Mike Tidmus

“This reverend, James Garlow, misleadingly declares that there should be “no government intrusion in the pulpit.” I declare that there should be no fundamentalist intrusion on my wallet. I completely agree that this right wing minister should be free to vent his anti-gay bile – and endorse candidates from the pulpit on that basis if he so chooses — but his church should then lose eligibility for tax deductible contributions (among other tax subsidies).”

— Sean Faircloth, Director of Strategy and Policy for The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science U.S., fromBachmann illegally endorsed from the pulpit? The IRS reaction? Fearful failure to enforce the law.

(emphasis: from the original)

“This is a popular argument among theoconservatives and critics of the new atheism, but for many reasons it is historically inaccurate.

“First, the premise that Nazism and Communism were “atheist” ideologies makes sense only within a religiocentric worldview that divides political systems into those that are based on Judaeo-Christian ideology and those that are not. In fact, 20th-century totalitarian movements were no more defined by a rejection of Judaeo-Christianity than they were defined by a rejection of astrology, alchemy, Confucianism, Scientology, or any of hundreds of other belief systems. They were based on the ideas of Hitler and Marx, not David Hume and Bertrand Russell, and the horrors they inflicted are no more a vindication of Judeao-Christianity than they are of astrology or alchemy or Scientology.

“Second, Nazism and Fascism were not atheistic in the first place. Hitler thought he was carrying out a divine plan. Nazism received extensive support from many German churches, and no opposition from the Vatican. Fascism happily coexisted with Catholicism in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Croatia.

“Third, according to the most recent compendium of history’s worst atrocities, Matthew White’s Great Big Book of Horrible Things (Norton, 2011), religions have been responsible for 13 of the 100 worst mass killings in history, resulting in 47 million deaths. Communism has been responsible for 6 mass killings and 67 million deaths. If defenders of religion want to crow, “We were only responsible for 47 million murders—Communism was worse!”, they are welcome to do so, but it is not an impressive argument.

“Fourth, many religious massacres took place in centuries in which the world’s population was far smaller. Crusaders, for example, killed 1 million people in world of 400 million, for a genocide rate that exceeds that of the Nazi Holocaust. The death toll from the Thirty Years War was proportionally double that of World War I and in the range of World War II in Europe.

“When it comes to the history of violence, the significant distinction is not one between theistic and atheistic regimes. It’s the one between regimes that were based on demonizing, utopian ideologies (including Marxism, Nazism, and militant religions) and secular liberal democracies that are based on the ideal of human rights. I present data from the political scientist Rudolph Rummel showing that democracies are vastly less murderous than alternatives forms of government.”

— Steven Pinker, author and Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, responding to bankrupt religionist canard: “Need I remind you that the “atheist regimes” of the 20th century killed tens of millions of people?”

Pastors to risk tax exempt status (video: Right Wing Watch at YouTube)

Right Wing Watch:

Over the last several weeks, Jim Garlow has taken the lead in promoting the Alliance Defense Fund’s “Pulpit Initiative,” an effort to get pastors to speak out on political issues and even endorse or oppose candidates during their sermons in a direct challenge to the IRS.

No problem. Every word Garlow utters from the pulpit will be recorded and turned over to the appropriate authorities. Happy to hasten the loss of your tax exemption, Jimbo.

“We are marching today for a secular Europe. Europe is the continent where secularism was invented, where liberal democracy first flowered, and Europe played a major part in developing the very concept of human rights and we should celebrate that today… What does it mean to live in a free and liberal secular democracy? It means if you don’t like abortion, you don’t have to have one. If you don’t like gay marriage, you don’t have to have one, or be a guest at one. If you don’t like assisted dying for the terminally ill, you don’t have to opt for it. But it also means that you can’t enlist the state to force your choices, preferences, prejudices and dogmas on all your fellow citizens.

“Secularism guarantees our freedom of conscience and our freedom of belief, humanist and religious alike. But all over Europe there are religious groups of all religions lobbying not just for the right to pursue their own vision of the good life as they see fit, which, if we do it without harming others is a freedom we all should enjoy, but working hard to impose their own values on us all.”

— Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association,
addressing the march and rally for a Secular Europe

“What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons. A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity? The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.”

— Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times
columnist, from The Years of Shame

(tip: Joe. My. God.)

Britain’s atheist bus program (photo: The Richard Dawkins Foundation
for Reason and Science)

“Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.”

— Victor Stenger, American particle physicist, atheist, and author

Pat Condell: In superstition we trust – America’s religion fetish
(video: Pat Condell at YouTube)

Pat Condell:

I was a regular on the UK stand-up circuit until the mid nineties when I got fed up performing to drunken birthday parties, so I started writing for other people. I wrote my most recent show, and I now make internet videos, because I believe religion in the modern world is out of control and is given far too much respect by people who should know better. It enjoys a status it hasn’t earned and doesn’t deserve, and it’s time we stopped pandering to it before it literally destroys us. You can find out more at my website.

I hope you enjoy the videos whether you agree with them or not.

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Check out Pat’s earlier videos posted in these parts by clicking here.

Read Wikipedia’s Pat Condell page.

Learn more about Pat Condell at the link. Find all of Condell’s videos at his YouTube channel, and get your hands on a copy of his bound transcripts in Pat Condell – Godless and Free, at the link.