Daily Archives: April 27, 2017

A man in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to death on charges of apostasy after losing two appeals.

Several local media reports identified the man as Ahmad Al Shamri, in his 20s, from the town of Hafar al-Batin, who first came to the authorities attention in 2014 after allegedly uploading videos to social media in which he renounced Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.

He was arrested on charges of atheism and blasphemy and held in prison before beingconvicted by a local court and sentenced to death in February 2015.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have used a viral party video to identify and arrest partygoers in the country

At the time Mr Shamris defence entered an insanity plea, adding that his client was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of making the videos.

He reportedly lost an Appeals Court case, and a Supreme Court ruled against him earlier this week.

While news stories in the last few years consistently identify Mr Shamri, his identity or sentencing has not been verified by the Saudi authorities.

The Independents requests for comment from Saudi government representatives were not immediately answered.

Under Saudi Arabias strict religious laws, leaving Islam can be punishable by harsh prison sentences and corporeal punishment - and a 2014 string of royal decrees under the late King Abdullah re-defined atheists as terrorists, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

Last year, a citizen was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing atheistic sentiment in hundreds of social media posts.

Mr Shamris name and hometown have trended on Arabic-speaking Twitter in the last few days. Some users have even celebrated his sentencing.

If you're a lowkey atheist that's fine. But once you talk in public & criticize God or religion, then you shall be punished, one such post read.

I wish there could be live streaming when you cut his head off, said another.

International human rights watchdogs have consistently condemned Saudi Arabias human rights record.

The Kingdom came under further scrutiny last week when it emerged it had been elected to the UNs womens rights commission.

Under the countrys system of guardianship, womens rights and freedom of movement is heavily restricted. They are not allowed to drive, and voted for the first time in 2015.

Electing Saudi Arabia to protect womens rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief, UN Watch Director Hillel Neuer said. Its absurd.

Saudi Arabia has sat on the UNs human rights council since September 2015.

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Man 'sentenced to death for atheism' in Saudi Arabia | The ... - The Independent

The mayor of San Antonio didnt say atheism leads to poverty, despite several media reports characterizing her recent comments that way.

During a candidates forum earlier this month, Mayor Ivy Taylor, a Democrat, was asked by the SA Christian Hope Resource Center, a charity working to make individuals financially self-sustaining, what she believes are the deepest systemic causes of generational poverty in San Antonio.

In response, Taylor shared her faith in God and her belief that, without God, people are broken.

Since youre with the Christian Coalition, Ill go ahead and put it out there that to me,its broken people, the mayor said. People not being in a relationship with their Creator and therefore, not being in a good relationship with their families and their communities and not being productive members of society.

I think thats the ultimate answer, sheadded, later saying she tries to be an example to those around her.

As mayor, though, Taylor said thats not something I work on.

And despite the numerous reports on her comments, very few coveredthe practical issuessheaddressed next.

I see education as the great equalizer, she said. And so, for a variety of reasons you know, wanna talk about school districts, or economic segregation we just have not provided the same opportunities for people to have access to high-quality education that puts them on the path for careers in every single part of San Antonio.

I see that as being one of the systemic causes, she continued.

Teen pregnancy, the mayor argued, is also an issue that leads to poverty.

And that kind of goes hand-in-hand with education because when people are parenting early, Taylor said, that usually means they dont have the opportunity to complete their education, so it ends up being a vicious cycle.

However, the Democrat said shes received some pushback from those who characterize the issue of teen pregnancy as a moral or religious one. Taylor said shes tried to frame it as an economic development issue because those who cannot complete their education are generally underemployed or unemployed.

Later in the discussion, Taylor opened up more about her faith: I am a born again Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ.I draw very heavily on that as far as the strength to do this job.

She went on to say she relies onPhilippians 4:13on a daily basis. The passage reads, For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Interestingly, the next candidate to answer the question, City Councilman Ron Nirenberg, offered an equally philosophical answer to the problem of poverty, though he didnt invoke God.

If I had to point to one cause philosophically, said Nirenberg, who is politically unaffiliated, it would be the loss of the public common, the sense that were all in this together. And that has resulted in people doing a lot of things or not doing a lot of things.

Such as participating in the local elections, such as reading a newspaper, such as doing whatever it is to help a neighborhood association. Theres a loss of the sense of a common ground, a common purpose for people throughout this city and throughout this community, he continued, describing the situation as a plague on us all.

His comments, however, were not scrutinized in the same way Taylors were. The Huffington Post said Taylor suggested people without God cause poverty and the Progressive Secular Humanist, a blogger at Patheos, wrote: San Antonio Mayor Says Atheism Causes Poverty.

None of those reports are entirely accurate, though thats not surprising. Last year, New York Times editorDean Baquet admitted the newspaper is out of touch with religion.

We dont get religion. We dont get the role of religion in peoples lives, he said.And I think we can do much, much better. And I think there are things that we can be more creative about to understand the country.

In response to the backlash shes received from the incomplete media reports on her comments, Taylor told KENS-TV that many of the stories are dishonest, politically motivated, and intentionally edited.

Heres Taylors full response:

The video clip that surfaced on social media this weekend is a dishonest, politically motivated misrepresentation of my record on combatting poverty. It was intentionally edited to mislead viewers.

I have devoted my life to breaking the chains of generational poverty as an urban planner, the District 2 councilwoman, and now mayor. Ive done so because of my faith in God and my belief in Jesuss ministry on Earth. I believe we are all called on to help lift our brothers and sisters out of poverty.

The video was edited to cut out the rest of my answer what Ive done as mayor to help alleviate poverty in San Antonio. That includes taking on teen pregnancy and our high-school dropout rates, advocating job-training for young people who arent college-bound, and fighting crime.

You can see the mayors fullanswer during the forum at the1:07:45 in the video below.

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Did the San Antonio mayor really say that atheism leads to poverty? - TheBlaze.com

Atheists don't discuss their stance for fear of prejudice, a study finds.

Mark Rivera, WTSP 12:03 AM. EDT April 26, 2017

People gather for the Reason Rally on the National Mall March 24, 2012, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, 2012 AFP)

TAMPA It can be taboo to talk about religion in public and especially atheism.

That's why a new study from the University of Kentucky might surprise you.

It says the real number of atheists in the United States may be way higher than we thought:

It estimates more than a quarter of all American adults are atheists. They don't believe in God, or a higher power.

That's about 62 million people - the population of Florida and California combined!

But the same study says a lot of those atheists never talk about it.

Something else that might surprise you:

AGallup poll found54 percent of Americans would vote for a presidential candidate who was openly atheist. About 90 percent said they'd vote for a Catholic candidate, 80 percent said they'd vote for a Mormon, and 58 percent said they would vote for a Muslim candidate.

We are getting answers to your questions from Jim Peterson of Atheists of Florida, who does want to talk about being an atheist.

RIVERA: What the study has said is a lot of atheists in the US are afraid or feel like there's some reason they can't come out and talk about it. What do you think that is?

JIM PETERSON: Over the years, from the very beginning, it was apparent that atheists were the subjects of a good deal of prejudice, discrimination and outright bigotry. But a lot of people have become disenamored of religion altogether. They no longer feel that it's relevant to their life.

RIVERA: A lot of people ask, "can you be a good person and be an atheist at the same time?"

PETERSON: Of course!

RIVERA: How?

PETERSON: Well, pretty much do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There's no God in that formula. Morality does not grow from religion. Morality grows from the practice of everyday life. We are the ones who have to make up our minds.

Nobody comes into this world a Presbyterian. You have to learn how to do it. Or Jewish, or a Hindu, or Muslim, or Catholic, or anything else. You have to learn it. And some of us get to unlearn it.

RIVERA: Do you think people, when they hear someone is an atheist, make an instant judgment on that?

PETERSON: If the only thing they know about someone is that person is an atheist, then they will immediately have some sort of a reaction.

RIVERA: What are the negative connotations along with the idea of atheism?

PETERSON: They don't have any sense of responsibility to the broader community, they don't participate, they don't care.

RIVERA: Are they wrong?

PETERSON: Yes. Atheists as a group or people. They're just regular folks.

RIVERA: If there's one thing you want people to take away from a conversation with an atheist something people don't do every day what would that be?

PETERSON: Think. Just think about your situation. Think about the world. Compare and contrast. Learn about your religion, no matter what it is right now. Everything that is human has something to tell us. And as a whole picture - it demonstrates that we have a life. And it is not dependent upon a god.

2017 WTSP-TV

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Hidden atheists: What are the stigmas? - WTSP 10 News

Militant atheists like Richard Dawkins have done secularism a disservice, according to New Scientist.

An editorial in the issue of the magazine published on Easter Saturday criticised Dawkins and other new atheists, who attack scientists advocating for a more considered approach towards religion.

This hostile rhetoric, it said, has alienated as many people as it won over and given the impression that atheism is a belief system whose adherents can be as blindly dogmatic as any other.

The article argues that the debate between new atheists and people of religion has been reduced to the sophistication of a playground taunting match, where atheists decry blindly dogmatic religious people and in turn are open to the charge of being blindly dogmatic themselves.

Because of the way the new atheists have conducted themselves, some of them have lost their claim to the intellectual high ground.

It concludes that by ignoring or high-handedly dismissing the power of religion, new atheists have done nothing to further the secularist cause.

A fuller article in the same edition of New Scientist considers the psychological similarities between atheists and people of religion.

Interestingly, Graham Lawton the author of the article who is himself an atheist admits that even hard-core atheists tend to entertain quasi-religious or spiritual ideas such as there being a higher power or that everything happens for a purpose.

Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said: The rhetoric of Dawkins and co has clearly fallen out of favour with those in the scientific community. They are now willing to say in public what they had been saying in private for years.

Of course Christians wont agree with everything in New Scientist, but its very significant that they reject the anti-religious vitriol of new atheists and even recognise the positive impact religion can have.

Richard Dawkins, an outspoken evolutionary biologist, has often courted controversy over the years.

In 2014, he caused outrage by claiming it is immoral not to abort Downs syndrome babies.

Down Syndrome, he tweeted, is 1 of the commonest & most moral reasons to exercise the right to abortion.

Dawkins also believes that children need to be protected from religious indoctrination by their parents.

He claims that teaching a child orthodox Christian beliefs about life after death is tantamount to child abuse.

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Rocco Ancora - The Christian Institute