Even if God is standing right in front of you offering you eternal paradise as a reward for murder and hellfire if you refuse. There may be just causes for going to war, but "I want their land and my God wants their treasure" is not among them."

Db0 discusses the common tactic of declaring that atheism=communism to discredit atheists in his post The Antichristian Phenomenon » Communism.

No More Mr. Nice Guy! discusses McGrath's review of The God Delusion in his post Deluded about Dawkins (Part II): "I read Alister McGrath's "The Dawkins Delusion" so you don't have to."

Find out why (well, at least according to some) the word "atheist" might not be much of a good definition for a non-believer over at Sam Harris abandons atheismSkeptical Personal Development. vjack responds to Harris' arguments in Sam Harris Is Wrong (And I Feel Fine).

Does quote mining have a meaning or not? Apparently not, according to Conservapedia. Find out more in the post Conservapedia: Quote Mining or Super-Weaners? posted at Bay of Fundie.

Adam H reflects on Christian music (and whether there is such a thing to start with) at help! demons in my speakers!: "apparently, magical evil spirits can imprint themselves on recordings! holy shit! that means that every time a non-christian gets recorded in a studio, the demons that posses his soul also get into the master tape. then (we must assume) every time the master recording is duplicated (like when cd's are pressed) the magic demon copies himself onto every record pressed, and awaits within the digital code to spring forth on the unsuspecting and insufficiently "prayed-up" listener! aren't you glad you know this now? who knows WHAT is on miles davis' kind of blue?!"

And with that, I am sorry to say that this edition of the Carnival of the Godless has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed it! I encourage you to submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of the Godless using the carnival submission form. The next edition of this carnival will be hosted over at Greta Christina's Blog.