Sunday, 23 March 2014
The benefits of religion for black Americans
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Black Americans are significantly more religious than white Americans. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported in 2009 that 79% of black Americans say religion is very important in their lives compared with only 56% of all Americans. Over three quarters of blacks (76%) say they pray every day versus 58% of all Americans.
And a whopping 88% of black Americans say they are absolutely certain god exists (71% for all Americans).
But does being more devout and more prayerful give Black Americans any advantages over their white countrymen? No, on the contrary, across a wide range of well-being statistics, blacks fare far worse than white Americans.
Here are some sample statistics but plenty more are available.
1. Life expectancy at birth
Whites........ 78.4 years
Blacks......... 73.6 years
2. Neonatal mortality (death of a baby within 28 days of birth)
Whites........ 3.8 per 1,000 live births
Blacks......... 8.9 per 1,000 live births
3. Fetal mortality (miscarriage after 20 weeks gestation)
Whites........ 4.79 per 1,000 women
Blacks......... 11.13 per 1,000 women
4. Maternal mortality (death of pregnant mothers per 100,000 live births)
Whites........ 8.7
Blacks......... 30.5
5. Unemployment (age 16 – 65)
Whites........ 9.6%
Blacks......... 18.4%
6. Income (% of families with income of < $15,000pa)
Whites........ 6.6%
Blacks......... 23.9%
This small sample of well-being statistics shows black people significantly disadvantaged compared to whites.
So does prayer and devotion to God help black people? Apparently not. Either there is no god listening to these heartfelt prayers or God does not care to help black people in America.
Sources
1. CDC National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 59, Number 9
2. CDC National Center for Health Statistics 2003
3. CDC National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 57, Number 8
4. Maternal mortality and related concepts. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 3(33). 2007
5. US Dept of Labor Statistics 2010
6. U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
The Inside Story: God and Jesus, what REALLY happened...
So much misinformation surrounds the lives of YHWH (God) and Jesus that it is hard to unravel what is true and what is hyperbole. Almost everyone seems to have a vested interest in propagating one story or another. But now, I bring you the full inside story—find out what really happened right here!
Early years
The exact date of YHWH's birth is disputed. Some put it at -∞ but this cannot be substantiated. The earliest records we have suggest he was born around 1,000 BCE or a little earlier.YHWH never disclosed who his parents were but he was likely the bastard son of El, head of the Canaanite pantheon. He was born into a large family of gods including Baal, Marqod and Dagon. There is some evidence that the Goddess Asherah was his consort.
YHWH's ambition
From his early life as a humble warrior god, YHWH was driven by ambition and was pathologically jealous of other gods. His grand ambition was to be fêted as no less than the unchallenged God of the entire universe. He created a strategy to make it happen.The first step in the strategy was to promulgate a new creation myth in which YHWH single-handedly created the entire universe and all living things in just six days. This was easily achieved. In those days creation myths were a dime a dozen, so no-one noticed, or cared, if a new one sprung up.
The second step was the covenant. The covenant was an agreement between YHWH and the war-like Israelites: YHWH would protect them provided they worshipped no other gods, obeyed certain commandments and promoted YHWH as the single god of all the heavens and Earth
The third step was to lead the Israelites in a series of wars of conquest of neighbouring tribes.
The strategy seems to have worked. By the start of the Common Era (CE) there is no trace of other gods on YHWH's turf. So ruthless was his attack that even his father and his consort had disappeared.
The challenge
This was when YHWH's greatest challenge emerged and it arose in the most unlikely way. An illiterate carpenter-turned-Rabbi began preaching around Palestine. Nothing unusual in this except this preacher, known as Jesus (Yesuah), was creating his own version of Holy Writ and was attracting both followers and hostility.YHWH had made the rule clear in scripture, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" but Jesus changed that to "turn the other cheek". Jesus made scripture his own by adding blasphemous changes whilst all the time professing his absolute loyalty to YHWH.
Then YHWH made a terrible mistake that would live to regret. YHWH could have had Jesus killed in his sleep but YHWH wanted him to suffer and he wanted a public display of suffering to deter others who might follow in Jesus' footsteps.
So YHWH conspired with the Roman authorities to have Jesus publicly executed—he insisted on a painful and lingering death by crucifixion. With the deed done, YHWH thought his troubles were over but, in reality, they were just beginning.
The surprise
YHWH did not expect what happened next. If he had been omniscient, he would have known but he wasn't—his omniscience was just a story; one of many spread by his supporters.After Jesus' death a hard-core of his followers continued to preach his message and they achieved some converts. They began to refer to him as Jesus Christ, a reference to their belief that he was the promised messiah. They even started calling themselves Christians.
But a huge and unexpected tipping point occurred when Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity shortly after the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 CE.
That changed everything. The Roman Empire was vastly powerful. It dominated Southern and Western Europe and much of North Africa. Once Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire the trickle of supporters became a flood. Being on the wrong side of Rome was a risk many people preferred to avoid and Constantine started pouring money into new churches whilst cutting funds to pagan temples.
Christianity was growing fast but it had got out of control. The church needed coordination and direction. Recognising this, Constantine ordered a Council to convene in Nicaea, Bithynia (now part of Turkey) in 325 CE to put the religion on a firm footing.
The Council of Nicaea lasted from May to July and they achieved a lot. They agreed the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. They agreed a uniform date for Easter and set out a tranche of canon law.
Finally, they made a decision that chilled YHWH to the bone. They decided that Jesus was the blood son of YHWH and, more than that, they said Jesus was God, co-eternal with and of the same substance as YHWH. Sharing the glory was never part of YHWH’s strategy.
Decline
YHWH was enraged but powerless. He still had the Jews but he couldn't ask the Jews attack the mighty Roman Empire. Vanquishing the Midianites were one thing—the Roman Empire another thing entirely.For the next 2,000 years, YHWH watched his dreams fall apart. Christianity grew to become the biggest religion on the planet whilst his Jewish followers were persecuted and diminished and many drifted into secularism.
Officially, Christians kept faith with YHWH but, in reality, they wrote him off. They thought about Jesus, they prayed to Jesus and they worshipped Jesus. In truth, YHWH had become an embarrassment with his made-up creation and flood stories, his murderous ways and barbaric laws. Jesus was more in line with the spirit of the age.
YHWH had learned a lesson. Gods have no power—they can inspire humans but, ultimately, it is the humble humans who wield the power. He watched as more than a billion humans ignored him and turned their adoration towards Jesus.
A ray of hope
YHWH was down but not out and all was not lost. Some 600 years after Jesus, a new religion was founded. It worshipped YHWH and was much more disciplined than the shaky Christians. It grew very quickly, initially by conquering nearby nations and imposing its religion on them. In due course, it created its own empire.This religion didn't bat an eyelid at the capital punishments YHWH loved so much but the Christians shied away from. And it had a burning desire to take over the world.
These are my kind of people, thought YHWH; changing my name to Allah is a small price to pay…
NOTE for fundamentalists: This history is speculation—it is based on historical information with added imagination. If you wish to comment, please use your imagination and not your Bible.
Friday, 7 March 2014
The last Christian
Christianity is a folly. A theology so bizarre and fractured it must have been created by a committee.
Christianity's moral teaching, all apparently from the same unchanging God, ranges from brutal tyranny to masochism.
Christianity rests upon a series of miraculous events but there is no evidence that any of these events actually happened outside of the religion's own sales manual.
The sales manual betrays its primitive human origins by its superstitious references to witches and demons and by a cosmology so comprehensively wrong that it is laughable.
Why do millions believe this obvious nonsense? Same reason people believe all religions—they are brought up to believe it. Those early lessons are hard to overcome.
We know religions begin, live for a while (maybe a few thousand years) and then evolve or die. They normally die slowly, unless a conquering nation imposes its own religion.
In half the world, Christianity started its terminal decline some 50 years ago. This will inevitably continue. Even in the USA, the last stronghold of Christianity in the developed world, belief in Christianity is in near free-fall among under 29 year-olds. At that rate it has no future.
I am reminded that dinosaurs once dominated the planet but now none are left alive. We can imagine a day, some 65 million years ago, when the last remaining dinosaur drew its last breath bringing to an end the 160 million year reign of the dinosaur.
One day, the last Christian will take his last breath and Christianity will join the dinosaurs. No-one will mourn its death.
No-one will even notice its passing.
Read More
Christianity's moral teaching, all apparently from the same unchanging God, ranges from brutal tyranny to masochism.
Christianity rests upon a series of miraculous events but there is no evidence that any of these events actually happened outside of the religion's own sales manual.
The sales manual betrays its primitive human origins by its superstitious references to witches and demons and by a cosmology so comprehensively wrong that it is laughable.
Why do millions believe this obvious nonsense? Same reason people believe all religions—they are brought up to believe it. Those early lessons are hard to overcome.
We know religions begin, live for a while (maybe a few thousand years) and then evolve or die. They normally die slowly, unless a conquering nation imposes its own religion.
In half the world, Christianity started its terminal decline some 50 years ago. This will inevitably continue. Even in the USA, the last stronghold of Christianity in the developed world, belief in Christianity is in near free-fall among under 29 year-olds. At that rate it has no future.
I am reminded that dinosaurs once dominated the planet but now none are left alive. We can imagine a day, some 65 million years ago, when the last remaining dinosaur drew its last breath bringing to an end the 160 million year reign of the dinosaur.
One day, the last Christian will take his last breath and Christianity will join the dinosaurs. No-one will mourn its death.
No-one will even notice its passing.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Is US Christianity on a suicide mission?
Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), famously said, "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." That was almost 500 years ago but the lesson has not been forgotten—around the world religious leaders understand the importance of instilling religious ideas into children and young people.
This is why it is surprising that so many Christian churches in the US have flocked to denounce gay people in general and gay marriage in particular.
A Gallup Poll in November 2012 showed 53% of all Americans support gay marriage. That's up from 27% in 1996. As attitudinal change goes, that is a seismic increase in 16 years. And there's more. A whopping 73% of those in the 18-29 year-old age group support gay marriage.
If your very future depends upon bringing young people into your church, you might think churches would seek campaigns that find enthusiastic support among the young. After all, the survival of the church is, presumably, more important than any one issue of dogma.
It's not hard to see how the anti-gay-marriage bandwagon got started. Twenty years ago, it found wide support and the hard line pushed by church leaders seems like a winner. But who did the segmentation study? Who checked to see where the support was coming from? There's little strategic value in pandering to your hard-core supporters—you need to attract those who will replace them.
But, apparently, no-one did the segmentation study.
No-one noticed the younger people drifting away from religion. In 2012, the Pew Research Center reported 32% of Americans in the 18-29 age group have no religious affiliation. That's up from around 13% in just 20 years.
I'm not arguing that religious opposition to gay marriage has caused this dramatic fall in religious affiliation. Of course not. Correlation is not necessarily causation. But I do know what people say to me. The religious see gay marriage as an issue of doctrine—young people see it as an issue of equal rights.
Many young people see religious opposition to gay marriage as a doctrine of hate and discrimination and they want no part of it.
Meanwhile, in a pulpit somewhere near you, an elderly pastor, who will soon be drawing his pension, rants about Adam and Steve and the destruction of marriage. Perhaps he doesn't notice a subtle change in the age profile of those listening to him.
Perhaps he doesn't care.
Read More
This is why it is surprising that so many Christian churches in the US have flocked to denounce gay people in general and gay marriage in particular.
A Gallup Poll in November 2012 showed 53% of all Americans support gay marriage. That's up from 27% in 1996. As attitudinal change goes, that is a seismic increase in 16 years. And there's more. A whopping 73% of those in the 18-29 year-old age group support gay marriage.
If your very future depends upon bringing young people into your church, you might think churches would seek campaigns that find enthusiastic support among the young. After all, the survival of the church is, presumably, more important than any one issue of dogma.
It's not hard to see how the anti-gay-marriage bandwagon got started. Twenty years ago, it found wide support and the hard line pushed by church leaders seems like a winner. But who did the segmentation study? Who checked to see where the support was coming from? There's little strategic value in pandering to your hard-core supporters—you need to attract those who will replace them.
But, apparently, no-one did the segmentation study.
No-one noticed the younger people drifting away from religion. In 2012, the Pew Research Center reported 32% of Americans in the 18-29 age group have no religious affiliation. That's up from around 13% in just 20 years.
I'm not arguing that religious opposition to gay marriage has caused this dramatic fall in religious affiliation. Of course not. Correlation is not necessarily causation. But I do know what people say to me. The religious see gay marriage as an issue of doctrine—young people see it as an issue of equal rights.
Many young people see religious opposition to gay marriage as a doctrine of hate and discrimination and they want no part of it.
Meanwhile, in a pulpit somewhere near you, an elderly pastor, who will soon be drawing his pension, rants about Adam and Steve and the destruction of marriage. Perhaps he doesn't notice a subtle change in the age profile of those listening to him.
Perhaps he doesn't care.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Creationists are right—there is only microevolution
Evolutionary change can only happen because the process of copying DNA, though amazingly accurate, is not perfect. Errors occur. Measuring spontaneous mutation rates is complex but there is probably a lower limit of 0.1 mutation per generation for simpler genomes but it can be up to 1,000 times higher than this for complex genomes. These errors can affect genes in several ways: change a protein; change when a gene switches on or off; trim off pieces of DNA, insert pieces of DNA and so on.
Most of these changes are likely to be harmful but some will be beneficial or neutral and may be passed to future generations. This is how natural variation occurs in a species—we are not all identical. Some of us are bigger, faster runners, higher jumpers, smarter, have better vision and so on.
If many changes were to occur in one individual, the probability that these changes would be beneficial or neutral becomes astronomically small. This is why evolution occurs in very small steps and that is why (almost) all evolution is microevolution.
But evolutionary changes are cumulative. Over many, many generations, very small changes could amount to substantial changes, especially if the organism lives in a changing or hostile environment.
When a species becomes separated into geographically remote populations living in different environmental circumstances, the two groups are LIKELY to evolve differently to adapt to their differing environments.
Imagine that a population of small mammals separates into two groups. Perhaps some go roaming to distant places to find food or some cross a river and some don’t. One group may find itself in savannah—flat grasslands with few places to hide. The other group may end up in a wooded area where climbing a tree is a safe haven.
Both groups are subject to predators. In the savannah, our mammals are chased and the slowest are likely to become another animal’s dinner. Through this selective pressure, the individuals best suited to running (because of the natural variation in the population) would reproduce most successfully and the genes that confer running speed or endurance would become more widespread throughout the group.
Imagine this process continued for hundreds or thousands of generations during which time, the predators also became better adapted to chase our mammals.
Over this time many changes could occur to our mammals. Their rear legs may become stronger and longer. Their leg muscles might increase in size and, perhaps in composition to give faster acceleration or more endurance.
Their lungs may increase in capacity, their eyesight and sense of small may improve to give earlier warning of predators. They may lose body hair to improve cooling and allow faster running speeds and more endurance.
All these changes occur naturally, without any direction, because the most capable individuals in the population will have more offspring. Natural variations will continue to appear and build on the natural selection that has occurred over the past generations. Evolution is a cumulative process building on whatever has happened before.
Over a great many generations, these mammals would be unrecognisable compared to their body-form when they left their parent population. There would have been so many cumulative genetic changes that they would no longer be able to breed with their parent species. A new species would have evolved.
So creationists are right—there is only microevolution.
Macroevolution = microevolution + environmental pressure + time.
Macroevolution is an inevitable consequence of microevolution. In missing this final step, creationists are not right; they are dead wrong.
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About Me
- Nildogma
- As a 20-year-old I was insatiably curious about the world and passionate about rejecting superstitions and all kinds of false beliefs. I still am today. Sometimes when people believe things that are not true, it make little or no difference but sometimes the consequences can be disastrous and deadly. Now, I do what I can to help people improve their thinking skills, especially in how they impinge on core beliefs, such as cultural values and religious beliefs. I have an active Facebook page for which I create memes and write articles almost daily. I also engage people in on-line debates. You can find me here: https://www.facebook.com/bill.flavell.1 I lecture at universities around the world and present or debate at public meetings. I also, draw on my management consultancy background to help freethought groups, almost anywhere in the world, to get organised, develop strategy and improve their media and presentation skills. If you would like me to present at your university or for your church group or freethought group, please contact me.
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