Carnival of the Godless #51

Welcome to the Carnival of the Godless - Number 51.


I had a wide variety of posts submitted, and I wasn't sure how to organize them. But I think I've found a vaguely thematic way to string them together - at any rate, here we go!

We're starting off with a timely discussion of Friday the 13th by Reb Chaim HaQoton, exploring the possible reasons for its reputation, and why they are, or are not, persuasive.

Staying with god and what he thinks about things, over at Staring at Empty Pages Barry looks at Ken Ham's claims about god-based morality, and how it's the only viable kind of morality there is. Not surprisingly, Barry disagrees, and takes the claims apart.

There is no shortage, unfortunately, of people who know what god thinks. At Texas Oasis there's a brief meditation on Westboro Baptist Church and their hate-filled lives, sparked by their decision to take their "God hates everyone but us" show to the Amish funerals...

Host's privilege - and I submit my look at the question of Jephthah's daughter and what the Bible tells us about what god likes.

And speaking of god's inscrutable opinions, at Jaköbische Rants, Jakey, well, rants - on the evils of predestination (I especially love her question "Even if you can't help but believe that the Calvinist god exists, how can you bring yourself to worship him?" - and the answer in the comments "clearly, because god made them that way" is a good one, too).

On the topic of 'why do you worship him?', Daily Irreverence shares his favorite argument for atheism (and check the comments out at that one, especially the 'but it's so beautiful!' response.

And if you like, there's a recipe for How to kill god On the Topic of Theism - don't worry; no gods were actually harmed in the testing of the recipe. After all ... you can't harm what doesn't exist, can you?

From there it's not far to the debate on whether god approves of science at all. From The Voltage Gate, comes a look at Prometheus and the Serpent and killing the messenger - which view of knowledge is yours?

From there we can go to an examination of the 'natural state of mankind' and religion's place in the collectivist state, at Check Your Premises - a good exercise at any time.

Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess, responds to some comments left when she talked about clinging on to God, and why do it. Er, make that "Why do it? How, exactly, does god give "meaning" to your life?"

Speaking of god giving meaning to lives, Jakey shares a kind of creepy piece of proselytizing email.

But what about meaning? If not from god, from where? At Left Coast Musings is a short look at spirituality and community, and how feeling them, or wanting them - which we do - may lead to organized religion - or not.

Community leads to society, and that leads to... politics. From Fearless Philosophy for Free Minds comes a look at whether Focus on the Family and their ilk are "just defending marriage" or actively trying to discriminate. Guess which? And look in the comments for an amazing Catholic's "sex is for procreation" rebuttal - either she knows the weirdest gay men in the world, or she doesn't know any at all...

Then Daily Irreverence deals with that old claim: the US was founded as a Christian nation,

At Deep Thoughts there's a look at the apparently-legal religious test for holding office in Texas, and the kerfuffle over whether one Democrat running is, or is not, a (gasp!) atheist. (or is that "an (gasp!) atheist"? Either way, in Texas, they're definitely gasping.)

And speaking of religion in politics, the Atheist Ethecist discusses what's wrong with "it's all god's plan" thinking and more importantly, perhaps, what's dangerous about it.

And finally, some miscellany: First, we have a book review from Generative Transformation of The Future of the Body by Michael Murphy. I confess to not being quite sure how GT really feels - he seems positive but then there are lines like "Although I remain skeptical of all unsubstantiated claims, I now have a dearth of data from which to draw upon when communicating my understanding of human potential." You read it - you decide!

In anticipation of the next Carnival - and Halloween - Michelle pointed us at this look at 10 Valuable Life Lessons Learned From Coffins by American Inventor. Coffins? Yes, indeed.

Avant News gives us a glimpse at the future, reporting on the year 2020 discovery of the Sacred Stool of Galilee (and we're not talking about a chair, here, either). Amazing!

And we'll close with a slightly old (but not outdated at all) brief post from Limerick Savant, Survival of the Twit-test.

That does it for this edition. Next time, the Carnival will be setting up over at Skeptic Rant - just in time for Halloween! See you there!