GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Poll Says Atheism Is No Longer An Impediment To Elected Office

Previously I have blogged (repeatedly) about Americans uneasiness with voting for an atheist for president. However, a new survey from the American Humanist shows that progressive voters (who are pro-marriage equality and pro-choice) are happy to support an agnostic or atheist candidate for elected office.

The survey finds that 72% of liberal Democrats would vote for an atheist on the ballot. 74% of them would support a more generic “non-religious” or “agnostic” candidate.
Also interesting? 14% of those voters said they would be more likely to support an atheist while only 7% say the opposite.

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Alabama Wants To Amend State Constitution To Allow Ten Commandments On Public Land

LOL here we go again! Today's Godless Wednesday is about a red state again trying to force religious views on everyone else. The Alabama legislature is considering a state constitutional amendment which would allow the erection (sic) of religious displays on government-owned property in the guise of religious freedom.

Here is the text of the language Alabama voters will see:

Every person shall be at liberty to worship God according to the dictates of his or her own conscience. No person shall be compelled to attend, or, against his or her consent, to contribute to the erection or support of any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for the support of any minister of the gospel. Property belonging to the state may be used to display the Ten Commandments, and the right of a public school and public body to display the Ten Commandments on property owned or administrated by a public school or public body in this state is not restrained or abridged  [emphasis added]. The civil and political rights, privileges, and capacities of no person shall be diminished or enlarged on account of his or her religious belief. No public funds may be expended in defense of the constitutionality of this amendment. 

The Ten Commandments shall be displayed in a manner that complies with constitutional requirements, including, but not limited to, being intermingled with historical or educational items, or both, in a larger display within or on property owned or administrated by a public school or public body.

The bill (SB 181) passed the state house 66-19 and the state senate (22-3). The amendment has now become an issue in the Alabama gubernatorial race with candidates trying to position themselves as the most in support of enhancing the place of religion in the public square.

It looks to me as if it is masquerading as a religious freedom amendment since it is odd that the phrase "The Ten Commandments" would need to appear three times in an actual religious freedom amendment. What do you think?


Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Is This Cross A "Secular Monument"?

There is a federal lawsuit ongoing around the cross shown in the image at the top of this post. A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that this large christian cross in Bayview Park in Pensacola, Florida must be removed within 30 days.

The attorneys-general of 14 states have filed an amicus brief saying that this cross is a "secular monument." Here are some excerpts:

"The mere fact that these monuments consist of crosses and other religious symbols does not negate their secular purpose or their historical and cultural significance."  

and 

"Ultimately, if it were accepted by this Court, the district court’s reasoning would threaten countless monuments across the Circuit. As detailed in the City’s appendix, state and local parks, squares, and government buildings boast veterans’ memorials that contain religious imagery, including crosses, citations to scripture, and the like."

That is exactly the point! There are so many government buildings which include religious imagery that are claimed to have "historical" and "societal" significance when the religious message is clear to others. The question is who will the federal judiciary agree with?

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Oklahoma's Ten Commandments Monument Violates State Constitution

The Oklahoma State Supreme Court has finally ruled that the Ten Commandments Monument at the state capitol that was previously demolished by a crazy person and then rebuilt violates the state's constitutional separation of church and state.

Friendly Atheist analyzed the decision:

The ruling is very clear about what the law says and how obviously this monument violates it:
The text of Article 2, Section 5 [of the State Constitution]…:

“No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.”
The plain intent of Article 2, Section 5 is to ban State Government, its officials, and its subdivisions from using public money or property for the benefit of any religious purpose. Use of the words “no,” “ever,” and “any” reflects the broad and expansive reach of the ban.…
As concerns the “historic purpose” justification, the Ten Commandments are obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.

In other words, what the hell were you all thinking putting this monument up in the first place?! 

The Justices made clear that, unlike a previous Supreme Court case, this wasn’t about whether Oklahoma’s monument violated the First Amendment. It violated the state’s Constitution, and that’s all that matters.

Amusingly, both Satanists and Hindus were petitioning to have monuments also appear at the State Capitol grounds but now the Oklahoma Supreme Court has correctly ruled that religious displays on state property are unconstitutional.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Nones Are 2nd Largest "Religious Group" In Half The World

The Pew Research Center has a report out which indicates that in more than half of the countries in the world the group of people who do not have a religious affiliation (usually referred to as the "Nones" but whom we like to call the "godless' at MadProfessah.com) are often the second most populous group.

These facts are summarized by Friendly Atheist as:

Indeed, while either Christians or Muslims make up the largest religious group in nine-in-ten nations around the globe, “nones” rank second in size in most of the Americas and Europe, as well as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.…Of the 112 countries and territories in which the unaffiliated rank second, Christians are the largest religion in 106. In many of these nations, including the U.S. and most of Western Europe, “nones” are a substantial minority.

Take a note that in 106 of 112 countries in which Nones are #2, Christians are #1. Yet it is the Christians who repeatedly (and falsely) portray themselves as being persecuted by non-Christians.  This phenomenon is explored and debunked as a cultivated myth by Christian adherents in the book The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented A Story of Martyrdom by University of Notre Dame professor Candida Moss.

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Pew Documents Increase In "Religiously Unaffiliated"!

A report from the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life is documenting the rapid change in the religious demographics of the U.S. population. Specifically, the percentage of "religiously unaffiliated" (what we like to call "Godless" around here) has risen from 16.1% in 2007 to 22.8% in 2014. The report indicates that the number of religiously unaffiliated has jumped from 36 million people in 2007 to roughly 56 million in 2014.


Before we get too cocky, one should recognize that although the fraction of the population that identifies as Christian is decreasing, it went from 78.4% to 70.6%. That is still a huge supermajority of the United States. The mechanism for the increase in the godless apparently is occurring from people primarily switching from being Catholic. The total number of Christians has declined from 178 million to 173 million.

Friendly Atheist notes that atheists and agnostics are a growing fraction of the unaffiliated:

Joe Jervis quotes from the report:

The decline of Christians in the U.S. has corresponded with the continued rise in the share of Americans with no religious affiliation (religious “nones”). People who self-identify as atheists or agnostics (about 7% of all U.S. adults), as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular,” now account for a combined 22.8% of U.S. adults – up from 16.1% in 2007. The growth of the “nones” has been powered in part by religious switching. Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised as Christians or members of some other religion, but now say they have no religious affiliation.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God and Friendly Atheist

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Research Shows Thinking About Atheism Leads To Thinking About Death For Religious People

Friendly Atheist calls attention to research which shows that one reason cultural attitudes towards atheists are so negative is that most religious people associate thinking about atheists with death and fears about death.

 just thinking about atheism increased implicit death thought accessibility to the same level as [thinking about death itself]. These findings complement existing research and extend our understanding of anti-atheist sentiments by showing that hostility toward and mistrust of atheists is particularly pronounced when existential concerns are aroused and that, for believers, the mere contemplation of atheism can arouse intimations of mortality.

 The conclusion that the research leads to is that perhaps atheists like yours truly should be wary of making "militant denunciation of theistic conceptions of reality" regardless of how good it feels because just thinking about atheism makes some religious people conscious of their own mortality.

This does lead to a question of how can atheists engage in public policy debate if our very existence threatens our opponents? This is actually not that unusual, because opponents of LGBT equality often seem to feel an existential threat by thinking about homosexuality, but progress has been made in that arena. Hopefully, there will be progress in cultural and civil equality for godlessness in the future as well.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Madison, WI Bans Discrimination Against "Non-religious"

Madison, Wisconsin is a well-known bastion of progressive ideas (sorta like a midwest version of Berkeley) so it is pretty surprising that it took so long for someone to think of the idea that maybe it might be a good idea to explicitly protect atheists from discrimination.

Recently, the Madison City Council passed an ordinance doing just that:

In what is believed to be a first in the United States, the Common Council of Madison, Wis., has voted to amend the city's equal opportunities ordinance "to add nonreligion as a protected class."[...]The new legislation inserts the words "or nonreligion" after "religion" in several sections of the city of Madison's legal code.
For example, here's how the city lists its protected class:
"Protected class membership means a group of natural persons, or a natural person, who may be categorized because of their ability to satisfy the definition of one or more of the following groups or classes: sex, race, religion or nonreligion, color, national origin or ancestry, citizenship status, age, handicap/disability, marital status, source of income, arrest record or conviction record, less than honorable discharge, physical appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic identity, political beliefs, familial status, student, domestic partner, or receipt of rental assistance."

Surely that's a typo that "gender identity" appears twice? (I suspect one of those is "gender expression.") What does seem surprising is that this would be the first ordinance of its kind. Especially considering that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is based in Madison!

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Godless Children In Berlin Get Their Own Day Off From School (June 21)

Are you jealous of all the religious holidays that god-fearing folks have? Well now comes word from the Friendly Atheist  that at least in Berlin, Germany, godless children have a school holiday of their own! It is June 21st, and the occasion is World Humanist Day.

This is how the Associated Press reported the story:

BERLIN (AP) — Schools in Berlin have recognized World Humanist Day as a holiday on a par with All Saints' Day, Yom Kippur and Eid al-Fitr.The decision means Berlin pupils who subscribe to humanism — a philosophy that rejects the existence of deities — can apply for a day off to celebrate their belief in the same way as Christians, Muslims and Jews do for their holy days.Arik Platzek, a spokesman for Germany's Humanist Association, said Wednesday the decision "is a positive signal and a good example."He says it will be the first sanctioned holiday for humanists in any of Germany's 16 states "and as far as we know worldwide."World Humanist Day was conceived in 1986 and takes place annually on June 21. It often falls on the solstice.

Seems like it might be a good idea to have  a holiday in recognition of the solstice anyway considering how important the Sun is to our existence! Anyway, I think it's cool that atheist kids will have the opportunity to have their (lack of faith) officially recognized by the state in a similar way the state recognizes the faiths of their pers.

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist