You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘The DWR Sunday Disservice’ tag.
Amanda’s story of leading the life of a skeptic while surrounded by the forces of the great ooga-booga.
Love this quote – “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived.” – Issac Asimov
When will we have justice? When we apply the same standards to ourselves that we apply to our enemies.
Have you heard any of the moderate christian representatives expression contrition for acts of their radical wing? The fact that we expect moderate islamic representatives to apologize is the only lesson you’ll need to know when it comes to creating a just society/world/ et cetera.
*update* – Wrong video was up for awhile. The other is scheduled for later in the week. :) Fixed now.
Let’s put it this way, I’m glad he’s on our side. :) Enjoy 8 minutes of christian smack-down courtesy of Brian Dalton aka Mr. Deity.
The year is 2015. In this age the availability of information has never been greater – and yet, the abuse that is religious teaching, is regularly foisted on children across the globe. One would think that in this information age a rational parental-agent would attempt to look for the best way to transmit the necessary cultural values to children.
I postulate this cultural transmission should involve the following –
1. The formulation of strong emotional and social attachments with immediate and extended family.
- Realizing that nothing else works without strong attachments to parents/caregivers
- Working on the social bonds that strengthen the individual and the community as a whole.
- Realizing and respecting the common goals and aspirations of everyone in similar situations – The requirements of shelter, food, security.
2. Ethical guidelines based an empathetic understanding of the needs and feelings of others – key questions would include:
- Would I like this (action, situation, circumstances et cetera)to happen to me?
- Would I like it if this person acted like that toward me?
- If everyone did what I was doing would the world/my community be a better or worse place?
3. Understanding and exploring the world would be a fact based experience.
- Reading
- Listening and asking questions of elders to better understand their experience and to learn from their accumulated knowledge
- Engaging with the world via the arts – Music, Visual Arts, Writing, Poetry – etc.
Hmm, and there I go thinking that I had appropriately delimited my topic. Grrrr… The point is that, even with this small cross-section of cultural transmission, there is no need to fall back on religious teachings/ideology that have no basis in fact.
We should not have to lie to children to get them to be good human beings. Raising children within the secular bounds of an attached caring family unit is possible and a desirable societal outcome. Children should be raised without the twin detriments to healthy maturation: religious guilt and fear. Guilt and fear stunt the growth of curiosity and more importantly, the learning of empathetic ethical behaviour.
So, if we can raise good human beings without all the toxic religious mumbo-jumbo why do so many people choose to do so anyways?
One of my favourite youtubers is theramin trees, his videos are always coolly narrated and punctuated with slick visual animations that always manage to highlight how incredibly toxic religion is. He recalls how his questions got him in trouble… and the terror of growing up as curious child. So many alarm bells with this video – the stunting of critical thinking, the mental abuse and the emotional blackmail all in the name of believing in magic.
I am going to start this post with a big fat trigger warning: incest, sexual abuse of children, adults in positions of power revictimizing survivors of sexual abuse, victim-blaming, gaslighting. This is a post about some seriously sick and fucked up shit.
The story about the oldest son in the Duggar family of (former) hit TV show 19 Kids and Counting, having molested several of his very young sisters, as well as at least one non-relative, is old news by now. (Story here if you aren’t familiar with it. Trigger warnings abound.)
There are any number of angles I could take on this story: how the adults who should have been protecting those little girls, instead circled the wagons to protect the family’s reputation; the social, religious, and political connections that may have been leveraged to keep this quiet as long as it was; the possibility that the TV station was aware (at least of rumours) of some of this and just kept the show going for years; Josh’s gross fauxpology; the rampant prevalence of sexual abuse of girls and women in Dominionist and Quiverfull sects; the way Christians are acting like the Duggars are being persecuted; the claim Christians make that an alleged human sacrifice 2000 years ago makes everything OK now; the Christian emphasis on forgiveness and turning the other cheek, that is so easily and often used to silence victims and empower abusers.
I want to talk about those little girls. Michelle Duggar (their mom) says they received counselling. She didn’t give specifics, but considering that actual licensed therapists are mandatory reporters, and mandatory reports were not made, we can assume the counselling was of a less-formal variety. It so happens that the organization that is the source of many of the Duggars’ beliefs, and produces much of their home-school curriculum, the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), has a lesson plan for counselling survivors of sexual abuse. It is horrifying. Nearly every point victim-blames and/or displays callous disregard for the survivor’s pain. Image of the document after the break.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…