Every Friday the crew here at Edger will rank the top five blog posts, videos, science news, and anything else of interest to the freethought community.
5. On the Evolutionary Origins of Religion
The cultural naturalism report brings us this descriptive post on the debate over the evolutionary origins of religion.
“The divide on the question of the naturalistic origins of religion is between the adaptationists and the by-product theorists. The adaptationists are led by David Sloan Wilson and Jonathan Haidt, while Daniel Dennett is the major proponent of the religion-as-a-by-product hypothesis. In this essay, I outline the issue briefly and mention some implications of these ideas.”
4. Daylight Atheism: Advice to an Atheist
Deacon Duncan from the evangelical realism blog gives us this well reasoned and contemplative analysis of how an atheist should act during a particular case of public prayer.
“By standing during the prayer, and visibly pledging to support the community without sacrificing their personal principles, atheists can lead by example, demonstrating that tolerance can be helpful, non-violent, and principled.”
3. Why ‘Stayin’ Alive’ could literally save your life
In another awesome mix of science and music, scientists at the university of Illinois have discovered an ingenious way to ensure people conducting CPR achieve the ideal number of compressions per minute to resuscitate the heart.
“Nadkarni said he has seen ‘Stayin’ Alive’ work wonders in classes where students were having trouble keeping the right beat while practicing on mannequins. When he turned on the song, ‘all of a sudden, within just a few seconds, they get it right on the dot.’”
2. All aboard the atheist bus campaign
The Atheist Bus Campaign finally got underway this week in London, with Richard Dawkins matching donations. Ariane Sherine wrote about the campaign in the Guardian. This was definitely worthy of the number one spot this week, simply because of the exposure and controversy it will generate.
“Your donations will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people’s day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. As Richard Dawkins says: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.”"
1. CFI Pushes Back Against Religious Restrictions on Free Expression
And Edger’s number one spot this week goes to Austin Dacey and the Center for Inquiry, who represented those who believe in freedom of speech at the ninth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. CFI has been working alongside the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) to combat the defamation of religions enactment.
“Austin Dacey drafted and read a statement urging the Council to abandon the dangerous notion of the defamation of religions, asserting: “Rights belong to individuals, not ideas. . . . Belief depends on the freedom to doubt, to dissent, to discover.””
Artistically Challenged
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Creating a gender equal group diversifies your physical attributes. What it doesn’t diversify are the thoughts and activities of your group. Getting more people who are interested in science and math – but are simply the other gender isn’t really doing anything for the bigger picture. Besides, I think we’ve already created a more or less safe space for women to come into – they just need to be encouraged. We haven’t made our groups and centers a safe space for some. I think focusing more on advancing our movement to be more inclusive to the arts and social sciences is far more important than encouraging women. All of our events and gatherings are totally open to women who are interested in coming – however, for the art and social science community there is rarely a place for them to fit in.
We tend to have a pretty scientific crowd, and that’s not surprising. Generally speaking a lot of those who are interested in skepticism and the secular outlook on life are science majors of some sort. Evolution, stem cell research, abortion etc. can all be justified and argued as valid with science and are often argued as wrong and invalid by the religious. So it doesn’t come as a surprise to see those with a science background falling into secularism.
What we need are events that cater to this other side. There is definitely the market for it – there are sacreligeous artists everywhere, poets writing about vast voids of religious nothingnesses, social scientists writing about the psychology and philosophers wanting to hear about ethics. Not only do they fit into our mandates by being secular and asking questions but they are promoting and exercising freethought and more importantly freedom of expression!
Their art is breaking boundaries of the church and religion being infallible, and there is something to be said about the effectiveness of this controversy. Not only are people using their feelings about religion to create something with aesthetic value but they are also reaching out to the emotions of people who haven’t been able to do that.
There is also the possibility of bringing the two together so that even more people can find an emotional connection to the works. Personally when I see a picture or a painting or a complex biosphere or environment I am filled with awe. I am reminded that something so magnificent has developed over time. Something so complex is growing right in front of me, and I take advantage of it far too often. I connect emotionally.
The same (or similar thing) can be said for someone who sees a recreation of a galaxy or a cell. Atheistic humanism seriously needs this sense of value and allowance of these important and deep feelings. Reason has enabled us to work out in our minds what needs to be done and to devise strategies to follow through with these things. But feelings and passion give us impetus to act and keeps us from falling into that black never ending hold of emptiness. There is something to hold onto, the awe, wonder and beauty of the universe that can be expressed through a painting as a way to constantly remind us of what we’re actually living in and being a part of every day.
That’s enough fluff talk from me for like a century…. – I’ve had enough of all these scientists coming together and acting like they have all the answers to the world. The world wouldn’t be the same and would be a stone cold rock without art. So why aren’t we incorporating that into our movement more?
Here is my wish, want and challenge to all the students out there or people running little groups – do something for your artists! Hold an art gallery, do a poetry reading, start an arts and crafts night (okay, maybe not that one…) or do events that caters to this crowd! Enough of this BS about bringing women into the movement – we’re here. And more will come, you just have to give them time. But we’re not making it easy for the artists and social scientists, and I think this is a far more important task. It’s an entire culture and social world that we’re not including. By excluding them, we’re shutting a lot of possibilities off on ourselves.
Artistically challenged.
Tags: art, atheism, freethought, science, social
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