Category: Parents/Guardians

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is speaking out against Iran for the killing of a young woman for not wearing the hijab. From the article:

• The notion of religion tied to the Iranian state in this theocracy — a reminder to Americans of what “One Nation Under God” really looks like — depends on female subjugation. Women are property. Women are sin-inciting and do not own their own bodies. They must be controlled by male religions and legislatures. Sounds familiar.

• What’s happening in Iran is a lesson for us in America, where women are also now legally second-class citizens after our Supreme Court, dominated by Catholic patriarchs (and one handmaiden) ruled that deciding whether to not to be pregnant or become a parent is no longer a constitutional right.

Check out the full article here

The description of the book is as follows:

On 24th November 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was first published, selling out almost immediately. Describing the now well known theory that humans evolved through a process called natural selection, it became an instant classic and cemented Darwin as one of the greatest biologists of all time. However, he couldn’t have done it without the support, encouragement and advice from those who believed in him. None more so than Joseph Hooker, his friend, confidant and fellow collector, who supported and helped Darwin when he didn’t dare ask anyone else. Hooker, too, had his own adventures and made his own discoveries – many of which not only aided Darwin, but went on to change what the world knew about plants. Becoming head of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he came to be one the world’s most influential botanists. Across many years, countless adventures and numerous letters, this captivating and wonderfully illustrated book tells the story of one of greatest friendships to happen to science. Publishing in partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this book will show children how teamwork, curiosity, openness and trust can be the greatest tools a scientist will ever need. They might even help you change the world.

see https://thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2022/09/14/8119/

Religions often teach a god or gods created life, because living things can’t come from unliving things. But this isn’t true. Consider the Miller-Urey experiment:

This animation was sponsored by the Center for Chemical Evolution, NSF, and NASA

The Miller-Urey experiment was the first attempt to scientifically explore ideas about the origin of life. Stanley Miller simulated conditions thought be common on the ancient Earth. The purpose was to test the idea that the complex molecules of life (in this case, amino acids) could have arisen on our young planet through simple, natural chemical reactions.

The experiment was a success in that amino acids, the building blocks of life, were produced during the simulation. The finding was so significant that it kick-started an entirely new field of study: Prebiotic Chemistry.

Scientists now have reason to believe that the gases used in the Miller-Urey simulation were not actually the same as those of the ancient atmosphere. Because of this, many experiments have since been done, testing a wide variety of atmospheres and different environmental conditions. The results are overwhelming: the molecules of life can form under a wide variety of ancient Earth-like conditions.

Many questions about the origin of life remain to be answered but these findings give strong support to the idea that the first living cells on Earth may have emerged from natural chemical reactions.

(From Stated Clearly: Science For Everyone )

As an educator, my goal is to promote critical thinking, which I think naturally leads to secularism. However, if a child’s exploration of thinking leads to religiousness, then that’s fine too. The point is to level the playing field to let the truth speak to kids as honestly as it can. What’s the alternative?

Dr. Frank Turek is now promoting curriculum to prove Christianity to kids, and claiming the alternative is the work of the devil. Here is his advertisement:

The devil ain’t playing tiddlywinks with your children, ladies, and gentlemen! These new curricula available for 2-5th graders and 6-8th graders will guide you step-by-step through the process of teaching them why Christianity is objectively true!

With the title of this post, I have in mind prominent secularist Sam Harris and his book “Letter To A Christian Nation.” Letter to a Christian Nation is a 2006 book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book The End of Faith. The book is written in the form of an open letter to a Christian in the United States. Harris states that his aim is “to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms.”

My letter here isn’t meant to demolish anything, but to ask Christian parents to view the short video below and ask themselves if they can see their own Christian faith with the same disinterested objectivity they see the silliness of voodoo faith and rituals? This is the challenge of the “Outsider Test For Faith,” put forward most famously by secular activist John Loftus.

My question for Christian parents, or really any religious parent, is can you watch the video, and then see your own faith the way secular people see your faith?

Beginning to see religion through the eyes of a secular person is like coming to see one of those gestalt hidden images – hidden at first – but once you see it you can’t “un-see” it. This is what the ancient Greeks meant by truth, “un-covering (a-letheia, un-hiding).”

get Loftus’ provocative book here

• “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” (Aristotle)

Is difference between this above child and the more mild cases of religious upbringing of children we see  one of degree, or of kind.  Picture a child who is not vocal like this one, but holds similar or more mild conservative Christian views.

Here is a helpful analogy video on religious child grooming: inundating a child with just one kind of religion, excluding others and secularism:

BONUS: Thinking about logic and humor – have you ever noticed the connection between logical errors and humor?  Picture a reductio ad absurdum: a method of proving the falsity of a premise by showing that its logical consequence is absurd or contradictory. So: “The Earth cannot be flat; otherwise, we would find people falling off the edge.”  That people are not falling off the edge makes Flat Earth proponents false/wrong, seem silly, which is to say hilarious!  Question: Is the video of the conservative Christian preacher child above in the first video (i) not something we should care about, (ii) horrific, (iii) hilarious, or (iv) profoundly true?

One thing you sometimes hear is that without God there could be no objective morality (the oughts), because if moral rules/principles don’t get their authority from God, where could their authority come from?

Of course, this way of thinking is wrong. Children from a very young age understand what being a “friend” means without God having anything to do with the knowledge. So, kids can extrapolate from this understanding of friendship principles like “you’re being a better friend if you play the game your friend wants to play than if you selfishly demand to play your favorite game” or “you are being a bad friend if you steal your friend’s toy car.”

Another important point here is that the key elements of morality such as altruism are present widely in the animal kingdom, and so aren’t simply implanted in humans as the unique and special pinnacle of God’s creation. One article on this topic makes such points as:

• “Since altruism, empathy, and gratitude all underpin moral behavior, finding them in our fellow mammals suggests that they run deep in our brain biology and did not come about because of moral reasoning or religion. In fact, probably the opposite is true—religion developed because of our innate capacities for caring.“

• “[I]n our attempts to study our animal brethren and avoid anthropomorphizing them we sometimes miss their very real similarities to us. According to the scientists Morell interviews, birds are capable of complex communication, elephants have long memories and strong social networks, and dolphins will act altruistically. These scientists are convinced that many higher order cognitive abilities are not limited to humans, and that we only need look a bit further to discover them in animals.“

see: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/morality_animals

ARTICLE: Finding Morality in Animals
Two new books explore research on animals to better understand the roots of human morality and challenge human specialness.