The Atheist News Podcast

Even in relatively civilized societies, we are sometimes confronted with physically violent situations. Everyone at some point in their life has to decide what circumstances, if any, would lead them to assault another person. Violence can be for some a simple solution, a last resort, or not even an option. These differing philosophies give us characters ranging from the passive who cannot imagine harming another person under any circumstances to the bully who will physically antagonize others merely for their own amusement. What exactly is the stance on major religions in this scheme though? Each religion has devotees that act in ways ranging from universal pacifism to outright terrorism and murder. But in each of these systems of faith, where does the radical fundamentalism end and the explicit dogma begin? When do the gods say it’s acceptable to intentionally harm another human being?

A bit of a disclaimer that should really go without saying: Wading through the mountain of religious texts and analytical writings thereon would take forever and would likely still not produce any definite conclusions. What I present here is at best an at-a-glance primer on just the Abrahamic faiths.

Christianity
This one should be pretty simple. In the gospels, Jesus is asked point blank what the greatest commandment is and he replies that it is to “love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”(Matthew 22:37). Okay, that’s not what I’m getting at. The important part is that Jesus is kind enough to go on and say “And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”(Matthew 22:39). That sounds rather simple to me. It doesn’t mention any additional clauses about exempting your love for your neighbor on grounds of race, religion (or lack thereof), gender, sexual orientation, or occupation. There’s also the well known adage from the sermon on the mount in which Christ compels his followers “…whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39).

Both of these passages give the impression that Christianity is a peaceful religion that implores it’s followers to forsake violence even when it is visited upon them. If only this was more universally practiced.

Islam
This is often a large target for followers of other religions seeking to make themselves look less extreme. It’s no surprise either. The Quran has some pretty radical passages that can easily be presented to make a case for Islam being a religion based on conquest, war, and violent domination of others.

2:190-193 “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you … And slay them wherever ye catch them … And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression and there prevail justice and faith in God …”

2:216 “Fighting is prescribed for you and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But God knoweth and ye know not.”

2:224 “Then fight in the cause of God and know that God heareth and knoweth all things.”

Apologists say that these quotes are misinterpreted and misread and that Islam is synonymous with peace even on an etymological level. There are even passages in the Quran that call on Muslims to respect Jews and Christians, the “People of the Book,” who worship the same God (29: 46). In words quoted by Muhammad in one of his last public sermons, God tells all human beings, “O people! We have formed you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another” (49: 13)–not to conquer, convert, subjugate, revile or slaughter but to reach out toward others with intelligence and understanding.

Judaism
Hoo boy, this is a heavy one. On the one hand, the old testament is rife with war, slaughter, brutality, and genocide. While the sanctity of life is a key tenet to Judaism, so is the elimination of evil. Acts of aggression aren’t strictly forbidden, as long as a few guidelines are followed such as an initial offering peace (Deut 20:10) or the presence of a disagreement (Deut 20:12). God even gives his followers a pardon for any distasteful acts committed during wars on his behalf. “God will have compassion on you, and reverse any display of anger that might have existed” (Deut. 13:18). Man, if only all of our soldiers coming back from the “War” on Terror fronts were Jewish and had this automatic post war counselling.

Conclusion
So we see varying degrees of the same thing in the Abrahamic faiths. They all have the potential to bring together the masses in peaceful harmony, but history has shown us several spectacular and horrific cases where it fails to do this. The Crusades, Zionism, and Al Queda’s insurgency. What do these all have in common? They are brutal campaigns of violence perpetrated on the behalf of false Gods who supposedly wouldn’t even condone them in the first place. Any justification or rationalization for any of these is irrelevant. It’s just another case of the faithful being picky about how faithful they need to be.

Richard joins me for another fabulously entertaining episode of the Atheist News Podcast. This week we start the show off with a candid discussion about why Dragon Age is likely to ruin my life. We also talk a bit about my printing misadventure as well.

In the news this week: The Catholic Church is apparently bursting at the seams with uninsured gay couples, unrepentant fetus defenders, doing God’s work, mamby-pamby Muslims, bankrupting the baby-boffers one diocese at a time and PRAYNAPPING® for Dummies.

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As an atheist in America, there are a lot of religious ideas my country communicates that I disagree with. Ideally, the constitutional separation of church and state should make this a non-issue, but in a similar fashion to Iggy Pop not being recognized as the true king of rock and roll, there is often a large disparity between what should be, and what is. How this impacts us at home is important, but what fascinates me more is how religion in America informs the perception of our nation abroad.

The image America projects is not nearly as God-centric as it used to be in the days when the government worked tirelessly to differentiate us from the “godless communists”, and with such recent developments as President Obama declaring that America is “not a christian nation” to the world, our image is continuing to shift in the right direction. There are still several aspects of our country though that falsely perpetuate the notion of our rights and freedoms as being the effect, not the cause, of religious practice in America. The facet of this I will explore here is religion in the U.S. military.

It would be naive to say that there is no religious pressure put on young men and women serving in the military. Several of us working on the blog and podcast are no strangers to the presence of religion in the armed forces and can attest to it personally. Assertions that there is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole (there is actually) help to make religion, rather than freedom from it, the social norm.

I remember my first day at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot where we were stripped of everything that made us individuals and given new clothes, titles, routines, and a shiny new pocket sized bible and a rosary for any catholics. This didn’t irk me significantly. It’s not as if anyone had much down time to ever read it. On Sundays we were offered to go to one of several different religious services offered for recruits. These are enticing to recruits both religious and otherwise as a means to escape the drill instructors for an hour.

In the fleet, religion is still always present. Each unit at the battalion level has a commissioned officer who is ordained in a religious faith serving as the unit chaplain. In the entire four years I served, only twice did I see one of these that wasn’t a Christian (one Jewish and one Muslim). Besides counseling services that would be much better handled by a mental health professional, performing religious services, and the occasional charity function, they serve little practical purpose.

This does have several unintended consequences as well ranging from indirect discrimination against atheists in the military to emboldening hostile forces who perceive conflicts with America as being religious in nature. The image of the American Crusader (a term invoked both by Bush and Bin Laden) has damaged relations with other nations and emboldened our enemies.

What do you think? Do you perceive the US military as having an overly religious element? What do you think should be done about this?

But I don’t want to leave up a notice that says that there is no show this week when there is a show this week.

So uh…

Hi.

Happy belated Halloween everybody!

Halloween is a favorite holiday of mine, and of course–because it’s fun and there is no Jesus involved–it’s under fire from the loonies. Richard joins me for a SPOOOOKTACULAR Atheist News Podcast show in which we discuss topics such as DEMONCANDY, God naming rights, the terminally credulous (some dead, some only sweaty), Michael Beeheeatch, the thwarting of political tomfoolery and which days of the week it is and is not acceptable to pick your nose. And, not to be left out, the Pope had some stupid shit to say about Halloween as well.

Enjoy!

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