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Showing posts with label atheism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atheism. Show all posts

It's amazing that so much angst and anger are being wasted over something so trivial. A militant, Christian fundamentalist did what most fundies want to do. He burned a Koran. I find it amazing that he found that bullshit book "guilty" while not even putting the Bible on trial. That is spectacular hypocrisy.

Not to be outdone, militant, Muslim fundamentalists have reacted in a way that is far worse, engaging in violence and murder over such an incredibly petty offense. I don't favor any book burning on principle, but the notions that religious texts should be given some kind of privileged status would be as comical as it is bigoted if people weren't being senselessly murdered over it.

Note to religionists: You have no legitimate right or reason to get upset if someone disrespects your religion. Your religious beliefs apply to you alone. You have no right to try to apply them to anyone else under any circumstances. You don't have any business trying to get other people to respect your irrational, childish, superstitious, and preposterous beliefs. No matter how upset you get about it, two plus two will never equal twenty two. It will always be four.

The misogyny, racism, heterosexism, fascism, anti intellectualism, greed, corruption, rape, and murder of religion should be enough to make any sane person start questioning her or his religious beliefs. And, anyone who honestly and rationally questions religious beliefs ends up abandoning them. At some point, that person will wonder how they ever could have believed in anything so outlandish.

The sense of religious privilege and entitlement among the small Florida fundamentalist church and the multitudes of fundamentalist rioters is disgusting and inexcusable.

 

Klan Brewer Extends Discrimination to Atheists

Posted by libhom Thursday, March 17, 2011 3 comments

Klan Brewer looking hateful and evilInfamous white supremacist and heterosexist bigot, Klan Brewer, is misusing her office as Governor of Arizona to launch a discriminatory jihad against another minority group: atheists. (From the Freedom From Religion Foundation's 3/16/11 Press Release)

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, and four of its Arizona members, with the legal help of attorneys Richard W. Morris and Marc. J. Victor, filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday seeking to enjoin Arizona Gov. Janice K. Brewer from declaring an “Arizona Day of Prayer” in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer.

The lawsuit also seeks a declaratory judgment declaring that Gov. Brewer violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when she declared May 6, 2010, the “Arizona Day of Prayer.”

The lawsuit is the third legal challenge related to the National Day of Prayer by FFRF, which won a federal court ruling in FFRF v. Obama last year. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin declared the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional.

Klan Brewer's contempt for the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution's First Amendment should surprise no one. She already violated the Constitutional mandate that immigration policy is under the purview of the federal government, not state governments.

Shitting on atheists like this may help her with the GOP's militant fundamentalist base, but it sends a message to centrists and liberals that Klan Brewer's hatred and bigotry knows no bounds. She has shown absolutely no interest in constructive policies to deal with her state's enormous problems like making the rich and their corporations pay their fair share in taxes. All she does is scapegoat, scapegoat, scapegoat.

Eventually she will run out of whipping boys and girls. That will be the end of her venomous political career.

 

Hell Michigan sign
(Somehow I doubt the fundie was threatening me with an all expenses paid trip to a small town in Michigan. Photo: Danielle Walquist Lynch)

This is quite flattering. A militant, anti American fundamentalist has taken the trouble to damn me to "Hell" in a comment that s/he attempted to put on my blog. The Christian Taliban likes nothing better than to threaten people with eternal suffering.

I should note that I omitted the contact information the fundie included with the comment. I don't want to inadvertently help a ministry. I just want to share a good laugh.

I am less concerned about your tired liberal agenda because I know how it ends, you guys make the world increasing worse until the world finally ends and then you lose......and that is the really sad part. I hate probably everything you stand for but you're running out of time. In case no one else has ever told you, the devil has prepared a place for you that you WILL see if you don't turn to God. I know you don't want to hear that, but it is my job to tell you. I don't want to see anyone end up there, no matter how much I disagree with you. You give yourself credit for being so smart, so do a little research on hell. It is real and you are headed there, please listen to me now. I know you won't post this on your blog and I don't really care, but I PROMISE that you will remember these words either as the words that put you on the path to salvation OR you will remember them while burning in a lake of fire for eternity. Just ponder eternity.....can you even grasp what that means?

Jesus Christ died on a cross to save you from that place, grasp that. Even if you're not sure, why would you want to take a chance on 12,000 degrees coursing though every inch of your body forever? God will never send you to hell, but he does allow you to choose it for yourself and you are choosing it now. Fall on your face RIGHT NOW and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and live in your heart.

...

Probably won't hear anything (positive) from you, but I hope I do. Good luck & God bless.

There are so many things about this that are amusing. Here are a few.

1) This comment was off topic and old, submitted on a posting about a food author's sellout to corporate power. The post was from 2009.

2) The 12,000 degree figure is weird. The Bible was written thousands of years ago, but the Fahrenheit scale wasn't proposed until 1724, the Centigrade scale in 1744 (which evolved into today's Celsius scale later). What would these "degrees" be based on then? Why 12,000 other than it is a really high number for temperature?

3) The temperature of the surface of the Sun is 9940 F (5505 C). 12,000 degrees must be pretty darned hot. I'm thinking "Hell" should be portrayed as blue rather than red, since the Sun is yellow and "Hell" is hotter than the Sun's surface.

4) Why is it this clown's job to tell me I'm going to "Hell"? Who pays him? Is the money good?

5) Exactly how does one do credible research on "Hell"? The source document, the Bible, doesn't even get the origins of life and the planets correct. It is notorious for being riddled with contradictions.

6) Given that most of the world's potentially catastrophic problems are the result of conservative ideology (Global Warming, nuclear meltdowns, overpopulation, genetically modified food, war, etc.) and the rest are natural phenomena, it is cute and charming that this loser thinks that liberal policies are the danger.

Anyway, the irony in all of this is that there are too many legitimately frightening things in the real world. Why is there any need for religious fear mongering involving outlandish threats of hellfire and damnation anyway?

 

Happy Darwin Day!

Posted by libhom Saturday, February 12, 2011 5 comments

Today is Darwin Day!

The website has a history of Darwin's life and accomplishments.

Did your school censor evolution partially or entirely out of your Biology classes, leaving them an incomprehensible mess? Learn the basics of evolution.

Here's some reasons to celebrate Darwin Day:



Props to the American Humanist Association for all they have done to support Darwin Day!

 

You Can Send Out Your Darwin Day Ecards Too

Posted by libhom Saturday, February 05, 2011 1 comments

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin share the same birthday of February 12th, 1809
Image: bjornmeansbear

The fab folks at the American Humanist Association have done something special for this year's Darwin Day. They have set up ecards to mark the occasion. (For folks who like the paper old school way, they even let your print the cards rather than emailing them.)

Here's a brief description of Darwin Day for the uninitiated from the Darwin Day site.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
February 12, 1809 to April 19, 1882
A Global Celebration
Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin -- the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

The International Darwin Day Foundation website provides resources and publicity for individuals and institutions across the world to celebrate science and humanity every year, on, or near, February 12, Darwin's birthday. In addition to information about the life and legacy of Charles Darwin, this website provides practical examples, advice and templates for organizing and publicizing Darwin Day events. It also provides a directory of events where you can find celebrations taking place near you or register your own event for others to find.

Recognizing science as an international language accessible to all individuals and societies, the International Darwin Day Foundation provides a new global holiday that transcends separate nationalities and cultures. Darwin Day can be celebrated in many different ways: civic ceremonies with official proclamations, educational symposia, birthday parties, art shows, book discussions, lobby days, games, protests, and dinner parties. Organizers may include: academic societies, science organizations, freethought groups, religious congregations, libraries, museums, galleries, teachers and students, families and friends. In Darwin Day, we are able to recognize the diversity among us, while celebrating our common humanity and the universal understanding we share.


Remember: Darwin Day is February 12th.

 

Jesus Is Coming...

Posted by libhom Saturday, December 04, 2010 2 comments

sign that says be prepared, Jesus is coming

...get the guy a towel.

(BTW: That particular slogan always makes me think of hot Hispanic men.)

Photo: romana klee

This fab video demolishes an argument for the existence of deities which is particularly narcissistic and cruel.



 

Sam Harris Gets It Wrong on Christian Violence

Posted by libhom Sunday, August 15, 2010 3 comments

Sam Harris certainly has a blind spot when it comes to Christian and Jewish violence and religious extremism. An rather glaring example of this can be found in his comments on the "Ground Zero" mosque that most New Yorkers support, but which is the target of fury from outsiders. (Daily Beast - date not listed - Hat Tip: Why Evolution Is True):

Thus, when Allah commands his followers to slay infidels wherever they find them, until Islam reigns supreme (2:191-193; 4:76; 8:39; 9:123; 47:4; 66:9)—only to emphasize that such violent conquest is obligatory, as unpleasant as that might seem (2:216), and that death in jihad is actually the best thing that can happen to a person, given the rewards that martyrs receive in Paradise (3:140-171; 4:74; 47:5-6)—He means just that. And, being the creator of the universe, his words were meant to guide Muslims for all time. Yes, it is true that the Old Testament contains even greater barbarism—but there are obvious historical and theological reasons why it inspires far less Jewish and Christian violence today. Anyone who elides these distinctions, or who acknowledges the problem of jihad and Muslim terrorism only to swiftly mention the Crusades, Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, the Tamil Tigers, and the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma, is simply not thinking honestly about the problem of Islam.

This is absolute nonsense. Israel is literally guilty of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, and land claims in Judaism form the ideological basis for it. Oops!

It gets worse. How can Sam Harris pretend that there is far less Christian violence than Islamic violence today? Is he living in an isolation chamber? While it certainly is true that corporate greed and racism played huge roles in causing the war on Iraq, Christian religious extremism has played the primary role in building the plurality of public support for that war. The war on Iraq is literally a Christian crusade that has killed at least 1.3 million people and caused millions more people to be refugees. In fact, more Americans have been killed in this war than in the 911 attacks. So much for there being less Christian violence.

Of course, Christian religious violence can be found in other forms in this country. Lying about safer sex and needle exchange; attacking AIDS prevention programs; underfunding AIDS research dramatically compared to what it would be if it primarily affected heterosexual, Christian, white males; promoting heterosexism and racism, and sabotaging sex education all are forms of quite deadly political violence.

Christianity is literally guilty of genocide against hundreds of thousands of Americans, the vast majority of whom have been queer men or have been women of color. Yet, Sam Harris hasn't even noticed this form of catastrophic violence. It just breezes by him.

Of course, Islamic violence is dangerous. However, Christian violence is far more pervasive and more deadly. Harris' efforts to single out Islam serve to make atheists in the US look ignorant and ill informed. The corporate media have made him one of "our" spokespeople because he can reliably spew absurdities that can be used to fan the flames of hysteria against Islam, flames that help continue highly profitable wars which are, in nearly all other cases, fueled by violent Christian extremists.

I'm remind of the lyrics of The Police song, "Murder by Numbers." At the end, they are quite instructive on how people in positions of power and privilege can commit acts of violence without getting their hands dirty. They are some of the most profound political thinking in the history of pop music where such things are usually strenuously avoided.
Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious
In history's great dark hall of fame
All our greatest killers were industrious
At least the ones that we all know by name

But you can reach the top of your profession
If you become the leader of the land
For murder is the sport of the elected
And you don't need to lift a finger of your hand

Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three
It's as easy to learn as your ABC
Murder by numbers, one, two, three
It's as easy to learn as your A, B, C, D, E



Sam Harris needs to join the Reality Based Community. He is starting to sound like an atheist version of Glenn Beck.

 

cake with WTF written on itThere is something so incredibly creepy and inappropriate about injecting religion into every aspect of life. A truly offensive and intrusive aspect of this is the existence of "halal" and "kosher" restaurants. What is it about so many religionists that they insist on trying to impose their religion on every last aspect of life, acting like dogs that insist on pissing religion everywhere in order to mark their territory?

If people want to believe childish and irrational food superstitions, that's their choice, but in a public business, they should respect others enough not to use those superstitions as an excuse to shove their religions down everyone else's throats. When somebody discriminates against me this way, I tend to take my atheist business elsewhere.

Fundamantalist Christians and Roman Catholics are guilty of similar behavior. They insist on having "Christian" and "Catholic" businesses in order to use their businesses to mark territory for their faiths. That alone is enough reason for me to avoid those bigoted businesses. However, there is an added problem. There's a huge risk that a portion of the proceeds from purchases at those businesses end up in the hand of heterosexist and anti atheist hate groups. It would be self defeating and stupid for me to patronize these businesses.

If religionists really believe in these supposedly all powerful and all knowing gods, there should be no reason to mark the whole world as their territory. If these gods actually existed, there would be no need to do so. In any case, I'm burned out on this anti atheist discrimination and avoid feeding into it.

Photo: SanFranAnnie

 

Music Video for Recovering Catholics That YouTube Banned

Posted by libhom Saturday, August 07, 2010 0 comments

Google sure is breaking their "Don't Be Evil" tenet a lot lately. Check out this fab song.

FUJI MINX - The Music Made Me Do it (Official Un-Censored Version) from FUJI MINX on Vimeo.

US Mosque Opponents Acting Like Radical Islamists

Posted by libhom Sunday, August 01, 2010 0 comments

The right's jihad to close mosques has become more fervent, and the corporate media are happily using Muslims as scapegoats for the pain caused to middle class and poor Americans by wealthy and corporate interests. This is truly disturbing. But, Islam also is disturbing. Every religion is dangerous and evil, especially when its adherents accumulate political, economic, and cultural power. Much of the left in this country refuses to do anything but reflexively defend mosque construction without doing any real analysis. That is hardly surprising because rational analysis and critique of religion is still largely taboo.

The decision of the Anti Defamation League to call for the cancellation of the project to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is both fascinating and instructive. It should immediately strike people as odd and ironic that the ADL is trying to suppress the construction of places of worship for minority religious faiths. However, it is as instructive as it is ironic.

The ADL's position as a civil rights organization already had been compromised by its racist and antisemitic bigotry against Palestinians and Arabs in general. For many, this stunt will permanently remove it from the category of civil rights groups. Yet, this needs to be looked at in the broader context.

It certainly is a good thing that Jews are safer and more comfortable in our society. That represents important progress. However, the way that some Jewish people on the right have responded to this is disturbing. Many American Jews have started to see themselves as assimilated whites in a position of dominance over others. This subset of the Jewish community has become Republican, endorsed conservative causes, and has become rather racist against a broad range of minorities in our society, not limited by any stretch of the imagination to Arabs.

The ADL's condemnation of the Ground Zero mosque reflects that mindset. The ADL is starting to see itself as part of the dominant group in society and is doing what religious organizations generally do when they feel power: suppressing faiths with little or no power in society. This phenomenon is hardly limited to Judaism nor is it limited to the USA.

Analysis of the ADL's behavior is useful, but it should serve as a mode of entry into analysis of the anti mosque crusade whose bandwagon the ADL has gleefully jumped on. Anti mosque protesters are largely trying to defeat and destroy (often their words) a minority religious ideology which has gotten a foothold in this country.

Their rhetoric and agenda are highly hypocritical. Islam isn't any more evil than Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Mormonism, or any other religious faith. If someone wants to oppose the construction of a house of worship for one faith, they are morally obligated to oppose the construction of such places for all faiths.

It's no secret that religion is the main root cause of poverty, war, environmental destruction, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ignorance in the world. Yet, these protesters want to pretend that their particular religious superstitions are somehow morally superior to other religious superstitions. This shows an incredible level of vanity, hubris, and just plain stupidity on their part.

The anti mosque jihads certainly have their counterpart in majority Muslim countries. In the Maldives, a journalist recently was arrested after being "accused" of being an atheist in a country where Islam is required by law. In Saudi Arabia, Islam not only is mandatory, but failure to show up at mosque can result in a visit from the secret police. In today's Iraq, governed by Islamic religious extremists, Christians are routinely persecuted and sometimes murdered with impunity.

A defender of the anti mosque movement here in the US might claim that this Christian and Jewish jihad is nonviolent. That is simply not true. Anti Muslim hate crimes in this country are quite common and represent the violent wing of the same movement.

Of course, the persecution of various religious groups feeds on itself. Persecution of Christians in Islamic countries creates fear that motivates Christians to try to block Islam in societies where they predominate. It works the other way around too.

Religious persecution has been the norm ever since people of different religious superstitions encountered each other. There is nothing new here, and people never seem to learn. Religion always has been the greatest source of human division, and that is because of the absolutist claims made by religions. If you depend on the "one true way" to get into heaven or the equivalent, people living their lives happily without that "one true way" pose an existential threat to that faith and the sense of false security it brings. That will never change as long as there is religion. It's the nature of the beast.

Defenders of religion would like to claim that it is only fundamentalist religion is responsible for the problems. However, fundamentalist religion is an inevitable consequence of the belief that certain texts are "holy" and inspired by deities. Also, more moderate versions of religious faiths provide political and cultural cover for the more militant versions.

Many people have been questioning the ability of humans to survive nuclear weapons, our warlike behavior, and environmental destruction for decades. Yet, many of them don't see the connection to religion. It's not difficult to discern, but their psychological dependency on religion keeps them from seeing what is directly in front of them.

If you really are serious about peace and progress, you need to let go of religion.

 

Hat Tip for Video to Stupid Evil Bastard



It should be noted that "Under God" was added to the pledge in the 1950s as part of the McCarthyism and to specifically act out on prejudice against atheists.

The teabaggers don't know this, but the original version of the Pledge was created by a Christian socialist.

 

Ricky Gervais on Atheism

Posted by libhom Wednesday, May 12, 2010 0 comments

He has an interesting perspective.



 

Religionists are constantly trying to shove religion down the throats of atheists and agnostics, but this is a fairly extreme example.

From American Atheists Press Release 4/21/10:

An Atheist public policy group praised a U.S. District Court Judge in California for defending the constitutional rights of a prison inmate who was compelled to attend religion-based drug and alcohol rehab sessions in order to qualify for parole.

Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. ruled that California officials erred when they forced 41-year-old Barry A. Hazel Jr. to enroll in Alcoholics Anonymous after serving a one-year sentence for drug possession. Hazel, a computer programmer, demanded that he be given access to an alternative secular program instead, and was mistakenly informed that one was not available. After refusing to participate in the faith-based 12-step regimen, Mr. Hazel was re-arrested and had to serve another three months in jail.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, praised the court for its finding in this case. "It is outrageous that any citizen be coerced into attending religious services or programs that 'push' religion in any form."

Buckner noted that just weeks after Mr. Hazel protested the violation of his rights, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued an order to all parole agents pointing out that they "cannot compel" a parolee to participate in any religion-themed program.

Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director for American Atheists said that "While Atheists and other non-believers make up a very small percentage of prison populations -- by some studies far less than one percent -- violating someone's religious liberty and freedom from religion is not some kind of a numbers game."

"There are secular programs for drug and alcohol rehabilitation that are available, and the government has an obligation to respect the rights of any incarcerated individual to refuse religious 'treatment'."

There's also a more pragmatic objection to this kind of religious coercion. A religious rehab program isn't likely to help a freethinker.

I also wonder how many religious rehab programs are queer supportive. Can you imagine be coerced into participating in a rehab program that is viciously heterosexist based on fundamentalist religious beliefs?

 

I Am an Ex Christian

Posted by libhom Tuesday, January 05, 2010 7 comments

You might not know it reading this blog, but I was a Christian once. The fact that I'm an ex Christian is amusing to me, because ex Christians do exist, while the more publicized "ex gays" certainly do not. For instance, the founders of the most famous "ex gay" ministry, Exodus, fell in love, left the ministry, and had a same sex commitment ceremony. The people who run Exodus now certainly have no shame, given their organization's history.

That's why the site ExChristian.Net certainly got my attention when I first found it. I think it's great that there is an online community for people who have liberated themselves from that religion. There's one disagreement I have with them over definitions. Some people there say they are "spiritual but not religious."

I've never bought into the notion that there is any kind of spirituality that isn't religious. After all, the belief in spirits, souls, or whatever you want to call them (Scientologists call them Thetans or something like that), is a religious belief. It is entirely faith based, and it contradicts all tangible evidence we have.

But, aside from that, I generally agree with what is there, especially the blog postings. Anyway, I thought I would witness how the truth set me from Christianity.

When I was a child, I really wanted to believe in God. My parents weren't that much of church attenders, but when I wanted to go, they agreed to go with me to a mainstream Protestant church (A Baptist church would have been out of the question because Baptists had alienated one of my parents during that person's childhood by saying anyone who wasn't a Baptist will go to Hell.)

I also went to Sunday School. I was so eager to believe that I wanted to understand everything I could about Christianity. Oops!

One of the biggest questions I had was why, if God wanted us to believe in him or her, did God make him or herself completely hidden. We should be able to see God, hear God, etc. All of the answers from my poor Sunday School teachers were easily taken apart by the reasoning abilities of a small child, and they always ended up with excuses like "God works in strange and mysterious ways." Ugh.

There were other difficulties with the Bible. The story of Noah's Arch was doubly problematic. First, how would God fit all those animals onto a boat? Why didn't the boat sink? When I learned about the existence of freshwater fish, the story became even more difficult to swallow.

The other dilemma was more important, since it was a moral one. According to Christianity, an all knowing, loving, wise, and powerful God killed everyone on Earth except for one family. When you add in the notion that people are God's children made in his/her image, that becomes even more reprehensible. Later in life, I realized that the story of Noah's Ark creates the psychological underpinnings for accepting genocide as OK, but that was much later.

This process ended by the time I was eight or nine, I had figured out that there was no possibility that Christianity could be true. I was an agnostic, because I didn't know enough about other religions or the phenomenon of religion in general to generalize more broadly. It wasn't until I had studied some Anthropology in college that I understood the social, cultural, and psychological origins of religion and could say with confidence that all religions are myths. I became, and still am, an atheist.

Since then, I have heard other arguments that have reinforced my atheism. You have to have blinders on to think that this world was created by a wise, loving god. Genocide, war, murder, rape, and child molesting priests all are examples of how crazy it is to think that the world originates and is controlled by a benevolent deity. Many Jews have become atheists because of the Holocaust. In reality, Christians, Muslims, and people of many other faiths should realize that their beliefs also are invalidated by the Holocaust and other atrocities.

Do you want to blame it on...who could it possibly be...I don't know....Saaaaaataaaaaaaaaan!?!? There's one obvious problem with this. Christianity says that it's perfect god created Satan. Oops!

Many atheists point out the many contradictions in the Christian Bible to bolster their arguments. I suspect most people don't catch the inconsistencies because they are having so much trouble keeping awake while reading that book. Greek and Norse myths may be just as superstitious as Christian ones, but at least they have some entertaining stories to tell.

Something that really bothers me as an adult about Christianity is that that religion's god supposedly killed his own son for our sins. WTF? That makes no logical sense and makes the Christian deity sound batshit crazy. I know it is supposed to sound noble and make us grateful, but if you look at it with a mind cleared of religious brainwashing, it's nuts. Why would an all wise and all knowing deity make us as the flawed creatures we are, and then have a son so that son could be killed slowly and painfully so that we would be "saved from our sins"? Was does "saved from our sins" actually mean, anyway? No one has given a definition of that any clearer than the definition of "victory" used by supporters of the war without end in Iraq.

Anyway, I definitely am an ex Christian. I know I never can or want to be an "ex gay."

 

George Carlin and Religious Bullshit

Posted by libhom Saturday, September 19, 2009 3 comments

He dared to say things most public figures were too afraid to say. (Hat Tip to My Thoughts Are Free)



I love how Carlin mocks "god" for always needing money.

 

A Dramatic Reading of Fundamentlist Insanity

Posted by libhom Saturday, June 27, 2009 3 comments

If Atheists Ruled the World

(Hat tip to Radical Atheist)



Yep, these are actual comments by fundies in online forums.

 

A Problem with the "You Have to Have Faith" Argument

Posted by libhom Thursday, May 07, 2009 5 comments

Ex-Christian.Net had an article by someone who is liberated from Christianity who was tired of the failure of Christians to provide evidence supporting their claims. The poster also showed an understandable lack of patience with the "you have to have faith" argument for justifying religious belief. It inspired me to write a theoretical dialogue which gives one reason why the argument doesn't work.

Believer: Better stop eating that s'more!!!!!

Camper: WTF?

Believer: You are offending the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Camper: The who?

Believer: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the creator of the universe. You will roast in Hell on a stick for all eternity if you eat that s'more.

Camper: You've got to be kidding! There's no reason to believe that.

Believer: The Holy Puftpiece says it's true. That's enough reason for me.

Camper: (Giggling) Do you have any evidence of this?

Believer: You have to take it on faith.


The reality is that there isn't any more credible evidence to support Christianity than there would be for this poor theoretical believer. Yet, by the common Christian "you have to have faith" argument, you would have to accept the notion that eating s'mores would have horrible eternal consequences.

In other words, the argument fails because you can't apply it consistently.



 

Some Worthwhile Causes

Posted by libhom Saturday, December 27, 2008 4 comments

I'm catching up on my end of year giving, and I thought I would share the names some of organizations that I gave to in hopes of helping them out a bit. I know these are difficult times, but those difficulties are affecting non profits too. If you haven't been screwed over yet by the crappy right wing economy, I urge you to support some of these organizations or other groups working to make this world a better and more progressive place.

(American) Foundation for AIDS Research:
I'm not clear if the word "American" is still in the title, but amFAR has been the most activist and research oriented of the big money AIDS organizations. They won't let people forget that the world needs a cure for AIDS. Treatments for AIDS are much better than nothing, but they aren't good enough.

CommonDreams.org
I certainly complain enough about rightist bias in the corporate media. I might as well financially support independent media. Common Dreams is a wonderful progressive news and opinion aggregator. They also have a listing of press releases called Progressive Newswire which is great fodder for blog postings.

Democracy Now!
This is the best radio/tv news magazine in the country. Amy Goodman and her crew get out more information than corporate media outlets with much larger budgets. Like a lot of liberal and progressive bloggers, I regularly quote Democracy Now stories.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF):
There are lots of organizations that support state/church separation. One thing that sets FFRF apart is that they take state/church separation cases from plaintiffs who are atheists. Many other groups refuse to out of prejudice or because they are afraid that such plaintiffs cannot win. (They can and often do win.) FFRF also does excellent work educating the public about atheists and atheism.

NYC's LGBT Center:
Like a variety of queer community centers in this country, this center in Manhattan provides a central place and meeting spaces for a variety of community groups. If you can, please support your local lgbt center. If you don't have one, try asking around and seeing if there are people working on bringing one to where you live.
they make a huge difference.

Pride @ Work:
This lgbt labor group has worked hard on including gender identity in ENDA, supporting union organizing, and teaching unions how to write lgbt supportive contract. Supporting Pride @ Work is a great way to accomplish a lot of things with a single donation.

WBAI Radio:
This is one of the Pacifica Network stations in NYC. They have an excellent queer radio show, Out-FM. You can listen to WBAI online or at 99.5 FM in the NYC area to gain a variety of perspectives you won't get from corporate media outlets.

Don't give until it hurts, but please find worthwhile organizations to help get through these terrible times.

 

Atheists in the US Have More in Common Than One Might Think

Posted by libhom Saturday, September 06, 2008 5 comments

I was reading the comments in the following blog posting: Atheist Revolution: A Different Kind of Atheist Outreach. A common thread was that atheists don't have that much in common beyond a lack of belief in a deity.

This view ignores context and takes for granted many things about how atheists are treated that I don't think atheists should accept so passively. In this and most cultures in the world, there are some bigger things about being an atheist than merely a lack of belief in a deity.

1) Unless you became an atheist because of following an ideology like Marxism or Objectivism, you have questioned and rejected a belief system that has brainwashed you since birth, using some kind of critical thinking. (Even if you were lucky enough to have atheist parents, the rest of the society had been doing serious brainwashing.) Critical thinking is actively discouraged not only by the church, but also by the corporations and the government.

2) Being willing to accept something as absurd as religion means that you can accept anything, as long as some authority figures have told you to. Being an atheist means that you have the capacity to disregard what authority figures tell you to think. This is part of why corporate media are so hostile to atheists.

3) Atheists are often despised in this society and certainly not treated as equals. We are used as scapegoats by militant, Christian fundamentalists and their corporate enablers for nearly every problem in our society, despite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that religion and corporate power are the main causes of the vast majority of problems in our society.

4) Atheists don't have refuge in the cheapest and most irrational justification for our behavior, the notion that a good or bad deity is responsible for it.

5) Atheists don't believe in an afterlife, which makes us more difficult to manipulate and which makes it more difficult for us to accept injustice in the here and now. Accepting that when you die you rot means that our lives and the lives of others are much more important than they would be in most religious world views.

6) The gradual shift away from democracy in this country to a hybrid plutocracy/theocracy endangers us specifically as atheists, although we certainly are not the only people who are endangered (e.g., queers, feminist women, labor organizers, non-Christian religionists, liberals, progressives, Marxists, etc. are other such groups).

Atheism and atheists are so seldom mentioned in our media accept as public enemies that we often forget our commonalities, even if we are aware of them in the first place.

 

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