Richard Carrier - Are Christians Delusional? (2011)

Richard Carrier is a writer and historian with a BA in History, MA in Ancient history, MPhil in Ancient history, and a PhD in Ancient history.  He's probably most well known for his skepticism of the historicity of Jesus and appeared in the documentary film The God Who Wasn't There voicing some of these doubts.  I'll have to add his book Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism to my Goodreads "To Read" list.

AUDIO ONLY (MP3)

Skeptical Punks: A Manifesto

Scientific skepticism is not limited to laboratory testing, gangly men in white lab coats, and only those with Ph.D.'s.  It is a lens that anyone can use to view the world and a tool to dispatch fallacy.  Scientific skeptics use science and the scientific method to investigate reality and believe it is the best way (that we're currently aware of) to arrive at truth.  We discourage accepting claims on faith, anecdotal evidence, or shady logic.  We attempt to remove our emotional biases from what we want to be true.  Scientific skepticism is punk at its core.  It is anti-authoritarian, critical of established beliefs, strongly individualistic (yet we understand the power of peer review), and non-conformist.  In society there are many beliefs and ideas which are generally accepted as being factual or true that are false or do not have sufficient data back up their validity.  By having a generally questioning, critical, and scientifically skeptical worldview, in the face of commonly held falsehoods and biased opposition, we are being punk. 

Some would say that skepticism is an inherently negative activity, that we are calling into question people's deeply held beliefs which should be respected regardless of their factual validness.  There is majesty in this way of thinking, however.  By repudiating pseudoscience, faith, and uncritical thinking we are freeing ourselves from mental bondage.  Occasionally scientists make mistakes, data becomes more and more refined, we may throw ourselves into a claim which may be reversed by further study, but at least we have the conviction to stand up and say "I was wrong!"  Scientific skepticism is the freedom to view the world as close as we can approximate to how it actually is, not what we desperately want it to be.  Punk rock is freedom.

Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

- Christopher Hitchens

Janaza - Burning Quran Ceremony (2010)

Now before I launch into describing this band, there are a few websites which question whether or not this is a hoax, which it may very well be.  However, there is not much positive evidence to support this claim and they may be prematurely jumping to a conclusion without further supportive evidence, although the burden of proof is on the band to prove their legitimacy, since their claim of being a female-fronted anti-Islamic black metal band in Iraq is a large one (one that I am biased to believe is true).  The article traced the band's promo pictures and found them either to be doctored images of other bands or cut-and-paste photography artwork.  At the root of it, this is only evidence of whoever this is trying to hide their identity, whether that's because its an American college student making solo anti-Islamic black metal or it's legit and they realize that they would probably be murdered by Islamic fundamentalists in their own country had they released their actual photos, is up to you to decide (or to take the agnostic position, like I have, until further supportive evidence is presented).  Interviews with the front woman, known only as "Anahita" have only been through Facebook and not over phone, making her legitimacy harder to establish.

Janaza is a female-fronted black metal band from Iraq.  Musically, its nothing too terribly interesting.  Lyrically, its jaw-dropping considering its supposed source.  The intro is in Arabic, "Kill all the people who don't believe in Allah and don't believe in the judgment day."  I believe this is a reference to 10: Jonah in the Quran, a lovely chapter containing several enlightening statements.

10:4 Unto Him is the return of all of you; it is a promise of Allah in truth. Lo! He produceth creation, then reproduceth it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity; while, as for those who disbelieve, theirs will be a boiling drink and painful doom because they disbelieved.

10:45 And on the day when He shall gather them together, (when it will seem) as though they had tarried but an hour of the day, recognising one another, those will verily have perished who denied the meeting with Allah and were not guided [1].

Then the first song starts, which primarily consists of repeating "Burn the Quran!" in English.  The other songs all contain a "head-chopping/stoning" level of criticism of Islam and the Quran.  Numbers like "Islamic Lies" and "When Islam Brainwashed Mankind" continue to drive the point in.  I find it also interesting how all of the lyrics are in English.  If they were making this music for converting the supposedly brainwashed masses of Islam, wouldn't it be more effective if sung in Arabic?  I also enjoy the grammatically incorrect title of the demo.

Burning Quran Ceremony

1. Burn The Pages Of Quran
2. Islamic Lies
3. Arise
4. Tribute To Nargaroth
5. When Islam Brainwashed Makind (Outro)

Guiseppe Verdi - Meisterwerke (Varied)

Continuing my theme of atheist/agnostic composers, to wrench away the arguments that only the religious were responsible for classical music, we come to the influential composer Guiseppe Verdi.  Born in 1813 in a small Italian village, he is known primarily for his operas which have become mainstays of popular culture, especially "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and the "Grand March" from Aida [1].  According to his Catholic wife, Verdi was skeptical of religion.

Verdi’s attitude toward religion is clearly indicated in a letter written about him by his wife, Giuseppina: “For some virtuous people a belief in God is necessary. Others, equally perfect, while observing every precept of the highest moral code, are happier believing in nothing.”

Elsewhere, Giuseppina wrote: “He is a jewel among honest men; he understands and feels himself every delicate and elevated sentiment. And yet this brigand permits himself to be, I won’t say an atheist, but certainly very little of a believer, and that with an obstinacy and calm that make me want to beat him. I exhaust myself in speaking to him about the marvels of the heavens, the earth, the sea, etc. It’s a waste of breath! He laughs in my face and freezes me in the midst of my oratorical periods and my divine enthusiasm by saying ‘you’re all crazy,’ and unfortunately he says it with good faith [2]."

Meisterwerke

1. Aida
2. Il Trovatore
3. Nabucco
4. Ouverture i Vespri Siciliani
5. Rigoletto
6. Ouverture la Battaglia di Legnano
7. Ouverture La forza del Destino
8. Macbeth
9. Aida Ouverture

Maurice Ravel - Complete Piano Works (Varied)

 
When speaking in the general defense of religion people often say, "But what about beauty, expression, emotions, aren't those all difficult to explain without religion?"  They may attempt to take claim over classical works composed by the religious.  "We wouldn't have Beethoven, Strauss, Bach, and Stravinsky without religion!"  We atheists are not immune to the transcendent and the numinous.  Enter in Maurice Ravel, a French composer born in 1875.  Often compared to the likes of Claude Debussy, Ravel became one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music.  Ravel was an atheist.

Among Ravel's completed works, there is a notable absence of religious forms or references. His habitual inspiration came from nature, from fairy tales and folk songs, and from classical and oriental legends. Nor was he always sympathetic to the religious works of other composers [1].

Pre-Darwinian evolutionary theory, being an atheist an extremely rare thing.  There was just no other competing idea to theism other than a sort of vague deism.  Darwin published On The Origin of the Species at the end of 1859 [2] paving the way for scientifically informed atheistic thought.

Maurice Ravel Complete Piano Works

Disc 1 -

Disc 2 -

VA - Songs for Fucking (2013)

Tired of having sex where you are awkwardly pumping away at your significant other (or you're the receiving participant of said sexual activity) in ominous silence with nothing but the artless grunts and demure moans of pleasure filling the air?  I know I am.  So I made this mix of some of my favorite post-punk/darkwave/gothy bands that I can bust my proverbial nut to.  Its so good that I felt it necessary to expose it to my general audience (all of you people still clicking on some link that takes you to my anti-anti-fluoridation article, seriously that article generates most of my traffic).  So when you are making sweet sweet romantic love to somebody and you have a premature orgasm to The Velvet Underground's Venus In Furs, think of my smiling, disembodied floating head behind your lover staring at you.

Songs for Fucking

1.  Beach House - Lover of Mine
2.  Sferro - Reverie
3.  Chromatics - Hands In The Dark
4.  Kraftwerk - Computer Love
5.  The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs
6.  Moev - In Your Head
7.  The Glove - Mouth to Mouth
8.  Jo Lemaire And Flouze - Voices In The Silence
9.  Wild Nothing - Midnight Song
10.  Craft Spells - You Should Close The Door
11.  Blouse - Time Travel
12.  Joy Division - Atmosphere

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (D.A.F.) - Alles Ist Gut (1981)

D.A.F. is a German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle (new German wave) band.  Their music is abrasive yet highly infectious and danceable.  Lyrically, concerns throughout D.A.F.'s recording career have ranged from sardonic reflections on ideology and political violence, to journeys into a very physical, even brutal, sexuality, sometimes related from a child's point of view [1].  The lyrics on the album's second track, "Der Mussolini", "Dance the Mussolini, move your behind, clap your hands, and now the Adolf Hitler, and now the Jesus Christ", caused an uproar when it was released.

Alles Ist Gut

1. Sato-Sato ("Sato-Sato")
2. Der Mussolini ("The Mussolini")
3. Rote Lippen ("Red lips")
4. Mein Herz macht Bum ("My heart goes boom")
5. Der Räuber und der Prinz ("The robber and the prince")
6. Ich und die Wirklichkeit ("Me and reality")
7. Als wär's das letzte Mal ("Like it was the last time")
8. Verlier' nicht den Kopf ("Don't lose your head")
9. Alle gegen Alle ("Everyone against Everyone")
10. Alles ist gut ("Everything is fine")