A Dis"honor"able Killing

I would like to tell you the true story of a horrible crime done in the name of “family honor”. These are religiously motivated honor killings are prevalent in the Muslim world. The usual victims of these killings are women and are done by male family members when a perceived action by a female relative seems to break some conservative Muslim moral standard.


An act as simple as being raped or having any kind of relation with a male person, even Platonic ones, who is not related to her is an offense punishable by death. But a death by the cruelest ways possible. The most common method of execution is stoning to death by the male relatives. Once the offending female is dead then family honor is magically restored. And an innocent woman is murdered at the hands of own family.

Now back to the story. This true story takes place in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman in the country of Turkey. A 16 year old girl, one of nine children, known only by her initials M.M. did what, in the saner parts of the world, would be considered normal for a girl her age. She had friendships with males. Even though her grandfather had beaten her for having such relations, she persisted. It was then that that a family council meeting was held to deal with this perceived act of family dishonor. The decision was made and was carried out by the male members of the family. The punishment was death. But not by a simple stoning.

It was an informant who later told what had happened and the girl’s body was discovered dead by the authorities. She was found bound in the seated position and she was put into a 6 foot deep hole under the chicken coop and then the soil replaced and then the family reported her missing to cover their tracks. A forensic report had shown that she had great quantities of dirt in her lungs and stomach which meant she was buried alive and was conscious during the entire ordeal. The father and the grandfather were arrested for murder and were being held in custody pending trial.

It is said that 200 of the 4,400 murders in Turkey are honor killings. There is no honor in killing this innocent girl for something as simple as a perception of wrongdoing. And why is it that the great majority of these victims are women? The answer is simple religious based misogyny. Although the story I told you is an extreme example of it. Every major conservative monotheistic religion has women cast as something as evil and in need of male control. This archaic perception must be changed now!



The Article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey

Atheist Morality

I have read a lot responses to my previous article that I and other non-believers wrote. They were the usual standard theist arguments that have been refuted for decades. This latest article, “Rebuttal to atheists” by John Simon, in the January 10, 2010 editorial of Belleville News-Democrat is no different.
This editorial, for the most part, is the standard guilt by association argument. Comparing all atheists to some of the worst figures in history and Christian morality superior in every way. But one comparison made me chuckle, it was comparing atheists to Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a Catholic, in his speeches and his written works he cited, on numerous occasions, Christian themes and biblical quotes to support his ideology.
Christianity has a lot of blood on its hands. The systematic torture of countless thousands of witches and heretics for one.
Other parts of this editorial he generalized that atheists don’t care about the less fortunate because we don’t believe in a god. Bill Gates is an atheist and through his philanthropic foundation has helped millions of suffering people around the world. Atheists, working alongside Christians, have helped in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Raising money for “Doctors Without Borders” and breast cancer research. We do this because it is the humane thing to do and aren’t compelled by some vague threat of a nonexistent hell. Morality existed long before religion got its grubby little hands on it.

An Ode To Atheism

This poem was written by an ancient Roman poet named Titus Lucretius praising the Greek philosopher Epicurus as the savior of the human race. But if it is read more generally it could be interpreted as praise for any one of the champions of disbelief and doubt from the past all the way to the present day. The last two lines are particularly strong. The poem is as followed :

“When before our eyes man’s life lay groveling, prostrate, Crushed to the dust under the burden of religion ( Which thrust its head from heaven, its horrible face Glowering over mankind born to die ), One man a Greek was the first mortal who dared Oppose his eyes, the first to stand firm in defiance.
Not the fables of gods, nor lightening, nor the menacing Rumble of heaven could daunt him, but all the more They whetted his keen mind with longing to be First to smash open the tight barred gates of Nature. His vigor of mind prevailed, and he strode Beyond the fiery battlements of the unmeasured world. Raiding the fields of the unmeasured All.
Our victor returns with knowledge of what can arise, What cannot, what laws grant each thing its own Deep-driven boundary stone and finite scope. Religion now lies trampled beneath our feet, And we are made gods by the victory.”

YouTube Must Change Their Rules On Flagging, ETC. Abuses

The free flow of information is paramount on a free society. This abuse is tatamount to bullying people into silence. It is wrong and it is unAmerican. Reform is needed and can be achieved in time. In the end it will effect their bottom line with people leaving YouTube for a place where their rights are respected and recognized. I hope they will wake up in time before it is to late and their is noone left to complain about it.

Uganda's Godly Government

I recently heard of some awful legislation coming out of the Parliament in the African country of Uganda. This legislation would be an awful blow to the humans rights of homosexuals in this country. And you guessed it the people behind it all are motivated by their religious faith. That faith isn’t radical Islamic Fundamentalism, it is American Christian Fundamentalism. And it was religious conservatives in the American Congress and prominent Fundamentalist preachers who were supporters of this African government.
Uganda was not always like this. Once upon a time this country was like any other country in Africa. In one way it was different, its policy on AIDS prevention was the most effective in Africa. It was based on a reasoned and science based system which says Abstain from sex, if you have sex Be monogamous, or if you insist on not being monogamous where a Condom. This simple adage was used through out Uganda and the result was that the AIDS rate was on the decline.
Then the Bush administration’s effort to help Africa’s AIDS problem began. But certain conservative Christian Republicans wanted the majority of the money that was going to Africa to be used for abstinence programs. Abstinence programs in the U.S. looked good, for the religious conservatives, but were entirely ineffectual at stopping STD’s and pregnancies. The results for Uganda was exactly the same, the AIDS rate went from a decline to a doubling in number.
All the while Christian fundamentalists were gaining more and more influence in that country. The results were that the new leader of Uganda, his wife and the government officials were born again Christians. And then the failed abstinence programs they instated did not stop the AIDS infections from spreading. So they tried something that went with their born again Christian theology and are trying pass legislation that would punish people for being or associating with Ugandan homosexuals. The leadership’s theology believed that gay people chose to be gay and could recant from being gay through the force of national law.
These new laws, if passed, would 1. Would make any gay person who has AIDS to be put to death by hanging. 2. Gay people who did not have AIDS would simply be put in prison for the rest of there life. 3. Anyone who associates with gay people and not turn them into the authorities would be punished by three years in prison.
Human rights groups brought this to the attention of the world and now all those American conservative Christians politicians and preachers who so supported the Ugandan regime are either decrying these laws or remained silent on the issue. This godly government of Uganda that these people created has become a monster. They will be held responsible for all the abuses and deaths that their biblically inspired policies toward this country have wrought. This is what happens when you try to institute governmental policies based on theology rather than on reason and basic human dignity. These same American religious conservatives preachers and politicians would want to impose this theology on American soil. I would wager we would get similar results that were to be found in Uganda. So we as atheists and human rights advocates must be on the lookout for signs of theocracy in own country. As a great patriot once said “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

Harm in Believing?

I am writing this in response to the editorial “No harm believing” by Henrietta Harris in the Thursday, December 3, 2009 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat.
In her letter she rightly claims that there is no scientific support for the creationism of the Bible. It is a myth and nothing more. But then she goes on and says that other parts of the Bible are supportable in science. In this she is dead wrong. Which parts are scientifically supportable? The Sun stopping in the sky, the flat Earth, the virgin birth, the sky made of metal, the talking snake and donkey, or maybe the parting of the Red Sea. These and other fanciful stories are that, stories. Stories told by an ancient, superstitious people with almost no knowledge of science.
In another paragraph she wrote the incorrect definition of scientific theory. Theory, as defined by scientists, is basically the best way to explain the evidence at hand. Evolution has been able to explain the tons of evidence better than any other theory out there. The scientists look at the evidence and draw their conclusions from that. This is how real science works.
I would write that there is harm in believing because as Richard Dawkins once said, “Belief makes you accept answers to questions that are not really answers.” What you lose by believing is your ability to think critically and that makes a person gullible.

Gay Marriage : Time Is On Your Side!

On November 4th , 2009, in the state of Maine, legal gay marriage was voted down by a narrow margin. And the opponents of gay marriage spoke about their victory and they said basically that gay marriage would not come to pass forever. That no state would ever vote for marriage equality for homosexuals and had no chance of passing if the people voted on it. And figured that it would always be the case. I’m here to tell you that they were dead wrong.
It was said that “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” The opponents of marriage equality should heed this wise maxim. For a similar boast was made about 40 years ago. During the civil rights struggle for African-American equality Governor George Wallace once famously said “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” He felt it was natural and traditional that inequality among the races existed. It had been that way for almost a century and he thought it would last forever. But he was also wrong. Even before the sixties ended the whole edifice segregation came crashing down. It wasn’t without great struggle but in the end, it came to pass and the country survived. And a generation or two later we all look back at that time before as a shameful moment in our American history.
The same can be said now with marriage equality movement. Now we are in the great struggle moment of this movement. There have been setbacks and our enemies of equality feel confident in their victories. But the people who voted for the anti - gay marriage amendment, demographically are older people. The anti - gay marriage foundation is based upon an aging and diminishing resource. Polls have shown that people under the age of forty are 56% more likely to support equal rights for gay people including marriage. And those thirty and under polled even higher, much higher than the forty and under crowd. As the foes of gay marriage continue to die off they will be replaced by the younger people. They will come into power without the prejudices of the older generations. And because of this, gays will get their equality and after a time, future Americans will look back upon this present time with the same shame we now feel about the stuff that happened forty years ago. Homosexual equality is only a matter of time and of attrition. You must never give up, never surrender, for time is always on your side.