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High Resolution(Source: ummagumma-)
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REFUSING MY RELIGION (Trailer)
A feature documentary about preachers who’ve lost their faith and the decline of religiosity in America
You can donate to help get this film made.
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High Resolution(Source: atheistjack, via ummagumma-)
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An America that is losing faith with religion: ‘One group has swelled: those with no religious affiliation, also known as “nones”. In the 1950s, this was about 2 percent of the population. In the 1970s, it was about 7 percent. Today, it is close to 20 percent’
(The Washington Post) - There is a close relationship between culture and cult — between the shared attitudes and values of a people and their religious views and practices. American culture is increasingly shaped by men and women who would rather sleep in or play golf on a Sunday morning.
The nation’s religious composition — as revealed in a recent presentation by Luis Lugo of the Pew Research Center — is changing. In 2012, America ceased to be a majority Protestant country — the result, mainly, of a decline in the numbers of mainline Protestants (though there have been smaller losses among white evangelicals as well). Catholicism is holding its own with a stable 22 percent of the public, but its ethnic composition has shifted dramatically — about half of all Catholics younger than 40 are Latino.
One group, however, has swelled: those with no religious affiliation, also known as “nones” (as in “none of the above”). In the 1950s, this was about 2 percent of the population. In the 1970s, it was about 7 percent. Today, it is close to 20 percent. These gains can be found in all regions of the country, including the South. The trend is particularly pronounced among whites, among the young and among men.
Not all the nones, it is worth pointing out, are secular. Only about 30 percent of this group — 6 percent of the public — are atheists or agnostics. The rest of the nones describe themselves as indifferent to religion or as “nothing in particular.” Sixty-four percent of the nones, however, say they believe in God or a universal spirit with “absolute certainty.” Even 9 percent of atheists and agnostics — defying both dogma and the dictionary— report themselves absolutely convinced of God’s existence. About equal proportions of the religiously unaffiliated (19 percent) and the affiliated (18 percent) report having “seen or been in the presence of a ghost.”
So the nones are united not by reading Richard Dawkins or by any particular set of theological beliefs but by a complete lack of attachment to institutional religion.
What are the reasons for this? The author touches on one reason that I’ve come to think has a lot to do with it - the rise of the religious right.
It has left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. The hate and vitriol their public mouth-pieces spread. Their exclusionary attitude toward the LGBT community, their political views - their views on sex, and birth control.
Their co-opting by the right-wing of american politics has shined a light on a lot of the darker corners of religion and maybe the public at large is starting to get sick of it.
How about this line: “Even 9 percent of atheists and agnostics — defying both dogma and the dictionary— report themselves absolutely convinced of God’s existence.”
There seems to be a considerable amount of confusion over what the terms ‘atheist’ and ‘agnostic’ mean.
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Cardinal Keith O'Brien Had Physical Relationship With Accuser, Report Claims
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland who is accused of groping priests since the 1980s, was physically involved with one of his accusers for years, according to a report in the Scottish newspaper The Herald.
The Catholic Church establishment is the perfect hideout for a sexual predator. Just because this guy was molesting adult men and not little kids doesn’t mean he wasn’t a sexual predator and it doesn’t mean the culture of the church didn’t protect him and allow him to keep molesting people. If this guy were the head of a major corporation and he behaved this way, we’d all be screaming. The reason we’re not is because the church’s culture of elite secrecy works on all of us, Catholics, Muslims, and atheists (at least the ‘co-exist’ coalition).
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Americans and religion increasingly parting ways, new survey shows
Religious affiliation in the United States is at its lowest point since it began to be tracked in the 1930s, according to analysis of newly released survey data by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University. Last year, one in five Americans claimed they had no religious preference, more than double the number reported in 1990.
An analysis of the results suggests the following:
-Liberals are far more likely to claim “no religion” (40 percent) than conservatives (9 percent)
-Men are more likely than women to claim “no religion” (24 percent of men versus 16 percent of women).
-More whites claimed “no religion” (21 percent) compared to African Americans (17 percent) and Mexican Americans (14 percent).
-More than one-third of 18-to-24-year-olds claimed “no religion” compared to just 7 percent of those 75 and older.
-Residents of the Midwestern and Southern states were least likely to claim “no religion” compared to respondents in the Western, Mountain and Northeastern states. But Midwesterners and Southerners are catching up.
-Educational differences among those claiming “no religion” are small compared to other demographic differences.
-About one-third of Americans identify with a conservative Protestant denomination, one-quarter are Catholics (although 35 percent were raised Catholic) and 1.5 percent are Jewish.(Click through for the full article)
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High Resolution -
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High ResolutionGoing down in flames.
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High ResolutionThis Day in Astronomy History: Feb. 13, 1633: Church vs. Galileo
Galileo Galilei, who has run afoul of the church for his theories concerning heliocentrism and for insulting his old friend Pope Urban VIII, arrives in Rome to face an ecclesiastical court on charges of committing heresy.
Galileo’s long-running feud with the Roman Catholic Church over whether the Earth revolved around the sun (the Copernican view advocated by Galileo) or the sun around the Earth (the Aristotelian view echoed in the scriptures) seemed amicably resolved by 1632. But that was before the publication of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, a book that the pope had allowed to be published as long as his own views on the subject were included.
Galileo included them, but inexplicably (for no malicious intent on the part of Galileo has ever been proven) put Urban’s words into the mouth of his character Simplicius, a defender of Aristotelian geocentrism who was often proved wrong and considered something of a fool. This didn’t go down too well in Rome and Galileo was summoned to face the Inquisition.
He was found guilty and the sentence was severe: He was forced to renounce heliocentrism, Dialogue was banned and Galileo spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. In this last he was lucky: The original sentence called for imprisonment.
A day late, but what the hell. I didn’t know that Galileo had pulled that move on the pope with the way his thoughts were included. That alone was probably worth the house arrest. Way to stick it to the Pope.
(via deconversionmovement)
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High ResolutionJust finishes watching this on HBO. I highly recommend it.
The film follows documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney as he examines the abuse of power in the Catholic Church system through the story of four deaf men who set out to expose the priest who abused them during the mid-1900s.
Each of the men brought forth the first known case of public protest against clerical sex abuse, which later lead to the sex scandal case known as the Lawrence Murphy case. Through their case the film follows a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland’s churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican.
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Pastor Apologizes For Snide Remark On Meal Receipt
JANUARY 31—The St. Louis pastor responsible for the credit card receipt heard ‘round the Internet termed her snide scribblings a “lapse in my character and judgment,” adding that the Applebee’s employee who posted the receipt online was fired yesterday after she lodged a complaint with restaurant managers.
In a TSG interview, Alois Bell said that the online firestorm created by the receipt has left her stunned. “My heart is really broken,” said the 37-year-old Bell. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”
The Applebee’s receipt, which was posted earlier this week to Reddit, includes Bell’s handwritten notations referring to an 18 percent tip added to the bill (for groups larger than six). “I give God 10% why do you get 18,” wrote Bell, who scratched out the tip and added a zero in its place. She also wrote the word “Pastor” above her signature.
Divine Irony
is a rich archive of religious delusions, scientific truths and political implications.
"Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
-George Carlin
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”.
-Albert Einstein
