Atheism

What are your favorite songs that have a message about atheism?

I think the first song I remember hearing that had a clearly atheistic message was Freewill, by Rush.

I found this one more recently: Shine a Little Light, by The Black Keys. I like The Black Keys, but hadn't heard this album before. The lyrics are describing a person struggling with their faith. I like the part in the second verse about not being recognized by your old community.

Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher who for half a century ministered to thousands of children across four states, has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.

Campbell was charged with one count of first-degree rape and one count of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16, according to the charging document. U.S. marshals arrested him Wednesday morning at Camp Bell, his children's camp in Elkland, Missouri, and took him to the Greene County jail in Springfield, where he was awaiting transfer to Oklahoma. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

The majority of Atheists and Scientists voted Kamala Harris.

The majority of Christian evangelicals voted Donald Trump.

Now, he is humiliating atheists and scientists by making massive cuts in research funding. He is doing this on purpose. His goal is to humiliate them because they voted Kamala.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01397-1

https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-s-proposed-budget-would-mean-disastrous-cuts-science

https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-nightmare-u-s-funding-cuts-threaten-academic-science-jobs-all-levels

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-trumps-federal-funding-cuts-are-hurting-early-career-researchers-and/

Congratulations to christian evangelicals. I hope you are happy now

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/58914776

Link fixed

I have been reluctant to call myself an atheist. Mainly because I associate the label with many negative qualities and find many atheists to be perpetually 14 edgelords who claim to be pro-science but seem to think the scientific method is composed of running into a church and yelling "Fake!"

I could go on if it were my intent to chase away my audience with a stick so I'll mostly leave it there.

How can I see such angry arrogant bullies chanting "Sky Daddy!" and go "Yes I am one of them?"

It is illogical.

But I have no choice but to wear the label, because God is not real.

If God were real, Christians would be the kindest and most giving people in the world.

I don't need to tell you how far from the case this is.

I don't need to tell you about the cruelty of Christian movements. About how all their good will and charitable acts begin and end at "Believe in our God and stop complaining!"

They do not stop suffering, they deny it even exists. Claiming it to be part of God's plan and how God doesn't make mistakes. The latter is true because the former isn't. God doesn't make mistakes because there is no plan, there is no God.

This is insanity

While I have known Christians who are truly kind people, some of them I call my dearest friends.... these are the exception not the rule. And even he, one of my best friends, will ignore his conscience and choose cruelty if he believes it the will of his God. Even if his Pope says it isn't.

If God were real these Christians would not be so angry that non believers and transpeople exist. They would be fearful of his wrath and joyous of his love.

The rich would not horde wealth but spend it in service to the poor, for the riches of Heaven would be far greater and far more permanent.

If God were real he would heal the sick, we would hear of the miraculous healing of amputees. We would hear of gender dysphoric teenagers who awoke in a new body. We would hear how the angels themselves condemned Israel's genocide of Palestine.

God would have saved my Christian friend who became brain dead in a hit and run, and actually dead two weeks later.

God would have halted the actions of every man of faith who decided to prey upon children, nay they'd be too scared of his wrath to even have thoughts of doing as such.

But God will never lift a finger to help anyone. Not because he is cruel or indifferent. But because he isn't there.

Should I hear a voice with an otherworldly glow say "It's me, the Lord your God. I am sorry for my absence, but I need your help to make this right."

All would be forgiven and I would bow in reverence to Christ.

But that day will not come.

I am an atheist not because I am heartless and reject him... but because my heart calls out to him and receives nothing.

I have pondered if maybe God is around and some can hear him more clearly than others.

But then I remember how Conservatives behave, either using God for a selfish agenda or being suckered by false holy men....

And there goes that hypothesis.

God, if you're willing to talk I am willing to listen. But sadly you aren't because you don't exist.

The Israeli government has signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to rehabilitate Israel's standing in American public opinion, both online and offline.

Amid a sharp drop in support from the conservative right, Israel has hired firms to conduct not just "hasbara [public diplomacy] campaigns" but also campaigns targeting millions of Christian churchgoers, bot networks to amplify pro-Israel messages online, and efforts to influence both search results and the responses given by popular AI services like ChatGPT.

The largest of the new hasbara contracts was signed in August with a firm called Clock Tower X, owned by Brad Parscale

According to the filing, Parscale's company will produce "at least 100 core pieces of content per month" - including videos, audio, podcasts, graphics and text - and "5,000 derivative versions" monthly, aiming for 50 million impressions a month.

Eighty percent of the content will target young Americans on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Campaign messages will be distributed via Salem Media Network, a conservative Christian media group that owns more than 200 radio stations and websites.

Another Israeli campaign, commissioned for the Foreign Ministry, was proposed by Show Faith by Works, owned by Republican consultant Chad Schnitger, an evangelical operative connected to the Christian right.

The filings for the proposed campaign explain that the messages will reach their audience through "the largest geofencing campaign in U.S. history" – a pitch to map the physical perimeters of every major church and Christian college in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado during worship hours, identifying attendees using commercial data, tracking them, and continuing to target them with relevant ads.

The campaign would use such tools to identify, tag, and target potential Christian audiences with messages from Israel's Foreign Ministry

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2025-11-09/ty-article-magazine/.premium/losing-the-republican-base-israel-pours-millions-to-target-evangelicals-and-churchgoers/0000019a-540e-db4c-a5fb-dfafea590000

The bill was introduced by 6 christian lawmakers:

1. Josh Schriver

2. Joseph Pavlov

3. Matthew Maddock

4. James DeSana

5. Joseph Fox

6. Jennifer Wortz

The bill would prohibit sharing, distributing, selling, or hosting pornography or erotica in the form of videos or sound clips in the state of Michigan.

Here it is:

Anticorruption of Public Morals Act

A bill to prohibit the distribution of certain material on the internet that corrupts the public morals and prescribe penalties

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2025-2026/billintroduced/House/pdf/2025-HIB-4938.pdf

The bill would also require internet service providers to ban erotica/porn :