Atheism Investigated and Religious Tax-Exemption Rejected

10 Myths and Truths About Atheists
http://www.alternet.org/story/126118/10_myths_and_truths_about_atheists_/?page=entire

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That's a good link - it has some good stuff for conversation.

Compare with:

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1,000,000 Strong to Strip Mormon Church of Tax Exempt Status
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/126078/1%2C000%2C000_strong_to_strip_mormon_church_of_tax_exempt_status/

LDS officials initially claimed they donated $2,078 to the Yes on 8 campaign (although direct donations by individual members exceed $20 million). But recent tax filings reveal that the church spent nearly $190,000 to help pass Proposition 8, paying church members to phone bank and travel to California to campaign for the measure.

While officials investigate the odd discrepancy between the church's initial report and its tax filings, independent groups have formed to lobby for a review of the church's tax-exempt status.

"1,000,000 Strong to Strip the Mormon Church of Its Tax Exempt Status" is a Facebook group founded to turn outrage over the church's role in the campaign into action.

"I am of the notion that religious institutions constantly overstep their bounds in regards to how much the written legal parameters allow them to attempt to influence politics," says John Jeb Brenden Whitlock, who founded the group. "The LDS Church was at the time the most obvious target."

While Whitlock believes that stripping the church of its tax-exempt status is an unrealistic goal, the group is nevertheless pushing for "better regulation of how they spend their finances."

To that end, the group encourages its members to write to the IRS requesting an investigation into the LDS Church's finances.

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Since when are religions not political? I cannot frankly think of any kind of organization that is more intrinsically political than a church. The exemption is and always has been pointedly absurd. Maybe it's time to rethink that whole thing...

Good Point!

Agnosticism vs. Atheism

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine. Most people that say they are agnostic are really functional atheists, but they are making an epistemological argument to avoid confrontation and accusations of having faith or dogma.

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Let’s examine the subtle difference in meaning between the following two sentences.
http://www.erik-rasmussen.com/blog/2008/10/06/agnosticism-vs-atheism/

• An atheist believes that God does not exist.


• An atheist does not believe that God exists.

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Comment:

That's truly a distinction worth noting. I like it. The dictionary folks need to get their act together. The lack of a belief is not an activity involving belief. In fact, it's not an activity at all. It is a void.