Tasmanian bus advertisement 2010
Sign at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Big screen at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Audience at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Taslima Nasrin presenting at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
2010 Global Atheist Convention after party
2011 Census Campaign advertisement
Melbourne bus advertisement 2012
AFA President David Nicholls opening the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
Audience at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
Ayaan Hirsi Ali presenting at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
Jason Ball addressing the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
Sam Harris presenting at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
The 'Four Horsemen' panel at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention
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14Religious Freedom Review Panel Submission
Religious Freedom Review, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Parliament House, Canberra.
Submission: Copies to all members of the Review Panel and PMC Secretariat:
To whom it may concern,
The Australian Law Reform Commission interim report 127 has previously made the finding that there is no restriction on religious freedom, defining it as:
“Freedom of religion is infringed when a law prevents individuals from practising their religion or requires them to engage in conduct which is prohibited by their religion. Alternatively, the freedom will also be infringed when a law mandates a particular religious practice.” (4.38, p.104).
It is therefore of concern to us that there appears to be an effort by legislation to grant special exemptions to religious groups from laws that apply to all other members of the community.
Therefore, the Atheist Foundation of Australia argues that such calls should be rejected, and existing exemptions be removed, particularly if they contravene United Nations Human Rights.
A review of the ALRC report makes it clear that there is no sound argument to increase the level of protections offered to religions in Australia, and in fact good grounds for removing some existing exemptions from anti discrimination laws.
Calls for religious believers to be allowed to express their religious beliefs by refusing to supply goods and services to certain members of the public should be rejected out of hand and revealed in their true light as discriminatory behavior. For example, a focus of these calls recently has been on bakers of cakes for same-sex weddings. There is no credible basis to support a claim that discrimination against same-sex marriage should be allowed, and no logical difference between this and allowing a religious baker to refuse to serve a Muslim, a Jewish person or a dark skinned woman, an adulterer or a disobedient child – all of whom fit into categories of persons excoriated in the bible or by religious tradition.
“It is, as anyone can see, a cruel, myopic, stingy worldview, that sees a certain type of Christianity, for that is what these laws are really all about, valorised and privileged above all other considerations. Religion trumps human rights. Religion trumps compassion. Religion trumps science. Religion trumps good sense.”
A Cruel Australia: Religious Freedom
medium.com
The Morrison Liberal National Government has released its second draft of a proposed Religious Freedom bill. It is important to...13 hours ago ·
Video including Thorpe speaks for itself
Equality Australia 🌈 on Twitter
“What could happen under the Religious Discrimination Bill? We made a video with some legends and every day Australians to show you: t.co/C24Zbs3v6n”
1 day ago ·
Got that Prime minister?
What this country really needs is freedom from religion
www.smh.com.au
The citizens of this country did not elect your God, we elected politicians who are supposed to have minds, morals and opinions of their own.1 day ago ·
Seeking the destruction of the Secular state?
Religious discrimination bill: what will Australians be allowed to say and do if it passes?
www.theguardian.com
The government’s explanatory memo outlines how the bill’s far-reaching effects will change public life dramatically – in medical services, schools, offices and hospitals2 days ago ·
Podcast - The true history of the Ark before Noah
Dr Irving Finkel specialises in reading and writing Cuneiform, an ancient language written on clay tablets.
In 1985 a man came into his office at the British Museum and showed Irving a palm-sized clay tablet from Ancient Babylon.
It told the story of a Babylonian God telling a man that the world was about to be flooded and that he should build a giant boat, to save him and his family.
The God was instructing the man to bring animals aboard too, in pairs.
Irving realised that this was the story of Noah and his Ark, predating the account in the Bible by thousands of years.
The true history of the Ark before Noah
www.abc.net.au
How Irving Finkel stumbled upon the true story of the Ark before Noah on a Babylonian clay tablet3 days ago ·
"Isn't atheism a White thing?": Centering the voices of atheists of colour.
Abbott, D. M., Mollen, D., Mercier, C., Anaya, E. J., & Rukus, V. A. (2019). " Isn't atheism a White thing?": Centering the voices of atheists of color. Journal of counseling psychology.
Despite a general shift toward secularity, very few people of color in the United States identify as atheist. Further, atheists of color are underrepresented in studies of atheists, and the experiences of atheists of color specifically have, to date, not been captured in the extant scholarship. Addressing this gap in the literature, we interviewed 17 self-identified adult atheists of color, predominantly from Christian backgrounds, residing in the United States using a critical feminist phenomenological approach. Six broad themes emerged from the data: (a) atheist identity development; (b) experiences of discrimination; (c) isolation; (d) violations of cultural expectations; (e) strategic outness; and (f) benefits of atheist identification. Experiences consistent with previous literature and novel and unique experiences specific to atheists of color are reported. Implications for training, practice, and research are discussed.
"Isn't atheism a White thing?": Centering the voices of atheists of color. - Abstract - Europe PMC
europepmc.org
Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature.4 days ago ·
An Atheist Perspective on Self-Esteem and Meaning Making while under Death Awareness
In accordance with Terror Management Theory research, secular beliefs can serve an important role for mitigating existential concerns by providing atheists with a method to attain personal meaning and bolster self-esteem. Although much research has suggested that religious beliefs are powerful defense mechanisms, these effects are limited or reveal more nuanced effects when attempting to explain atheists’ (non)belief structures. The possibility of nonbelief that provides meaning in the “here and now” is reinforced by the importance placed on scientific discovery, education, and social activism by many atheists. Thus, these values and ideologies can, and do, allow for empirically testable claims within a Terror Management framework. Although religious individuals can and largely do use religion as a defense strategy against existential concerns, purely secular ideologies are more effective for atheists providing evidence for a hierarchical approach and individual differences within worldview defenses. Evidence for and implications of these arguments are discussed.
www.researchgate.net/publication/334683857_An_Atheist_Perspective_on_Self-Esteem_and_Meaning_Maki...
(PDF) An Atheist Perspective on Self-Esteem and Meaning Making While Under Death Awareness
www.researchgate.net
PDF | (forthcoming in the journal Secular Studies) In accordance with Terror Management Theory research, secular beliefs can serve an important role for mitigating existential concerns by providing atheists with a method to attain personal meaning and bolster self-esteem. Although...4 days ago ·
CW: sexual violence and discrimination
Will jurors believe nonbelievers? Perceptions of atheist rape victims in the courtroom.
Abstract
We investigated the impact of a victim’s belief in God on mock jurors’ perceptions of the victim and verdict decisions in a mock rape trial. Four hundred eighteen community members (246 women, 172 men) read a rape trial summary involving an acquaintance rape in which the victim indirectly indicated that she was an atheist, Christian, or there was no mention of religious affiliation. In addition to rendering a verdict, participants rated the victim on her level of morality and rated other aspects of the trial (e.g., victim credibility). We found that the perceived morality of the victim mediated the relationship between the victim’s religious belief and the participants’ verdict, such that participants perceived the Christian victim as more moral than the atheist victim, which predicted a higher conviction rate. In addition, we found evidence for a sequential mediation pattern such that the effect of the victim’s religious belief on participants’ verdict was sequentially mediated by morality, sympathy, credibility, responsibility, and the strength of the prosecution’s case. The results support prior research suggesting atheists are viewed as amoral and have implications for better understanding the role of victim characteristics on attributions in a rape trial.
psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-48396-001
4 days ago ·
Distrust persists after subverting atheist stereotypes
Grove, R. C., Rubenstein, A., & Terrell, H. K. (2019). Distrust persists after subverting atheist stereotypes. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 1368430219874103.
Anti-atheist prejudice appears to be common. This prejudice may stem from distrust. However, the factors influencing distrust are not fully understood. The current research identified common stereotypes about atheists, tested the intuitiveness of those stereotypes, and determined whether distrust toward atheists depends more on the label “atheist” or the attributes atheists are thought to possess. Study 1 (N = 100) and Study 2 (N = 149) identified several attributes thought to be most characteristic of atheists and least characteristic of Christians (or vice versa). Study 3 (N = 219) demonstrated that atheists and Christians are intuitively associated with the respective traits identified in Studies 1 and 2. Study 4 (N = 274) and Study 5 (N = 259) used fake social media profiles to manipulate target religious identification (atheist, Christian, or unspecified) and attributes (stereotypically atheist or stereotypically Christian) to determine the effect on trust ratings. Overall, the results of these studies indicate that atheists and Christians are explicitly and implicitly associated with different attributes and that, even when atheists possess stereotypically Christian attributes, Christians trust atheists significantly less than other Christians. These findings suggest that anti-atheist prejudice is relatively insensitive to individual differences of the target.
4 days ago ·
Being raised in an extreme cult. Sydney Atheists 7.00pm Club Redfern, 2nd Floor 159 Redfern Street across the road from Redfern Station. Entry $10, AFA members $5
5 days ago ·
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