What is The Rapture?

No need to book a summer holiday, this year we're going to Heaven!

An episode of 'American Dad' series 6 revolves around the belief held by some Christians concerning the second coming of Jesus and the subsequent battle with the Anti-Christ.  Who is the Anti-Christ?  Well, opinion is divided on this issue but if you are Ian Paisley, then the Anti-Christ is the Pope.  Other theories include the Emperor Nero.  Anyhoo, the only clip I can find of this episode is here and it explains the exciting bits of the Rapture in words and images even you can understand!  Enjoy!

When will Jesus return to Earth?

If you're too busy eating crisps and listening to gabba-gabba-grime-garage music to sit down and construct a vaguely scientific table of events that seems to predict the date for the second coming of Christ, then TODAY is YOUR LUCKY DAY because a man called Don Koenig has ALREADY DONE IT FOR YOU!  He even has the modesty to refer to it as 'Projecting A Fairly Realistic Date For The Second Coming of Jesus Christ'.  FAIRLY REALISTIC!  I like him already!

So, if YOU want a 'fairly realistic'* date for the Second Coming then click here and scroll down a bit.

*probably not realistic at all.  Quite the reverse, in fact.

Scientology Jihad!

'She's got a beard!'

If you can some spare time in your otherwise busy lives spent doing the twist at the local discotheque and riding mopeds around Rome whilst wearing hats and winking flirtatiously at members of the opposite/same sex then I suggest you watch 'Four Lions' which is an amusing comedy about four British jihadists and the 'Panorama' about Scientology.  Links below, obviously.

Four Lions

Panorama - Secrets of Scientology


Not a great deal of use to you, exam-wise, but good for your general cultural education.  Go on, do it!

Good news, the world isn't ending!

Pillocks across the world have been excitedly discussing the imminent demise of the planet thanks to a Mayan prophecy but experts are now starting to think the pillocks may have been wrong and we're safe to book holidays for summer 2013 after all!  Hooray!

KANT

Some links to resources for today's lesson...

1   2   3

Natural Law

There is a very good summary/handout on Natural Law here which I heartily recommend you use in your ceaseless quest for knowledge.

Thomas Aquinas was like the chief Christian boffin vis a vis Natural Law and there's an entertaining (and mercifully short) video here (and it's a cartoon!  Yay! It's like watching 'Toy Story' (but not as technically proficient) or Manga (but not as violent/perverted)!  Cartoons FTW!  LOL! ROFL! ETC!  ETC!)

Here's an essay I found on the internet that tells you all about NML:

Amy found it, I didn't. Sorry Amy, please don't call the Feds

Religion and Morality: The need for religious guidance in atheist China?

An article that argues that moral standards in China are falling due to lack of religious guidance.  A toddler was in a 'hit and run' incident and many people ignored her as she lay in the road.  The writer suggests this would not have happened if the atheist government changed its attitude to religion.

Read the article here, I advise against watching the video on the same page.


Another, more comprehensive, article on the subject here:

Again, I advise against watching the video on this page.

And one from the Guardian/Observer

Here

Religion and Morality - The King James Bible

Melvyn Bragg has gone and written a book about the King James Bible and the influence it has had on society. 

'Bragg's central claim is that the King James Bible has been a catalyst for "positive achievement", spurring political radicalism and epochal social changes. He identifies it as a wellspring of democracy and the source of Mary Wollstonecraft's convictions about the importance of women's education. He makes a case for its influence on Thomas Paine and William Wilberforce, on the moderate socialism of James Keir Hardie and the non-violent activism of Martin Luther King. He also touches on the odious ways it has been deployed, such as in justifying homophobia, though he could have reported these at greater length'

You can read a couple of articles about it here:

Interview in The Daily Telegraph

Review in The Guardian

He's also gone and done a documentary about it but I can't find a video of that so here's a BBC documentary about it instead.  Haven't watched it so don't blame me if it's rubbish...

Making of the King James Bible - Part 1

Essay Writing Skills and whatnot

There's an interactive diagram here that gives advice on how to construct an Ethics A-Level Essay.  In my day, (I went to school in the 1850's, just after The Great Fire of London and just before the Spanish Inquisition) we didn't have electronic fripperies like this, we had to make do with books and occasional inspiration from God/Buddha. You are very fortunate to live in the 21st Century (except for the massive rate of youth unemployment, general economic meltdown and the existence of Louis Walsh) so make good use of the space-age resources that are available to you via the electronic dustbin that is the internet. Anyway, here's the link to the essay diagram...

Welcome to the future, space-monkeys!

A very good website

There's a lot of information here for AS and A2 topics, well written and presented.  I'd take a look if I were you...

Philosophical Investigations site

The God Who Wasn't There - DOCUMENTARY

This is not strictly relevant to A-level but it's an interesting documentary trying to show that Christians are wrong about Jesus, that his story is in fact a myth based on earlier Roman/Greek Myths.

Watch it here

Nietzsche

Useful essay/guide to Nietzsche on Religion

Here

Morality through Evolution, not religion...

Can Evolution Explain Morality?   Read more here...


Richard Dawkins On The Source Of Morality...watch it here...

Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality...  Listen to the discussion here...

The Gospels - Summarised!

Too busy to read all the gospels?  Then prepare for the fires of Hell!   But seriously, here's a link to summaries of each gospel and other bits of the New Testament. 

The Gospels - summarised

Do we need religion for morality? Is religion immoral?

Here are some links to stuff I found this morning, there will be better examples of each topic out there, just use these as initial ideas:

Is morality linked to religion?

Here are some examples of when religions can, due to their beliefs, commit acts that may be seen as immoral by others:

Abortion Clinic Violence

Discrimination againts women in religion:

women and religion

Judaism and Women

Issues around the condom ban relating to HIV etc in Africa:

Condoms

Religion damages the environment?

Religion and Environment

Are Natural Disasters and 9-11 actually God's punishments for our sins?  People like Jerry Falwell think so...

Westboro 911

Falwell 911

Pat Robertson Top 10

Plato's Euthyfro

Fancy reading all of 'Euthyfro'?  Of course you do!  (spoiler alert...at the end, it turns out that Bruce Willis is dead!)

Plato's Euthyfro

Peter Singer & John Hare - Moral Mammals: Why Do We Matter?

Is the existence of a creator God foundational to human morality? Does theism or atheism provide the best foundation for human worth? Can we treat morality as independent of religion?

Peter Singer, controversial atheist philosopher and one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People", discusses the implications of atheism and theism for morality with John Hare, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale.

Singer and Hare

Documentaries on Religion, mostly relating to Morality

Link to full list of religion documentaries (some are full versions, others are compiled from segments on youtube, not ideal but they are free so don't moan about it) :

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/religion/

'Virus of Faith'  Richard Dawkins explains how religious faith acts like a virus which is particularly virulent to the young. In challenging interviews with a Hasidic Rabbi and the head of a city academy, which has adopted the American 'Accelerated Christian Education' curriculum, he tackles the rise of faith schools in Britain and argues that religious education saddles our children with evident falsehoods and an inflexible moral outlook.

Virus of Faith

Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair debate whether religion is a force for good in the world:

Hitchens v Blair

Bill Maher's 'Religulous':

Religulous

Jonathan Miller's interviews with leading Atheists:

The Atheism Tapes

Louis Theroux meets the Westboro Baptist Church:

The Most Hated Family in America

BBC Horizon Documentary on Science and Religion including Scopes Monkey Trial:

End of God?

Documentary on Fundamentalists of all varieties:

The Fundamentalists


If you're really hardcore and want to experience the thrill of lectures on religion and atheism, science and faith, check out some of these videos from the 'Beyond Belief' conferences.

Beyond Belief

Christian Evangelical Scandals

To argue against the idea that religious people are 'more moral' than non-religous people, choose a few examples from this list:

Immoral Christians

The BBC compiled a list of the sex scandals in the Catholic Church:

BBC link

Atheists on Morality and Religion

I'll collect some quotes and put them here...

'Most studies show that conventional religion is not an effective force for moral behaviour or against criminal activity'  Bernard Spilka, Ralph Hood and Richard Gorsuch, authors of 'The Psychology of Religion'


'Every single bit of progress in humane feelings, every improvement in the criminal law, every step towards the diminution of war, every step towards better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery...has been consistently opposed by the organised churches of the world.  I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organised in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world'  --  Bertrand Russell  (1872-1970)

'In every religion it soon comes to be the case that faith, ceremonies, rites and the like, are proclaimed to me more agreeable to the Divine will than moral actions; the former...gradually comes to be looked upon as a substitute for the latter'  --  Arthur Schopenhauer  (1788-1860)

In a study involving hypothetical moral dilemmas:

'There were no statistically significant differences between subjects with or without religious backgrounds...Like other psychological faculties of the mind, including language and mathematics, (it appears that) we are endowed with a moral faculty that guides our intuitive judgements of right and wrong...It is our own nature, not God, that is the source of our morality'  --  Peter Singer  (1946-  ) 

'Why does it not say anywhere in the Bible that slavery is wrong?...How is it possible that it is not immoral to own another person?  Why isn't that one of the Ten Commandments?  'Thou shalt not own another person.'  You want to sit here and tell me that fornication is worse than owning someone?'  Mira Sorvino  (1967-  )

Immorality in the Bible

Are you too lazy or too stupid to do a google search of your own?  Then I've done it for you.  Here's the link to the search page for 'why the bible is not a moral (guide)'. It will give you lots of examples of 'immoral' acts and commands from God in the Bible which you can use as examples in essays to argue against the claim that religion/scripture is a good moral guide.  No need to thank me, it's my job.

Immorality in the Bible links

These schools have lots of resources...

Why not borrow them?

School 1:

http://w1.qehs.net/moodle/course/view.php?id=383


School 2:

http://www.mel-thompson.co.uk/Notes.htm


This delightful chap...

http://www.r9paul.org/resources/a-level/


This charming lady has situation ethics and natural law amongst other topics...

http://www.m1cvf.co.uk/ethics_situation.php

http://www.m1cvf.co.uk/ethics_naturallaw.php

Book - Jonathan Berg 'A Companion to Ethics'

Jonathan Berg - A Companion to Ethics

Philosophy and Ethics websites

http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/

Ethical theories covered here:

Ethical Theories


TABLE Strengths and weaknesses of Virtue Ethics here:

Virtue Eth pros and cons

The Philosophers' Magazine Blog

http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/

Blog post on 'Morality without God'

Morality without God

Religion is ‘the new social evil’?

The Times Article

Dawkins and Harris and Hitchens websites

Sam Harris

Richard Dawkins

Christopher Hitchens

Downloading copyrighted material without authority is illegal, so don't do it. Lots of people do though.  Don't believe me?  Fine, here's the proof, links to downloadable pdf versions of various atheist books written by the authors listed above!

Harris - End of Faith

Dawkins - The God Delusion

Hitchens - God is not Great


Too busy/illiterate to read these books?  I suggest you make an effort but the least you can do is read and make notes on the synopses of these books which you can find here:

Synopsis God Delusion

Synopsis God is not Great

Synopsis End of Faith

Science Religion Morality

Here's Part 1 of Richard Dawkins' 'The Root of All Evil?':

Part 1 Dawkins

And Sam Harris talking about how science can answer moral questions:

Sam Harris

Downloading a free pdf of Harris' book 'The Moral Landscape' is illegal, so don't do it.  I couldn't believe the amount of websites that allow people to steal copyrighted material, this one here, for example:

The Moral Landscape

And there's a review/discussion of the book and science/morality here:

Simon Blackburn in Prospect Magazine

And a discussion video (part 1 of 4) about Science and Morality here:

Science and Morality | Lawrence Krauss, Simon Blackburn, Sam Harris & Steven Pinker 1/4

Atheism website with lots of links/articles on religion/morality:

Atheism.com

Mentioned in Edexcel A2 textbook, here's Jon Nelson 'The Immorality of Religious Morality':

The Immorality...

Atheist Blog post on Morality/Religion

Morality and Religions blog post

Mentioned in the textbook, here's Richard Swinburne 'God and Morality':

God and Morality - Swinburne

Mentioned in textbook, here's Richard Packham on Morality and Religion

Packham

Mentioned in the textbook, A C Grayling 'What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live', I can't find a free source for this but it's cheap to buy, see what you can find.  He recently wrote a Humanist Bible called 'The Good Book' which seems to be a bigger and better version, here he is talking about it on Youtube:

The Good Book video

Here's a BBC article on it:

Do Atheists need their own bible?

Here's an interview with him in The Guardian:

Interview

And while you're at it, see if you can find anything on 'Godless Morality:  Keeping Religion out of Ethics' by Richard Holloway.


Peter Singer pops up throughout the A-Level course (not literally, don't be alarmed, he's not about to crash through a your living room window like some kind of over-educated SAS philosopher with a grudge) and he's only gone and co-written this short article on 'Morality without religion'!  How useful is that? (answer: quite useful):

Hauser and Singer 'Morality without religion '