“Religion. It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.”

- Charlie Chaplin

“Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise” – William Shakespeare

“Certainty in the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in this one.”

- Sam Harris

“There was a time when religion rules the world. It is known as the Dark Ages.”

- Ruth Hurmence Green

These are four pictures from 1959, 1978, 1995 and 2004 respectively of the graduating class of Cairo Univeristy’s English Department. They showcase the change of societal norm in an epoch of a country’s nation. It would be interesting to study the correlation between the political sphere of the times and how it impacts social attributes. How political dynamism, corruption, standard of living, totalitarianism and the state of feminist thought can or cannot impact the same people of the same within decades. And how piety can angulate so quickly with the times and for what reason, if you get my breeze.  Also, it’s also peculiar how the English department has waned with time, but that’s another subject.

Manhattan buses have been plastered with these ads everywhere. They are brought on by the Coalition Of Reason and set to bring the facts to center-stage. New York, being a metropolitan forward-thinking city, has a high concentration of Atheists, Agnostics, Rationalists and Non-believers. Therefore, this ad campaign serves to bring light to that fact. Click below for the press release.

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The campaign — which is being paid for by $25,000 from an anonymous donor — follows a similar but unrelated monthlong campaign on buses by New York City Atheists in July. Jane Everhart, a spokeswoman for the New York City Atheists, said that campaign was highly successful and brought in many new members. “We are trying to raise money to do it again,” she said.

…

[Executive director for the New York branch of the Center for Inquiry, Michael] De Dora said the million-person estimate of New Yorkers who do not believe in God was an extrapolation from surveys on religion. The American Religious Identification Survey, which was released earlier this year, showed that those who put “none” for religion had risen to 15 percent in 2008, from 8 percent in 1990. Based on their projections, New York City, with its 8.3 million population, would have more than a million nonbelievers, Mr. De Dora said. (It is questionable, of course, whether New York City, given its demographics, is representative of the country as a whole.)”

Bill O’Reilly is at it again trying to swing it for his miseducated nuts and sounding like a little fool. Apparently, conservatives have just learned about World War II because they have been flinging around the words “Hitler” and “Fascism” a lot lately and very freely. It doesn’t deliver their message across better, it just makes them look more uneducated than ever. In fact, people who love Hitler predominantly vote republican, or are we wrong?

The real problem is that liberals are calm and reserved when it comes to argument and conservatives yell nonsense loud. This make their standpoint more affective. Richard Dawkins has it right when he says “stop shouting” and then the fool says “That’s just the way I speak.” Really? or is it the only way they know how to make a point with the absurd Neanderthal ways? Someone’s religious beliefs should not be imposed on everybody. Even if the majority believes in it. Period. The majority believed the earth was flat back then. Does it make it flat?

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

- Seneca

This time it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it really plays out in every form in the same manner. Fear makes people do anything, even disregard science and fact.

Apparently, Jesus doesn’t love you if you are Desi, Arab, Pygmy or Aboriginal.

LMAO. Look at how serious their faces are. Some peeps will believe anything.

According to a new study atheists, agnostics and other non-believers has not only become greater in the US, but it has doubled. This means that not only are non-believers a big chunk of the population, but the third largest belief group after catholics and baptists. I think that this is the case everywhere in world. Some countries that do not allow religious freedom might be surprised as to how many non-believers there are around them. It’s just that most liberals do not like to tread on people’s toes and this causes a silence about pertinent issues like religion and disbelief.  Good for the US. The full article from ABC.com after the jump:

“America is still a predominantly Christian nation, but it’s becoming both less Christian and less religious, according to the results of the new American Religious Identification Survey.

According to the poll, which came out today, the percentage of Americans who define themselves as Christian has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2008.

In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15 percent of Americans now say they have no religion — a figure that’s almost doubled in 18 years. Americans with no religious preference are now larger than all other major religious groups except Catholics and Baptists.

Have You Seen Changes at Your Place of Worship? Tell ABC News.

“What seems to be happening is there is a decline in what we might call traditional brand loyalty to the old denominations, specific churches,” said Barry Kosmin, a principle investigator for the American Religious Identification Survey.

In the last 18 years, despite population growth and immigration, almost all religious denominations have lost ground. Mainline Protestants are down the most. Methodists, for example, have gone from 8 to 5 percent.

Baptists are down from 19.3 to 15.8. And Jews are down from 1.8 to 1.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of atheists, while still small, has nearly doubled from 900,000 to 1.6 million. Kosmin says that people may feel more comfortable admitting their lack of faith at a time when atheist books, like Christopher Hitchens’ “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” and movies are getting a lot of attention. Comedian Bill Maher took aim at religion in his documentary film “Religulous,” saying that he preaches “the gospel of ‘I Don’t Know.’”

But researchers point out that just because people are dropping out of organized religion, that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning faith. In an informal poll on Twitter today, we heard similar sentiments.

“I no longer attend church, but still pray to Jesus,” said Sean Whitney.

Dramatic Shift in Way Americans Worship

“I dropped out of the Catholic faith years ago. However, it doesn’t mean I have stopped believing in God,” said Carmen Rivera.

The study finds that more people are exploring spiritual frontiers. Some 2.8 million Americans now say they identify with new religious movements like Wicca, paganism or spiritualists. Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest have faded as people have moved toward the Sunbelt.

“We are becoming a nation of spiritually anchored people who are not traditionally religious,” said Serene Jones, president of the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

While Americans may be leaving established denominations, the one major growth area in American Christianity is among evangelicals. Megachurches are booming, rising from 5 to 11.8 percent of the population.

And with the economy in free fall, many megachurches say they’re seeing increased attendance. They’re praying that perhaps hard times will draw Americans back to their faith.”

I have been dying to see Religulous for months now and I can’t seem to find it here. So, naturally, I binge on YouTube. I am becoming quite a fan of Bill Maher and his show, which I find the clearest eye on politics in mainstream media today. It also happens to be the funniest political show. Yes, even funnier than John Stewart’s.

Why do the the religious loons always try to act stupid when they are cornered? Like a discovery channel defense mechanism? Like the goats that pretend to be dead to thwart attack.

- Thomas Paine

I’ve always like a little bit of preaching with my comedy. That’s why I cite Margaret Cho as my fave and could never understand what is so funny about Sarah Silverman. But, George Carlin takes it to a whole other level.

“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present” 

-Abraham Lincoln

I am so excited for “Religulous” that I keep watching every trailer. I know it won’t be available here because we have some hate-mongers that are ever-so-willing to infringe on other people’s freedom of speech and thought. But, I heard from people who have seen it that it is fabulous. Here’s the trailer. If anyone knows whether it hit the Hawally rounds tell me.