Is the slow motion death of religion in America more the fault of the Republicans than it is the fault of outspoken Atheists? Could be.

As all of you know the only thing that fascinates me more than politics is religion. And I spend an inordinate amount of time reading about its origins, evolution, and its decreasing popularity in America, and increasing popularity in other parts of the world.

Seriously I could write, debate, and learn more about it every day and not grow bored of the subject.

So when I happened upon this article from Salon I had to share it.

It sets out to essentially understand what is behind the increase secularization in America today.

It does discuss the Atheist movement led by Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and others, as well as the Catholic church scandals, the rise of the internet, and a few other contributing factors.

However the one that caught my eye was this one:

For starters, we can begin with the presence of the religious right, and the backlash it has engendered. Beginning in the 1980s, with the rise of such groups as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, the closeness of conservative Republicanism with evangelical Christianity has been increasingly tight and publicly overt. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, more and more politicians on the right embraced the conservative Christian agenda, and more and more outspoken conservative Christians allied themselves with the Republican Party. Examples abound, from Michele Bachmann to Ann Coulter, from Mike Huckabee to Pat Robertson, and from Rick Santorum to James Dobson. With an emphasis on seeking to make abortion illegal, fighting against gay rights (particularly gay marriage), supporting prayer in schools, advocating “abstinence only” sex education, opposing stem cell research, curtailing welfare spending, supporting Israel, opposing gun control, and celebrating the war on terrorism, conservative Christians have found a warm welcome within the Republican Party, which has been clear about its openness to the conservative Christian agenda. This was most pronounced during the eight years that George W. Bush was in the White House. 

What all of this this has done is alienate a lot of left-leaning or politically moderate Americans from Christianity. Sociologists Michael Hout and Claude Fischer have published compelling research indicating that much of the growth of “nones” in America is largely attributable to a reaction against this increased, overt mixing of Christianity and conservative politics. The rise of irreligion has been partially related to the fact that lots of people who had weak or limited attachments to religion and were either moderate or liberal politically found themselves at odds with the conservative political agenda of the Christian right and thus reacted by severing their already somewhat weak attachment to religion. Or as sociologist Mark Chaves puts it, “After 1990 more people thought that saying you were religious was tantamount to saying you were a conservative Republican. So people who are not Republicans now are more likely to say that they have no religion.”

These are very good points that I agree with wholeheartedly. 

In fact, as I have shared many times before, the factors above have quite a lot to do with your ability to visit this blog today.

It was in response to that Republican branding, and the attempt to paint themselves as the moral superior of every other political group, that pissed your favorite Alaskan blogger off so much that he started channeling his frustration through a keyboard.

However as much as I agree with authors about how the Republican Religious Right poisoned the well, I still think that without the internet we would not be seeing the changes we are witnessing today.

Anybody care to disagree?

Newest jobs report exceeds all expectations. Probably the one thing the conservatives will not blame on Obama.

Courtesy of CNN Money: 

Hiring surged in November as employers added 321,000 jobs, crowning 2014 as the strongest year for job growth since 1999. The unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%, according the government report released Friday. That's down from 7% this time last year. 

Hiring blew out the consensus forecast from economists surveyed by CNNMoney, who expected a gain of 228,000 jobs. 

"The number is almost off the charts, given what we've seen over the past 10 years," said Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm CohnReznick, who does not feel it's an anomaly. "Companies are making up for hiring that was deferred earlier in the cycle." 

The U.S. economy has been gaining an average of 224,000 jobs a month over the past year. Any month with job gains over 200,000 is considered strong.

Gee it's too bad that President Obama made the poor choice of being born with too much pigment in his skin, or this might really really impress people. 

I swear if they announced that this man had cured cancer the conservatives would bitch about all of the doctors and researchers that he had put out of business.

By the way somebody remind me, who was the President in 1999? And WHICH party did he belong to?

Nothing to see here. Just the President of the United States being scanned for 3D printing.

Courtesy of CNN:  

The first-ever 3D-printed bust of a U.S. President -- a life-size replica of Obama -- is now on display at the Smithsonian Castle after a project that was inspired by the life masks of President Abraham Lincoln. 

But unlike Lincoln, Obama didn't have to get plastered up. Instead, he took a seat as 50 LED lights, eight high-resolution sports cameras and six wide-angle cameras sparked off for about a second. 

"This isn't an artistic likeness of the President, this is actually millions upon millions of measurements that create a 3D likeness of the President," 3D digitization program officer at the Smithsonian Adam Metallo says in a White House video released Tuesday.

 So cool!

Now why do I have the inescapable feeling that this will freak out the Right Wing for some reason?

It will undoubtedly make creating decoys for him that can show up at events while he is plotting to overthrow the world that much easier I suppose.

Oops did I type that out loud?

Thought to start the day.

I think essentially this is what drives me.

And ultimately what I hope drives us all.

An Atheist camp? I am so jealous of these kids.

I cannot believe that the reporter suggested to the counselor that he might be "brainwashing" these kids. Has she never attended a church. or Christian sponsored summer camp?

When I was a kid I went to Victory Bible Camp. Which was great fun for me right up until Sunday morning when I had to be escorted to the prayer meeting against my will and forced to participate or risk losing my turn to go horseback riding.

I must confess that when I closed my eyes and lowered my head I didn't actually do any praying.

Which reminds me of the old adage, "You can lead and Atheist to a house of worship, but you can't make him buy into your bullshit."

That might not be an old adage, but it should be.

Maryland city council member will not take oath of office on Bible. "I'm not upholding the teachings of the Bible."

Courtesy of The Frederick News-Post:  

On Dec. 1, Jessica Fitzwater will raise her right hand and take the same oath of office as her fellow incoming council members. 

But there will be one difference in her pledge before friends, family and elected officials: The book under her left hand will not be the Bible. 

Fitzwater, who is Jewish, said she's not interested in replacing the Bible with a Torah. Instead, she is thinking of taking the oath on the Frederick County charter or some other government document that will represent her commitment to public service. 

"I think it's more appropriate to swear my oath on something I will be upholding. I'm not upholding the teachings of the Bible. I'm upholding the charter or the Constitution," said Fitzwater, who will represent Council District 4. 

Fitzwater said she has always supported the separation of church and state but only recently resolved on taking her oath of office on a nonreligious document.

I think I have a new political hero.

If only more politicians would make this choices, and let their constituents know that they are rational people, who will make decisions based on the rule of law, and not the superstitions of man, I think the world would be a far, far better place.

Former director of a Memphis anti-gay ministry got gay married last weekend. Because, you know progress.

Courtesy of Memphis Flier:  

John Smid, the former director of Memphis-based ex-gay ministry Love In Action, has announced his marriage to partner Larry McQueen. The two married in Oklahoma on Sunday, November 16th. 

Smid has been living as an out gay man for several years now, and he's been in a relationship with McQueen for one year. Gay marriage just became legal in Oklahoma last month. The couple live in Paris, Texas, where Smid moved from his Memphis home in the summer of 2013.

You know we talk all the time about homophobic people secretly being closeted gays, and I don't think I have ever seen a better example of that.

All I can say is that it is awesome that finally this man gets to live his life the way he wants, and marry the person that he loves, and the fact that it happened in freaking Oklahoma of all places is just icing on the cake. 

New survey finds that half of British people think that religion does more harm than good.

Courtesy of The Independent:  

More than half of people in the UK believe religion does more harm than good, while less than a quarter believe faith is a force for good, a new survey has revealed. 

And the viewpoint even applies to those with strong faiths – one fifth (20 per cent) of Britons who describe themselves as being “very religious” said religion was harmful to society. 

The findings from the study for The Huffington Post, which was carried out by Survation, challenge widely held beliefs about religion and its place in modern British society. 

They show that only eight per cent of Britons describe themselves as very religious, while more than 60 per cent said they are not religious at all. 

And the majority (55 per cent) believe that being religious does not necessarily make you a better person. One in eight Britons said atheists tend to be more moral, compared to just six per cent who said atheists are less moral. 

Of the 2,004 people surveyed, 56 per cent described themselves as Christian, 2.5 per cent were Muslim, one per cent were Jewish and the remainder were of another faith or none.

Well gee, maybe Lawrence Krauss was right, and maybe the end of religion really IS only a generation or two away.

Theoretical Physicist Lawrence Krauss says that the end of religion may be only a generation away.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

People should not assume that religion will always be a part of human society just because it has existed for so long, according to theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. Religion could disappear in the span of a single generation. 

“People say, ‘Well, religion has been around since the dawn of man. You’ll never change that.’ But I point out that… this issue of gay marriage, it is going to go away, because if you have a child, a 13-year-old, they can’t understand what the issue is. It’s gone. One generation is all it takes,” he said at an event called the Victorian Skeptics Cafe 2014. 

“So, I can tell you a generation ago people said there is no way people would allow gay marriage, and slavery — essentially — [gone in] a generation, we got rid of it,” Krauss continued. “Change is always one generation away… so if we can plant the seeds of doubt in our children, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away. And that’s what I think we have an obligation to do.” 

Krauss was addressing whether religion should be taught to children in school. Though, as an atheist, he opposes religious education, he said he does support teaching comparative religion classes instead of completely “shying away” from the topic. 

“What we need to do is present comparative religion as a bunch of interesting historical anecdotes, and show the silly reasons why they did what they did,” he remarked. 

He said educators should force children to confront their own misconceptions. 

“But you don’t shy away from religion any more than you shy away from the claim that Earth is the center of the universe. We laugh at that now, and we get kids to realize why that might be wrong… and so we should take other falsifiable facts, which are at the center of our society, which is religious doctrine, and make just as much fun of that.”

I am not quite as confident that religion can be eradicated in one, or even two, enlightened generations, but I do agree that planting those seeds of doubt and offering classes that compare religions without lending credence to one over another, will surely have a positive effect on the ability of our children break free from the shackles of ignorance and superstition.

Not only that, but I firmly believe that doing so is necessary for the survival of our species.

A little perspective.

Progress, you know you're headed in the right direction when the conservatives are yelling at your to stop.

What we need much more of right now.

Finally something that describes me to a "T."

I need a t-shirt with this on it.

The number of secular people in America may be much larger than previously believed.

Courtesy of Religion News:

If you’re dismayed that one in five Americans (20 percent) are “nones” — people who claim no particular religious identity — brace yourself. 

How does 38 percent sound? 

That’s what religion researcher David Kinnaman calculates when he adds “the unchurched, the never-churched and the skeptics” to the nones. 

He calls his new category “churchless,” the same title Kinnaman has given his new book. By his count, roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually “post-Christian” and “essentially secular in belief and practice.” 

If asked, the “churchless” would likely check the “Christian” box on a survey, even though they may not have darkened the door of a church in years. 

Kinnaman, president of the California-based Barna Group, slides them into this new category based on 15 measures of identity, belief and practice in more than 23,000 interviews in 20 surveys. 

The research looked at church worship attendance and participation, views about the Bible, God and Jesus, and more to see whether folks were actually tied to Christian life in a meaningful way or tied more by habit or personal history. 

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, once called nominals — people attached by name only — “survey Christians.” They don’t want to cut ties with their parents or go all the way to atheism, Stetzer said, “so they just say ‘Christian’ since it is the default category from their heritage.”

I think these findings probably reflect what most of us see in our own lives. 

I have met numerous self described Christians who have not attended church services for years, or who only show up for holiday celebrations like Christmas or Easter.

Many of those people also have a perfunctory understanding of the Bible, and embrace few, if any, of the doctrines of Christianity.

I personally believe that a number of these people are actually agnostic of atheist but lack the courage to come out of the closet if you will and risk attracting the wrath or disappointed of family and friends.

That is why it is so important in my opinion to remove the stigma attached to atheism so that people will feel more comfortable in allowing people to accept them for who they truly are.

Heathen scum who hate Jesus. (Sorry couldn't resist.)

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

You would think that after being on the wrong side of history in the case slavery, women's right to vote, rock and roll, and Obamacare that conservatives would begin to tire of being run over by the wheels of progress.

But you know what they say, if conservatives paid attention to facts, they would be liberals.

I swear this is the creepiest message from a pastor begging Millenials to come back to church that you will read all day.

Courtesy of Patheos:  

Dear Millennials, 

I know it’s kind of creepy. We want to know where you live, and what classes you take in school (and how much you pay for it). We want to know where you drink coffee; who you date and for how long; what you read, where you spend your money, and what you GIVE your money to; what kind of relationship you have with your parents, how far you wander from home, and how often you go back there. We want to see the depths of your soul, and then we want to take you out for a local craft beer. (You like that, right??) 

And for the love of all that is holy, we want to know why you left us?? Why did you leave the church? Why? Were we not sexy enough for you? Not smart enough? Too needy? Is it something we said? We can be better! Just give us another chance. 

We know. We’re like the bad ex who just can’t quit you. We are the Facebook trolls who want to like everything you like and then tear you apart when we disagree with your politics or your spending habits. We know it. We see it in ourselves. And we are sorry. 

The thing is, we are scared. We are afraid, now that you’ve dumped us, that no one will ever love us again. The generations before you—X and Y—staged pretty massive exoduses (exodi?) on their own. But you…well, we’ve never seen the likes of your kind of leaving. It is epic. It is destructive. It is breaking our hearts.

The author, one  Rev. Erin Wathen who is the Senior Pastor of Saint Andrew Christian Church, then goes on to admit that if the church loses the Millenials that they will have no shot at the children of the Millenials, which kind of makes this incredibly creepy plea even MORE creepy.

She then identifies that the problem is not with the young people, but with the church itself and promises to change.

However I must say, keeping with the whole "ex-lover" theme, that I had a girlfriend make me the same assurances. Not only did she not change, but she got even more clingy and scarier to be around.

I think this is rather amazing, and wonderful news. The idea that churches in this country might really be about to take a major hit when it comes to attendance numbers and monetary support, can only mean good things for the nation going forward.

First male couple marries in Alaska. Somewhere Jerry Prevo is beating his head against a wall.

Courtesy of KTUU: 

Alaska history was made Saturday night as the first male couple exchanged “I do’s” in Anchorage. 

Big Lake residents Gene Zola, 62, and Bob Deloach, 75, legally married at Raven in Downtown Anchorage. 

The two men have been together for more than 40 years.

I think that if a couple remains together for 40 years it does not matter WHAT gender they are, they should be allowed to get married anywhere in the world.

By the way first female Alaskan couple married last week in Barrow of all places.

For those trivia buffs you might like to know that Big Lake is just a hop skip and a jump away from Wasilla, and that Sarah Palin also won the title of Miss Big Lake the year after she won the Miss Wasilla title so that she could have a second shot at the Miss Alaska title, which she failed to win for the second time in a row.