What started out as story about a soccer team invoking religious privilege, that was posted on an atheist blog, took a left turn as the author and many commenters didn’t seem to be concerned with an Islamic school soccer team forcing two Catholic girls to sit out half a match because the Muslim player’s religion wouldn’t allow them to mix with strange females. Could the fear of Islamophobia lead some atheists to overlook obvious religious bigotry? Looks like it can.
Hemant Mehta, over at Friendly Atheist, posted a story about two girls who played on a boy’s soccer team in Ontario Canada:
Cult Of Personality At Root Of Michael Nugent’s Obsessive PZ Myers Feud
The atheist community recently erupted when Atheist Ireland publicly issued a letter of dissociation from atheist blogger PZ Myers over some comments he recently made concerning a speech by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The real issue is the cult of personality that seems to infect people like Atheist Ireland chair Michael Nugent who is more interested in being a fanboy of some famous atheists and protecting them when they are called out for doing or saying stupid stuff.
I’m not going to rehash the entire history of the feud between Myers and Nugent here. Ashley Miller does a good job of summarizing the past couple of years. Check out her post and follow the links she provides:
How To Include More Atheists In Your Holiday Festivities
I remember the time when I revealed to my family I was a Humanist. It was at our family Christmas shindig. I wore my Humanist Community T-shirt. My Grandma asked me if I was a heathen and some cousins asked how could I celebrate Christmas if I was an atheist. Holidays may have strong religious ties but atheists can enjoy them if the believers work a little harder to include us.
Herb Silverman wrote a couple of posts about the interaction of atheists and believers on the holidays.
New Commandments For The Non-Believer
A new book titled ‘Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century‘ by Lex Bayer and John Figdor, included a set of 10 ‘non-commandments’ for the non-believer. The authors also held a contest to crowdsource an alternative set. I was pleased that I agreed with a majority of the items judged the winner. They are good guidelines for living as a non-believer.
Don’t Use Atheism To Cover Your Bigotry
For some years there has been a faction of atheists who use their atheism to be bigots. When asked to take some action on social justice issues like feminism or racism, some of these atheists go out of their way to ‘prove’ why their lack of values causes them to either ignore social justice issues or to support the status quo. Activist and blogger James Croft calls out these bigots and makes some great points why atheists shouldn’t use their atheism a cover for their bigotry.