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Penn Fraser Jillette the 58 year old American illusionist, comedian, musician, actor known for his advocacy of atheism, scientific skepticism, libertarianism and free-market capitalism has published an article in the New York Times titled ‘Don’t Replace Religion; End It’ in which he states “Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing. Religion is not morality. Theists ask me, “If there’s no god, what would stop me from raping and killing everyone I want to.” My answer is always: “I, myself, have raped and killed everyone I want to ... and the number for both is zero.” Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don’t need religion. Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion. Religion is faith. Faith is belief without evidence. Belief without evidence cannot be shared. Faith is a feeling. Love is also a feeling, but love makes no universal claims. Love is pure. The lover reports on his or her feelings and needs nothing more. Faith claims knowledge of a world we share but without evidence we can share. Feeling love is beautiful. Feeling the earth is 6,000 years old is stupid. Religion is often just tribalism: pride in a group one was born into, a group that is often believed to have “God” on its side. We don’t need to replace tribalism with anything other than love for all humanity. Let’s do that, okay? Religion also includes fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music, and those can be replaced by ... fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music. Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion.”  Inspired by Penn Jillette, New York times ow.ly/lLxST Image source Facebook ow.ly/lLxQN Don’t replace religion, end it (June 26 2013)

 

Penn Fraser Jillette the 58 year old American illusionist, comedian, musician, actor known for his advocacy of atheism, scientific skepticism, libertarianism and free-market capitalism has published an article in the New York Times titled ‘Don’t Replace Religion; End It’ in which he states “Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing. Religion is not morality. Theists ask me, “If there’s no god, what would stop me from raping and killing everyone I want to.” My answer is always: “I, myself, have raped and killed everyone I want to … and the number for both is zero.” Behaving morally because of a hope of reward or a fear of punishment is not morality. Morality is not bribery or threats. Religion is bribery and threats. Humans have morality. We don’t need religion. Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion. Religion is faith. Faith is belief without evidence. Belief without evidence cannot be shared. Faith is a feeling. Love is also a feeling, but love makes no universal claims. Love is pure. The lover reports on his or her feelings and needs nothing more. Faith claims knowledge of a world we share but without evidence we can share. Feeling love is beautiful. Feeling the earth is 6,000 years old is stupid. Religion is often just tribalism: pride in a group one was born into, a group that is often believed to have “God” on its side. We don’t need to replace tribalism with anything other than love for all humanity. Let’s do that, okay? Religion also includes fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music, and those can be replaced by … fellowship, joy, compassion, service and great music. Atheism is the absence of religion. We don’t really need atheism. We just need to get rid of religion.”

 

Inspired by Penn Jillette, New York times ow.ly/lLxST Image source Facebook ow.ly/lLxQN

Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”  Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9 Where will the next saints come from? (May 1 2013)

 

Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”

 

Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9

Alain de Botton the 42 year old Swiss philosopher and television presenter in the UK who established a new educational enterprise in London called “The School of Life”, has released an article in the Guardian referencing the recent saying that “museums of art are our new churches”. de Botton implies that “…in a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.” And if so, “It’s an intriguing idea, part of the broader ambition that culture should replace scripture, but in practice art museums often abdicate much of their potential to function as new churches (places of consolation, meaning, sanctuary, redemption) through the way they handle the collections entrusted to them… The challenge is to rewrite the agendas for our art museums so that collections can begin to serve the needs of psychology as effectively as, for centuries, they served those of theology… Only then would museums be able to claim that they had properly fulfilled the excellent but as yet elusive ambition of in part becoming substitutes for churches in a rapidly secularising society.

 

Inspired by Alain de Botton http://ow.ly/8JloO image source VeracityVoice http://ow.ly/8Jlxr

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