a military and fundamentalist Jewish movement which founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion and reducing the influence of Hellenism. See Hannukah.

Wikipedia page: Maccabees

MACK, Burton L.

Book:

Who Wrote the New Testament?

MAILLOUX, Louise

Louise Mailloux was a speaker at the Atheists Without Borders convention, where the subject of her talk was Has Secularism Killed Atheism?

Manichaeism (n.)

The syncretic, dualistic religious philosophy taught by Manes (216-276, Persian, death by crucifixion), combining elements of Zoroastrian, Christian, and Gnostic thought

A dualistic philosophy dividing the world between good and evil principles or regarding matter as intrinsically evil and mind as intrinsically good

MARTIN, Michael

Books:

Atheism

Atheism, Morality and Meaning

materialism (n.)

MAYR, Ernst

Book:

What Evolution Is

MENCKEN, Henry Louis

Book:

H.L. Mencken on Religion

See also:

Quotations

metabelief (n.)

A number of common attitudes towards religion are widely held by many believers and non-believers alike. These attitudes may be called "religious metabeliefs", i.e. beliefs about religious belief. (See, Breaking The Spell, Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett.) Here are several examples of metabelief:

Religion is necessary for morality. (See atheophobia.)
Judeo-Christian moral precepts are the basis of modern morality.
People need religion; human beings have "spiritual" needs which are met by religious beliefs and practices.
Religious beliefs should be respected, not challenged.
There is no essential incompatibility between religion and science; they are non-overlapping magisteria. (See NOMA.)
As religious belief is very widespread, even universal, in human societies, it would be futile to try to get rid of this unavoidable aspect of our humanity.
Religious beliefs are undecidable (not merely unverifiable or unfalsifiable) and hence are completely a matter of personal choice.
Religion is basically benign.
Only fundamentalist religion is dangerous; the negative consequences of religion are generally the result of religious extremism or fundamentalism and are not caused by religion per se.

Some of the opinions listed above are closely related and mutually reinforcing. All are preconceptions which many people simply absorb and pass on to others, without questioning them. But when these metabeliefs are examined, they reveal themselves to have very little basis. At best, some may be considered to be half truths. Many are pernicious falsehoods.

(Article under construction...)

MILLS, David

Book:

Atheist Universe

The Missionary Position
Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
HITCHENS, Christopher
Keywords: Catholicism history
Verso Press
1997

Mithraism (n.)

an ancient Persian religion, the worship of the god Mithras, a major competitor of Christianity in the Roman empire during the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries

Also known as "Mithra"

The Moral Landscape
How Science Can Determine Human Values
HARRIS, Sam
Keywords: morality philosophy religion science
Free Press, New York, USA
2010

A Few Quotations

"Faith, if it is ever right about anything, is right by accident."

p. 6

"My goal is to convince you that human knowledge and human values can no longer be kept apart. The world of measurement and the world of meaning must eventually be reconciled. And science and religion--being antithetical ways of thinking about the same reality--will never come to terms. As with all matters of fact, differences of opinion on moral questions merely reveal the incompleteness of our knowledge; they do not oblige us to respect the diversity of our views indefinitely."

p. 10

"The disparity between how we think about physical health and societal/mental health reveals a bizarre double standard: one that is predicated on our not knowing--or rather on our pretending not to know--anything at all about human well-being."

p. 19

"But there is no mystery why many scientists feel that they must pretend that religion and science are compatible. We have recently emerged--some of us leaping, some shuffling, others crawling--out of many dark centuries of religious bewilderment and persecution, into an age when mainstream science is still occasionally treated with overt hostility by the general public and even by governments."

p. 24

"...the Vatican is an organization that excommunicates women for attempting to become priests but does not excommunicate male priests for raping children. It excommunicates doctors who perform abortions to save a woman's life--even if the mother is a nine-year old girl raped by her stepfather and pregnant with twins--but it did not excommunicate a single member of the Third Reich for committing genocide.
...It is no exaggeration to say that for decades (if not centuries) the Vatican has met the formal definition of a criminal organization devoted--not to gambling, prostitution, drugs or any other venial sin--but to the sexual enslavement of children."

p. 34-35 and p. 200-201

"...the fact that millions of people use the term 'morality' as a synonyum for religious dogmatism, racism, sexism, or other failures of insight and compassion should not oblige us to merely accept their terminology until the end of time."

p. 53

"Many people imagine that the theory of evolution entails selfishness as a biological imperative. This popular misconception has been very harmful to the reputation of science. In truth, human cooperation and its attendant moral emotions are fully compatible with biological evolution."

p. 56

"If one fully accepts the metaphysical presuppositions of traditional Islam, martyrdom must be viewed as the ultimate attempt at career advancement."

p. 63

"Because most religions conceive of morality as a matter of being obedient to the word of God (generally for the sake of receiving a supernatural reward), their precepts often have nothing to do with maximizing well-being in this world. Religious believers can, therefore, assert the immorality of contraception, masturbation, homosexuality, etc., without ever feeling obliged to argue that these practices actually cause suffering. They can also pursue aims that are flagrantly immoral, in that they needlessly perpetuate human misery, while believing that these actions are morally obligatory. This pious uncoupling of moral concern from the reality of human and animal suffering has caused tremendous harm."

p. 63

"If morality is a system of thinking about (and maximizing) the well-being of conscious creatures like ourselves, many people's moral concerns must be immoral."

p. 87

"It seems to me that few concepts have offered greater scope for human cruelty than the idea of an immortal soul that stands independent of all material influences, ranging from genes to economic systems.
...on balance, soul/body dualism has been the enemy of compassion."

p. 110

"The illusion of free will is itself an illusion."

p. 112

"...on almost every measure of societal health, the least religious countries are better off than the most religious."

p. 146

"...religious commitment in the United States is highly correlated with racism."

p. 146

"Clearly, religion is largely a matter of what people teach their children to believe about the nature of reality."

p. 152

"The fact that some scientists do not detect any problem with religious faith merely proves that a juxtaposition of good ideas and bad ones is possible."

p. 160

"For nearly a century, the moral relativism of science has given faith-based religion--that great engine of ignorance and bigotry--a nearly uncontested claim to being the only universal framework for moral wisdom. As a result, the most powerful societies on earth spend their time debating issues like gay marriage when they should be focused on problems like nuclear proliferation, genocide, energy security, climate change, poverty, and failing schools."

p. 191

morality (n.)

Relevant Books:

Atheism, Morality and Meaning -- MARTIN, Michael

Can We Be Good Without God -- BUCKMAN, Robert

Ethics -- BLACKBURN, Simon

The Ethics of Belief -- BURGER, A. J. (editor)

The Moral Landscape -- HARRIS, Sam

Science and Ethics -- KURTZ, Paul (editor)

The Secular Conscience -- DACEY, Austin

Superstition and Other Essays -- INGERSOLL, Robert Green

Relevant Articles: