The Chipped Stele

Proof of God's Existence?

2008-04-20T17:51:00.001-07:00

According to evangelist Ray Comfort, this banana is "the atheist's nightmare."

A good example of the pseudoscience that is "intelligent design."

Some Views of My High School

2008-04-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

Just for fun (since I've been posting pictures of everything lately) here are some views of my high school! It was designed by Eliel Saarinen.

I lived in the building shown above for four years.

More Views of the University of Chicago

2008-04-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

"You Have No Right To Be Here!"

2008-04-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

A social activist named Rob Sherman went to the Illinois State Legislature to question why the state government was giving a 1 million-dollar grant to a Baptist church. What he got was a tongue lashing from Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) for being an atheist. Below is the audio with a transcript.

Transcript:

Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy -- it’s tragic -- when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school. I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know? I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous--

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court---

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon!

R.I.P. Charlton Heston (1924-2008)

2008-04-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

I never cared much for Charlton Heston's politics, but he played the lead role in some amazing films. Here are my favorites:

The Ten Commandments (1956) may take some creative license with the Biblical story, but it is Cecil B. DeMille's masterpiece and worth rewatching at every Passover.

Ben Hur (1959) is a spectacular film, despite its lame ending. Gore Vidal claims that he persuaded the film's director to insinuate a homosexual relationship between the characters Messala (Stephen Boyd) and Ben Hur (Heston). Boyd went along with the idea and played the role with the subtext. Thing is, no one told Heston about it...

Planet of the Apes (1968) will always be remembered for its shocking ending. The threat of nuclear war may have subsided for the moment, but it remains a powerful film. I don't know what the hell Tim Burton was thinking when he remade it in 2001 and changed the ending.

Nietzsche on the Hebrew Bible

2008-03-07T23:56:00.000-08:00

As much as Friedrich Nietzsche despised religion, he greatly admired the Hebrew Bible as a literary collection. Consider this excerpt from Beyond Good and Evil:

"In the Jewish 'Old Testament,' the book of divine justice, there are men, things, and speeches in so grand a style that Greek and Indian literature have nothing to compare to it. One stands in awe and reverence before these tremendous remnants of what man once was, and sad thoughts come to one about ancient Asia and its jutting peninsula, Europe, which wants so definitely to signify, as against Asia, the 'progress of man.' Of course, those who are merely wretched tame domestic animals (like our cultivated people of today, including the Christians of 'cultivated' Christianity) need neither be amazed nor even sorry when faced with these ruins: the taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone of 'greatness' and 'smallness.' Perhaps they will even find the New Testament, the book of grace, more to their taste. To have glued the New Testament, a kind of rococo of taste in every respect, to the Old Testament to form one book--the 'Bible,' the book--that is perhaps the greatest audacity and 'sin against the spirit' which literary Europe has on its conscience."

I can't say that I agree with all of Nietzsche's bombastic statements here. This excerpt, however, does show that I'm not the only vocal opponent of organized religion who appreciates the literary beauty of the Hebrew Bible. One does not have to believe in the existence of YHWH/Elohim any more than in Zeus, Vishnu, or Ahuramazda to enjoy reading a diverse, fascinating collection of ancient texts.

The Suprising Success of "The God Delusion"

2008-02-22T14:45:00.001-08:00

I would like to express my appreciation for those who publicly denounce the notion that "intelligent design" is science. Since there is not enough room for me to give credit to all true defenders of reason, I will focus on one public intellectual in particular--Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins became famous in 1976 with the publication of The Selfish Gene, a work about evolutionary biology. Since then, he has gone on to become an outspoken critic of religion and a notable proponent of atheism. Most recently, he published The God Delusion, which sold more than 1.5 million copies. In the work's preface, Dawkins explains that he wrote it to help open-minded individuals become comfortable with the idea of being atheist:

"I suspect -- well, I am sure -- that there are lots of people out there who have been brought up in some religion or another, are unhappy in it, don't believe it, or are worried about the evils done it its name; people who feel vague yearnings to leave their parents' religions and wish they could, but just don't realize that leaving is an option. If you are one of them, this book is for you. It is intended to raise consciousness--raise consciousness to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one. You can be an atheist who is happy, moral, and intellectually fulfilled" (1).

I was not a fan of Dawkins until fairly recently. I used to think he spent too much time--pardon the expression--"preaching to the choir." I thought his abrasive personality would never help him convince anyone that God does not exist. I now recognize, however, that he has been doing valuable work as a public intellectual.

Dawkins's The God Delusion is not written to change the mind of religious fundamentalists. It is targeted at people who already have doubts, but are afraid to accept them. It is easy to be ashamed of religious skepticism if one has grown up in a religious household. I recall avoiding discussion of religion with my own father--a devout Catholic--for months so that I would not have to admit my atheism. The God Delusion may have helped some become comfortable with the idea of living without religious faith. If it has done so, then it has done some good.

It surprises me that such a book has become a bestseller. In my post "An Atheist President? Not Anytime Soon...", I reminded readers that America is not a very atheist-friendly nation. Yet The God Delusion is a polemic against religion and one can find it prominently displayed at Borders and Barnes & Noble. Just a few years ago, if someone told me that a book describing the Biblical God as "a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filiacidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadamasochistic, capriciously benevolent bully" (31) would find its way into the New York Times bestseller list, I would have scoffed at the idea. The success of The God Delusion is perhaps a sign that Americans are becoming more tolerant of atheism.

I find myself thankful that a public figure like Dawkins exists to agitate against teaching intelligent design in schools. There are many people in America bringing attention to issues like health care reform, gay rights, racial discrimination, environmentalism and so on. I can think of only two public intellectuals (Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens) bringing attention to the potential dangers of all forms of religious belief. It is noteworthy, however, that both men are from England, where a larger portion of the population lacks any religious affiliation. Perhaps American intellectuals are too conscious of their countrymen's hostility towards atheism to discuss it. Thankfully, writers like Dawkins "keep the pot boiling," reminding Americans that it is possible to lead a rich, full life as an atheist.

Bibliography:

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.

A True Medical Wonder!

2008-02-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

This amazing news story has made me a believer in the enormous potential of stem cell research:

An Australian girl spontaneously switched blood groups and adopted her donor's immune system following a liver transplant in the first known case of its type, doctors treating her said Thursday.
Demi-Lee Brennan was age nine and seriously ill with liver failure when she received the transplant, doctors at a top Sydney children's hospital told AFP.

Nine months later it was discovered that she had changed blood types and her immune system had switched over to that of the donor after stem cells from the new liver migrated to her bone marrow.

She is now a healthy 15-year-old, Michael Stormon, a hepatologist treating her, told AFP. Stormon said he had given several presentations on the case around the world and had heard of none like it.

"It is extremely unusual -- in fact we don't know of any other instance in which this happened," Stormon told AFP from the Children's Hospital.

"In effect she had had a bone marrow transplant. The majority of her immune system had also switched over to that of the donor."

Too bad President George W. Bush has twice vetoed bills that would provide federal funding for stem cell research. In one of the most shameless stunts of his political career, he surrounded himself with babies as he explained his reasons for refusing to sign the "Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act" of 2005. As a Christian conservative, the President seems to support the position that "life begins at conception" and refuses to sign a bill that would condone the destruction of human embryos.

On the bright side: John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama support embryonic stem cell research and one of them will certainly be in the White House in the near future.