In some black communities it’s akin to donning a white sheet and a Confederate flag. In others, it’s ostensibly tolerated yet whispered about, branded culturally incorrect and bad form, if not outright sacrilege.
For black atheists like myself, proclaiming one’s non-belief amidst genial wishes to “have a blessed day” is never easy in the seemingly innocuous context of casual chit chat between black folk.
http://www.lawattstimes.com/opinion/opinion/773-out-of-the-closet--black-atheists.html

Thus begins an article that was linked from this article at Alternet. There really seems to be a growing movement of black atheists who are, finally, coming out of the closet (as it were) and proclaiming that we actually exist. I am an atheist and a black woman. While many in the black community may look at me askance as some kind of strange and unholy unicorn, I look at myself as a potential vanguard and hopeful harbinger of things to come. At least I like to think that I am.

It should go without saying, but of course requires explicit statement none-the-less, that the church was the foundation of the black community for most of its post-bondage history. I fully recognize that black ministers formed part of tetrad of the intelligentsia in Black America until the immediate post-Civil Rights Era (the other three being teachers, lawyers and doctors). All of that is simply a matter of historical record and while we might wish it had not been so, it changes nothing at all. We can, however, pay our respects to the role Christian ministers played in creating and sustaining black culture while at the same time recognizing that Christianity was the religion of the slaveholder. Christianity was not ‘our’ native religion but that of the Europeans who snatched our ancestors from out of harms way and brought them to the New World. If we are going to acknowledge one then we should acknowledge the other.

This is not to say that I would not be an atheist if we had kept native African animist religions, I would still be an atheist. Why? Not to put too fine a point on the matter, belief in a divine being that controls all aspects of life makes no intellectual sense. The most hands-off, Einsteinian, deism notwithstanding, the idea of a creator God that caused the Universe and all within it to come to exist by direct intervention is contrary to any kind of substantial understanding of the natural world. There is, quite simply, nothing for the kind of God that most people (even most liberal Christians) profess to believe in to do. All of the “God of the Gaps” justifications for belief (why is there something rather than nothing) are predicated on the mistaken belief that there is some physical process or phenomena that cannot be explained through a naturalistic methodology. Michael Behe’s mendacious ignoring of most of the last decade and a half of molecular biology aside, there’s nothing we’ve encountered so far that requires a divine being of any description in order to explain. We can easily get from sub-atomic particles to galactic superclusters without once invoking the construct “and here, God causes this to happen”.

Even though our picture of the Universe is, necessarily and perpetually, incomplete this does not mean we need to give up and attribute, for instance, the Higgs boson to the workings of some deity or another. This applies equally to the Abrahamic god, the pantheon of the Hindus or the aliens who allegedly taught the Egyptians to build pyramids or the Druids to make stones stand on end. Some more sophisticated theists may try to get around this problem of unemployed and unemployable gods by trying to make them more like the deistic god but even this doesn’t go as far as it needs to. My concern in this piece, however, is the interventionist god. While I don’t see any need to invoke a Great Mathematician who set up some parameters and then popped off for eternity, that is at least not nearly as problematic as the directly interventionist deity favored by the Abrahamic religions.

The problem with the interventionist deity is that it is, well, too human to be meaningfully divine. You will hear statements like “God hates sin” and it causes me to wonder “wait a minute. Your god hates? Why? Isn’t that rather small and human of him to hate?” Of course, you aren’t supposed to ask that question. It is as if theists want you to take their beliefs seriously but not so seriously that you treat them as inconveniently real. Inconveniently real things can have questions asked about them. Conveniently real things can’t. What’s the difference? It’s the difference between being able to ask “so if there is a Higgs boson what characteristics should we look for” and “if there is a soul what, exactly, is it that it does since it’s not needed in order for their to be emotion, thought or morality”. The first question you can ask and while the answer may be very complex, it can still be apprehended. The second question can only be answered by a great deal of goalpost moving, hand-waving and special pleading until such time as the believer explains that you just have to have ‘faith’. Which is just a very nice and polite way of saying, “okay, now you’re taking this thing I believe to be real as being too real to be convenient”.

The prevailing assumption in the African American community is that religion is good for us. As a black woman, I'm seriously not supposed to exist. If I were merely inactive in church but still believed that would be acceptable. Frowned upon but still within the boundaries. To be outside of the church and not even interested in looking in from time-to-time is to put myself in a category for which very few in the black community have a slot. But why should this be so? I would argue that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the religiosity in black communities has become toxic. How so? How can it be that this part of our culture which sustained us now harms us?

To see this clearly it is necessary to take a close look and so I will focus on the way the black church has dealt with two related subjects: HIV/AIDS and homosexuality in general. A quarter century into the HIV pandemic and you can still hear black preachers carrying on about how AIDS is a punishment from god and something that ‘the gays’ get. People labor under the illusion that if there were no homosexuals there would be no AIDS in the black community. This kind of fantasy has killed people. It sanctions a profound level of ignorance about the disease, specifically and science, generally. It is from this kind of misinformation that the idea that the US government cooked HIV up in a lab someplace springs from. A little knowledge about the state of genetic engineering circa 1980 would lead one away from that conclusion because no one was that good at gene modification at that time. Recombinant techniques were still in their infancy and sequencing was being done the long, laborious way. HIV is a sophisticated virus, beyond the ability of genetic engineers now and there’s been three decades of steady progress! What’s more, this ignorance gives sanction to virulent homophobia which feeds back into the fear of HIV (which is justified) causing ministers and their flock to fear even talking about it in a substantial manner (which is not justified).

How is religion helping again?

As the author of the linked piece referenced above observes, in the black community you can be a pimp, prostitute or drug dealer who nevertheless asks Jesus for forgiveness (while not changing your behavior, mind you) and still be acceptable. To be a highly moral, productive member of society who is an atheist, however, is to embody immorality. Again, the illusion, perpetuated by ministers, that we need God in order to be moral hinders understanding causing far more problems than are mitigated by any kind of belief.

All of this is not to say that I have any kind of belief that the African American community will throw off the shackles of religiosity anytime soon. I don’t see it happening. I don’t even see a path leading in that direction. However, it is important, given that all of the faces of public atheism are white and most of them are male, that we atheist women of color stand up and be counted. Our voices are important in this debate and we need to take our place at the barricades with our lights against the encroaching Endarkenment.

This is a latter-day Dred Scott decision. The court has ruled that the rights of a minority can legitimately be put up to a vote by a majority.

Court upholds Prop. 8 but lets marriages stand
(05-26) 10:29 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- California voters legally outlawed same-sex marriage when they approved Proposition 8 in November, but the constitutional amendment did not dissolve the unions of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before the measure took effect, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

Well, I brewed my first batch of beer! It’s a hefeweizen which I am going to add some raspberry flavoring to before I bottle it. It went okay, not terrific. I forgot to take a hydrometer reading before I added the yeast and I’m now wondering if I overcooled the wort.

I’ve been driving too much lately. Even though I love driving my car (and I do, it’s so fun to drive) and I enjoy the convenience of carpooling I miss my time on the MAX listening to either an audiobook (currently listening to a performance of Thomas Kuhn's “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”) or some music (as I write this I’m listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela’s “Tamacun”) and doing either some studying or writing. This is the first time I’ve done the full homeward commute by train in a while. It’s actually quite a bit easier than my MAX to #4 since I’m a straight-shot on the blue line and then a mile of a little short of a ride to the house. I use to ride between 50 - 75 miles a week every week! Now, if I’m doing half of that I’d be shocked. I really need to get back into shape.

When I was pushing forty and was in some of the best shape I’d been in since my early twenties, I felt really good about myself. Not because I was thin but because I was so active. Now, I feel the need to exercise both to get back to that kind of shape (or as close an approximation as I can manage) and because my doctor really would like me to shed some pounds from my nearly 190 to something around 170. (Yes, Jaime is that good of a cook that I’ve gone from weighing about 155 or 160 when I met her to almost 190 three years later)

On another note, I’m now blogging for Oregon-Live I’m covering the Centennial neighborhood in East Portland where we’ve moved. This should give me some time to do some of that since I only need to turn out maybe a couple of hundred words a week.

The term ends in a couple of weeks at which point I’ll have a life again (yes, Joe, that means I'll actually have cycles to do something useful for BV). I’m going to give myself a break and take the summer off so I can focus on some personal projects and taking care of the house.

With that, we’ve just left 102nd street which means I’ve only got a few stops before I have to be ready to ride again so I’ll sign off.

Jenny McCarthy's Autism Crusade: Healing, Hope... And Controversy

Jim Carrey: The Judgment on Vaccines Is In???

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-carrey/the-judgment-on-vaccines_b_189777.html

Since when did Jim Carrey become an expert on vaccinations, clinical trials and the scientific method? Yesterday I was horrified to look at Huffington Post and see, on the front page, the article linked to above. Here’s the thing, this has been studied in multiple instances and no causative link between autism and the schedule of vaccines has been found. None. Zip. Nada. Bupkis. Yes, I know that Jenny McCarthy says that there is and so does Jim Carrey but that doesn’t mean that they have bugger-all idea of what they are talking about. Rather, it means that they have bought into a lot of woo ideas about science and medicine and have also imbibed the conspiracy theory view that there are these sinister forces moving behind the scenes. Neither holds any water what-so-ever. My concern is not for those people who are educated in the relevant science enough to know the difference between evidence-based and woo-based medicine. Rather, my concern is for those kids who rely on herd immunity for their own safety because they can’t get vaccinated. The rest of us being vaccinated is all that protects them.

Perhaps it’s just me but I think that perhaps Mr. Carrey and Ms. McCarthy might want to actually read some of the actual literature. Anecdotal evidence is not something to rely on in making public policy.

In a very disappointing op-ed in today’s New York Times, Roger Cohen argues that President Obama is correct that we need to “look forward and not back”. I disagree strenuously. I voted for Obama, in no small part, on the strength of his policy that we do not torture and that we, as a nation, respect the rule of law in both our rhetoric and in our deeds. If crimes were committed, and by any rational definition of the term torture is a crime in both American and international law, then those who have done the acts should stand trial for them. I’m not saying that I we should round up every CIA agent and frog march them in chains. I would actually be willing to give the agents who did the torturing light sentences but Cheney and Zen Master Rumsfeld should definitely stand in the dock for their participation as should Condi Rice.

I would like to think that Obama would have the courage of his convictions. He knows what the Constitution demands in this situation. He should do it.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Columnist - No Time for Retribution - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

What a week it’s been! The school term has just started and I’m doing 8 units which is kind of kicking my butt but will be worth it when it’s all done in a few years. I missed the second meeting of my math class because I caught the creeping crud from Jaime but made it to my writing class yesterday. This morning finds me sitting in the lobby of the Les Schwa tire store on Powell street, drinking my coffee and thinking about the best news all week: our new house! My buddy, Todd (Ogre), has a couple of rental properties one of which just came open so he called me Tuesday and told me that his tenants had just given notice and a house was open and gave us first shot at it. So we are going to move into a three-bedroom, one-bath house in deep, deep, deep Southeast Portland (off of 162nd and Division). Which is going to put us damn near in Gresham but will be more space for only $130 more than we’re paying now for a ticky-tacky cracker-box apartment. Jaime observed that she’s chalking our first place up to being a starter home. We’re going to have a garden, a washer-dryer and space!

Because it’s going to put us so far out there (near where I used to work at a mental health facility on 162nd and Glisin) and that is going to make it a bit far for a daily public transit commute, I’m going to buy Jaime her own car. I’ve given her a budget of 5-6K to find something suitable. I’ll drive the Audi most days and she’ll drive what she finds (she’s looking for either a new VW Bug or a Nissan Sentry

Speaking of which, we’ve had the Audi for almost a year now and I’ve had my Macbook Pro for a year! It’s been a great, wild year filled with travel and adventure and Jaime and I deepening our relationship. In about 12 weeks we’re going to be married and in about 16 weeks I’ll make the very last payment on my debt to the state of of California and I’ll be debt free! At which point Jaime and I will be comfortable. School is going well, it’s expensive but going well.

After years and years of hard times (since I moved up here in 2001), I finally feel like I’ve gotten my legs firmly underneath me and my life has gone from surviving or manageable to truly sweet. Sure, I hate my job but that’s burnout. I have a woman I am crazy about and who, for some odd reason, finds me adorable in all my eccentricity. I have good friends and am widening my circle of friends. I feel like my life is beginning to reflect what I imagine a middle-aged woman’s life could be.

Enough of this self-indulgent stuff for now

CNN in pursuit of ever greater heights of tech-porn gave us a thought of the National Mall from space today. It’s an amazing shot:

Not exactly the classiest thing I’ve ever seen but funny nevertheless.

I’m sitting on my couch, watching a slow run-up to history. It feels as if this day America is having something along the lines of a rebirth. My parents first cast a vote in 1968, 23 years after my father returned from WWII with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. My mother built airplanes for Boeing. My paternal grandmother washed white people’s clothes, raised their children as well as her own. My maternal grandfather was born a slave. My maternal grandmother was the child of slaves. This day is for them. It’s for Martin and Coretta. It’s for James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, Lorraine Hansbury, Marion Anderson, Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Dubois, and the Tuskeegee Airman. Everyone who marched so I could go to integrated schools and work in an integrated workplace, gave of themselves so that Barack Obama could be the 44th President of the United States.

America, you have much to be proud of today. We went from a nation where, 45 years ago, a substantial portion of its population could not vote because of the color of their skin to one where one of its native sons has become its leader. It did take us damn long enough, though.

A buddy of mine at work sent me a link to a site where you can design your own hell which I thought I would share with you

Saw this article online at the WSJ site. I’m not saying that I want the US to break up, I’m not saying I think this would be a good thing. I’m merely saying that this is something that I have thought about, quite a bit and even started writing a novel based on this premise.

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media...But it’s his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin’s views also fit neatly with the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.



http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AO116_RUSPRO_NS_20081228191715.gif

Today I saw a Revelation of Holiness. Today, She revealed Her Noodle Appendage to me, a lowly seadog like myself. I was taking pictures of the snow storm and I saw this bush:

Just testing to see if the new release of Mac-Journal posts pictures to LJ correctly.