Merit-bound Alley

The Canadian National Post has an interview with Dr. Robert Buckman, an oncologist and former collaborator with John Cleese, where he intimates his concern for his fellow atheists.His concern centers around his view that “the godless can be way too dogmatic and far too humourless”.

Try to be more humble. Or as he puts it, “humble up.”

“Stop feeling because you are sure you are right that gives you the power to shout and dominate and be a pill,” said Dr. Buckman, who will be appearing with his good friend Dr. Henry Morgentaler. “Humble up and accept that people may not agree with you.”

This is semi-valid advice that may change if Canada’s religious conservative movement continues to gain ground in their government. The squeakiest wheels in the atheist community at the moment are the ones who are most against religion as a whole and take the most agressive stance in promoting their views. Yes, I thought parts of Dawkin’s The God Delusion were presented in a very arrogant way that made roll my eyes  bit, and I have yet to buy Chistopher Hitchen’s God is Not Great for that very same reason. However, as with any book, you have to incoporate the opinions of the author into understanding the message of the book and why it was written.

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Pandora over at DL brought attention to a story about Catholic groups gathering a petition to the Pope for changing the Church’s views on birth control and sex education. I made the following comment which was described by another commenter as “hostile”:

Of course it’s time for the Catholic Church to update their antiquated and barbaric views on sex education, but you’re talking about the institution that just a couple of years ago, finely tuned their doctrine on exorcism for fuck’s sake!

Such a medieval view on the world will not just leap into the present without causing a huge upheaval on their faithful. Keep in mind that the Catholics in the US are some of the most progressive in the world, but represent a small fraction of the faith. Many in the smaller, more isolated communities are very old-school when it comes to subjects such as gay rights, female priests, or sex ed.

A wild switch in policy on any one of these would completely alienate a majority of the Catholic faithful.

Hostile? Yes, absolutely! Justifiably so, in my humble opinion. See, the Church holds antiquated views on birth control, that’s no secret. However, when they prohibit the easiest, cheapest, most available form of birth control, the condom, they are also prohibiting the easiest, cheapest, most available form of disease prevention.

Yes, I know they want to fill the world with tiny little Catholics who will then grow up and try to control the rest of us, however the Church is not totally blind to the financial woes of today’s family. Thus, the rhythm method. For those that don’t know, the rhythm method is the method of timing unprotected sex during the woman’s fertile days (if a baby is desired) or infertile days (if the married couple just wants to fuck).

The rhythm method has a very high failure rate, and also doesn’t protect the couple from any transmission of STD. Plus, there’s still what should be a Catholic moral dilemma of the man spilling his seed (so to speak) without the direct goal of making little Catholics. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

First, I want to talk about the very real moral dilemma of forcing this doctrine on their faithful. As the article that Pandora link states, this doctrine has an immediate negative effect on the poorer countries that are in the throes of an AIDS epidemic. Efforts to educate on and provide preventatives in these countries have been blocked by the power of the Church. Because of this moral doctrine , scores of people are getting infected and dying of AIDS. Allowing innocent people to die painfully because of a bewildering retention of this anachronistic and ill-considered ideal is simply wrong, immoral, and unjust.

Now, the article also states that the Church does much for AIDS relief. No doubt, he is thinking of the Catholic Relief Service’s AIDSRelief program. This program “cares for and treats more than 325,000 people, and more than 125,000 people are on antiretroviral therapy (ART).” (link) Don’t worry, I’m not going to dump on this program. I think it provides a necessary service, and probably gives a lot of comfort to those who are in their last days.

However, that’s kind of the problem, too. These people are being treated because they already have the virus. Barring some sort of unforeseen accident resulting in death, these people are going to die of AIDS. Imagine if the Church could simply join us in the present and temper their care with some real, working preventative aid to those that desperately need it. I know I’d rather feel confident that I have the knowledge and tools to not get AIDS than to be well-cared-for once I’ve gotten it.

Wouldn’t you?

Yes, my attitude to the Church on topics such as this is hostile. It’s hard not to be when I see so much suffering in the name of antediluvian doctrine when the world so desperately needs to move on and do what it takes to care for all of its people.

I’ve taken my shots my shots at religion, and even a holy book or two. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to do it for many years to come. Of course, I use the phrase “taking shots” figuratively unlike a U.S. Army sniper who quite literally used the Koran for target practice.

The Koran in question was used as a target at a police station firing range in Radhwaniya, where it was found bullet-ridden two days later. The offending soldier was relieved of duty and shipped back to the U.S., where he issued an official apology. There are a few things about this incident that bother me:

1. That it happened in the first place. Soldiers are under a supreme amount of pressure and stress that no civilian will ever truly understand. Because of this, they can do some pretty assholish things. However, there’s a big difference between taking a photo of an Iraqi holding a derogatory sign that you’ve written and desecrating the symbol of everything the vast majority of Iraqis hold dear. Not only that, the U.S. military has lost face in the eyes of the very people we’re supposed to be out there helping.
2. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond’s quote, “The actions of one soldier were nothing more than criminal behavior.” While the tribal leaders see this as a crime, Hammond does need to keep in mind that this is not criminal behavior in the U.S. Back home, that sniper could have propped that Koran up against the King James bible, shot them both full of hole, set them on fire, and pissed on them to put the fire out, and more power to him! Shooting people is criminal behavior, shooting books is certainly not!
3. Hammond presented a gift of a Koran to the offended Iraqis, but also kissed it. Unless Hammond is muslim, he has no business showing such deference to that book. Respect for the book would be to refrain from shooting it, and Hammond crossed a line in his show of humility.

Another small point, but we have to take a broader look at the state of the world when things like this happen. If you have an unused hunk of paper that holds little value, you still have to treat it correctly.

Recycle, people. Trees are a dwindling resource.

UPDATE: Check out Delaware Liberal for a different perspective on the kissing.

I have a few minutes to write to call your attention to this.

Alonzo over at the Atheist Ethicist has a post up about the questionable ethicality of Google-bombing searches on Expelled so that blogs and articles showing the truth of the movie get the highest search rankings.

Look, the movie-makers here are telling flat-out lies and have used questionable methods to market and produce their film. That does not give anyone leave to do the same underhanded bullshit to combat it. Period.

Hate the movie, decry their methods, but don’t be dicks.