Archive for the 'Activism' Category

 Editor: Shirley Galdino 

The anonymous group of hackers attacked at dawn on Saturday several pages of the Government of Brasilia and the official website of singer Paula Fernandes, in protest against the closure of the site for downloads Megaupload by American justice.

Through its own Twitter page, the hacker group claimed responsibility for the raids that have continued throughout the early morning of Saturday, more than 100 pagesof Brasilia, with the domain ”df.gov.br”.

Also, the official website of Paula Fernandes, a most prestigious singer, was Read more…

By Alonzo Fyfe
Editor: Shirley Galdino 

It is an election year, and I am looking at the issue of creating political change.

In my first post I argued that to make political change you need to bring votes or money to the table. At this stage, evidence and sound reasoning are largely irrelevant. They are relevant elsewhere. I will get to that in a future post.

This is not a cynical complaint about a world gone corrupt. This is a fact, as morally neutral as gravity.

If I were a legislator and you came Read more…

Posted by Shirley Galdino 
From: http://www.patheos.com/

There are plenty of atheists out there who choose to take their children to a church for a number of reasons: It sounds like the “right” thing to do, they want to raise their children with good morals (as if religion is the only route to doing that), their spouse wants to go to church and they don’t feel like arguing about it, etc.

Phil Ferguson used to be one of those fathers who took his kids to church despite being a closeted atheist. At least there’s a happy ending to his story:

I thought that it would be nice for [my kids] to know about religion and never thought that it would take over their minds. Everyone told them that the crazy was true and I kept silent. I was an atheist raising fundamentalist kids. Just a few short years after I stopped pretending they have both come out as atheists.

There are cases (and Phil highlights one of them) where the kids have already drank the Kool-Aid and it’s too late to do anything about it.

So how do you avoid that fate? How do you make sure your kids grow up free of religion — without “indoctrinating them into atheism” the same way preachers do with Christianity?

Read more…

By Shirley Galdino

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Dr. Carl Sagan called the best science educator in the world of the twentieth century. Has reached the minds of hundreds of millions of people and has inspired generations of young people to devote themselves to science.

Carl Sagan’s idea was to turn the camera on the Voyager back towards the planet that had launched the probe, to reveal to the inhabitants of that planet their “true circumstance and condition.” After much resistance, Dr. Sagan had the better of February 14, 1990, from a distance of 6.4 billion miles, Voyager 1 captured this image of our Earth. Here the entire world fills only 0.12 pixel and appears as a minute sliver of light. The rays of light rays of the sun are not apparent, but an effect of diffraction in the lens of the camera, the result of having bet so close to the Sun now one of our most famous photographs ever taken from space, we consider the humility of our beloved house is part of the immeasurable will of  Sagan. Read more…

Posted by Shirley Galdino  
From: http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/2011/index.shtml  

This year, millions of people decided the time had come to claim their rights. They took to the streets and demanded change. Many found their voices using the internet and instant messaging to inform, inspire and mobilize supporters to seek their basic human rights. Social media helped activists organize peaceful protest movements in cities across the globe – from Tunis to Madrid, from Cairo to New York – at times in the face of violent repression.

Human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values. As a global community we all share a day in common: Human Rights Day on 10 December, when we remember the creation 63 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On Human Rights Day 2011, we pay tribute to all human rights defenders and ask you to get involved in the global human rights movement.

From: Monicks Unleashed
Posted by: Åsa Heuser

There is this new tendency to label outspoken atheists as “Militant Atheists.” Here’s why I think it’s wrong.

I wish I could renounce the label Atheist, to begin with. In case you didn’t know, “atheist” is a label given to us by believers. It used to be a derogatory label, a Christian slur against us coined in France in the 16th century as a reaction to growing free thought, skeptical inquiry, and intellectual criticism of religion. When someone called you an atheist it was not a good thing. “Atheist” was used exclusively as an insult. 

Nobody in their right mind would have called themselves an atheist back then, if you were an atheist, you were an outcast.

“No one ever needs to identify himself as a “non-astrologer” or a “non-alchemist.” We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.”

– Sam Harris,  The End of Faith Read more…

Posted by: Shirley Galdino

On the last 15th, the writer and director Matthew Chapman participated in debate promoted by Intelligence Squared U.S. debates.
The theme was “The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion.”
Matthew and A.C. Grayling argued against Dinesh D’Souza and Rabbi David Wolpe with John Donvan as moderator. John is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline.
With a narrow victory the debate ended with “FOR” 59% for the motion, while the “AGAINST” ends with 31%.
Matthew Chapman is editor and emeritus member of the Flying Teapot. Check out his opening speech for the debate.

OPENING SPEECH FOR INTELLIGENCE SQUARED DEBATE  (By Matthew Chapman)

RELIGION MAKES TWO BIG CLAIMS.

God really exists and religion makes us behave better.

BUT DOES RELIGION MAKE US BEHAVE BETTER?

To partially answer that question let me read you a verse or two from my beloved Gideon’s bible. If it’s good enough for Motel 6, it’s good enough for me.

Deuteronomy Chapter 25, verses 11 and 12.  “When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets, then shalt thou cut off her hand.” Read more…

By William De Luca
Posted by Eleições Hoje
Translation: Sérgio Viula               

Founder of group that ‘heals homosexuals’ reveals: “Nobody quit being gay, there were relationships even within the group”

Nothing better than an example to rebuke the supposed efficiency of treatments to convert sexual orientation, which claim that gay people can “go” straight. The English and philosophy teacher, also a theologian, Sergio Viula, 42, born and resident in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the founders of the Movement for the Healthy Sexuality (MOSES), an evangelical NGO which helps people interested in quitting homosexuality. He got married, had two children and saw by himself the very methods of ‘sexual re-orientation’. In an exclusive interview, Sergio talked to me and showed that methods to change sexual orientation are useless, causing pain and suffering to those who are willing to go through any of them.

How did your life within the evangelical church begin? How did you get in? Read more…