Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Arizona Woman Shoots And Kills Atheist For Not Believing In God

December 28, 2015

A woman in Phoenix is under arrest after telling police she shot and killed an atheist for not believing in God.

The Phoenix Police Department reports that 39-year-old Anitra Braxton has been charged with murder after police found the body of a woman on her couch inside her apartment on December 26.

Braxton told police detectives the victim on the sofa was “a shrine from God,” and that her victim had been shot in the eye for “not believing in her God.”

Officers said the identity of the victim was unknown.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6. The case is still under investigation.

Anitra Braxton

(Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

See Comments

Divine Retribution

Artist: Magnus Gjoen, United Kingdom

God’s Wrath reinterpreted with a God holding an atomic bomb made from 24k gold leaf.

Printmaking: Screenprinting, Giclée and Gold Leaf on Paper. Size: 39.4 H x 31.5 W. A limited edition of only 20, triple silk screen and Giclée with gold leaf on 308 gsm photo rag.

Saatchi Art Artist Magnus Gjoen; Printmaking, “DIVINE RETRIBUTION” #art

Saatchi Art website

Growing Up Atheist in the U.S. | Atheist Revolution

face-72194_640By Jack Vance
July 21, 2015

I came of age during the Reagan era. The Cold War did not seem all that cold in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many buildings were equipped with fallout shelters, and nuclear war seemed almost inevitable. I remember doing the duck-and-cover drills and wondering how the flimsy wood desk above my head would hold up against a nuclear attack.

There was no question that the Soviet Union was our “enemy,” and this was a vital part of our indoctrination at the time. “Commie” was one of the worst insults one might hear on the playground. We didn’t know what it meant, but we knew it was bad. We also knew that it was associated with godlessness. Apparently, these “Commies” didn’t believe in gods. My young mind could barely comprehend that someone might not believe in gods, but I knew that this made them evil.

Continue reading: Growing Up Atheist in the U.S. | Atheist Revolution.

Primate Morality?

morality2

In laboratory experiments, monkeys were forced to choose between doing without food and electro-shocking other monkeys. Almost all of them preferred to go hungry for up to two weeks rather than cause suffering to others. These macaques, who have never gone to Sunday school, never heard of the Ten Commandments, never sat through a single high school civics lesson, seem courageous in their moral grounding and their resistance to evil.

Conversation between 3 atheists

Conversation between 3 atheists

A: Now we have something in common with the values [peace and justice] of Evangelical Christians and this is part of a growing Christian left movement.

This comment hints to a larger ideological issue: Which is more important for a progressive, harmonious future for humankind; defeating religion/promoting atheism or defeating intolerance/promoting pluralism? On a personal level as an atheist, I find it hard to imagine myself ‘compatible’ with evangelical Christians. However, I most certainly prefer open minded, compassionate people with religious beliefs to intolerant judgmental atheists.

C: Wow, do I hear that one.  I’ve long worried about the growing orthodoxy of some parts of the secular movement.…It is indeed becoming religion-like. Orwellian double-think, I think!

Tolerance and open-mindedness…much more important than defending a particular belief-turf.

Matthew: I can’t agree with that. Can you give examples of this? I ask in the spirit of being an organizer/co-organizer for several meetup groups, and would like to be aware of what to watch out for.

A: Watch out for meetup group members being banned without warning and without reason. Funny you should ask, Matthew. It just happened in the Eastside Atheist/Agnostic meetup group which you co-organize.
Matthew

• • Matthew • •