Many Americans Know Little About Religion

I'm rarely surprised when I learn that Americans know little about anything but I think that this is somewhat telling:

A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.

Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.

More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.

The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.

I was not raised religious as a child but rather than leaving me ignorant on the subject I was encouraged to learn more about it and then decide for myself what I believed. I would explain the results of this survey by positing that many of those who are raised so are not similarly encouraged to think for themselves and question authority but are rather told what to believe from an early age when a child's brain is very similar to a sponge as it relates to knowledge and information. They're told what to believe and they do so without thinking any more about the subject.

This line of thought always reminds me of two of my favorite quotes about thinking for one's self. The first is from Homer Simpson:

Kids are great, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate and they practically raise themselves now-a-days, you know, with the internet and all.

And the second is from comedian David Cross:

I don't have kids but I might someday and if I do I think that I'd like to raise them Amish. You know, instill in them those hard working Amish values and beliefs. And I'm sure they'll eventually have some questions: "Father, how come you get to watch television, and we can't? And how come you get to play video games and read with the lights on and we don't get to?" And I'll get down on a knee and gentlely say to them, : "Well, Sweetie, that's because Daddy's not Amish, and you are. You see, that's what you believe. Now hurry off to bed, you have to get up early tomorrow to harvest my breakfast. Ahh, Amish kids..."

Think for yourself and question everything, especially what you've been told and what you think you already know.

Something Someone Else Said

"The GOP’s basic problem is that many Republicans equate Christianity, or at least Judeo-Christianity, with Americanism. They do not believe it’s possible to truly uphold American ideals unless you identify with the religious traditions that supposedly underlie those ideals. In a country with a growing Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Mormon and atheist population, that’s a significant source of political bigotry. Is it good that the South Carolina GOP has embraced a South Asian woman? Of course. When that woman can practice whatever religion she wants, without fear that it will wreck her political career, then Republicans will truly deserve to crow." -Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast.

This type of religious intolerance seems to be endemic to the GOP with the Democratic party being more inclusive of various religious beliefs, and certainly not anti-religion as many on the right consistently charge. In fact, that's one thing the two major political parties do seem to agree on: an endorsement of candidates for whom religious belief is a prerequisite. Muslims and Sikhs may find it difficult to win elections in certain parts of this country but atheists are discriminated against almost uniformly on this count. To succeed in American politics it doesn't matter so much which kind of magic you believe in, just so long as you believe in some type of magic. Republicans merely have their favorite.

(via)

American Power And Domestic Bliss Abyss

Yeah I know, but this one is just more funny than hateful. Enjoy my conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of American Power's pithy post "Lego Blogging!", in which he purports to be spending some quality time with his son although it seems to be more about how horrible he thinks I am than playing with Legos:

My son and I build stuff during off-blogging hours. That's one of the cool things about having a wife and kids (not to mention God). Maybe JBW should quit troll-stalking babes on the web and try some traditional values. Seriously, that's got to beat posting anti-child atheist trash or Rachel Maddow bullshit talking points. Freakin' Christ, James B. "Weightist" Webb, get a goddamned life...

"Not to mention God"? I don't get it: is God playing Legos with them? Now Don doesn't know this but I actually do have a wife. She's invisible and she's called "Drink as much wine as you want and sleep with other women". She's the perfect mother to my invisible teenage son "Spend my college money on a trip to Europe" and my newborn invisible baby "Eight hours of sleep a night". I even have an invisible god who never reveals any evidence of his own existence and appears wholly indifferent towards my life and the lives of everyone else on the planet. No wait, that's Don's god. My invisible god is actually called "Think for yourself because magic isn't real" and he's never watching over me but that's OK because I don't need to believe in a supernatural parental figure looking over my shoulder and shaking his finger at me.

Now I love my invisible family and my non-meddling god because they're perfect for me but I would never insist that anyone else should live the same way I do because I believe in individual liberty and personal freedom. Everyone should be free to live their life as they and they alone see fit as long as it doesn't impinge on anyone else's freedom to do the same. As you've probably noticed though, there are many religious folks like Don out there who are convinced of their own moral superiority and have absolutely no problem telling the rest of us how we should live. Don don't like drugs so nobody should be allowed to use drugs. Don don't like prostitutes so nobody should be allowed to sell or pay for sex. Don believes in God so everyone else should too (just make sure it's the right god, of course) and if you don't or you fail to pay his god the proper respect your character and moral integrity will be called into question. Nanny statism and casting moral aspersions: I'm sure it's What Jesus Would Do.

[Update: Whilst making a run for the border Don reports that he's subsequently edited all of the dirty blasphemy and Jesus bashing from his post:

...cleaned up my post from this morning with the profanity. My apologies. That's not so much like me, and I haven't felt right most of the day. Frankly, I do it mostly to push the boundaries and confound the lefty freaks. But that needs to be way less frequent. I'm practically morphing into that which I reject (i.e., unwashed netroots atheist commies), and THAT bothers me.

That Don: he's such a confounding boundary pusher. And by "unwashed netroots atheist commies" I assume that he's referring to any of the dirty nihilist America haters who frequent my comment section because if he was referring to myself he'd also be shouting WEEEIGHTIST!]

Atheist Barbie

Finally, a toy that teaches children good American values. I think I'll hook her up with my Buddy Christ figurine. Her lunch is the best.

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Picture Of The Day

Do you see it? Cower before the might of the anti-atheist toast!

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Dallas Cowboys Playing The Minnesota Vikings

No time for blogging today! My beloved Dallas Cowboys are playing the Minnesota Vikings for the right to go to the NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints next week. Admittedly I'm a little worried since the Vikes are one of the best teams in the NFL with one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game at their helm but if there was any time during this somewhat shaky season that I felt confident in the Boys it's right now. They're coming off of back to back spankings of their division rivals the Philadelphia Eagles and they're looking better than they have all season.

So since I don't believe in jinxing I'll say that I'm actually feeling good about their chances today but talk to me around 1 pm Pacific time just in case. Depending on my mood by then I might put up some posts later today but only after the second game. True, the Boys won't be playing in that one but even though I'm an atheist I'm also a Texan, which means that watching NFL football on Sundays is my equivalent of going to church. All hail Saint Romo and go Cowboys! Hallelujah!

[Update: That was sad and pathetic (and I really hate that fucking Viking victory horn they kept blowing). Minnesota's defense is a ravenous beast that totally enveloped Romo and his offense for the majority of that game. Good luck New Orleans, you're gonna need it.]

I Don't Think God Likes Colt McCoy...

I just got finished watching the Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide play for the BCS college football national championship. It was a great game between the top two teams in the country (I took the day off from work to watch it and yes, as a graduate of Texas A&M I might have been rooting against Texas just a bit) and although Alabama ultimately won the night I thought that both teams put forth a valiant effort.

So I was watching the obligatory post-game interviews of coaches and players when Texas' starting quarterback Colt McCoy (yes, people in Texas give their kids names like "Colt"; have you met my twins: Smith and Wesson?), who got injured on the fifth play of the Longhorns' first offensive drive of the first quarter and had to sit out pretty much the entire game, was asked, "What was it like for you to watch this game, your last game in a Longhorn uniform, from the sideline?" As he tried multiple times to answer this obvious yet pointless question, choking up more than once in the process, after one of the most devastating disappointments of his life on national television I was really feeling bad for the kid. He finally squeezed out some words about loving the game of football, wishing he could have played tonight and gave praise to his backup quarterback and the skills displayed by the other team. Classy. And then he said something that made me feel a little more sorry for him:

I always give God the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. God is in control of my life, and I know if nothing else I'm standing on the rock.

Really? So let me get this straight: You've been playing football pretty much your entire life. You obviously love the game and it is among your great passions. You spent every summer you can remember running through two-a-day practices in the brutal Texas heat. You won all kinds of awards and distinctions as one of the best high school quarterbacks in the state, and you went on to do the same in college. After your team won a national championship when you were red-shirted your freshman year, you led them to four winning regular seasons leading up to this: the last game of your college career and it's for the national championship. This game was the culmination of everything you've fought and worked for your entire life... and five plays in, God decided He didn't want to let you play. And you're cool with that?

This is one of many reasons why not only can I not believe in a god, but also why I don't want to. I fail to understand the satisfaction or comfort derived from believing that there is an all-powerful being out there who has the ability to take something this important away from a person, without any apparent reason and seemingly on a whim. And yes, I've heard: "He works in mysterious ways". So do ninjas, but I would never willingly cede them control of my life. Of course, McCoy is going to move on to a career in the NFL where he'll make tens of millions of dollars and have his pick from a Tiger Woods-sized bevy of hot chicks so perhaps there is something to his faith but personally, I'd still need more proof than that. But I'm a cynic, so there you go.

Chart Of The Day

It doesn't have to be complicated, people. As long as everyone can admit that they might be wrong we can all just go about our business.

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Something Someone Else Said

"You want to know who the biggest hypocrite in the world is? The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers and not for homosexuals. Hypocrite. The same God who instituted the death penalty for murderers is the same God who instituted the death penalty for rapists and for homosexuals - sodomites, queers! That’s what it was instituted for, okay? That’s God, he hasn’t changed. Oh, God doesn’t feel that way in the New Testament … God never “felt” anything about it, he commanded it and said they should be taken out and killed." -Pastor Steven L. Anderson, Faithful Word Baptist Church.

Yeah, I'm sure Jesus would have been totally down with this kind of hateful bullshit. I feel sorry for anyone, straight or gay, who is amongst this man's congregation. Is it any wonder that atheism has been steadily growing in popularity in American society?

Male Genital Mutilation

So I was reading an anthropological article the other day about moral relativism and female genital mutilation and it got me thinking, not so much about either of those topics but rather the titular one: male genital mutilation, or more commonly circumcision. Full disclosure (and probably much more than most readers here require): I myself am circumcised. I (thankfully) have no recollection of the procedure and am (also thankfully) quite happy with the results.

In the course of researching this topic prior to writing this post I have found out that there are any number of pretty nutty religious and/or cultural beliefs that are regularly carried out in this regard with very little logical and scientific backing, i. e. dipping the amputated foreskin in brandy and eating it, going to the trouble to bury the discarded flesh, etc. The facts that the practice does reduce the chances of general infection and the spread of HIV are also not largely in question by any major, sufficiently educated, industrialized society.

I guess my main problem with this practice (as I said, I am very happy with my own equipment and for those who are not regular readers, you'll find that I'm quite obviously neither Jewish nor Muslim) is that I was not given the choice. I know, I know, I'm happy with the results so why should I be upset, right? And I'm not, really. I hold no ill will towards either of my parents for making this decision for me but there is just some part of me that hates having decisions made on my behalf and without my consent, even if I do eventually approve of the outcome. Perhaps I have some control issues (I do).

I guess the reason I'm bringing the topic up is this: I don't have any children (that I know of, *wink*wink*) but if I did I would seriously weigh whether to go ahead with circumcising my son yet I'm fairly certain that I would eventually choose to go the circumcision route, for most of the reasons that I've detailed above. My main stumbling block? What if he's later upset with me for making this fairly unnecessary decision to amputate a piece of his body well before he's able to choose for himself if he wants the procedure to be done?

I mean, if I were upset that I had been circumcised as an infant I wouldn't buy any bullshit "Well, my god told me to do it" answer from my parents, much less the more truthful "Well, I like my cock that way so I just figured that you would too" one that I'd be obliged to provide. For all those reading who aren't guys, what your junk looks like and how it is shaped is a fairly big deal for us. Who am I to make that decision for my theoretical boy without his input? Maybe I'm wrong to hold this opinion but I believe that children are denied several rights that they deserve in American society (and to a greater extent, around the world), this being just one of them.

So I guess my question to the guys reading these words is best stated thusly: what are your views on this subject? Am I wrong to worry about making this decision for my perhaps future son? Do the practical aspects and cultural mores outweigh the individual rights concerning this procedure? Should my own religious beliefs (or lack thereof) be given a special measure of significance? And more personally, are you either upset or glad or neither that the decision was or wasn't made for you by your parents, for whatever reasons? As I've already said, I pretty much know how I'll decide this issue (absent any feedback from my equally theoretical wife, of course) but other perspectives and viewpoints from readers are, as always, welcome. Please expound at any length (no pun intended) in the comments section.

Picture Of The Day

That wascally savior:

On Good Friday (OLD, LATE, BLOW ME GW!) Jesus revealed himself in the form of a half-eaten Kit Kat bar. Because, well, the son of God hates Twix. As you can see in those deliciously crispy layers, the Lord's face looks eerily similar to that on the shroud of Turin (Sunday school, son, TA-DOW!). However, the divine bar is not without it's hell-burning naysayers.

Other witnesses were less impressed. "It looks more like Darth Vader," said one.

I'm convinced. I mean, what are the odds that this is just a coincidence of light and nougat, right? Darth Vader, my ass.

Hitchens Plays Biblical "What If?"

Professor PZ Myers over at Pharyngula puts up a great post which features columnist Christopher Hitchens playing a seemingly loaded game of religious "What if?" with an evangelical radio show host named Todd Friel whom Hitch spiritually and intellectually pwns the hell out of.

Part 1:


Part 2 (the audio ends halfway through this clip):

This exemplifies everything I love about Hitchens: he displays a razor sharp intellect combined with an unapologetic disdain for hacks like Friel and the religious premises he tries to force on others. I don't mind admitting that I would be intimidated as hell if I ever had to debate this man in public.

Bananas: The Atheist's Nightmare

A classic video in which intelligent design advocate Ray Comfort with his sidekick Kirk Cameron (yes, that Kirk Cameron) explains how God obviously exists because eating a domesticated banana is so easy. Comfort is apparently unaware of the existence of tough, naturally-occurring wild bananas and that if we follow his train of "logic", coconuts are one of God's cruel jokes. This is great:

If Atheists Ruled The World

We can dream, can't we? Barring that unlikely eventuality here's the next best thing: dramatic readings of actual text from online Christian fundamentalist forums. Scarily hilarious:

Picture Of The Day

Worship him, and bring unto him great tidings of marinara sauce!

Picture Of The Day

While I am an avowed atheist I have to say that this picture of Jesus riding a velociraptor from an evangelical coloring book for children is pretty kick ass. In fact, the only thing I can think of that's cooler would be a picture of Robocop on a unicorn. Oh, wait...

(via: The Daily Dish)

Atheist Toast

With this local news footage compilation sweeping across the Interwebs over the past few days, I thought this appropriate. Can you see anything? Yeah, neither can I.

What If God Disappeared?

If God does disappear the first thing I'm going to do is get my freaky puppy love on:

Obama's Non-Believer Shout Out

First, props to one L bill for his text message to me about this during Barack Obama's inaugural speech the other day. I hadn't charged my phone in a while and unbeknownst to me it had turned itself off, so I did not see his text until after I had added my update to this post. one L is a devout Christian and either out of familial compassion or cultural curiosity he puts up with my godless outbursts and rantings with good humor and obvious respect. As I wrote in the comment section: good looking out, brother.

That said, Obama's use of this phrase has been much discussed around the blogosphere since Tuesday but a comment by Chris Bodenner while guest blogging at The Daily Dish particularly caught my eye:

It's just one anecdote, but: I stood with mostly African-Americans during the speech and the only time I ever heard booing of Obama, from many directions, was his shout-out to "non-believers."

I find this to be an interesting phenomenon amongst the black community in America. Religion is a part of life for almost every black American to some extent and this truism applies across education levels, geography and income groups. As I said in a previous post, several gay rights groups out here in California have unfairly blamed black voters for the passage of Proposition 8 although the data shows that it would have narrowly passed without them but the fact remains that they did oppose the measure by a far larger percentage than any other racial demographic, and I feel confident assuming that this was due to the prevalence of religion in the black community (accompanied by a significant amount of homophobia in popular black culture, the origins of which I'm slightly less inclined to attribute to religion but I'm neither a sociologist nor a theologian on that count).

The reason I find this interesting is that black people as a demographic group in America are so similar to a substantial portion of Southern white Republicans: they're passionate Christians, they oppose gay marriage rights, they oppose abortion rights, they favor prayer in schools, and they are for the most part on a substantially lower economic scale than the average American, yet 88% of the black vote in 2004 went to John Kerry and a whopping 96% in 2008 went to Barack Obama. After the slight increase is attributed to Obama's race my question is this: besides an overt exploitation of religion by the Republican party and a subversive vein of racism running through the same, what do black folks see in the difference between these two parties that Southern whites do not?

This question is not rhetorical; I'm actually asking the readers of this blog. Is the black community really voting against their religious beliefs or is there really something the matter with Kansas? I'm genuinely curious as to the origins of this phenomenon and am entirely open to thoughts on either side of this cultural divide (although full disclosure does compel me to admit that I believe that Kansas and other predominantly poor white populations are voting against their own self interests by supporting Republican candidates; if one of you can convince me otherwise, I've learned something new and so much the better).

[Update: On a completely related note, Bodenner also links to this post at The Black Atheist blog. As a straight white atheist who oftentimes feels alone and misunderstood in 21st century America, I can only imagine what it must be like for an atheist who is also black and gay. Sometimes I have to see how hard some other people have it before I can appreciate how good my life, despite any personal hardships, really is.]

Unbearable Lightness Of Supreme Being

In an impassioned last "The Wørd" of the year, Stephen Colbert explains to God why he needs to change his style for 2009 to appeal to nonbelievers like myself:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - The Unbearable Lightness of Supreme Being

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview