Atheism Day

A nice article regarding how evolution is littered with examples of something called 'cross-cutting concerns' which is a fundamental part of Aspect Oriented Programming. So this one's mainly for the atheist programmers out there!

[remember, Friday 30th June 2006 is Atheism Day]

In response to the ID crowd's list of 500 'scientists' who believe in creationism, the Alliance for Science (what a cool name) has released a list of 10,000 clerics who agree with evolution as a scientific fact.

In addition there's a survey stating that in America atheists are the most mistrusted minority (link is to Digg story as hosting server is currently very busy; all those sneaky atheists trying to do sneaky things). We are, apparently, the ones who least “share their vision of American society” and the ones that Americans are least willing to let their children marry.

Go team!

[remember Atheism Day: 30th June]

Clearly, the whole point of this blog is to have some movement towards an Atheism Day that is recognised as a day in which people can challenge their theistic views and ask themselves probing questions about their beliefs. While those who have already seen the light (or lack thereof) can take a sense of pride in the knowledge that they've actually made a good decision.

So, I'm proposing either the last Friday in June or the first Friday in July as Atheism day. This is near the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, so the days will be long and the weather should be OK for an all-day atheism session at your local atheism congregational point.

If you agree / disagree with this choice, then please post a comment letting us know your views.

Read http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4811266.stm

Now, that's a fairly well-balanced view of the work and the award. I fully agree that science doesn't have all the answers as to the whos and the whys for everything, but that's because science is science; it's about perpetual discovery not absolute fact. Just because science is currently unable to answer a specific question does not mean that 'God' is the automatic answer. It means that science is currently unable to answer the question as the reason why has not been discovered yet.

The same story in the 'Globe and Mail' paints a different picture with quotes such as: "Dr. Barrow...is one of the leading proponents of the anthropic principle of the universe, the dials-set-right idea -- the notion that the universe is, in Goldilocks's words, "just right" for life on Earth."

Now, to steal a quote from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; the Earth is an invisible dot on an invisible dot. To think that the whole infinate vastness of the universe was created for the sole purpose of a few hairless chimps named humans is ridiculous. And if this is the case, then God is woefully inefficient; creating vast stars and galaxies stretching out into space just to give us something to look at. Why go to all that trouble and then let us come up with TV on our own?

As a follow-up to the previous post, have a look at http://www.scientomogy.info/

Recently, there's been a South Park episode that 'paid tribute' to Scientology. It appears that this episode has upset Issac Hayes so much that he's decided to quit the show. Needless to say Matt Stone and Trey Parker have some good words about the subject.

Apparently, www.godhatesshrimp.com.

From this story about a little boy who has spinal muscular atrophy; the family are campaigning to ensure that the doctors will not remove the ventillator for their child. The father has said that it is up to God to give life and take it away.

Now... this strikes me (and the counsel for the hospital) as being a bit odd; if it was up to God, shouldn't they have refused all treatment in the first instance as if it is "up to God" then surely the fact that the child cannot survive without medical intervention should be taken as a sign that God does not want the child's life to continue.

This might sound overly harsh. In fact it is very harsh as I'm sure the family is going through a horrible time and I do feel sorry for them, but using 'God' as in an argument in this manner exposes the fundamental flaws with this way of thinking. If you accept that 'God' has the ultimate decision in all matters, then you should reject all human intervention.

I suppose it would be a good idea to explain what this is all about then.

Basically Atheism Day is a serious campaign to get a day recognised as a day where people can contemplate their place in the Universe and celebrate their choice and conclusion that they are atheists.

Ideally this will be a day not already taken by a major religious holiday, it will not be on a specific date every year, it will be in or near to summer and it will be on a Friday.

Does this sound like a good idea to you? If so, leave a message showing your support and keep checking back here for further updates.

Welcome to the Atheism Day blog.

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone up to date with all the news surrounding National Atheism Day.

Keep checking back for regular updates!