Reblogged from stevienicksinatophat
Atheism in Egypt
It’s amazing to see this happening in a predominantly Islamic country, hopefully their movement will be fruitful.
(Source: yoursocialconstructsareshowing)
RESPONDING to reports that assaults on young girls in Saudi Arabia are said to be on the increase, a Muslim cleric has suggested that babies be put in burqas. According [&]
This is a special type of stupid
Amal Farah, a 32-year-old banking executive, is laughing about a contestant singing off-key in the last series of The X Factor. For a woman who was not allowed to listen to music when she was growing up, this is a delight. After years of turmoil, she is in control of her own life.
Definitely worth a read
Perhaps such a defeatist question to start a blog is not a great idea, yet I feel it is important; why as an atheist do I bother debating theists? Why do I bother when after years of debating (face to face and in real life) theist with little result do I continue to do so?
Primarily, I think, the reason I debate is because I believe that religion is a purely divisive force, with almost no redeeming qualities. Although I live in a fairly secular country where religion seems to have little influence on public policy, I still see a vast impact of religion on society; in my home city there are certain regions often considered by some as “Muslim”. These are areas in which the vast majority of the population are of the Muslim faith (at least 90%+) in a city where Muslims are in the minority. Why is it that these communities appear? Why is there this segregation between communities, should we not all be one community regardless of race and faith? And more importantly why is this segregation bad?
In my personal experience a lack of contact with individuals differing from yourself leads to mistrust and fear, only after interacting with people different from yourself do we learn and come to understand each other. To highlight this I should explain more about myself: I grew up in a small community with practically no religious or racial variation; the vast majority of the population were white Christians, as such I had no real experience of Muslims and yet I felt some mistrust and even fear, I believed ridiculous stories told in pubs about the evil Muslims; then I left home for university. In my first year of university I lived in a halls of residence with two Muslim guys and I found out very quickly how much we had in common, how similar we truly were, my mistrust and my fear vanished. These were just two ordinary 18 year old guys who were more concerned with picking up girls and playing football than strapping on a bomb vest and killing the infidels.
I am ashamed of the child I was prior to my time at university, I am ashamed I believed every story from a drunken bigot down the pub, and I feel the shame of my own nation when I see the EDL mobs marching through city centers across our country encouraging violence against people who are truly not so different from myself.
I will state outright that religion is not the only factor in separating our communities, I’m sure racism and economical issues are also to blame, however, we should not ignore the elephant in the room, faith separates us in a way that other factors do not. Belief that you are right and all others are sinful and wicked does naught but build walls between us and prevent us from truly becoming one community, and that, is why I bother.
