Some days I really don't like organized "religion" ~
President Obama upheld Bush's Religious Discrimination Policy:
Proving he’s no amateur when it comes to tacking as far right or left as necessary to capture some vital constituency, President Barack Obama recently upheld a key Bush administration policy allowing groups receiving federal dollars to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion. ... Not surprisingly, more than a few religious organizations applauded our president vigorously for the brave stance he took in continuing to uphold what seems to be a clear violation of legal principles going all the way back to the common law from which much of our Constitution was drawn, not to mention the writings of John Locke and Montesquieu, to name just a few. Ah, well…such is political expediency when you’ve got a shot at roping in a voting bloc as large as the religious folk in our country can be at times.
Swinging completely to the other end of the spectrum, here's a good argument on why atheism is not arrogance:
Often when a disbelief in deities is attested, the faithful believer will assert that it is arrogant for anyone to claim an absence of god. Where atheism becomes misconstrued lies in what believers feel it asserts. Many individuals, who do not understand the terminology, (while working within the parameters of absolutism from their own worldview) inappropriately interpret the word to make an absolute claim on the existence of god. This understanding is a misnomer; merely the term states, “I do not believe”. ... Just as Christians, Muslims, Jews or another form theistic faith will label incarnations of god other than their own as false, the atheist simply acknowledges the same faults exist in all anthropomorphized deities, and disbelieves them all.
Something to mull over today, if you're inclined...
Proving he’s no amateur when it comes to tacking as far right or left as necessary to capture some vital constituency, President Barack Obama recently upheld a key Bush administration policy allowing groups receiving federal dollars to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion. ... Not surprisingly, more than a few religious organizations applauded our president vigorously for the brave stance he took in continuing to uphold what seems to be a clear violation of legal principles going all the way back to the common law from which much of our Constitution was drawn, not to mention the writings of John Locke and Montesquieu, to name just a few. Ah, well…such is political expediency when you’ve got a shot at roping in a voting bloc as large as the religious folk in our country can be at times.
Swinging completely to the other end of the spectrum, here's a good argument on why atheism is not arrogance:
Often when a disbelief in deities is attested, the faithful believer will assert that it is arrogant for anyone to claim an absence of god. Where atheism becomes misconstrued lies in what believers feel it asserts. Many individuals, who do not understand the terminology, (while working within the parameters of absolutism from their own worldview) inappropriately interpret the word to make an absolute claim on the existence of god. This understanding is a misnomer; merely the term states, “I do not believe”. ... Just as Christians, Muslims, Jews or another form theistic faith will label incarnations of god other than their own as false, the atheist simply acknowledges the same faults exist in all anthropomorphized deities, and disbelieves them all.
Something to mull over today, if you're inclined...