Atheists Have No Morals ... and the parrot is just resting

Debating morals with theists sometimes makes me feel feel like John Cleese and the Dead Parrot.

"It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."
"No, no, it's resting!"
"I know a dead parrot when I see one and I'm looking at one right now!"
"No, no, it's not dead, it's resting."

... and so on, with the shopkeeper repeatedly saying something that everyone can see is plainly false. The parrot isn't alive, it's dead! Deceased!

It's like that when debating morals with a theist. They constantly harp back to their only argument, that without God there can be no morality. A case in point is Gary Hardaway's essay, CAN ATHEISTS BE GOOD CITIZENS? Hardaway starts with a few irrelevant quotes from the most religious of America's founding leaders such as James Madison in order to lend credibility to his case. But then he gets to the old dead-parrot argument:

The fatal, disqualifying flaw arises when the atheist encounters the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The atheist cannot agree with the Founders. In honesty he has to say, “Men do not have a Creator. Their unalienable rights do not come from a Creator. They come from another source.”

So far, so good: Hardaway is actually correct. Unalienable rights do not come from a creator! There is no God, just an idea of God that humans created. Human rights are unalienable because we have become a civilized species capable of rational thought. Using the same Rationalist reasoning that was created by the ancient Greeks and refined for two thousand years, we've figured out that human happiness and dignity are the foundation of all morals and ethics.

So we're good, right? Alas, no. Hardaway goes on:

What might this other source [of human rights] be? Government? But government can take away what it has bestowed. ... Atheists have an insoluble problem. If God doesn’t exist, human beings can have no special value.

Ah, there it is. The old dead-parrot claim. It's nothing more than "proof by repeated assertion." If you say something often and loudly, then it must be true!

Sorry, Mr. Hardaway. Atheists don't have an insoluble problem. God doesn't exist, and the universe doesn't give a damn about humans. If we manage to detonate all of our nuclear weapons and turn this planet into a sterile rock, that rock will keep orbiting the sun for another few billion years. The Earth won't care, the sun won't care, the universe won't care.

Human rights only matter to humans. Atheists and humanists know this. It makes human life even more precious. It's why atheist morality is fundamentally better than religious morality.

It is the theists, the Christians, Muslims and Jews who have the real problem.

Temper Atheist Optimism? Not This Blogger.

My blogging colleague vjack over at Atheist Revolution is challenging us to be a little less giddy about the rising optimism of Atheists. He writes:

"Religion has been declared dead in America many times before, and it has reemerged each time. ... I do not expect to see the end of Christian privilege in my life time, nor do I expect to live to see religion truly fade into the obscurity it deserves."

He makes a good case that religion will prove its resilience once again by fighting off the rising tide of atheism.

I have to disagree. I'm still retaining my optimism. I think we are at a true tipping point, where a series of changes in society are aligning in unprecedented ways that will cause the rapid demise of Christianity as we know it in America. Like the other "tipping points" in Malcolm Gladwell's book, the result will be cascading change, an accelerating societal upheaval that will move far faster than anyone expects.

What are those changes? What new social forces will converge to make this happen?

The Internet. Never before have young people been exposed to so many ideas from so many sources. In past generations, parents largely controlled their children's access to knowledge, either

Is Christianity Dying? American Christians Lie About Their Church Attendance

Here's another interesting tidbit in the ongoing saga of Christianity's decline in America. It turns out that American Christians stretch the truth rather badly when reporting how often they go to church. In fact, "stretching" the truth may be too kind ... I'd call it lying. American Christians exaggerate their church attendance by almost sixty percent.

And even stranger, European Christians don't. The "attendance gap" is nearly zero in Europe. Their claimed attendance matches their actual attendance.

According to a new University of Michigan study, American church attendance runs around 35% to 45% if you simply ask people. But

Which Soldiers Hate Gays the Most? The Chaplains!

Which military group is most vehemently opposed to repealing the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell law? Maybe you heard that it's the Marines, the "manly men." Or maybe you thought it was the Army, the men in the trenches. Wrong!

It's the chaplains. The men of God.

"There is very clearly a concern out there by chaplains, that they would somehow be treated adversely if they held or espoused religious views that were contrary to the government's view if the law is repealed."
–General Carter Ham, Director of Operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Big surprise. According to this CNN report, we once again find that the religious leaders, the ones who are supposed to be spreading God's word of infinite love, tolerance and acceptance, and spreading Jesus' message of forgiveness, are instead leading the charge in the battle against gay rights. They're at the forefront of intolerance and discrimination.

McCain's True Colors: A Homophobic Jerk

There was a time some years ago when I admired Senator McCain of Arizona. His military service was above and beyond the call of duty and he seemed like an intelligent, thoughtful man. I've never been fond of Republican politics, but McCain seemed like an honest Republican, a man with principles.

But l can't find any respect left in my heart for John McCain. McCain claims that he supports gay rights. He promised that when the military told him it was ready for the repeal of the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell (DADT) law, he would support the repeal. But he simply lied! The majority of military leaders, as well as the overwhelming majority of servicemen and servicewomen in all branches, have spoken clearly: they support gay rights in the military, and they support the repeal of DADT.

So what does McCain do? He calls for more studies, committees and reports. When they arrive, he claims they didn't address the right question. He stalls.

And finally today, when the most definitive study was released by the military which concluded it is time to repeal DADT, what did McCain do? Did he take it to heart like he promised? No. He simply claimed that the report is "flawed" and that the senior military officers who put it together didn't do it right.

He's proving to be nothing more than a homophobic jerk. What's more, his actions today opposing the repeal of DADT are just the last in a long string of heartless, harsh conservative dogma that he's been reciting.

I respect people who care more than I respect people who merely happen to agree with me. I'd rather have friends who have thought about their morals and politics than friends who are knee-jerk liberals or conservatives. Well, I thought John McCain was someone I could respect, but either I misjudged him to begin with, or else McCain decided to become dishonest to his own principles for reasons I can't fathom.

Either way, I finally lost the last vestiges of respect I had left for Senator John McCain.

Oklahoma Needs a Civics Lesson: Sharia Law Ban Exposes Constitutional Ignorance

On Monday a federal judge blocked the Oklahoma "Save our State" constitutional amendment because it singled out Sharia law for special mention. The Court ruled that by banning Sharia law from Oklahoma courts but not mentioning other religions, the amendment was effectively endorsing Judeo-Christian laws. That is plainly illegal under the First Amendment (as extended to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment), and the judge ruled correctly.

But to hear the conservatives' howls, you'd think the judge had allowed Sharia law into the Oklahoma law books! Here's what one conservative news site had to say

Santa Cruz: My Home Town Displays "Reason Greetings" Banner in Parade!

My home town is making me proud! From the MercuryNews.com:

SANTA CRUZ -- When this year's holiday parade kicks off Saturday morning in downtown, one of the newest additions will be the Atheists of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, whose members will march down Pacific Avenue with a banner bearing the words "Reason's Greetings."

Other groups sponsoring the banner include Santa Cruz Brights, UCSC Secular Student Alliance and Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County, a coalition of like-minded individuals who have banded together to publicly express their "non-theist" ideology.

Santa Cruz, for those of you who don't know, is a beautiful little town on California's north coast, about 80 miles south of San Francisco. We've had our share of notariety – a couple mass murders, a mention in a Beach Boys song (Surfin' USA), the home of the University of California Santa Cruz, and as a town that banned nuclear weapons! The town was also severly damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Santa Cruz is an odd mixture of far-right conservatives and far-left liberals. Back in the 1950s and 1960s,